MM 1093 - What Should be Committed to Memory

What Doesn’t Need to be Committed to Memory – and What Does

 Summary:

Oakley and colleagues argue that in an age of AI and digital tools, students still need to deliberately internalize key knowledge and skills through direct instruction, retrieval practice, and repetition—because offloading memory too often leads to shallow understanding. They caution against over-reliance on tech and call for a balanced approach that blends thoughtful tech integration with strong foundational instruction that builds deep, procedural knowledge.

Danielson Domain:

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation –  1e: Designing Coherent Instruction and 1f: Designing Student Assessments

Domain 3: Instruction – 3c: Engaging Students in Learning and 3d: Using Assessment in Instruction

What Doesn’t Need to be Committed to Memory – and What Does

In this Social Science Research Network (SSRN) article, Barbara Oakley (Oakland University), Michael Johnston (New Zealand Initiative), Ken-Zen Chen (National Yang Ming Chiao Tun University), Eulho Jung (Uniformed Service University of Health Sciences), and Terrence Sejnowski (The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences) say, “In an era of generative AI and ubiquitous digital tools, human memory faces a paradox: the more we offload knowledge to external aids, the less we exercise and develop our own cognitive capacities.” 

Accompanying Just Google It has been a shift toward constructivism and teaching critical thinking skills – learning how to learn – versus direct instruction. Oakley and her co-authors believe that the plateauing and decline in IQ scores in developed nations is due to three things: a reduction of explicit content instruction and memorization; increasing reliance on external memory aids; and constant digital distractions. Are we “quietly eroding the very cognitive abilities we aim to enhance?” they ask.

The authors take us back to basics: the distinction between skills that humans acquire naturally, without explicit instruction – language and facial recognition – and culturally important academic learning that generally requires explicit instruction and practice – reading, math, science and more. “Our brains simply aren’t wired to effortlessly internalize this kind of secondary knowledge,” they say, “– in other words, formally taught academic skills and content – without deliberate practice and repeated retrieval. Excessive cognitive offloading interrupts this necessary internalization, leaving us with superficial schemata – weak mental frameworks that can’t adequately support critical thinking or creative problem-solving.” 

Essential to learning are the brain’s dual systems: declarative memory for explicit facts and concepts, and procedural memory for skills and routines that can become second nature – riding a bicycle, speaking in one’s native language, playing a musical instrument. “Building genuine expertise often involves moving knowledge from the declarative system to the procedural system,” say the authors, “– practicing a fact or skill until it embeds deeply in the subconscious circuits that support intuition and fluent thinking.” Hence a chess master can instantly recognize patterns on an opponent’s board. 

Excessive reliance on external memory aids interrupts this process, preventing knowledge and skills from becoming procedural and automatic. “Constantly looking things up instead of internalizing them results in shallow schemata, limiting deep understanding and cross-domain thinking,” say Oakley et al. “In an age saturated with external information, genuine insight still depends on robust internal knowledge… Storing knowledge in our own memory remains crucial, even (and especially) when technology offers to do the remembering for us.” Excessive use of external memory aids avoids necessary mental work and leads to “metacognitive laziness.” In fact, say the authors, “an offloaded mind may become an under-exercised mind – one that increasingly lacks awareness of its own knowledge gaps.” 

Recent brain research has reinforced what good teachers have always known: direct teaching, retrieval practice, and spaced review are essential to embedding knowledge and skills in students’ long-term memory. “A strong memory foundation actually empowers skillful thinking,” the authors continue. “We can absolutely embrace smart technologies and abundant information, but we must also keep exercising our biological memory and attention. If we preserve that balance, we won’t have to choose between a nimble mind and an encyclopedic one. In a world where we can look up almost everything, the ironic truth is that the knowledge we carry inside our heads is more valuable than ever.”

Oakley and colleagues stress that they’re not advocating a return to mindless “drill and kill”; they advocate a thoughtful use of technology coupled with direct instruction and deliberate practice. “Just as you can’t build a house starting with the roof,” they say, “the brain struggles to grasp advanced concepts without first mastering the basics. Calculators and AI tools that let students skip this foundation make higher-level learning inherently unstable.” They conclude with these suggestions for teachers:

• Embrace desirable difficulty for students, with 85 percent mastery as the benchmark.

• Decide on key foundational knowledge that needs to be committed to memory, recognizing that it is the glue for higher-order thinking.

• Allocate class time for practicing skills without external aids – mental math, handwritten notes, reciting important passages and proofs from memory.

• Intentionally integrate technology as a supplement, not a substitute – for example, AI tutors, search tools, and chatbots to give students immediate feedback on their writing.

• Help students build robust mental frameworks by ensuring that the connections happen inside their brains, not just on paper. 

• Teach students to reflect before they produce, understand before they prompt, and engage before they automate.

• Teach students about metacognition and the illusion of knowledge, including that knowing where to find information is fundamentally different from truly knowing it. “Guide students to reflect on their own learning processes so they can make more intentional choices about what to commit to memory.” 

“A student with strong internal memory and well-honed thinking skills will use technology more effectively than one who uses it as a crutch,” conclude Oakley et al. “They will know what to ask, how to evaluate responses, and how to integrate new information into existing knowledge structures… By thoughtfully balancing what our minds and machines each do best, we ensure that external innovations enhance rather than diminish our intelligence.” 

“The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI” by Barbara Oakley, Michael Johnston, Kenzen Chen, Eulho Jung, and Terrence Sejnowski in SSRN, May 11, 2025 (pp. 1-50); Oakley can be reached at oakley@oakland.edu.