Working memory, temporality of methodological conceptual forgetting and mental well-being in master's and doctoral degrees
Keywords:
methodological development; conceptual mastery; postgraduate training; academic performance; professional satisfactionAbstract
Introduction: Academic deficiencies include low conceptual retention and forgetting information, which affects professional satisfaction.
Objective: To describe working memory, temporality of methodological conceptual forgetting, and mental well-being in master's and doctoral students of public universities in Peru.
Methods: The study was conducted between April and September 2024. A stratified probabilistic sampling method was applied, with 111 master's students and 62 doctoral students. The groups considered included students with completed theses, those with ongoing theses, and those without research topics. Conceptual retention capacity, forgetting rate and effectiveness in the application of methodological concepts were measured. Multiple mean comparisons were performed using the Tukey HSD test. The results were significant when p<0.05.
Results: Doctoral students with completed theses achieved an immediate recall of 38.70 %, long-term retention of 70.83 %, and an average score in sequencing tasks of 16.46±0.20. In contrast, master's students with completed theses recorded 28.83 %, 71.88 %, and 16.00±0.21, respectively. Those students with theses in progress or without developed topics reported lower values, with significant differences (p<0.05). More than 20 % of the students forgot concepts after 14 days. The highest mental well-being corresponded to doctoral students with completed theses, according to the application of concepts (65 %) and a lower number of errors = 8.
Conclusions: Students with completed theses presented better working memory, greater conceptual retention, and lower rate of forgetfulness, which improved their mental well-being by reducing errors in sequential tasks.
Downloads
References
Otstavnov NS, Voevodina EA, Fedele T. Working memory: what does research say about oscillation and functional connectivity? Genes Cells. 2023;18(4):633-6. DOI: 10.17816/gc623386.
Abadie M, Guette C, Troubat A, et al. The influence of working memory mechanisms on false memories in immediate and delayed tests. Cognition. 2024;252:105901. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105901.
Banks JB, Mallick A, Nieto AC, et al. The role of affective interference and mnemonic load in the dynamic adjustment in working memory. Mem Cogn. 2023;51(1):203-20. DOI: 10.3758/s13421-022-01303-4.
Assecondi S, Hu R, Eskes G, et al. Impact of tDCS on working memory training is enhanced by strategy instructions in individuals with low working memory capacity. Sci Rep. 2021;11:5531. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84298-3.
Rauh J, Müller ASM, Nolte G, et al. Comparison of transcranial brain stimulation approaches: Prefrontal theta alternating current stimulation enhances working memory performance. Front Psychiatry [Internet]. 2023 [citado 18/10/2024];14:1140361. Disponible en: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10348840/
Brooke T, Brown M, Orr R, et al. Stress and burnout: Exploring postgraduate physiotherapy students’ experiences and coping strategies. BMC Med Educ. 2020;20:433. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-020-02360-6.
Martin MY, Stanfill AG. On the road to achieving work–life balance in academia. Clin Transl Sci. 2023;16(4):553-6. DOI: 10.1111/cts.13485.
Follmer DJ. Implementing a simple, scalable self-regulated learning intervention to promote graduate learners’ statistics self-efficacy and concept knowledge. J Stat Data Sci Educ. 2023;31(1):80-90. DOI: 10.1080/26939169.2022.2040402.
Krnic M, Čivljak M, Marušić A, et al. Web-based educational intervention to improve knowledge of systematic reviews among health science professionals: Randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res. 2022;24(8):e37000. DOI: 10.2196/37000.
Chouinard A, Larouche E, Audet M, et al. Mindfulness and psychoeducation to manage stress in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: A pilot study. Aging Ment Health. 2019;23(9):1246-54. DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2018.1484890.
Heersmink R. Preserving narrative identity for dementia patients: Embodiment, active environments, and distributed memory. Neuroethics. 2022;15(8). DOI: 10.1007/s12152-022-09479-x.
Matsumoto M, Sakurada T, Yamamoto SI. Distinct bilateral prefrontal activity patterns associated with the qualitative aspect of working memory characterized by individual sensory modality dominance. PloS One. 2020;15(8):e0238235. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238235.
Moran T, Dror T, Bar-Anan Y. Testing the judgment-related account for the extinction of evaluative conditioning. Cogn Emot. 2020;34(8):1690-703. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1798878.
Al-Alawi L, Al-Shaqsi J, Tarhini A, et al. Using machine learning to predict factors affecting academic performance: The case of college students on academic probation. Educ Inf Technol. 2023;28(10):12407-32. DOI: 10.1007/s10639-023-11700-0.
Ayu UA, Kuswandono P. Undergraduate Students’ Learner Autonomy during Thesis Writing: The Case of a Group of EFL Students in Indonesia. Eralingua. 2023;7(2). DOI: 10.26858/eralingua.v7i2.46043.
Anca MJ. Autonomous learning – a theoretical approach. Journal Plus Education. 2023;32:301-9. DOI: 10.24250/jpe/si/2023/mia/.
Howell K. Enhancing research and scholarly experiences based on students’ awareness and perception of the research-teaching nexus: A student-centred approach. PloS One. 2021;16(9):e0257799. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257799.
Chatterjee D, Jacob GA, Varvayanis SS, et al. Career self-efficacy disparities in underrepresented biomedical scientist trainees. PloS One. 2023;18(3):e0280608. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280608.
Van der Zwan N, Afonso A. Activating the research methods curriculum: A blended flipped classroom. PS-Polit Sci Polit. 2019;52(4):749-53. DOI: 10.1017/S1049096519000581.
Daly-Smith A, Morris JL, Norris E, et al. Behaviours that prompt primary school teachers to adopt and implement physically active learning: A meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2021;18(1):151. DO: 10.1186/s12966-021-01221-9.
Gaudel J, Ahalli S, Fort E, et al. Impact du confinement sur la santé mentale des doctorants, une étude de cohorte dans une université française. L'Encéphale. 2024;50(1):75-84. DOI: 10.1016/j.encep.2022.11.002.
Prendergast A, Usher S, Hunt E. A constant juggling act—the daily life experiences and well-being of doctoral students. Educ Sci. 2023;13(9):916. DOI: 10.3390/educsci13090916.
Campbell F, Blank L, Cantrell A, et al. Factors that influence mental health of university and college students in the UK: A systematic review. BMC Public Health. 2022;22:1778. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-13943-x.
Hernández R, Covarrubias R, Radoff S, et al. An anti-deficit investigation of resilience among university students with adverse experiences. J Coll Stud Retent: Res Theory Pract. 2024;26(3):653-76. DOI: 10.1177/15210251221109950.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Revista Médica Electrónica (Medical Electronic Journal)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All content published in this journal is Open Access, distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 License.
It allows:
- Copy and redistribute published material in any medium or format.
- Adapt the content.
This will be done under the following terms:
- Attribute the authors' credits and indicate whether changes were made, in which case it must be in a reasonable way.
- Non-commercial use.
- Recognize the journal where it is published.
The copyrights of each article are maintained, without restrictions.
Guidelines to authors
