Cover not available
Part of
Developmental Perspectives in Written Language and Literacy: In honor of Ludo Verhoeven
Edited by Eliane Segers and Paul van den Broek
[Not in series 206] 2017
► pp. 3–16

How neuroscience can inform education

A case for prior knowledge effects on memory

| Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States | Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, section Educational Neuroscience, Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| Department of Anatomy, Radboud University, Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands | Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University, Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Neuroscientific and educational research have the potential to interact productively, because neuroscience investigates processes underlying core educational aims like knowledge acquisition. Combining these research areas therefore appears beneficial, but differences in experimental approach and limitations of neuroscience tools in terms of ecological validity hamper translation. Hence, a common approach that takes these differences into account is needed. Here, we will set out how neuroscience research on long-term memory formation, integration, and consolidation may be informative for education and we will speculate on links with literacy development. Because memory formation is a constructive process, newly learned memories are continuously related to and integrated with previously learned knowledge to form extensive knowledge structures. This integration process is suggested to strengthen memories and make them less vulnerable to forgetting. Education may therefore profit greatly from understanding the neural processes underlying optimal integration to achieve optimal building of knowledge structures, making learning more efficient and evidence based.

Keywords: long-term memory, prior knowledge, schema, insight, education, brain
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Differences in experimental approaches in neuroscience and education
  • 3.Memory in the brain
    • 3.1Declarative memories: Episodic and semantic
    • 3.2Encoding, consolidation, and retrieval
    • 3.3Brain regions
  • 4.Effects of prior knowledge
  • 5.Educational neuroscience memory research
    • 5.1Prior knowledge
    • 5.2Insight
    • 5.3Post-encoding rest
  • 6.Future directions
  • References
Published online: 21 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.206.01van
References
Amaro, E., Jr., & Barker, G. J
(2006) Study design in fMRI: Basic principles. Brain and Cognition, 60(3), 220–232. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. R
(1981) Effects of prior knowledge on memory for new information. Memory and Cognition, 9(3), 237–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bartlett, F. C
(1932) Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge, [England]: University Press.Google Scholar
Binder, J. R., Desai, R. H., Graves, W. W., & Conant, L. L
(2009) Where is the semantic system? A critical review and meta-analysis of 120 functional neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex, 19(12), 2767–2796. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bower, G. H., Black, J. B., & Turner, T. J
(1979) Scripts in memory for text. Cognitive Psychology, 11(2), 177–220. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bowers, J. S
(2016) The practical and principled problems with educational neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123(5), 600–612. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R
(2000) How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Brod, G., Werkle-Bergner, M., & Shing, Y. L
(2013) The influence of prior knowledge on memory: a developmental cognitive neuroscience perspective. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruer, J. T
(1997) Educational neuroscience: A bridge too far? Educational Researcher, 26, 4–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buckner, R. L., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Schacter, D. L
(2008) The brain’s default network: anatomy, function, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 1–38. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buckner, R. L., & Wheeler, M. E
(2001) The cognitive neuroscience of remembering. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(9), 624–634. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cohen, N. J., & Squire, L. R
(1980) Preserved learning and retention of pattern-analyzing skill in amnesia: dissociation of knowing how and knowing that. Science, 210(4466), 207–210. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diekelmann, S., & Born, J
(2010) The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 114–126. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dudai, Y
(2012) The restless engram: Consolidations never end. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35, 227–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eichenbaum, H., Yonelinas, A. P., & Ranganath, C
(2007) The medial temporal lobe and recognition memory. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 30, 123–152. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frankland, P. W., & Bontempi, B
(2006) Fast track to the medial prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(3), 509–510. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Friedlander, M. J., Andrews, L., Armstrong, E. G., Aschenbrenner, C., Kass, J. S., Ogden, P., Schwartzstein, R., & Viggiano, T. R
(2011) What can medical education learn from the neurobiology of learning? Academic Medicine, 86(4), 415–420. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gabrieli, J. D
(1998) Cognitive neuroscience of human memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 87–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ghosh, V. E., & Gilboa, A
(2014) What is a memory schema? A historical perspective on current neuroscience literature. Neuropsychologia, 53, 104–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U
(2006) Neuroscience and education: from research to practice? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(5), 406–411. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U., & Szucs, D
(2010) Educational neuroscience: Developmental mechanisms: Towards a conceptual framework. Neuroimage, 57(3), 651–658. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Howard-Jones, P. A
(2008) Education and neuroscience. Educational Research, 50(2), 119–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N
(1983) Mental models: Towards a cognitive science of language, inference, and consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhl, B. A., Rissman, J., Chun, M. M., & Wagner, A. D
(2011) Fidelity of neural reactivation reveals competition between memories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(14), 5903–5908. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewis, P. A., & Durrant, S. J
(2011) Overlapping memory replay during sleep builds cognitive schemata. Trends Cogn Sci, 15(8), 343–351. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maclellan, E
(2005) Conceptual learning: The priority for higher education. British Journal of Educational Studies, 53(2), 129–147. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGaugh, J. L
(2000) Memory - A century of consolidation. Science, 287(5451), 248–251. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McVee, M. B., Dunsmore, K., & Gavelek, J. R
(2005) Schema theory revisited. Review of Educational Research, 75(4), 531–566. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milivojevic, B., Vicente-Grabovetsky, A., & Doeller, C. F
(2015) Insight reconfigures hippocampal-prefrontal memories. Current Biology, 25(7), 821–830. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morris, R. G
