Since I can remember, I have been wondering what the ‘perfect’ way to study was, where I could actually remember the things I have learned. I have tried note cards, re-reading every chapter, I have even tried coming up with a game for myself where I involved my family in quizzing me. However, nothing seemed to work. I knew that once I got to college, I would have to find a better way to remember more information. After taking my first psychology course, I learned that we have two different kinds of memories, short-term and long-term memory. Short-term memory, also referred to as working memory, is “a memory mechanism that can hold a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, usually around 30 seconds” (Goldstein, 2011). As you can see, this is not ideal when trying to remember information for my exams. The only way to extend the amount of time we remember certain information is through maintenance rehearsal. According to the lesson commentary, this is basically repeating something over and over again so we are able to remember it. However, this does not work well for transferring memory into the long-term memory because we are not connecting it to anything, therefore, we are not giving it any meaning. Long-term memory is “a memory mechanism that can hold large amounts of information for long periods of time” (Goldstein, 2011).
My second year of college, I realized that in order for me to remember more information for my exams and quizzes, I should try to relate the information to something going on in my life. To give an example, when I learned about development, it helped me to remember the majority of what I learned by relating it to things I or my friends had gone through. In this lesson, I learned that this type of rehearsal is called elaborative. According to the commentary, this method is much more effective because it involves thinking about the meaning of the information and connecting it to other information I already have store in my long-term memory. Now being a senior and using this type of rehearsal the majority of my college career, I believe that it is the most effective method. I have seen a huge increase in how much I actually remember because every new thing I learn, I try to connect it to things I already know.
References:
Penn State University. (2016). Lesson 8. Long-term memory: Encoding and retrieval. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1778565/assignments/8577473?module_item_id=20798829
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Short-term and working memory. Cognitive Psychology (pp.123). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Goldstein E. B. (2011). Long-term memory: Structure. Cognitive Psychology (pp.149). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
I too can personally relate to the struggle you described in your post. I have spent many years focused on maintenance rehearsal as a primary means of studying. Although I have managed to keep up good grades, this has been a very ineffective and non-efficient method for the majority of situations.
I experienced a bit of relief when I got to the studying tips in Chapter 7. It seems that ever since I read about these techniques I am finding them reinforced everywhere I turn. In a simple search for “how we can study and still not learn,” I came across several interesting articles and blogs pertaining to the matter. In every link that I opened I found the same underlining themes – and they all came back to those methods outlined in our text. It seems this information has been staring me right in the face for some time now, I just wasn’t paying enough attention. I have been testing many of these methods in hopes of improving my memory and recall.
The method of short study periods followed by breaks (and naps when I can) has been my go-to method as I am typically pretty tired by the time I am able to sit down to study. I have found that taking these frequent breaks has helped me tremendously with my attentiveness. I have not noticed a huge change in my memory or recall, but I feel that the breaks and naps have helped keep my mind more alert and engaged in the information.
Additionally, I’ve tried the method of organizing. I have used the study guide provided by our professor to help guide my studying prior to the exam. On my own however, I have created an outline of each chapter and printed it out. I use this outline as I am reading the text to make notes on the information I’m reading.
I have tried to use elaborative rehearsal by creating brief summaries in my own words of the information in each section. This has helped me better commit what I am reading to memory as I am having to explain it in my own words which requires more cognitive effort than simply regurgitating or copying key pieces of information verbatim from the text.
These are some of the ways I have implemented what we’ve learned. My next attempt will be to use the match learning and testing conditions method. I think I will skip notes and read each section and answer the “test yourself” questions to narrow down my focus.
Lastly, Michigan State University’s office of Academic and Career guidance created a pretty good document on studying habits and improving memory that I’ve found quite useful!
Resources:
http://com.msu.edu/Students/Academic_Guidance/long_term_retention_recall.pdf
I can certainly relate to your studying dilemma! I was an A-B student in high school and usually pulled it off without too much studying. Often times during my senior year parents, teachers and counselors would tell me “You’re going to need to learn how to study if you want to do well in college”. I had no idea what that meant but by the end of my first year in college I was spending five hours a day studying to keep my grades up. I eventually burned out in my junior year and dropped out of college. So here I am back in school a second time (now in my 40s) but I learned something very valuable along the way.
I started wondering why I had to read and re-read my notes over and over in a class to remember the information but when I read a magazine about something that I found interesting I would remember almost every detail, often for years. The conclusion I came to was that I was interested in what I was reading in the magazines and therefore didn’t have to put effort into learning. I’ve always loved cars and so when I read about the displacement of the new Corvette engine I just naturally remembered. So from then on, whenever I wanted to remember something, I would find some way to connect it to my own life or something that I found interesting. If I couldn’t do that I would imagine the information as relating to someone that I cared about or knew well. And POOF, it would almost always stay in my memory, often without any more study or rehearsal.
I thought I had just found a way to trick my brain into learning but as you described in your blog, and what we learned in lesson 8, there is good science behind the trick I learned! According to our book, when you relate information to yourself, your ability to recall is much greater. This greater recall is thanks to the Levels-of-Processing theory. By relating information to yourself you are processing it on a much deeper level. (Goldstein, 2011)
Reference
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). In Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (pp. 174–175). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.