What is the Nature of Memory?

What is Memory?
Memory is the process of retaining information over time. It occurs in three different phases (or stages). The first phase of memory is called Memory Encoding. It is the process of getting, or taking in, information. The second phase of memory is called Memory Storage. It is the process of keeping encoded information intact. Lastly, the third phase of memory is called Memory Retrieval. It is the process of remembering stored information as outputs. The quality and quantity of retrieved information are significant factors used to evaluate the strength of a person's memory. The importance of memory, perhaps, lies in how much we depend on it for us to carry out our daily tasks. For example, it takes a lot of experience and information about physical dimensions in order to wash the dishes. Additionally, it takes a lot of language exposure and vocabulary to follow instructions from your mother. Looking at memory this way, it is amazing how much information we actually take in every day. For example, in a single day, you must have retained information about what you did, why you did them, whom you talked to, where you went, what clothes you wore, and even how you carried out certain activities. Additionally, you might have picked up a few concepts, names, or even dates, from a book chapter you just read.

Glitches in Memory
The way we encode, store, and retrieve information from memory is indeed remarkable, but memory is not without its imperfections. It is not uncommon for us to see people arguing about whether something really did happen, with both of them equally confident about their memories. This kind of setting can escalate into more serious cases, like in legal trials, where witnesses make conflicting statements on similar events, assuming that those testimonies were true. In a simpler case, note how often you get frustrated about forgetting some simple facts, like names of certain people and places.

The Scientific Study of Memory

The study of memory was only speculative at first. Scientists dismissed the study of memory because they thought that the subjective nature of memory prevents it from conforming to the rigidity of science. However, contemporary psychologists are starting to recognize the subjective nature of memory, investigating such phenomena as memory reconstruction, memory distortion, memory invention, forgetting, and the influence of emotions on memory. Santrock (2003) concludes that our impressions of reality are not always judgment-free.

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How Do We Encode Information to Memory?

What is Memory Encoding?
Memory Encoding is the process in which raw and external data is converted to information that can be readily stored in memory. The process of memory encoding encompasses cognitive activities such as attention, information processing, elaboration, and imagery.

The Role of Attention in Memory Encoding

Before we even encode raw data into memory, we have to attend first to the data itself. This reflects how selective attention is. We must selectively attend to, or focus on, specific data, and ignore others, in order to convert it effectively into information. However, attention can sometimes be divided, as when we attend to several things simultaneously. Because the brain's resources are limited, divided attention poses overloading of memory encoding, resulting to less converted data, and thus less stored data, and difficulty remembering. For example, Schacter (2001) observed that research participants who were instructed to remember a list of words or a story

while monitoring a series of tones and identifying whether the tones are high- or low-pitched significantly remembered less than those who were allowed undivided attention to do the task.

The Different Levels of Memory Encoding

Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart (1972) proposed that memory encoding occurs in three different levels. This model of memory encoding is widely accepted among psychologists today. Memory encoding may occur in the shallow, intermediate, and deepest level. In the shallow level, only the physical and sensory features of the stimulus are converted and encoded to memory. In the intermediate level, the stimulus is recognized and given a name. Lastly, in the deepest level, the stimulus is given a meaning. To illustrate how the different levels of memory encoding take place, imagine this scenario: You are mindlessly crossing the road at night when the dark surrounding began to light up (shallow level). You then recognized that the light was coming from an approaching vehicle behind you (intermediate), so you walked faster to avoid being hit (deepest level). In that scenario, you engaged in the deepest level when you associated the approaching vehicle with possible accident. Research by Wagner et al. (1998) showed how deep level memory encoding aids in memory storage and retrieval, and how it is related to brain activity. Using magnetic resonance imaging, he observed the brain activity of his research participants while they engage in cognitive tasks. He flashed a list of words every two seconds in front of the screen and asked them to identify if the words were in uppercase or lowercase letters, that is, to engage in shallow memory encoding. Afterwards, he asked the participants to identify if the words conveyed abstract or concrete meaning, that is, to engage in deep level memory encoding. He found that memory for the list of words dramatically increased with deep level memory encoding, and that neural activity was significantly robust, especially in the left frontal lobe.

