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ASSESSMENT OF THE LEVEL OF MEMORY RETENTION AMONG PRESCHOOLERS AND THEIR MANIFESTATION IN SCHOOLL RELATED SUBJECT

A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of College of Nursing Our Lady of Fatima University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing

By

ZYRA MENDIO MICHELLE ANN MORAL MARY-GRACE PARAS RACHELLE HANNA SANTIAGO YVETTE CHRISTINE VENTIGAN

SEPTEMBER 2009

Chapter I

The Research Problem and its Background

Introduction. “Bright minds make bright futures!” Preparatory children nowadays are far better than before they are more advanced in teaching and more capable of absorbing the methods of learning that used with them. Modern teaching accompanied with modules and analytical measures develop the preschooler’s memory retention that serves as the foundation of their education. Kids today are more willing and not afraid to try to discover new ways and methods of learning. They are more adventurous. The more they explore the more they desire to learn but of course with the help of able teachers. Memory retention of preparatory children can be improved and reach the highest level by means of motivating, encouraging ways for them to develop their memory potentials. Accompanied by supporting of able teachers who are willing to teach that will enhance their cognition and learning. Preschool education refers to the education children prior to elementary school. In this level, they are designed to support the development of the preschooler in their early years. It helps to enhance the children’s mental capacity and language competence and builds up

their self esteem and provide them with the skills of the self expression. They serve as a socializing agent that helps the children to prepare themselves in the world of elementary school as well as for their participation to their society at large. Preschool children want to touch, taste, and smell, hear and test things for themselves. They are eager to learn. They learn by experiencing and by doing. Preschoolers want to establish themselves as separate from their parents. They are more independent than toddlers. They can express their needs since they have greater command language.

Cognitive development is the construction of thought

processes including remembering, problem solving, and decision making childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Cognitive development refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of his world through the interaction of genetic and learned factors. Among the areas of cognitive development are information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, and memory. The level of memory retention of preschool is more complicated and developmental prior to adulthood. At this age, lots of memory enhancers can be use to be able for them to increase their memorization. Strategies for learning and remembering are used in concerning developmental change in children. Children younger than 7 or 8 years old would rarely use this or any of the other potentially helpful memory strategies. The emergence of strategic behavior may be partly attributable to the growing

child’s acquisition of mnemonic facts that implicit govern the behavior of a more mature individual. The concept of “forgetting”, gives idea how to understand “retention”. Memory strategies for preschool can used to avoid or minimize forgetfulness. In fact, it is now well established that this kinds of mnemonic knowledge for children increase in an orderly fashion as children develops. Preschoolers, consistently over predict the number of items they will recall in a memory span task. The mental capacities of the preschool child, when treated in an objective manner, becomes a subject with familiar and scientific aspects, our tasks is to bring them in higher retentive memory aspects relation. There is a chance to interact with other children. And Interacting with other children means learning how to wait, how to take turns, and how to listen. Young children learn social skills when they interact with other children. These social skills are critical to a developing personality and they would not send home them carelessly There are some compensation to preschools, primarily that they are the foundations for academic learning. In preschool your child will listen to poetry and songs, building blocks needed to grasp phonics and reading skills when it is developmentally appropriate. Preschools joined all activities that are done over and over in preschool settings and help children get ready to learn academics. Watching other children pursue a challenging task is also helpful. The presence of other children and a wide variety of

materials are two big reasons why a preschool is a good thing Theoretical Framework. The most famous and leading theory of Cognitive Development is that of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget’s theory, first published in 1952, grew out of decades of broad observation of children, including his own, in their natural environments as opposed to the laboratory experiments of the behaviorists. Even though Piaget was interested in how children reacted to their environment, he projected a more active role for them than that suggested by learning theory. He envisioned a child’s knowledge as composed of schemas, basic units of knowledge used to prepare past experience and serve as a basis for understanding new ones. Schemas are frequently being modified by two complementary processes

that

Piaget

termed

assimilation

and

accommodation.

Assimilation refers to the process of taking in new information by incorporating it into presented schema. In other words, people assimilate new experiences by involving them to they already know. Conversely, accommodation is what happens when the schema itself changes to accommodate

new

understanding.

