Memory Tips
What is the difference Recognition and recall?
Recognition is an easier stage of memory than the recall
stage. For example, in an examination it is much easier
to recognize an answer to a question if five options are
listed than to recall the answer without the options listed.
Do fast learners remember better?
Dr. Ian M. L. Hunter of the University of Edinburgh says, "The slow student who works out his lesson until he is
more than thoroughly familiar with every aspect of it
remembers more than his colleague who barely masters it and no more."
Do women have
better memories
than men?
Numerous studies on memory show that there is no
consistent difference between men and women when it
comes to the retentive abilities.
Why are separate
items, rotely
learned, more
difficult to retain
than meaningful
ideas?
Separate, discrete items (such as lists of terms or facts)
learned by rote rare especially difficult to retain for the
following reasons:
- it is hard to fit them into a category;
- it is hard to associate them with other ideas already in
the mind;
- since they are isolated, meaningless items, they must be "parroted," and such drudgery is distasteful. Unfortunately,
some material, like languages and scientific formulas, must
be learned by rote. Whenever possible, try to comprehend
the material first. Do not learn by rote what can be learned
by reasoning.
Is memory
Affected by age?
Yes! As far as learning ideas and facts is concerned,
people over 30 are slower, especially in formal, academic
situations. However, the older people make up for this relative
slowness by their retentiveness since they have more accumulated
experiences to which they can associate the new material.
Does over-learning
lead to better
retention?
Yes! After you have recited a lesson long enough to say it
perfectly, if you continue reciting it a few times more, you
will over-learn it. Ebbinghaus said that each additional recitation engraves the mental trace deeper and deeper,
thus establishing a base for long-range retention.
Actually, over-learning follows the first principle of
remembering: learn the material accurately and thoroughly
in the first place.
For many people, over-learning is difficult to practice
because, by the time they achieve bare mastery, they are eager
to drop the subject and go on to something else.
When we forget, is
all the previous
effort wasted?
All is not lost when you forget material which you earlier
studied thoroughly. Forgetting almost inevitably takes
place when you do not rehearse or use such material. You
will be surprised, however, when you begin to relearn the "forgotten" material. Such material will be relearned in just a
fraction of the time it took to learn it originally. This is true
even after years of disuse.
It is generally agreed among psychologists that the ease and rapidity
of relearning some "forgotten" material is a function of the original
number of recitations of that material. This is a basic law of
learning.