Memory Encoding and Elaboration

Memory researchers have found that besides depth, memory encoding also occurs extensively. Elaboration is the extensiveness of encoding at any given level. Using the previous illustration of "crossing the road", elaboration in the shallow level could mean not just seeing the dark surroundings light up, but also hearing wheel noise and a possibly a honk; elaboration in the intermediate level could mean identifying the vehicle as a car and not a truck; and, elaboration in the deepest level could mean not just trying to avoid an accident, but associating this possible accident with previously witnessed accidents. Elaboration widens the scope of memory. It aids in the enrichment and distinctiveness of memory codes. For example, it would be difficult to distinguish between _identical twins unless you've talked to them and observed some minor differences in their facial features, their hair styles, and clothing preferences. Elaboration is therefore seen by most educators to be helpful in improving students' memory. One type of deep elaboration, called selfreferencing, in which data is associated with personal values and past experiences during encoding, is now being utilized by most educators to improve students' active involvement in education. Reconstructing preconceived notions in students, although difficult, is effective because it is a kind of self-referencing.

Using Imagery to Effectively Encode Information to Memory

Imagery is a form of elaboration where information is represented as mental pictures. In one extreme case, a man (Let's call him S.), known for his remarkable memory, uses imagery to remember information significantly better than the average person can. At first, S didn't know he was different, until the time when his editor noticed him not taking notes while he gave assignments to his team. Feeling void of respect, the editor challenged S to report the details of his assignment. Astoundingly, S reported word-for-word the details of his assignments and the assignments of the entire team. According to Alexander Luria (1968), who chronicled S's life since their first acquaintance in Russia in the 1920s, S has no apparent limits in his ability to recall. Whereas an average person can remember 5 to 9 numbers from a list without practice, S can remember even more than 70 numbers, and can accurately report them in backward or reverse order, and that was even after 15 years from initial exposure, without practice or warning. S can also accurately reproduce unknown language passages after hearing them only once. He was even able to describe Luria's clothes and where he was sitting at the time the memory tasks were given to him. How did S do that? So long as words are spoken slowly, S constructs meaningful visual representations of them that he can readily remember. In one task, S was asked to remember a very complicated formula.

S studied the formula for 7 minutes and reported how he memorized it, which went like this: "Neiman (N) jabbed the ground with his cane (.), looked up a tall tree (^), and realized that the withered and exposed roots of the tree were due to the two houses (d^2) he built near it. He again poked his cane (.) and thought about selling the houses from his original investment of 85,000 (85)..." S was able to remember the formula even after 15 years without prior notice.Allan Paivio (1971, 1986) explains why imagery is an effective memory encoding strategy. According to Allan Paivio, memory for pictures, so long as they can be labeled, is better than memory for words, because the former is encoded both as image codes and verbal codes. Thus, with imagery, information is stored both pictorially and verbally, thereby providing more avenues for recall. The scientific study of imagery as a cognitive process was shunned away in the 1940s and 1950s by behaviorists because imagery is found to be too mentallistic and unobservable. However, today's research studies about memory are now recognizing the importance of cognition in the study of psychology. Psychological research shows that imagery is particularly useful in helping students remember associations and learn foreign languages.

How Do We Retrieve Information from Memory?

What Is Memory Retrieval?
Memory Retrieval is the process in which information is taken out of storage. The process is related to memory encoding and storage in such a way that co-occurring information during encoding - like the way information is encoded, and how stored information is organized - serves as cues and aids for remembering. Memory retrieval is tricky because it is a process that is observed and evaluated based on the accuracy and reliability of its output. Memory researchers today are interested in memory retrieval, specifically reconstructive memory - the process in which people reconstruct stories and past events and conversations - and how it affects the validity of legal testimonies.