According

to

Piaget,

cognitive

development involves a continuing attempt to achieve a balance between assimilation and accommodation that he termed equilibration. At the center of Piaget’s theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct, universal stages, each

characterized by increasingly refined and nonfigurative levels of thought. One of these stages is the Pre-operational stage (toddler hood and early childhood). In this period, which has two sub-stages, intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures and memory and imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a nonlogical reversible manner. Preschoolers, age’s three to six, should be at the “pre-operational” stage of Piaget’s cognitive development theory, meaning they are using their imagery and memory skills. They should be conditioned to learning and memorizing and their outlook of the world is usually very selfcentered. Preschoolers have developed their social interactions skills, such as playing and cooperating with other children in their own age. It is normal for preschooler to test the restrictions of their cognitive abilities and they learn pessimistic concepts and actions, such as talking back to adults, lying and bullying. Other cognitive development in Preschoolers are developing an increased attention span, learning to read, and developing structured routines, such as doing household chores. Conceptual Framework. Child development refers to the hereditary and mental changes that take place in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from reliance to increasing self-sufficiency. For the reason that these developmental changes might be strongly influenced by hereditary factors and events all through prenatal

existence, hereditary and prenatal development are usually built-in as part

of the

study

of

child

development.

Related

terms

include

“developmental psychology”, referring to development throughout the lifespan and “pediatrics”, the branch of medicine relating to the care of children. Developmental change may happen as an outcome of genetically-controlled processes known as maturation, or as a result of environmental factors and learning, but most commonly involves an interaction between the two. In our own conceptual framework we will be modifying two corresponding processes that we termed adaptation and adjustment. Adaptation refers to the development of captivating in latest information by incorporating it into representation. To be further with that, people incorporate latest experiences through relating them to things they previously recognize. On the other hand, adaptation is what happens when the representation itself changes to put up latest perceptive. In relation with the study cognitive growth involves an enduring endeavor

through

accomplishing

stability

among

adaptation

and

adjustment. At the core of our theory is the opinion to facilitate cognitive growth occurs within a succession of four discrete general stages, characterized through gradually more advanced and abstract levels of thinking. Preschool covers nursery, kindergarten and preparatory stage. We will be focusing our study in preparatory level. Where in, in this stage it has

two subordinate phases, intellect is recognized through the use of signs, verbal

communication,

reminiscence

and

thoughts

is

developed,

excluding philosophy is completed within a non-reasonable, noninvalidate manner. In preparatory stage they should be trained towards education and remembering, with their viewpoint of the humankind is frequently egotistical. In preschoolers wherein preparatory is included have developed their communal relations ability, for instance like collaborating in the midst of other kids with the same age. Usually, preschoolers are in to test their restrictions of their cognitive capability, and they become skilled at unenthusiastic perception. Statement of the Problem. Is there a significant correlation between memory retention among Preschoolers as to manifestation of students’ academic performance? Hypothesis.  There is No significant relationship that exists in terms of memory retention among Preschoolers as to manifestation in students’ academic performances. Significance of the Study. 1. Preschoolers 1.1 They learn how to cope up easily in every activity their teachers want them to accomplish.

1.2 They learn how to deal with other people who are not their relatives in one community. 1.3 Student’s foundation of social skills and self-esteem is being developed. 2. Parents 2.1 They will able to know their importance to their children. 2.2 They are also involved to their children’s success through guiding and supporting them. 2.3

Parent builds a warm relationship in their preschooler through showing security and love to their children.

3. Teacher 3.1 Their skills on how to make their students cope up easily is being test. 3.2 They earn money through teaching them. 4. Schools 4.1 They earn money through their student 4.2 They are associated to the improvement of their students. 5. Community 5.1

Strengthen community awareness of the school and improve its public image

Scope and Limitation of the Study. The study is limited on the problem of specific diagnosis with children in preparatory school who have poor memory, which includes different

