Improving Memory
Biology’s findings benefit medicine. Botany’s findings benefit agriculture. So, too, can memory researchers’ findings benefit education. Here, for easy reference, is a summary of some research-based suggestions that can help you remember information when you need it. The SQ3R—Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review—study technique introduced in Module 2 incorporates several of these strategies.
Rehearse repeatedly. To master material, remember the spacing effect and use distributed (spaced) practice. To learn a concept, give yourself many separate study sessions. Take advantage of life’s little intervals—riding a bus, walking to lunch, waiting for class to start. New memories are weak; exercise them and they will strengthen. To memorize specific facts or figures, research has shown that you should “rehearse the name or number you are trying to memorize, wait a few seconds, rehearse again, wait a little longer, rehearse again, then wait longer still and rehearse yet again. The waits should be as long as possible without losing the information” (Landauer, 2001). Reading complex material with minimal rehearsal yields little retention. Rehearsal and critical reflection help more. As the testing effect has shown, it pays to study actively. Taking class notes by hand, which requires summarizing material in your own words, leads to better retention than does verbatim laptop note taking. “The pen is mightier than the keyboard,” note researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer (2014).
Make the material meaningful. You can build a network of retrieval cues by taking notes in your own words, and then increase these cues by forming as many associations as possible. Apply the concepts to your own life. Form images. Understand and organize information. Relate the material to what you already know or have experienced. As William James (1890) suggested, “Knit each new thing on to some acquisition already there.” Mindlessly repeating someone else’s words without taking the time to really understand what they mean won’t supply many retrieval cues. On a test, you may find yourself stuck when a question uses phrasing different from the words you memorized.
Thinking and memory Actively thinking as we read, by rehearsing and relating ideas, and by making the material personally meaningful, yields the best retention.
Activate retrieval cues. Remember the importance of context-dependent and state-dependent memory. Mentally re-create the situation and the mood in which your original learning occurred. Jog your memory by allowing one thought to cue the next.
Use mnemonic devices. Make up a story that incorporates vivid images of the items. Chunk information into acronyms. Create rhythmic rhymes (such as “i before e, except after c”).
Minimize proactive and retroactive interference. Study before sleep. Do not schedule back-to-back study times for topics that are likely to interfere with each other, such as Spanish and French.
Sleep more. During sleep, the brain reorganizes and consolidates information for long-term memory. Sleep deprivation disrupts this process (Frenda et al., 2014; Lo et al., 2016). Even 10 minutes of waking rest enhances memory of what we have read (Dewar et al., 2012). So, after a period of hard study, you might just sit or lie down for a few minutes before tackling the next subject.
Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it and to find out what you don’t yet know. The testing effect is real, and it is powerful. Don’t be lulled into overconfidence by your ability to recognize information. Test your recall using the Test Yourself items found throughout each unit, and the numbered Learning Targets at the end of each module. Outline sections using a blank page. Define the terms and concepts listed at each unit’s end before turning back to their definitions. Try the Multiple-Choice and Practice FRQ questions at the end of each module, and take the AP® Exam Practice Questions at the end of each unit. The online resources that accompany many texts, including LaunchPad for this text, are a good source for many other self-testing opportunities.