Neuroscience research has determined:
- Memorization is easier if there is a heavy emotional component or there are multiple exposures to the material. Tip: Preview information before class, make notes, review after class.
- Quiet time for “consolidation” is required for memories to move into long- term storage. Tip: Study or read 50 minutes, then take a 10 minute break. Repeat, take a longer break.
- Our need for sleep increases during times of intense learning and memorizing. Tip: Get 8-9+ hours sleep during exams or other high-demand periods.
- Drinking even 1-2 alcoholic drinks can impair all stages of memory, especially the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory. Tip: Drink moderately, avoid binging, and don’t party during weekdays or during exam periods.
- Recall of material is improved by mimicking your learning environment. Tip: Consider your eventual “working” conditions (e.g. exam hall or clinical setting, your desired mental or psychological state) when you are learning.
Memory is helped by:
- Creating pictures
- Organization and order
- Funnel approach: moving from general to specific
- Associations/ connections with prior knowledge
- Personal meaning - emotions
- Grouping or chunking
- Repeating and reciting
- Rehearsing : reciting or repeating but in the actual place you need to remember the information
- Elaborating (deep processing)
- Teaching someone
Techniques
- Use as many senses as possible – write it, repeat it, sing it, draw a picture or diagram, say it out loud, associate it with a certain smell
- Rephrase and paraphrase as you go – put things in your own words
- Organize the material into categories
- Create acronyms, songs
- Create a visual image, make it bizarre and colourful
- Create notecards and review them often
- Link it with something with personal meaning (a location, sound or acronym)
- Use chaining, the Major Memory System, or pegging for remembering long lists of items or numbers
Adapted from Queens University Learning Strategies