The Relationship Between Memory Encoding and Retrieval

Memory encoding and memory retrieval are distinct, yet interconnected, phases of memory. How we encode information affect how well we can remember them. The relationship between memory encoding and memory retrieval is shown with the serial position effect, priming, encoding specificity, and state- and context-dependent memory. Serial Position Effect. The serial position effect is the tendency for items at the beginning and end of the list to be retrieved more readily. There are two aspects of the serial position effect - primacy and recency effects. The primacy effect is the tendency for items at the beginning of the list to be retrieved more readily, while the recency effect is the tendency for items at the end of the list to be retrieved more readily. Memory researchers explain that the primacy effect happens because information encoded earlier has more time and opportunity to be rehearsed and elaborated in short-term memory, has less competition in working memory, and has a higher chance of getting stored in long-term memory. On the other hand, the recency effect happens because information encoded later is still undergoing rehearsal in working memory, and is therefore readily available for recall. A good application of the serial position effect is in job hunting. Interviewees are advised to aim for the first and last spot during interviews. Priming. Priming is the process of introducing information beforehand to aid in retrieval. For example, you are walking along a dark alley when you heard a scream from far away. Then you suddenly felt a hand land on your shoulder. Chances are you're going to scream too, and the reaction would be much faster than usual. Priming is also involved in some unintentional acts of plagiarism. For example, your friend proposed to you a good idea for your research project, but you dismissed it, because by that time you thought it was not at all good. After several weeks or months, you proposed the very same idea to your friend. Priming is also the culprit behind those embarrassing moments as when your friend tells you the exact same joke you told him months before. Priming, thus, leads to more accurate and faster memory retrieval. Encoding Specificity. Encoding specificity states that irrelevant information at the time of encoding contributes to the distinctiveness of the encoded information, which may even be processed up to long-term memory. For example, while reading your favorite novel, you eyed at page 31 and flipped the page, and Bang! Was that a guns shot? Chances are you're going to remember both the number 31 and the gun shot for a longer period than when there was no bang heard.

State- and Context-Dependent Memory. How well we retrieve information is sometimes dependent on the context in which the information is encoded in memory. For example, Godden and Baddeley (1975) found that scuba divers recalled more when they are asked to recall at the same context or setting in which they learned. This is the reason why it could be helpful to study for a test in a similar setting where you will take the test. Another good application of context-dependent memory, as one professor advised his students, is to wear the same _perfume during study time and test-taking periods, or chew the same gum or candy flavor. How well we retrieve information is also sometimes dependent on our physical and emotional states during the time of encoding. This is the reason why we tend to remember past positive experiences when we are in a happy mood, and remember past negative experiences when we are in a bad mood. Sadly, this vicious cycle often perpetuates sadness in most people, which can then lead to depression. On a positive note, actors and actresses deliberately try to reexperience (remember) past negative experiences to force themselves in sad mood, especially in dramatic settings.

Using Retrieval Cues

Retrieval cues are mental or physical aids that can help you remember better and faster. For example, when trying to memorize the different parts of the brain, you can benefit from using an actual brain model with parts that can be disassembled and reassembled, so that you have with you visual, tactile, and even auditory sensations (if you identify each part out loud) as cues. At times when you are trying to remember the items that you needed to buy in grocery, because you forgot the list, the items in display can actually serve as retrieval cues. Lastly, the way information is stored in long-term memory is also vital in effective memory retrieval. There are times when mental and physical cues are not readily available so that you have to generate them yourself. A good strategy is taking cues from hierarchies, associations, and schemas, which are the different ways in which information is organized in long-term memory. A popular Filipino game show is Pinoy Henyo (Genius Filipino), where a participant needs to guess the word placed on his forehead using some leading questions which a second participant (a partner) can answer only with "yes", "no", and "possibly, somewhat, or maybe" (which is "pwede" in Filipino language). Over the course of time, participants of the game show have developed good retrieval strategies for such words as names of cities, parts of the body, things, food, events, and even names of popular personalities. For example, in trying to guess "New York", a good strategy is to go through hierarchies of location - place, outside or inside the Philippines, continent, country, state or city. Associations would be useful in guessing the word "banana" - fruit, color, long or rounded; and schemas would be useful in trying to guess "Noynoy Aquino" - person, profession, etc. Retrieval cues are specifically vital for prospective memory, which is memory for what we intentionally want to do in the future. Oftentimes, we forget the things that we need to do because of absentmindedness - because we are preoccupied with something else when we needed to do the task. Prospective memory has two components timing (when the activity will be done) and content (the activity itself). It is also divided into two types: time-based and event-based. Time-based prospective memory uses time as cue for remembering the activity. For example, you may intend to watch a movie in HBO by 9:30 pm. Your cue for watching the movie is the time 9:30 pm. One the other hand, event-based prospective memory uses events as cue for the activity. Continuing from the example about the HBO movie, suppose you have an online group meeting scheduled the same day, from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Instead of relying on the time, you may rely on that event (online group meeting) as cue to help you remember to watch the HBO movie. Generally, recall for event-based prospective memory is better than recall for time-based prospective memory.