aspects that will help them to learn and will provides them a good memory, good learning in skills and creativeness, proper way to exercise and develop the brain with the help of proper nutrition. The start of the study was held this 1st semester of 2009 at Montessori Academy at 38 Ste. Fe cor. Consuelo Sts., Marulas Valenzuela, Metro Manila, Salvation Army Academy at Blk 31 Langaray Highway,Caloocan City, Catholic Bethel Academy at Libiz espina st. Sangandaan Highway Caloocan City, Wrimare School,Inc. at Panghulo,obando,Bulacann, Precious Vessels Christian Academy at Interior 10-A San Pascual Obando,Bulacan, St. Bernadette College of Valenzuela City at Gen. T de Leon Valenzuela City, Arayat Holy Child Foundation, Inc. at #389P.Tan St.Poblacion, Arayat, Pampanga, Adelle Grace Montessori School, Inc at Poblacion, Arayat, Pampanga, Arayat Central Elementary School at Poblacion, Arayat, Pampanga, Dominican School of Mexico, Inc. at Mexico, Pampanga, and Methodist Church Ecomenical Learning School at Plaza Luma, Arayat, Pampanga. The need of this study is due to poor ability in memory retention causing the children to have low potential of learning. In our study, there are many instrument we uses to enhance, develop and exercise the brain of the children to achieve better memory such as music, colored pictures, games and many more, but in our study we use not only thesis pictures but it also accompanied by different techniques such as teaching of proper nutrition, lifestyle check and help them to reduce stress.

Definition of Terms. For purposes of the study, the following key terms are defined: Assimilation. The process of receiving new facts or of responding to new situations in conformity with what is already available to consciousness. Cognitive Capability. Provides the foundation for skilled activities of daily living, and is linked in many ways to health and survival. Cognitive Development. Is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Forgetting. Refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. Forgetting Curve. This refers to illustration of decline of memory retention in time. A related concept is the strength of memory that refers to the durability those memory traces in the brain. Free Recall. During this task a subject would be asked to study a list of words and then sometime later they will be asked to recall or write down as many words that they can remember. Intelligence. This refers to the ability to learn facts and skills and apply them, especially when this ability is highly developed. Language Development. Is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood.

Learning.

Is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values,

preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. Mind. This refers to the center of consciousness that generates thoughts, feelings, ideas, and perceptions, and stores knowledge and memories. Musical Memory. This refers to the ability to remember music-related information, such as melodic content of songs or other progressions of tones or pitches. Psychology. This refers to the scientific study of the human mind and mental states, and of human and animal behavior. Remembering. Designates the specific psychic action of producing a memory and is to be distinguished from reminiscences, flashbacks, and all other elements of the past that might be seen to constitute other types of representation. Retention. This refers to the act of retaining something or the condition of being retained. Schema. A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience.

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

Foreign Literature. Tammy A. Marche (2001) mentioned that the model of long-term retention was used to examine whether and how the strength of original information (differences in learning and testing time) and the strength of misleading information (differences in timing and frequency) influence 3to 5-year-olds' memory for an event. In three experiments, preschoolers viewed a slide presentation depicting an event, some of them were asked misleading questions, and memory for event details was tested. There was little evidence of memory impairment, but exposure to misleading information encouraged reporting of this information. Differences in learning influenced reporting in that children exposed to the event once reported more misled details than those who saw the event multiple times. Furthermore, preschoolers who saw the event once were just as susceptible to misleading information whether exposed to misinformation once or three times; however, preschoolers who had seen the event multiple times were susceptible only to repeated presentations of misinformation. Given that the reporting of misinformation is determined by the degree of

integrity of both the original and misleading information, it is important to control for differences in trace strength for both types of information in future research. Melissa K. Welch-Ross (2001) cited that Fifty-seven 3- to 5-1/2-yearolds listened to a story accompanied by pictures of target items. After a short delay, an interviewer asked children questions about the story and suggested information that conflicted with the original details. Story memory was assessed 5–11 days later using a two-alternative, picture recognition test. Children completed theory of mind (ToM) tasks that indexed an understanding of knowledge and the ability to reason about conflicting mental representations (CMRs). An increase in ToM scores was associated with a decrease in suggestibility, independent of age. The relation between ToM scores and suggestibility was significant for children who had poorer story memory, but was no significant for children who showed better story memory. An increase in CMR scores predicted an increase in response times on the recognition test when children made incorrect choices. Children who spontaneously reported original details when the interviewer suggested misleading information had higher CMR scores than children who did not report original details. Diane H. Schetky, Elissa P. Benedek (2000) invoked that by age 3, a qualitative change in the ability to remember appears in most children. As verbal abilities become more complex and children are exposed to the contextual situation where they can learn to remember, there are ad-

vances in the three major requirements of memory. Children get better at encoding- specifically attending to particular aspect of the environment long enough to take it into memory. They begin to be able to store events and experiences in short-term memory and, less effectively, in long-term memory. Finally, they become more able to retrieve memories to by thinking about them or by responding to questions or prompt.

