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 non-

logical 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 self-

centered. 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, non-

invalidate 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’ aca-

demic 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 relat-

ives in one community.

1.3 Student’s foundation of social skills and self-esteem is being de-

veloped.

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 re-

tention was used to examine whether and how the strength of original in-

formation (differences in learning and testing time) and the strength of

misleading information (differences in timing and frequency) influence 3-

to 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 in-

formation encouraged reporting of this information. Differences in learn-

ing influenced reporting in that children exposed to the event once repor-

ted more misled details than those who saw the event multiple times.

Furthermore, preschoolers who saw the event once were just as suscept-

ible 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-year-

olds 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 re-

cognition test. Children completed theory of mind (ToM) tasks that in-

dexed 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 chil-

dren 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 high-

er 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 children and

grown-ups to improve their memory.

 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 judg-

ments based on their own observations of the world. Thorndike intro-

duced 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 help-

ful.

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.