If you're revising for an exam, learning a
new language, or just keen on maximizing your memory for everyday life, here
are some strategies that might help …
Rehearsal
The brain is often likened to a muscle, the
suggestion being that if you exercise it, its function will improve, so you can
improve your memory by repeating over and over to yourself the information you
wish to remember.
For years, researchers considered that
"rehearsing" information in this way was necessary to retain it in
your short-term memory and transfer it into long-term memory. Generations of
students have held fast to the principle that repeatedly reading through lecture
notes and textbooks, attempting to rote learn the facts needed for exams, is
the path to success.
There is evidence that the more an item is
rehearsed, the greater the likelihood of long-term retention. However, in
almost all circumstances, simple rote rehearsal is much less effective than
strategies that involve thinking about the meaning of the information you are
trying to remember.
'Elaborative' processing
Although many people imagine that actors memorize
their lines using rote rehearsal, they actually learn their lines by focusing
not on the words of the script, but on their underlying meaning and the
motivations of the character that uses them, so a more effective strategy is
so-called "elaborative" processing, which involves relating the
information to associated facts and relevant knowledge.
One study compared different kinds of
elaboration to investigate which might be most useful when revising for exams.
One group of participants was given topics in the form of questions to think
about before reading a text, whereas another group was just asked to study the
text. The researchers found that reviewing the text with relevant questions in
mind improved retention and subsequent recall of the material. Indeed,
elaborative processing is such a powerful memorization technique.
Mnemonics
The Method of Loci, perhaps the most
well-known mnemonic technique, involves thinking of images that link the
information you are trying to learn with familiar locations. So, when trying to
remember a list of words, you might imagine walking between the various rooms
in your home and in each one commit a word to memory by forming an image that
combines the word with a distinguishing feature of the room. One study found
that people using the Loci method could recall more than 90% of a list of 50
words after studying them just once.
Techniques such as Loci can be readily
adapted to help us remember appointments, birthdays, errands we need to run,
etc. As illustrated by Foer's example, the key with mnemonics is creating the
most striking visual images possible. The more ludicrous, creative and
elaborative you can be, the greater the chance of success.
Retrieval practice
Evidence suggests that repeatedly testing
yourself on the information you have learned can enhance retention
considerably. The great memory researcher Endel Tulving was among the first to
discover the merits of so-called "retrieval practice. If learning occurs
only when studying, it follows that they should have had better memory. But
Tulving found equivalent immediate learning across conditions. However, if
retention is measured after a one-week delay, repeated retrieval testing can
lead to markedly better recall than repeated studying, even if the studying
involves an elaborative learning strategy.
The American psychologists Jeff Karpicke
and Roddy Roediger investigated the most effective method for learning foreign
languages. Interestingly, when students are revising for exams, self-testing is
a rarely used strategy. Perhaps the fact that repeated study feels less
demanding than repeatedly testing yourself leads people to prefer the first
approach.
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