Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 331 The Feeling of Knowledge Entering the Brain

The students below the stage lit up even more after hearing Nan Zhuren's words.

A psychology experiment? That's incredibly intriguing!
To be fair, although psychology is at the bottom of the academic hierarchy, it can be incredibly powerful when it attracts people outside the field.

Psychological case studies and experiments are frequently found on various marketing accounts, specifically designed to attract attention.

The former can greatly satisfy people's curiosity. Some novelists cater to this, and even if their writing skills are not very good, they can still earn royalties by simply adapting the cases they have to create pseudo-documentary texts and relying on the public's voyeuristic desires.

The latter is particularly effective with students, using experiments, data, and technical terms—things that sound sophisticated—to dissect common sense concepts that are usually taken for granted. Whether the final conclusion verifies or refutes common sense, it can easily give people the pleasure of acquiring knowledge without requiring much mental effort.

Nan Zhuren once again boosted the students' initiative and enthusiasm for learning.

"The word 'memory' can be understood as a noun or as a verb meaning 'to learn.' In psychology, 'memory' is the mental process of accumulating and retaining individual experiences in the mind; it is the process by which the human brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information input from the outside world."

"In terms of classification, depending on the criteria, we can divide memory into declarative memory and procedural memory, episodic memory and semantic memory, and so on."

"But the types of memory we're going to learn about today are the following categories—"

As Nan Zhuren spoke, he turned around, picked up the chalk, and began to sketch on the blackboard.

"Based on the length of time it takes to remember, we can divide memory into—"

Instantaneous memory

Short-term memory

Long-term memory

Nan Zhuren also provided explanations during the writing process.

"Immediate memory is the sensory information that remains for a very short time after the objective stimulus stops, generally only 0.25 to 0.5 seconds. What is remembered is mostly images or sounds."

"Short-term memory is the memory that can be consciously recalled at the present moment, and it lasts for about 5 seconds to 2 minutes."

"Long-term memory refers to memories that have been fully and deeply processed and stored in the mind for a long time. Theoretically, there is no limit to how long they can be retained."

At this point, Nan Zhuren paused and turned around.

Then he suddenly raised his voice: "Everyone, look at our blackboard!"

All the students were startled and instinctively focused their attention.

The next second, Nan Zhuren suddenly raised his hand, made a fist, and whispered, "Close your eyes."

This inexplicable contrast left some students bewildered, while others subconsciously followed Nan Zhuren's instructions.

Nan Zhuren quickly looked around and then walked up to a short boy in the first row.

"All of you who closed your eyes, now think back. When you just closed your eyes, although it was completely dark, didn't you still see the 'blackboard' and my 'raised fist' in a very short time?"

"This is [instant memory]."

Nan Zhuren then pointed to the desk of the short boy next to him: "Classmate, of the three 'memories' I just wrote on the blackboard, what is the second 'memories'?"

"Uh... [Short-term memory]?"

Nan Zhuren nodded: "Very good, what you just memorized was also [short-term memory]."

After doing all this, Nan Zhuren took a step back and returned to the podium: "When you wake up tomorrow morning and still remember what's written on the blackboard, that's long-term memory—you can open your eyes now."

The little boy in the first row who had just been called on by Nan Zhuren to answer a question blinked, then involuntarily gasped.

Hiss—the feeling of knowledge uncontrollably seeping into my brain is here.

……

After writing these three proper nouns, Nan Zhuren drew a dividing line on the blackboard and then continued writing.

"Besides classifying memories by duration, we can also classify them based on the degree of 'consciousness' involved in the memory process. We can divide memories into—"

Implicit Memory

Explicit memory

Implicit memory refers to memories that we are unaware of, yet can unconsciously retrieve to help us with our current task.

“For example, when it comes to riding a bicycle, we can’t describe exactly how we lift our feet up and how we put them down; nor can we describe or control how we keep our waist and hips to maintain balance so that we don’t fall. But once you learn to ride a bicycle, even if you don’t ride for a year or two, you can still go at lightning speed when you get back on the bike.”

These two memory concepts are not easy to learn through interaction, so Nan Zhuren gave two relatively simple examples.

"Explicit memory refers to the conscious influence of past learned experiences and knowledge on our current task."

Nan Zhuren pointed at the short boy in the first row again, actually pointing at the exercise book on his desk: "What formula do you need for this physics problem?"

The short boy was taken aback, while his deskmate and the person behind him couldn't help but lean over, eager to answer for him.

"Uh... From the problem, we can use f=μN, F=ma, mgh =kx+μmgcosθ*(h/sinθ)+μmg*x, and substitute the data from the problem to get..."

Nan Zhuren clapped his hands: "Very good, these formulas that you can recall to help you solve problems are called [explicit memory]."

The short boy was stunned for a moment, then he, his deskmate, and the boy in front of him all gasped in shock.

The knowledge has been absorbed!

……

Li Mingchen was somewhat confused; he felt that what Nan Zhuren was saying didn't seem very interesting.

Or rather, he subconsciously rejected what Nan Zhuren was saying.

But the reactions of the students around him were not like that.

Li Mingchen turned his head and saw his deskmate writing furiously.

brush brush --

Peeking over, I saw the following written on the notebook: [Sensitive Memory], [Short-Term Memory], [Long-Term Memory], [Implicit Memory], [Explicit Memory]...

"Why are you memorizing all this?" Li Mingchen couldn't help but ask.

My deskmate wore a look of inquisitive confusion unique to top senior high school students: "I don't know either... but it feels like it's important, so I'll write it down first!"

Li Mingchen blinked.

On stage, Nan Zhuren drew everyone's attention back to the PowerPoint presentation.

"Now everyone knows that when we review and take exams, we use our explicit, long-term memory."

"Only after understanding these two concepts can we learn and comprehend Ebbinghaus's memory experiments."

(End of this chapter)