The Retrieval Task

How well we remember also depends upon how much we are trying to remember, how deliberate the effort is to remember, and which aspects of long-term memory we are trying to remember. Difference Between Recall and Recognition. Suppose someone who looks rather familiar waves "hello" to you, but you can't quite remember where you met him and what his name was. This illustrates the difference between recognition and recall. You recognize the stimulus, but can't name it. A multiple-choice test is also a lot easier than essay test, because the former only asks you to recognize among the available options the correct answer, while the latter asks you to recall the entire information from memory. Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is an effortful retrieval task that occurs when people are confident that they know something but can't quite pull it out of memory. Most of the time, those who experience this phenomenon remember the first letter and number of syllables of the word. If the missing information is a name, they try to point out the person's profession to successfully retrieve the name. If the missing information is a word, they then repeat aloud the initial letters and the number of syllables remembered. Memory researchers speculate that the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is due to some memory encoding problems,

where only some portions of the information were stored in long-term memory. However, because those who experience it often are very confident of the available partial information that they have, most are successful in retrieving the information even if the information is not entirely stored in long-term memory. How that happens remains a mystery. Retrieval of Episodic Memory. Episodic memory, or memory for events, has two types - prospective and retrospective episodic memory. Prospective memory, as introduced earlier, is memory for future events; while retrospective memory is memory for past events. Maylor, Chater and Brown (2001) found that we are better are recalling prospective than retrospective memory. Cherry and Lecompte (1999) and Einstein et al. (2000) found that younger adults have better prospective memory than older adults do. One important aspect of retrospective memory is autobiographical memory, or memory for past experiences. Martin Conway and David Rubin (1993) observed that retrieval of autobiographical memory occurs in three different levels - according to life time periods, general events, and event-specific knowledge. Of the three levels, life time periods are the most abstract, occurring in long segments measured in years or decades. For example, you might describe your childhood days as filled with friends of different backgrounds. General events are extended composite episodes measured in days, weeks, or months; for example, a one-week vacation you had last month. Lastly, event-specific knowledge is composed of individual episodes measured in seconds, minutes, or hours; for example, your graduation ball or a high school reunion. According to Dan McAdams (1993), autobiographical memory is less about facts and more about meanings; that it connects the past and the present; and, that it forms the core of our personal identities. Retrospective memory is also filled with emotions. Flashbulb memory is made of emotionally significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events. Memory researchers speculate that its adaptive function is to fix details into long-term memory to be interpreted at a later time. Rubin and Kozin (1984) asked college students three of the most vivid memories in their lives. They found out that college students' flashbulb memory revolve around events involving injuries or accidents, sports, members of the opposite sex, animals, deaths, first week of college, and vacations. More than 50% of the participants reported accurately and vividly remembering a witnessed or experienced car accident, the first meeting with a college roommate, the night of high school graduation, an early romantic experience, speaking in front of an audience, receiving college admission letter, and the first romantic date. Rubin and Kozin (1984) suggests that flashbulb memory can also deteriorate, but that it is far more durable and accurate than other types of episodic memory, presumably because people often talk and think about it for days, weeks, or even after a few years, and that it is associated with emotions more strongly than any other types of episodic memory. A type of flashbulb memory, called personal trauma, is memory for a strong negative emotional experience. According to William James, personal traumatic events are too emotionally arousing to leave a scar on the brain's tissue. Personal trauma can also deteriorate, but distortions only occur in the details and not at the core of the event. Inaccuracies in report may be due to perceptual errors caused by shock, some attempts to reduce anxiety, and incorporated discussions that influence reconstruction of one's own version of the event. Memory researchers speculate that memory for personal trauma is unlikely to be forgotten because of its strong association with the release of stress-related hormones signaled by the amygdala. Personal trauma can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), symptoms of which may immediately follow the trauma or be delayed for months or even years. People with PTSD experience memory and concentration difficulties, and flashbacks (as if they relive the event) during nightmares or in awake but distracted state. Memory for personal trauma may also be repressed, or pushed into some inaccessible part of the conscious mind. Some psychologists point to repression as the reason why some cases of PTSD are delayed for a long period of time. According to psychodynamic psychologists, repression of traumatic events makes conscious remembering difficult in order to protect the individual from developing anxiety from threatening information.

