Strategies for College Success – Chapter 8 Improving your Memory Original source:

Memory Techniques What we’ll be covering:  things that can effect your ability to remember something  basic memory tips  strategies to improve your memory  moving from short-term memory to long-term memory  from memorization to deep-learning

What can effect your ability to remember something? distractions time of day your comfort level stress your interest in the material your level of motivation

Memory tips Learn from general to specific Before learning something new, get a general overview to use as a framework on which to hang specific details

Memory tips (continued) Make it meaningful Why is this information relevant? What is the value in knowing this? If you don’t see the value-  Find it! What kinds of situations could you be in that you would need this information?  Use this as an opportunity to use strategies that will make you a better student

Memory tips (continued) Create associations Relate what you’re learning to something that you already know Construct your own knowledge Try using analogies and metaphors

Memory tips (continued) Learn actively Manipulate or change the information in some way Try creating a mind map, diagram, pictures, or note cards Always put information that you’re trying to learn into your own words

Memory tips (continued) Reduce distractions Turn off music, phone, television

Memory tips (continued) Monitor what you’ve learned Check yourself to make sure that you’re learning Try self-testing yourself using the review questions at the end of the chapter or make up your own

Memory tips (continued) Check your attitude and anxiety Find yourself thinking how much you hate the course or instructor? Know when your attitudes and/or anxiety are inhibiting learning and try to address them

Memory tips (continued) Turn abstract ideas into concrete examples

Memory tips (continued) Distribute learning Use many short sessions for studying instead of one long session

Memory tips (continued) Remember something else When you get stuck and can’t remember something, try to remember something that is related to it or what you were doing at the time that you learned it.

Memory tips (continued) Stay away from studying similar topics at the same time to avoid confusion

Memory tips (continued) Use mnemonics, or memory techniques  Try creating a song or rhyme to help you remember (e.g., “Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty-one, excepting February alone. It has twenty-eight days time, but in leap years it has twenty-nine”)  Use acronyms (e.g., to remember the Great Lakes use the word HOMES for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior)  Acrostics (e.g., to remember hierarchy of taxonomic classification remember, “Ken’s Pants Caught On Fire, Great Scott!” for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Specific Epithet => Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Primates, Hominidae, Homo, Sapiens [Species: Homo sapiens ]).  Visual methods – exaggerate the image of what it is you are trying to memorize.

Memory tips (continued) Avoid studying material in the same sequence Try starting at the end or middle of the material

Summary By using memory techniques you can take steps to learn and remember information more quickly and effectively Most memory techniques require that you change or organize the information that you need to learn. Repeated reading of text and notes is often not enough. Simple memorization may help you in matters, like recounting a sequence for opening a combination lock, but it won’t in and of itself lead to deep-learning. Memorization facilitates the road to understanding, but it is not the same as understanding a subject.