Claire
Claire
- Name: Claire
- Age: 13
Cognition & Learning
Claire, is a highly motivated middle school student. She asked her parents if she can enroll in COGx because she noticed she was having trouble remembering information for tests and was not achieving the grades she had desired.
Her assessment revealed above average scores in all areas, except for long-term memory. Her program focused exclusively on teaching, training and transferring evidence-based memory techniques and strategies.
It was essential to first identify why Claire was struggling with memory. After observing her do a few memory tasks over the course of a couple sessions, it was apparent that Claire was relying on ineffective techniques such as repeating, high-lighting, and cramming. She also had poor sense as to when she had retained something or not.
Claire was taught several evidence-based techniques for storing and strategies for retrieving information. She practiced these on a variety of exercises, and we created opportunities for her to provide judgments of learning. Claire quickly realized that she was over-estimating what she would remember. This helped her put forth more effort in applying the techniques. Claire learned that for information to be retained properly, she must process it in a meaningful way and practice retrieving it.
As Claire made progress, she began ‘stacking’ or using multiple techniques simultaneously. She also applied strategies, such as self-testing and spacing to her homework assignments in preparation for her exam.
The most meaningful work she did was in the latter half of her program, when she transitioned to generalization. One of the first things Claire attempted was the Periodic Table, which she selected with the parameters that it was both relevant and something that she doubted she could learn and remember.
By the end of her program, Claire had memorized a majority of the Periodic Table and was looking forward to finishing it on her own.
Claire also began independently and frequently practicing retrieval. Better yet, when she noticed she did not remember something, she would go back and ‘patch’ the information with her techniques.
As she made progress throughout the program, Claire adjusted her homework and studying behaviors. She started earning higher marks on exams as well.