Chances are high that when we first met I forgot your name as soon as you uttered the final syllable. As it turns out, there’s some pretty straightforward psychology behind why this happens and it doesn’t have anything to do with my age. Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart would point out that this name slip-up isn’t about me being old and forgetful, but about my brain’s “depth of processing.” If I don’t do something meaningful with that name, I might as well wave goodbye to ever recalling it later.
The big idea is that long-term learning depends more on how meaningfully you handle new information than on whether you simply repeat it a bunch of times or ‘intend’ to learn it. According to Craik and Robert Lockhart, the mental trace we form from deep, meaningful engagement is sturdier and more likely to stay with us long after we’ve left the classroom.
The concept of “depth of processing” highlights that shallow methods like underlining text or transcribing lectures word-for-word don’t do our brains any favors. Instead, we should embrace strategies that help students wrestle with meaning and link new ideas to something they already know. That way, the new knowledge isn’t just drifting around like a lonely balloon, but is instead anchored to robust mental connections.
Shallow vs. Deep Processing
- Shallow processing can include focusing on superficial features, like a word’s typeface or simply repeating information. Handy in the moment, but if your students are just copying down everything you say verbatim, they’re storing the info about as securely as a dog hides a bone on the driveway.
- Deep processing asks students to analyze meaning by drawing connections, elaborating on ideas, and linking them to prior knowledge. That’s how you get long-term recall.
“Multistore” Model vs. Levels of Processing
- Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multistore model described how information travels from our short-term to long-term memory.
- Craik and Lockhart, however, believed how deeply we process that info is the real secret sauce determining whether it actually settles in for a long stay.
The Myth of Multitasking
- We’re not the incredible multitaskers we imagine ourselves to be. We can only do one genuine act of information processing at a time without compromising depth. Reading a text message while “listening” to your colleague’s instructions? Let’s be honest you’re only half-listening, if that.
Intention Doesn’t Guarantee Learning
- Endel Tulving joined Fergus Craik later in showing that “how the material is processed is more important than the student’s intention to learn.” In other words, the student who’s forced to deeply analyze content even if they’d rather be anywhere else might actually learn more than the eager one who skims it shallowly in hopes of acing the test.
Implications for Practice
- Make It Meaningful
If you’re teaching about photosynthesis, don’t just have students memorize the definition. Get them to connect it to the bigger picture: why does it matter for life on earth, and how does it tie into global cycles or sustainable agriculture?
- Encourage Elaboration
Ask students to put that new knowledge into their own words, or create concept maps. The act of talking it out, summarizing, or sketching a diagram fosters deep processing.
- Leverage Prior Knowledge
Always nudge learners to connect fresh material to stuff they already know. Even a silly link “This new geometry concept is kind of like stacking blocks in Minecraft” can make the difference between a fleeting fact and a powerful memory trace.
- Apply, Apply, Apply
Have students practice or demonstrate how the new info works in a different scenario. For instance, after learning about synonyms and antonyms, encourage them to rewrite a paragraph of a story with synonyms to see how it changes the tone.
- Check Your Note-Taking
If you let students type everything verbatim, you might be fostering shallow, phonemic-level processing. I’ve learned the hard way that taking notes by hand, forcing some paraphrasing tends to produce better retention.
- Group Discussions or Think-Pair-Share
Pose a thought-provoking question about the lesson content so students need to interpret and reason deeply before they share with a partner.
- Concept Mapping
Provide a half-completed map so students must fill in and connect the missing ideas.
- “Stop and Jot” Intervals
Every 10–15 minutes, ask students to pause and write down how the info relates to something they learned previously or to their daily life.
- Students Teaching Students
Pair them up and have them teach a mini-topic to one another. Explaining concepts is a surefire path to deeper encoding.
The Challenge
Pick just one lesson this week and crank up the depth of processing dial. Maybe you add a quick reflective question, or you try out concept mapping for the first time. Then watch what happens to your students’ engagement and recall. You might be surprised at how that small tweak can amplify their learning.
Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11(6), 671–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(72)80001-X
For more information on this concept, read How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice (https://a.co/d/a0tZSMR) This post is a summary of individual chapters from How Learning Happens.
School Intellect 