Memory Skills
Topics on Student Success
Many complain of their memory, few
of their judgment.
The best way to learn new ideas is to approach them with enthusiasm and interest, to learn and understand ideas rather than just memorize facts through repetition. Cultivating an active interest in a topic is a much more natural process than repetition. Preview the class material, ask your professor questions, discuss ideas about the topic with other students. College is about critical thinking and in-depth learning. Try to find a way to relate the information to your long-term goals or to something you find interesting. You will be more likely to remember something if it is important to you.
Also, it’s very important to avoid cramming. Studying over a long period of time, dispersing your studying over several weeks before the exam is a much more effective way to learn and remember.
However, for tedious lists of information and other topics that are difficult to remember, there is always flat memorization. Students have used tricks and wordplays for centuries.
1. Acronyms are a favorite technique. Acronyms are words formed from the first letters of a list of words. For example, to remember the five Great Lakes, use the acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior). Association can also be used in sentences. Remember in elementary school when you learned the order of the planets by the sentence “My very elegant mom just served us nine parrots” (representing Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)? You were using acronyms!
2. Association can also trigger memory. By recalling something you already know and making a mental link to what you are trying to learn, you can help yourself recall the new information. For example, the combination to my gym locker is the day my sister was born (Jan. 13th), then the number of dates I had last year (3), then the score on my first calculus test (89). So the combination is 13, 3, 89.
3. Chunking is another useful memory technique of breaking information down into useful pieces. The brain easily remembers things in groups of 5 +/- 2. For example, phone numbers are easy to remember because there are 7 numbers. Try to remember groups of items in chunks of more than 9, and your brain gets confused. So, if you have a list of 15 items to remember, chunk them into 3 groups of five and learn the chunks. You are much more likely to remember them.
4. Imagery can help you remember groups of words through visualization (although it’s not an effective tool for remembering complicated concepts). If you can imagine certain objects interacting, you may be able to remember them better.
For example, try to remember the group of words “mailbox, Atom, building, salmon, girl” It’s difficult.
Now, try to imagine a boy named “Adam in a building putting rotten salmon in the girl's mailbox" It's much easier to remember with an image to accompany it. Weird, but it works (VanderStoep & Pintrich, 2003).
A few tips on imagery:
- The
stranger, richer, more vivid the image is, the easier it will be to remember.
- Funny
images will stay with you longer.
- Try to create images in different environments to avoid confusion.
5. Flash cards are the best of all tips for memorizing. By using flash cards, you are able to break the material down into smaller parts and focus on the key points. Flash cards are best used by reciting out loud. Lots of people learn better audibly rather than by reading information. Flash cards utilize the audible side of the brain. And, they are portable. Take them to campus and when you get a free moment run some cards. Take them with you to work, in the car, and at stoplights.