Greg Frost (2003) quoted that there are many ways of classifying the human mind and its ability to retain information. One of the most often used classifications are based on the duration of memory retention, specifically the sensory, short term and long term memory. Short term memory refers to the recent memory, and is usually only held for a very short period of time. A common example would be when you meet many new people, cursorily introduced at a party. Long term memory, on the other hand, can be thought of as a database where all the information that you have learnt is kept. Sensory memory is conveyed through your senses of sight and sound, where you keep these “images” in your mind. MJ Ryan (2002) remarked that so many of us think about creativity in the context of being an artist or musician. However I prefer the definition that resiliency expert Frederic Flach uses. Creativity is “a response to a situation that calls for a novel but adaptive solution, one that serves to accomplish a goal.” That’s why; when dealing with the challenges of our times, the best thing we can do is grow our creative capacity. We need to come up with thoughts and solutions that are different from ones we’ve used in the past. Otherwise we will be responding in habitual ways that may not serve us now. But the way to access our innovative thinking is not the same for everyone. It actually has to do with what stimulus triggers your right hemisphere. Without knowing your unique formula, you can mislabel yourself as uncreative. Foreign Studies.

David Rivera (2009) stated that here are some great memory improvement techniques you can learn, techniques that will help in turning numbers into words, memorizing names and remembering shopping lists. Let’s discuss how to memorize a list of grocery items. We will use 4 items only but you will see the size of the list does not matter. What we do in memory techniques is to take something we already know and associate it with something we want to remember. So we connect the 2 together or link them together. We can use what is called the “Roman Room” to link items together so we can bring them up in our mind later on. The reason this works is because there are certain things you will not forget. You know where you live. You know how your house looks and what rooms there are. Assume that you are going to buy the following items from the store: Bananas, soap, bread, paper towels. Pick any room in your house or apartment. Now we will associate the items in the list with something in the room you choose. Imagine you walk into your living room and this is what you see: Book shelf, table. These are the first 4 things you see in sequence when you enter your living room. Take each item you want to remember on your shopping list and place them with one of the items in your living room or replace the item in your room with one from the list. This is what you might see in your mind: You walk into your living room and Bananas are shooting out of your Book Shelf. Some Bananas fall onto your Table and are skating

on top of Soap. A bar of Soap slides off the Table and goes toward the TV, but the TV is not there. Instead there is a giant loaf of Bread. The giant Bread eats the Soap but throws it up all over your Couch. Out of your Couch come arms and they are holding Paper Towels and it starts to clean the mess on itself with the Paper Towels. Louis Richard (2008) noted that forgetfulness seems to be a harmless trait. After all, the human mind has its own limitations. But there's a price to pay for being forgetful about important things. Forget to pay your bills, and you'll soon end up in debts. Forget to turn off the oven before you leave, and your home might burn into ashes. Forget your fiancé’s birthday, and you're in for a major heartbreak. See how potentially dangerous poor memory is? Good thing, various techniques on how to improve memory power are available for people who tend to forget even the simplest things. The main advantage of the trivia quizzes is that the questions can be based on virtually any topic: history, geography, music, film stars and many others. These improve memory games can be played on a computer, but it is more fun when playing this in a group of friends. In children, such trivia quizzes have constructive effects. At the beginning, the children do not know the answers to the questions, but once they find them out, they memorize them. Therefore, the new questions, as well as old questions that are repeated, prove to help both grown-ups to improve their memory.

children and

Now for the dreaded word - exercise- yes, your brain is just like the rest of your body, it requires exercise to stay in tip-top shape. Just as your muscles grow and develop when you do physical exercise, so does your brain when you do mental exercise. It strengthens the neural pathways in your brain, opening more and more areas of your brain. Exercising can involve, doing puzzles or riddles, learning a new language or a new musical instrument. Keeps it interesting and you will enjoy the 'exercise' while you're at it. Mental Exercise - Improve memory and concentration by memorizing techniques. You could draft a list of any items, memorize it, and then quiz yourself later. Another method is to read an article, analyze it, and then explain it to someone else. This helps keep your working memory in tact, which will improve even more over time. A final method to help with your memory is to work on puzzles. Working on crossword, Sudoku, or jigsaw puzzles will give your brain a tough workout. This is due to the various words, shapes, and colors that force your brain to work.

Foods to improve memory include cantaloupe, blueberries, asparagus, black currants, kale and sweet potatoes. People can also use red foods to improve memory. These foods improve the circulation of the blood, the body temperature and boost the energy, while making depression easier. Such foods are watermelon, tomatoes, red cabbage, cherries, radishes and strawberries.