Memory Retrieval and Eyewitness Testimonies

Accuracy in memory retrieval is often taken for granted in everyday life, but it is particularly serious for eyewitness testimony. This is because wrong statements have serious legal consequences - the wrong person may be put to jail or to death. According to Cutler and Penrod (1995), around 2,000 to 10,000 people are wrongly convicted in the US annually due to faulty eyewitness testimony. A recent estimate by Huff (2002) puts the number to 7,500 arrested for serious crimes and wrongfully convicted in the US. Some of the problems lawyers and judges face when evaluating eyewitness testimonies are report discrepancies, memory distortions, bias, and priming.

Discrepancies. It is not uncommon that judges face conflicting testimonies from different people. What makes legal matters worse is that these people are often confident with what they remember, and cross-

examinations reveal that all of them are actually telling the truth. For example, in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Simpson's housekeeper testified that his white bronco did not move from its spot all evening, while his limousine driver testified not seeing the car late at night. Fortunately, Simpson and his white bronco were televised moving slowly along a Los Angeles freeway as he threatened suicide. Distortion. Memory fades in time. Shepard (1967) observed that accuracy for picture identification decreases in time - from 100% after a two-hour time lapse, to 57% after four months, only 7% higher than chance. Additionally, Loftus (1975) observed that retrospective memory could be altered by introducing new information, even if the information is in conflict with memory. She showed her research participants a film of an automobile accident, and afterwards, asked them how fast the white sports car was after it passed the barn (even if there was no barn shown in the film). Surprisingly, 17% of the participants answered, thinking that there was indeed a barn in the film. Bias, specifically, Cultural Bias. Behrman and Davey (2001) found that some ethnic groups are less likely able to perceive individual differences among another ethnic group. For example, Latinos have trouble distinguishing among several Asians. Loftus (1993) also found that people tend to blame crimes to one or more ethnic groups. In one experiment, she showed a mugging in a TV news program, which was followed by a lineup of six individuals, and TV viewers were urged to call and identify who the mugged is from the lineup. 90% of the callers identified the wrong person, and 33% of those identified an African American or Latino as the suspect. Priming. In the 2002 Washington, DC sniper attacks that killed ten people, the media unknowingly repeated in television a white van appearing near the earlier shootings, which prompted witnesses to remember white, instead of the actual blue, car seen in the last attack. Elizabeth Loftus (2003) also personally observed how witnesses immediately shared and influenced each other's thoughts after a shop robbery. Police now advises witnesses to write down what they have seen immediately after a crime to prevent primed contamination.