(2006) Elements of a neurobiological theory of hippocampal function: the role of synaptic plasticity, synaptic tagging and schemas. European Journal of Neuroscience, 23(11), 2829–2846. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moscovitch, M., Nadel, L., Winocur, G., Gilboa, A., & Rosenbaum, R. S
(2006) The cognitive neuroscience of remote episodic, semantic and spatial memory. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16(2), 179–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paller, K. A., & Wagner, A. D
(2002) Observing the transformation of experience into memory. Trends Cogn Sci, 6(2), 93–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patterson, K., Nestor, P. J., & Rogers, T. T
(2007) Where do you know what you know? The representation of semantic knowledge in the human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8(12), 976–987. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J
(1926) The child’s conception of the world. Patterson, NJ: Littlefield, Adams.Google Scholar
Preston, A. R., & Eichenbaum, H
(2013) Interplay of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in memory. Current Biology, 23(17), R764–773. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruiter, D. J., van Kesteren, M. T., & Fernandez, G
(2012) How to achieve synergy between medical education and cognitive neuroscience? An exercise on prior knowledge in understanding. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 17(2), 225–240. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. P
(1977) Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. Hillsdal, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Schlichting, M. L., & Preston, A. R
(2014) Memory reactivation during rest supports upcoming learning of related content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(44), 15845–15850. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015) Memory integration: Neural mechanisms and implications for behavior. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 1, 1–8. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scoville, W. B., & Milner, B
(1957) Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgury & Psychiatry, 20(1), 11–21. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sigman, M., Pena, M., Goldin, A. P., & Ribeiro, S
(2014) Neuroscience and education: prime time to build the bridge. Nature Neuroscience, 17(4), 497–502. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Squire, L. R., & Zola, S. M
(1996) Structure and function of declarative and nondeclarative memory systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 93(24), 13515–13522. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sulzer, J., Haller, S., Scharnowski, F., Weiskopf, N., Birbaumer, N., Blefari, M. L., Bruehl, A. B., Cohen, L. G., DeCharms, R. C., Gassert, R., Goebel, R., Herwig, U., LaConte, S., Linden, D., Luft, A., Seifritz, E., & Sitaram, R
(2013) Real-time fMRI neurofeedback: Progress and challenges. Neuroimage, 76, 386–399. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takashima, A., Petersson, K. M., Rutters, F., Tendolkar, I., Jensen, O., Zwarts, M. J., McNaughton, B. L., & Fernandez, G
(2006) Declarative memory consolidation in humans: a prospective functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(3), 756–761. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tambini, A., Ketz, N., & Davachi, L
(2010) Enhanced brain correlations during rest are related to memory for recent experiences. Neuron, 65(2), 280–290. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tse, D., Langston, R. F., Kakeyama, M., Bethus, I., Spooner, P. A., Wood, E. R., Witter, M. P., & Morris, R. G
(2007) Schemas and memory consolidation. Science, 316(5821), 76–82. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tse, D., Takeuchi, T., Kakeyama, M., Kajii, Y., Okuno, H., Tohyama, C., Bito, H., & Morris, R. G
(2011) Schema-dependent gene activation and memory encoding in neocortex. Science, 333(6044), 891–895. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tulving, E
(1972) Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of Memory (pp. 381–402). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
van Kesteren, M. T., Beul, S. F., Takashima, A., Henson, R. N., Ruiter, D. J., & Fernandez, G
(2013) Differential roles for medial prefrontal and medial temporal cortices in schema-dependent encoding: From congruent to incongruent. Neuropsychologia, 51(12), 2352–2359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Kesteren, M. T., Fernandez, G., Norris, D. G., & Hermans, E. J
(2010) Persistent schema-dependent hippocampal-neocortical connectivity during memory encoding and postencoding rest in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(16), 7550–7555. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Kesteren, M. T., Rijpkema, M., Ruiter, D. J., & Fernandez, G
(2010) Retrieval of associative information congruent with prior knowledge is related to increased medial prefrontal activity and connectivity. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(47), 15888–15894. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Kesteren, M. T., Rijpkema, M., Ruiter, D. J., Morris, R. G., & Fernandez, G
(2014) Building on prior knowledge: schema-dependent encoding processes relate to academic performance. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(10), 2250–2261. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Kesteren, M. T., Ruiter, D. J., Fernandez, G., & Henson, R. N
(2012) How schema and novelty augment memory formation. Trends in Neurosciences, 35(4), 211–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vargha-Khadem, F., Gadian, D. G., & Mishkin, M
(2001) Dissociations in cognitive memory: the syndrome of developmental amnesia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 356(1413), 1435–1440. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Varma, S., McCandliss, B. D., & Schwartz, D. L
(2008) Scientific and pragmatic challenges for bridging education and neuroscience. Educational Researcher, 37(3), 140–152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walker, M. P., & Stickgold, R
(2010) Overnight alchemy: Sleep-dependent memory evolution. Nat Rev Neurosci, 11(3), 218. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Warren, D. E., Jones, S. H., Duff, M. C., & Tranel, D
(2014) False recall is reduced by damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex: implications for understanding the neural correlates of schematic memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(22), 7677–7682. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, M. E., Petersen, S. E., & Buckner, R. L
(2000) Memory’s echo: Vivid remembering reactivates sensory-specific cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97(20), 11125–11129. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wixted, J. T., & Squire, L. R
(2011) The medial temporal lobe and the attributes of memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(5), 210–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zeithamova, D., Dominick, A. L., & Preston, A. R
(2012) Hippocampal and ventral medial prefrontal activation during retrieval-mediated learning supports novel inference. Neuron, 75(1), 168–179. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zeithamova, D., Schlichting, M. L., & Preston, A. R
(2012) The hippocampus and inferential reasoning: building memories to navigate future decisions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., & Radvansky, G. A
(1998) Situation models in language comprehension and memory. Psychological Bulletin, 123(2), 162–185. Retrieved from [URL]. doi: DOI logoGoogle Scholar