Singing enhances memory because most of the songs are complex and require prolonged thinking in order to be memorized. In addition, singing changes the mood, a fact that leads to a decrease of the depression level, in most of the cases. As it is known, depression represents the most frequent cause of memory loss. Martin Mak (2006) claimed that he key to improving short term memory is intention. Here are some tips and techniques to get you started. In any given situation, if you perceive the circumstance or information to be important and you intend to recall it later, you can then make your choice to focus on it, interact with it to make it personally meaningful to you. This will take less effort to remember later. Adding details and repetition are also some of the more usual ways to help you create a personal relationship with that piece of information or experience. You can add details through any of the five senses that are, adding visual, auditory, smell, taste or tactile cues to the information. By creating multiple links to the fact, you are adding a variety of access points to that which you want to remember. In other ways, repetition is like a well-worn path which you walk over and over again. For example, memorizing the multiplication tables or the alphabet, or even simple tasks that we take for granted, like telling the time. There was a time in our forgotten past that our parents or teachers helped us with telling the time or the alphabets by drilling the information into us, through repetition. Like learning to ride a bicycle,

the information is so ingrained in us that we do it on a subconscious level. Using Mnemonics can also help you remember information better, like the abstract. For example, to remember the "classic" named colors of the spectrum or rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet), it can be easier for some people to remember the mnemonics "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" or "Roy G. Biv" (a made-up name) instead. You can also use a method, in reverse "VIBGYOR" pronounced "vib-GYOr". Although we tend to remember less as we grow older, as the brain’s processing ability slows down, there is no reason we should not engage in mental activities like playing chess, scrabble, or solving puzzles to keep our mind’s sharp. Learning new strategies can also help the brain to cope with the slowing down and make you mentally-fit.

Theoretical Background. Preschool programs began in earnest in the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The philosophical foundations for these programs can be traced to the belief, popularized during the seventeenth century, that early childhood is a unique period of life during which the foundation for all subsequent learning is established.

The early programs often began informally and involved the efforts of women who took turns caring for each other's children. The first public preschool program began at the Franklin School in Chicago in 1925 with the support of the Chicago Women's Club. The popularity of preschool as an option for young children increased dramatically after the 1970s. In 1970, for example, only 20 percent of three- and four-year-olds participated in organized education programs. In 1998, approximately half of all children in this age range attended a full-time pre-school program. The increasing popularity of pre-school has been fueled in part by an increase in the number of women entering the work force as well as by a belief among many parents and educators that children need early preparation for elementary school.

Conceptual Paradigm.

Synthesis of Related Literature and Studies. A collaborative study shows that in the past and present research, there were ways that are different in teaching strategies to help children in their scholastic performances to be able for them to increased their level of memory retention. Articles from the past literature emphasized that Memory Retention of children like preschool can affect from some other factors like Nutritional, Environmental and Psychological. Those factors can be the reason how children cope up in a particular subject, and can also be a hindrance in increasing their cognitive level. Likewise, present or current studies today, authors and psychologist like Piaget, Thorndike and Skinner published and projected their theories “Cognitive

Development” and “Cognitive Learning” as manifested in their literature and books, children’s learning process can affect their memory status. The methods or ways on how they will develop preschool cognitive abilities done by changes, as time goes and passes by. And from those studies we will know how Preschoolers can have a higher level of retention as significance in their related subjects, eventually to build their own future. Implications of Related Literature and Studies. We use a lot of authors in our study, but just to make it short, let’s just compare Piaget’s Theory and Marche’s Theory. The disadvantages that may arise here is about the difference of the way of teaching that they are going to imply. Piaget believed that children made moral judgments based on their own observations of the world. Thorndike introduced courses in educational psychology, tests and measurements, and the psychology of school subjects. It just simply said that Piaget wants to enhance the children’s intelligence through their own exploration than to Thorndike’s idea of giving some subjects wherein they will undergo in some test though it can help, we think it’s a bit complicated for those children to do such test. As far as we know, their theories are both helpful. The disadvantages that came up to us due to the difference of opinion was, having different way of teaching can lead to misunderstanding in

two different side, nevertheless, they can still both implicate their own methods. We therefore conclude that, any kinds of way of teaching will do as long as they know how to handle the situation among their preschoolers and of course, it is also a big help if they are going to guide their children fulfilling their task.