In an effort to filter false memories, Kassin et al. (2001) asked 64 forensic psychologists, who have both conducted eyewitness research and testified as expert witnesses, to evaluate thirty statements regarding eyewitness testimony. 90% or more of the experts agree that how questions are worded influence the outcome of testimonies (98%); the instructions during lineup affect the eyewitness' willingness to make an identification (98%); factors unrelated to the accuracy of identification can hammer down an eyewitness' confidence to his or her testimony (95%); prior exposure to mug shots primes eyewitnesses during lineup selection (95%); eyewitness testimonies almost always include post-event information (94%); children are vulnerable to social factors, such as suggestions from the interviewer and peer pressure (94%); the attitudes and expectations of eyewitnesses influence what and how they view and remember the situation (92%); hypnosis makes eyewitnesses suggestible to both leading and misleading questions (91%); alcohol intoxication impairs an eyewitness' ability to recall (91%); eyewitnesses can identify suspects of their own race more accurately (90%). On the other hand, 50% or less of the experts agree to the following statements: younger adults provide more accurate testimonies than older adults (50%); hypnosis increases the accuracy of a testimony (45%); accuracy of identification is related to how fast the identification is made (40%); trained observers, like police officers, are no better than the average person when it comes to making accurate testimonies 939%); violent events are less remembered than nonviolent events (37%); it is easy to distinguish true memories from false memories (32%); repressed, and consequently, recovered memories of traumatic events are reliable (22%).

Why Do We Forget?
How Much Do We Forget?
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) was the first person to conduct scientific research on forgetting. He made up and memorized a list of thirteen nonsense syllables (e.g., zeq, xid, lek, vut, riy), which are meaningless combinations of letters that are unlikely to have been learned already. He found that just after an hour, he recalled just a few from the list. He then concluded that most forgetting takes place soon after we learn something. Although his research was unique and compelling, contemporary results show that forgetting, especially of meaningful information, is not too rapid and not as extensive as Ebbinghaus found. Today, memory researchers agree that forgetting may be either due to encoding or retrieval failure.

Forgetting Due to Encoding Failure

The process of memory retrieval is like searching a book from the library. Forgetting due to encoding failure means that the book you are searching for is not available in the library. In short, you did not successfully transfer and store the information in long-term memory. For example, your professor is discussing about the different types of information stored in long-term memory. Because you're thinking about what you're going to do in the upcoming activities of your school organization, you're distracted, encoding only a few tidbits of information your professor

wrote in the blackboard, but even those were a blur. Surprisingly, your professor gave your class a pop quiz. No matter how hard you tried to remember the details, they escape you. That's because you failed to encode and store those information in long-term memory. Sometimes, we encode just enough information to help us get by every day. For instance, how many US citizens studied US bills and coins in detail? Nickerson and Adams (1979) introduced 15 versions of the US penny to their research participants and asked them which of the pennies the true US penny is. Most failed in the task because they encoded just enough information to distinguish the penny from the other coins. For example, they only know that pennies are copper-colored, while dimes and nickels are silver-colored; and that pennies fall between the size of dimes and quarters. Forgetting due to encoding failure is therefore not a case of "not remembering" or simply "forgetting"; it's a case of "not knowing" and "not storing" information to long-term memory.

