Improving Memory
Everyone can improve memory. Building a strong memory is much like building strong muscles. It takes the right techniques and practice. There really is no such thing as a bad memory. There are, however, plenty of people who use their memory abilities poorly. As a result, people think they have "bad" memories.You can learn how to use your memory abilities to develop a good memory.
Q: How do you use your memory well?
Action is the key to good memory. People who have good memories are very active mentally. They use many skills to make memory work. We will begin with a brief explanation of how your memory works so you can make your memory work better for you.
Memory comes from actions you take to store, remember, and use information you have learned. Like a computer, information must be entered through your eyes, ears, touch, taste, smell and then acted on to store it. Once stored, you must take some action to retrieve it. So, memory includes two kinds of action - action to store and action to remember or recall.
Q: What actions can you use to store information?
It is well known that some actions are very effective to store information in memory.
Practice: Practice is an effective action to store information. There are several ways to practice. The most frequently used practice is repeating. That is, saying the material again and again.
Many people do this with phone numbers, names, dates, and other facts. Practice also works for main ideas and supporting details. Practicing main ideas can be done by restating many times, by reviewing regularly, by repeating verbatim, and by discussing ideas with others.
Organizing: Memory experts have demonstrated that organization is very important for memory. Organization means that you can relate ideas to each other rather than just knowing them as separate facts. For example, you will remember better when Columbus sailed from Spain (1492), if you can also relate Columbus and the date to other events and issues from the same period in history. It is like creating a file folder in which you put similar items.
You organize your memory by paying attention to main ideas and active reading. As you know, three good skills to organize are writing outlines, idea skeletons, and writing summaries.
Attention: You will remember much more if you focus your attention only on the information you are studying. Memory can only accept one source of information at a time. If you have several "things" on your mind, you will have trouble getting them into your memory.
You can focus your attention by using Systematic Study; Prepare, Act, Test.
You can also make sure you understand well. It is very difficult to remember something you don't understand. Regularly ask yourself, What does this mean?"
"How is this like something else I know?" and
"How can I be sure to remember these ideas?"
If you find that you have trouble remembering what you study, you should try the actions described above.
Q: How can you make sure you can recall?
Recalling is getting information out of memory. Most students have, at least one or two times, been taking a test and not been able to recall an answer to a question. When told the answer later, many say something like, "I knew that! Why couldn't I remember!" This is pretty frustrating; but, fortunately, there are ways to reduce this kind of forgetting.
Practice: This practice is different from the practice to get information in memory. You want to practice recalling information. You can do this by answering test questions from old tests and other questions that you or others make up. You can also discuss the material with others by asking and answering questions.
Finally, you can practice recalling by mentally asking yourself questions about the material. You can do this while studying at home and while going to school, riding in a car, or walking alone.
Regular review: One very effective way to improve memory is to review regularly. Review will also help you recall and learn the material well. You should review by reading your textbook and notes, asking yourself questions, checking to see if your memory is accurate and complete, and by reading and writing summaries. Regular review means that you review in some way all material at least once a week.
As you can see, memory improves through action you take to remember. The more action you take, the better your memory will be. In the next lesson, you will learn some memory "tricks" that you also can use to improve memory.
Q: How can you get started?
Make a memory plan by identifying the material you must know for a test. Plan to review all material at least once a week.
Next, identify some things you have had difficulty remembering. This could be dates, names, main points, places, etc.
A mental image is a picture you make up that includes the information you want to remember. It has been found that making up images is a very good way to learn and to recall.
You can make up an image about any information - biology theory, math formulas, history, names, events. The image does not have to be realistic; in fact, very unusual images are usually easier to remember.
To make up an image try to find a picture, pattern, or similarity to something you have seen. Then, let your imagination create a picture that includes the main points of the material.
For example, you might imagine a billboard on a highway with a name or event printed on it and a picture illustrating the event or the person's deeds. You could think of a sequence of events to be similar to separate panels in a comic strip. You could imagine a famous event as a painting.
