Throughout my academic career, I used studying tools that were predominantly focused on memory and retrieval in tasks, that involved a subject and it’s definition or simple significance of that topic. These skills were useful during the testing of information that required a form of recall that is typically found in multiple choice exams or matching. How I would accomplish this strategy, was by first reading the assigned chapters, and highlighting any significant information that projects a specific idea or definition, then, I would go back through the chapter, and take notes directly from those highlighted topics. Finally, just before testing, I would make flash cards of the highlighted notes with the word or topic on the front, and it’s comparative definition or significance on the back. I’d use these flash cards in a repetitious manner to memorize certain topics that were significant in the chapter. Recently, I found that this strategy is less useful when it comes to critically thinking about the topic. Though you know the terminology, and are familiar with topic, the ability to form deep comprehensive thoughts is not accomplished through this type of memory practice. This is what Goldstein (2014) defines as shallow memory, as opposed to deep memory, which is more effective in the strength of the memory.

Memory as we know it, is a combination of many different cognitive functions that contribute to an understanding of a subject. The ability to form long term memory is substantially more intricate than simply retrieving working memory for short term tasks. There are several theories which propose important aspects of how one forms long-term memories. These theories include the way we organize information, the environment which we first perceive the information, the significance in the meaning of the information within our personal lives, and the level of processing. All of these factors are significant in understanding how the information that was processed was encoded, thus, determining whether or not it will be transferred into our long-term memory.

It is important, however, to understand that the retrieval of a memory is just as important to the memory system as encoding. In retrieval, we use cues to help access the memory we previously stored. These cues can be related to a sound, or feeling, even to a smell or location, basically anything that was specific to the making of that memory which, coincidentally, helps to retrieve that memory from long term storage. This effect is related to the nostalgic feeling you get when you recognize something familiar.

Experiments conducted by Catherine Middlebrooks, Kou Murayama, and Alan Castel (2017), define the research that suggests that students study to the type of test they expect to receive. This research indicated that certain ways of studying would provide either effective or ineffective results depending on the way the student studied, and the type of test they received. I felt that this related to me when it came to the topic what I was studying, and how I was doing it. According to Middlebrooks, Murayama and Castel (2017), “Recent work concerning value-based learning and selectivity indicates that the study of high-value information relative to low- value information, in anticipation of a recall test, is associated with greater activity in regions of semantic processing”. They suggest that elements of learning that pertain to recognition are on a level of encoding that is most similar with working memory, whereas open-ended and recall are more likely to be considered in long-term memory, which require a deeper level of processing. Their experiments also placed an emphasis on the importance of the student’s familiarity with the form of test they will be presented.

I found this interesting, because it allowed me to first understand the way that I would be tested, and how my studying habits could be directed to maximize my results. This knowledge allowed me to adjust my focus when trying to encode memory for tests. If I want to study for recognition type tests, the use of flash cards and rehearsal would be most effective. If, however, I were to study for an open-ended recall type of exam, using the tactics that provide a deeper level of processing, such as recording the information in my own words such as the generation effect, and doing similar experiments in my own capacity, or relating the subject to something that is significant in my life as seen in the self-reference effect will be more efficient.

Middlebrooks, C. D., Murayama, K., & Castel, A. D. (2017). Test expectancy and memory for important information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 43(6), 972-985. http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1037/xlm0000360 Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/1859065301?accountid=13158