Exploring the Underground

Despite getting to my class around 20 minutes early every day, I’ve been a little slow to get going in the morning. It feels like I’m moving in slow motion until I actually start my walk to the Psych building. Because of this, today I decided to see if having some coffee with breakfast would help energize me more quickly. I had a cup in the dining hall, and I also filled up an insulated bottle with some to drink throughout the day. It’s safe to say, I don’t think that I’ll be drinking coffee regularly any time soon. The aftertaste and smell are too strong for my preference, and the caffeine honestly doesn’t do much for me. However, now I know that I’m not missing out on anything.  

I had time before class today and I liked the mood of this post-rain scene.

Today in class we built upon a main idea that was discussed yesterday, that the brain tends to avoid strenuous cognitive work. We transitioned from the concept that the brain avoids using too much working memory, to learning about processes that we can apply so we can transfer information from our working memory to long-term memory.

Memory is essentially the residue of thought, so the major idea behind successful memorization is that you must think about the meaning of something if you are to remember its meaning. This reasoning applies to the transfer of knowledge from working memory to long-term memory; if you make your thoughts meaningful, your memories of those thoughts will be easier to recall. Some strategies that are based off of this idea are summarizing a notion in your words, connecting what you learned to an example that you understand, and explaining the basic idea of the notion to someone else. I didn’t disagree with any of this, but I thought the strongest strategy was the one that involved rewriting what you learned in your own words. Being able to understand something in your own, personal language makes a lot of sense as an indicator that the information has transferred to your long-term memory, because it shows that you know the basic, key concepts of that idea.

We only had a morning lecture today, because after lunch we took a tour of the Regenstein and Mansueto libraries. These two libraries are connected to each other; I actually studied inside the Mansueto library yesterday. Both structures are interesting architecturally, but couldn’t be any more different. The Regenstein is all solid, rectangular blocks and has few windows, while the Mansueto library is essentially a glass dome. The contrast on its own was something that drew me in, but the architectural ingenuity behind both buildings fascinated me even further. When I take pictures, I like to look for interesting shapes cast by the shape of a construction, and there were plenty for me to capture between the two libraries.

Inside the Mansueto library.

Jamaar Harris, the head of Mansueto circulation, and Paul Benolli, a librarian involved with the Psychology and Education departments at the Regenstein, led us into the Mansueto to start off the tour. I was here yesterday, but the level of silence as we walked in was still astounding. The library was designed by German architect Helmut Jahn. There are 691 panels of glass that were specially constructed to fit together. The whole structure was assembled first in Germany to make sure that all of the pieces were compatible, then shipped over here to be put together at UChicago. The architecture of the building was, of course, very interesting, but what intrigued me even more was the system of book storage and retrieval that was implemented. At Mansueto, all of the books are stored 5 stories below ground level, and are retrieved with a robotic arm. We went underground to witness the process firsthand.

The robotic arms, as seen from the ground level.

An aisle of books.

Underground, there are 24,000 bins of books sorted by size, as well as 1,200 additional shelves for more delicate primary resources. These bins were split up into aisles, each with its own robotic arm. Jamaar said that the capacity of the library, depending on the size of the books held in storage, could reach up to around 5 million total items. The sheer scale of the underground storage was incredible. It seemed like there were endless layers of bins, and trying to visualize all of the books in the place was daunting.

A closer look at one of the arms.

After we toured the underground storage of Mansueto, we went back up to the surface and Paul led us through the Regenstein library. The Regenstein is older than Mansueto; it’s also more of a traditional university library, with multiple floors and areas where you can talk. Paul led us up to a room on the second floor, and there he taught us how to manipulate the catalog so that we could find academic journal articles relevant to our points of interest. The session was very informative, and without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find any of the academic journals that I did later in the day.

The arm in action. 

We used our newfound knowledge of the catalog system to find academic journals related to our research project topics, but before that, we finalized our topics with Marjorie and Kate. My group, which consists of Lucy, Sophie, and Alex, had decided that we wanted to look into whether or not metacognition improves learning. Metacognition, the way that we’ve interpreted it for our project, is essentially the act of thinking about what you’re thinking about. For example, if someone were to be reading, then a metacognitive act for them would be to think about how/whether or not they are absorbing information; in this scenario it would be an act of reflection. Metacognition is a very open subject, however, and it can be expressed in many ways, but we decided as a group that we would study its usefulness in academic settings. Metacognition is a subject that appeals to me because I enjoy analysis, and there’s nothing more personal than analyzing your own thought process. Being conscious of what my body is doing is something that’s important to me, so it’s only natural that I would want to study the way we gain consciousness about our thought processes.

Looking up academic journals for our final project.

Today was very educational, both inside the class and out. I learned more about how the human memory works, and I was also shown the underground book storage of a library, which isn’t something that just anyone can say. My topic and group for the final project were both finalized, and we began work on possible procedures and started looking for resources. I feel more and more comfortable here with every passing day, and even as the class work starts piling on, my attraction to the course only increases.