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Learning Strategies: Helpful Tips on Learning

Recommendations for Improving Your Memory

The following factors can have a significant impact on your memory. It is important to evaluate the extent to which these factors may be impacting your memory/learning and take action to address these issues first.

Drug and alcohol use can have a negative impact on memory functioning.
Exercise and good health are associated with better brain oxygenation and improved speed of learning and recall.
Fatigue can interrupt our ability to attend to incoming information as well as to retrieve stored information.
The impact of stress and tension on memory abilities should not be underestimated. Feelings of anxiety and/or depression can interrupt your ability to attend to information, store information, and retrieve information.
Some medical conditions and the drugs used to treat them can also impact your memory. It is important to ask your physician about ways in which any chronic or acute illnesses you have or medications that you are taking may be affecting your learning.

Memory involves three processes:

Information Input - First you have to register the incoming information. If you are distracted (i.e., watching TV while studying or anxiously worrying about failing) you are less likely to get information into memory to begin with.
Retaining information - Information has to be filed and stored in memory. Retention of information is maximized when it is held in memory in an organized manner and is attached to other meaningful information already in your knowledge base.
Retrieving information - Memory can involve either recall of information (e.g., response to essay questions) or recognition of information (e.g., response to multiple choice questions). It is often easier to recognize information rather than recall information.

There are also different types of memory.

Memory can be VERBAL such as remembering the sound of a word or the printed representation of words.
Memory can be VISUAL such as remembering the way a picture looks, remembering colors, lines, shapes, angles, faces, and three dimensional figures.
Memory can also be KINESTHETIC which is your ability to remember the way something feels or remembering a sequence of actions such as how to play tennis.

The following are specific strategies to help you with the three main aspects of memory mentioned above. Where applicable, strategies are identified in terms of their emphasis on using VERBAL, VISUAL, and/or KINESTHETIC memory modalities.

STRATEGIES FOR INFORMATION INPUT

To reduce distractions which may interfere with processing new information, it is important when studying to choose a quiet, distraction-free environment.
Spaced presentations of information and rehearsal will enhance memory better than massed studying and practice (learning and memorizing in one or a few long sessions i.e. cramming for a test). Try to start studying earlier in order to better remember material. Keep memories fresh by going over them periodically and they will stay with you longer.
To help you remember what you read you must read with a purpose. Start by developing questions that you hope to be able to answer at the end of your reading. Review topic headings in your text before reading. Outline information covered in each paragraph. All of these tactics will help you pay attention to the material you are reading and will reduce the need to re-read pages.
New memories can interfere with other recently learned information. Therefore, it is best to take breaks between studying different topics (nap, unrelated activity, relaxation).

STRATEGIES FOR RETAINING INFORMATION

Long-term memory requires a structure or framework so that you can retrieve information later. Organize information. Separate information into meaningful groups that share common attributes (e.g., when studying history learn facts associated with a particular time period, a particular person, or significant historical event together, as a group).
The deeper you process information the more likely you will be to retrieve the information at a later time. Deep processing involves attaching numerous associations to a piece of information. For example, if you want to remember the meaning of a word you will most likely remember it if you do all the following: (a) look the word up in the dictionary; (b)use the word in conversation; (c) write a poem using the word; and (d) think of puns about the meaning of the word(VERBAL).
Use all your senses to enhance storage and retrieval of information. For example, if you have to remember to pick up mustard at the grocery store start by visualizing the mustard bottle (i.e., yellow, round, glass jar) and the spreading of mustard on a sandwich, recall the strong, tart smell of the mustard, and think about its sharp, vinegar flavor (VISUAL/KINESTHETIC).
To memorize a list put together a sentence in which the first letter of each word represents an item to be remembered. Short, snappy, specific mnemonics are best. For example, if you want to remember the planets in their order of distance from the sun you can use the following sentence to help you remember. "My Very Earnest Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets" (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) (VERBAL).
Rhyming - Using simple rhymes to remember information or rules can be effective. For example, this is a rhyme for remembering a spelling rule. " i before e except after c or when sounds like a, as in neighbor or weigh". Another example of a rhyme for remembering the number of days in a month is "thirty days has September, April, June, and November".(VERBAL)
Numbering or counting things can be an aid to learning. For example, if you set out to name the U. S. amendments or the elements in the periodic table it is helpful to remember them in association with their number. Numbering information also allows you to check yourself to see if you remembered all the items. (VERBAL/VISUAL)
Writing things down can help you remember things. Writing is a form of rehearsal. Writing also allows you to process the information through a other modalities (i.e, vision and fine motor functions). (VISUAL/KINESTHETIC)
Using location can help you remember. Remembering things by where they are placed can be an effective way to trigger memory. For example, remembering that the information at the top of your study note page related to a particular topic can help trigger your memory for that topic. Remembering that your keys are always left hanging by your kitchen door will help you remember your keys each morning (VISUAL).
Use the peg system. Start by using a structure of something you already know (e.g., rooms in your house, parts of your body, or any other series of objects that is fixed in your mind). Now attach new items to be remembered onto this familiar structure. Make the image exaggerated to help you remember. For example, if you are trying to memorize a series of important historical events, image each event associated with a different room of your house (e.g., associate World War II with your bedroom because your bedroom looks messy enough to have been the scene of a war"). Picture in your mind a key event or person from World War II being in your bedroom. When that image is set, imagine the next room in your house and attach the next historical event to that room. Then when you want to recall the information, imagine yourself walking through each room in the house to "pick up" the information. (VISUAL)
Turn abstract concepts into solid images to help you remember. Remember a concept by imaging it as a face, object, or symbol. For example, if you are trying to remember what the vocabulary word "ephemeral" (transitory, lasting only a brief time) means, it may be helpful to associate the word with an image of a butterfly because of a butterfly's brief life span. When you hear or see the word it will cause you to imagine a picture of a butterfly and thus trigger your memory for the definition. (VISUAL)
When you are trying to remember multiple pieces of information it is best to chunk them into a smaller number of units. For example, phone numbers and social security numbers are chunked into parts (phone # - first three numbers and last four numbers; SS # - first three numbers, middle two numbers, last four numbers). These numbers would be much harder to remember if they were thought of as just one long string of numbers. (VERBAL)

STRATEGIES FOR RETRIEVING INFORMATION

Use retrieval cues such as word associations to aid in remembering (e.g., bacon and� "eggs", huffing and puffing).(VERBAL)
Memory is "state dependent". We are more likely to remember things when we learn them under the conditions that we are going to have to remember them. For example, if you are memorizing a speech it is helpful to practice the speech in the room in which you are going to give it. Always try to study under conditions (time of day, room, atmosphere) that are similar to the conditions under which you will have to remember the information.
We remember things that are emotionally relevant to us. Emotionally charged events are remembered because they are intensely personal. If you can impose emotion on something, you are more likely to remember it. For example, if you are studying history, try to imagine yourself struggling to live through the time period that you are studying.
Reward yourself for remembering.
Most of the strategies for retaining information are also applicable for improving your retrieval of information.