The important actions to take when making an image are to identify the ideas, facts, and main points you want to remember. Then, include these ideas in your image. Some people actually draw their images while others just imagine them.
A well known memory technique is to associate or think of two or more things together that you must remember. This action is called "Peg Words" because you create pegs like those on a coat rack to hang up the ideas you want to remember.
The first step is to develop your "pegs." Most people use numbers and pictures to create pegs. Some often used pegs are: One is bun, two is shoe, three is tree, four is door, five is hive, six is sticks, seven is heaven, eight is plate, nine is line, ten is hen. You can make and memorize as many of these as you like; some people create 100.
To remember, you pair the ideas, main points, dates, names, etc. you want to recall with the pegs. For example, if you wanted to remember the presidents, you could imagine Washington looking out of a hamburger bun, Adams sitting in a huge shoe, Jefferson in a tree, and so forth.
Rhymes have been used with small children to remember stories for centuries. Rhymes are words that sound alike (e.g., lie, die; pet, bet) and are very good to improve memory. Rhymes can be used with any information.
A common rhyme is, "i before e, except after c, or when sounded like 'a' in neighbor and weigh." Because of the rhyme, an easily forgotten spelling rule can be recalled. The same idea can be used to remember any information including main ideas, dates, names, places, formulas, etc.
To make a rhyme, examine the ideas, names, dates, main points you must remember. Try to arrange the ideas so that they rhyme like a poem. You can add words and ideas to create a story poem if needed.
Recitation is a way of practicing information that must be memorized. Most often recitation is repeating the information from memory, usually in front of someone. Recitation can be done with family, parents, friends, classmates, and in study groups.
The action of recitation is telling the information you must remember to someone who can correct you. Many students use recitation to practice memorizing passages from literature such as a scene from a play or a poem. But, recitation is just as good to remember names, main points, dates, events, and ideas. It is most important to remember that, when you use recitation, you must concentrate on the meaning and not just blankly repeat.
Everyone can improve memory. Building a strong memory is much like building strong muscles. It takes the right techniques and practice. There really is no such thing as a bad memory. There are, however, plenty of people who use their memory abilities poorly. As a result, people think they have "bad" memories.You can learn how to use your memory abilities to develop a good memory.
Q: How do you use your memory well?
Action is the key to good memory. People who have good memories are very active mentally. They use many skills to make memory work. We will begin with a brief explanation of how your memory works so you can make your memory work better for you.
Memory comes from actions you take to store, remember, and use information you have learned. Like a computer, information must be entered through your eyes, ears, touch, taste, smell and then acted on to store it. Once stored, you must take some action to retrieve it. So, memory includes two kinds of action - action to store and action to remember or recall.
Q: What actions can you use to store information?
It is well known that some actions are very effective to store information in memory.
Practice: Practice is an effective action to store information. There are several ways to practice. The most frequently used practice is repeating. That is, saying the material again and again.
Many people do this with phone numbers, names, dates, and other facts. Practice also works for main ideas and supporting details. Practicing main ideas can be done by restating many times, by reviewing regularly, by repeating verbatim, and by discussing ideas with others.
Organizing: Memory experts have demonstrated that organization is very important for memory. Organization means that you can relate ideas to each other rather than just knowing them as separate facts. For example, you will remember better when Columbus sailed from Spain (1492), if you can also relate Columbus and the date to other events and issues from the same period in history. It is like creating a file folder in which you put similar items.
You organize your memory by paying attention to main ideas and active reading. As you know, three good skills to organize are writing outlines, idea skeletons, and writing summaries.
Attention: You will remember much more if you focus your attention only on the information you are studying. Memory can only accept one source of information at a time. If you have several "things" on your mind, you will have trouble getting them into your memory.
You can focus your attention by using Systematic Study; Prepare, Act, Test.
You can also make sure you understand well. It is very difficult to remember something you don't understand. Regularly ask yourself, What does this mean?"
"How is this like something else I know?" and
"How can I be sure to remember these ideas?"
If you find that you have trouble remembering what you study, you should try the actions described above.
Q: How can you make sure you can recall?
Recalling is getting information out of memory. Most students have, at least one or two times, been taking a test and not been able to recall an answer to a question. When told the answer later, many say something like, "I knew that! Why couldn't I remember!" This is pretty frustrating; but, fortunately, there are ways to reduce this kind of forgetting.
Practice: This practice is different from the practice to get information in memory. You want to practice recalling information. You can do this by answering test questions from old tests and other questions that you or others make up. You can also discuss the material with others by asking and answering questions.
Finally, you can practice recalling by mentally asking yourself questions about the material. You can do this while studying at home and while going to school, riding in a car, or walking alone.
Regular review: One very effective way to improve memory is to review regularly. Review will also help you recall and learn the material well. You should review by reading your textbook and notes, asking yourself questions, checking to see if your memory is accurate and complete, and by reading and writing summaries. Regular review means that you review in some way all material at least once a week.
As you can see, memory improves through action you take to remember. The more action you take, the better your memory will be. In the next lesson, you will learn some memory "tricks" that you also can use to improve memory.
Q: How can you get started?
Make a memory plan by identifying the material you must know for a test. Plan to review all material at least once a week.
Next, identify some things you have had difficulty remembering. This could be dates, names, main points, places, etc.
Imaging
A mental image is a picture you make up that includes the information you want to remember. It has been found that making up images is a very good way to learn and to recall.
You can make up an image about any information - biology theory, math formulas, history, names, events. The image does not have to be realistic; in fact, very unusual images are usually easier to remember.
To make up an image try to find a picture, pattern, or similarity to something you have seen. Then, let your imagination create a picture that includes the main points of the material.
For example, you might imagine a billboard on a highway with a name or event printed on it and a picture illustrating the event or the person's deeds. You could think of a sequence of events to be similar to separate panels in a comic strip. You could imagine a famous event as a painting.
The important actions to take when making an image are to identify the ideas, facts, and main points you want to remember. Then, include these ideas in your image. Some people actually draw their images while others just imagine them.
Peg Words
A well known memory technique is to associate or think of two or more things together that you must remember. This action is called "Peg Words" because you create pegs like those on a coat rack to hang up the ideas you want to remember.
The first step is to develop your "pegs." Most people use numbers and pictures to create pegs. Some often used pegs are: One is bun, two is shoe, three is tree, four is door, five is hive, six is sticks, seven is heaven, eight is plate, nine is line, ten is hen. You can make and memorize as many of these as you like; some people create 100.
To remember, you pair the ideas, main points, dates, names, etc. you want to recall with the pegs. For example, if you wanted to remember the presidents, you could imagine Washington looking out of a hamburger bun, Adams sitting in a huge shoe, Jefferson in a tree, and so forth.
Rhymes
Rhymes have been used with small children to remember stories for centuries. Rhymes are words that sound alike (e.g., lie, die; pet, bet) and are very good to improve memory. Rhymes can be used with any information.
A common rhyme is, "i before e, except after c, or when sounded like 'a' in neighbor and weigh." Because of the rhyme, an easily forgotten spelling rule can be recalled. The same idea can be used to remember any information including main ideas, dates, names, places, formulas, etc.
To make a rhyme, examine the ideas, names, dates, main points you must remember. Try to arrange the ideas so that they rhyme like a poem. You can add words and ideas to create a story poem if needed.
Recitation
Recitation is a way of practicing information that must be memorized. Most often recitation is repeating the information from memory, usually in front of someone. Recitation can be done with family, parents, friends, classmates, and in study groups.
The action of recitation is telling the information you must remember to someone who can correct you. Many students use recitation to practice memorizing passages from literature such as a scene from a play or a poem. But, recitation is just as good to remember names, main points, dates, events, and ideas. It is most important to remember that, when you use recitation, you must concentrate on the meaning and not just blankly repeat.