Forgetting Due to Retrieval Failure

Following the library model for memory retrieval, forgetting due to retrieval failure means that you can't find the book even if it's there. This happens for four reasons - the book is sandwiched between a lot of other interesting books, both on the left and right sides (interference); the title of the book is the same with the other books (generic cues); the book is located in a section of the library you rarely visit (transience); you hid the book in some place in the library where you yourself can't find, or simply, that you hid the book from yourself (repression); or that the area in the library where the book is located is in very bad condition, or in an extreme mess (brain's condition). Interference. According to the interference theory, the information we encoded along with the needed information gets in the way of learning, and consequently, remembering. Proactive interference means that earlier learned materials interfere with memory retrieval, while retroactive interference means that materials learned later interfere with memory retrieval. The interference theory explains well the serial position effect, in which we remember information located in the first (primacy effect) and last (recency effect) parts of a list better than the middle. Generic Cues. Using similar cues for different information makes retrieval difficult and forgetting a lot easier. For example, in a multiple-choice test, an item asks which of the two positive movements in psychology (humanistic movement and positive psychology movement) is concerned about changing the negative trends in psychological research. If your cue for both options is the word "negative", it will be difficult for you to pick the right answer because one of the options, the humanistic movement, is also concerned about changing something negative, specifically the perspective of psychologists on the capacity of the human person. Transience. According to Daniel Schacter's (2001) decay theory, transience is the disintegration of the neurochemical memory trace as time goes by. This happens when simultaneous activation of associated neurons is rarely followed. Repression. Repression is a kind of motivated forgetting where anxiety-provoking information is pushed in some inaccessible part of the conscious mind. Repression is often blamed why post-traumatic stress disorder occurs in some people years after the traumatic event happened. Brain's Condition. Amnesia, a kind of extensive forgetting, is mostly caused by some neurological problems. Brain surgery often results to anterograde amnesia, while electrical shock and/or physical blow to the brain often lead to retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is more common than anterograde amnesia. Patsy Cannon, an Alabama businesswoman, developed retrograde amnesia after a car crash in 1986. She virtually needed to relearn everything. She even can't recognize her own daughter. Cannon is now an advocate for individuals with brain injury. In less extreme situations, it is difficult to remember when you lack sleep or is intoxicated with alcohol.

What Are Some Useful Memory and Study Strategies?

Using Principles of Memory to Develop Effective Study Strategies

Focus. Before you even encode information to memory, it is important that you are in good shape to learn, that you have planned well where and when you're going to study, that you are willing to pay attention to what you're going to study about, and that you deliberately try to minimize distraction. 1. Ensure that you are in good physical condition. Research shows that electrical shock and physical blows to the brain can cause retrograde amnesia. If you are an athlete prone to engage in physical stress, it is important that you space enough time-out between sport activities and studying. Generally, it is recommended that you are fully rested and well nourished to study. Plan and manage your time well. Choose a location where you can focus on studying. Ideally, a good study environment has minimal noise, relaxing but at the same time induces alertness, and not too warm nor too cold. Choose a time when you are at your best to learn. If you are a night person, go ahead and study at night; or if you are the morning type, try to schedule enough time to study in the morning. It is recommended that you allot enough time for studying, ideally two to three hours per hour you spend in class. Pay attention with what you are studying. Schacter (2001) observed that participants who were instructed to remember a list of words or a story while monitoring a series of tones and identifying whether the tones are high-pitched or low-pitched significantly remembered less than those who were allowed undivided attention to do the task. It is therefore important to pay undivided attention with what you're studying. Minimize distraction. There are times when distractions are out of our control. Give yourself reminders to stay focused, like telling yourself to "zero in" or a similar mantra. Intrusive thoughts are also distracting, because they contaminate your working memory. Instead of trying to forget about them or ignoring them (which is often ineffective), write about them. Research shows that writing about intrusive thoughts removes them from short-term memory and thus helps improve attention.

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Master. Mastering the study material entails ensuring that you understand what you're studying about, and that you organize the information well into memory. 1. Make sure that you understand what you're studying. Engage in deep-level processing. Extract meaningful associations with what you're learning. Elaborate from those associations by referencing them with what you already know and with what you wish to know in the future. Monitor your progress by asking yourself how well you understand the material and by identifying possible gaps or missing information in the material. Continually rehearse what you're learning. Organize the information well. Use hierarchies and semantic associations, and take advantage of your preexisting schemas. If the material is too lengthy, organize it in notebook, which you can refer to later. If you are dealing with a list of words, use visual and/or verbal memory aids or mnemonics. Use the method of loci, where you "place" information in familiar locations, as when you put the different parts of the brain in different rooms of the house; the keyword method, in which vivid imagery is associated with different words, as when you associate the limbic system with your limbs; and the acronym method, in which the first letters of the words are combined to form a single word, as with HOMES, comprising the great lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior -, and Roy G Biv, comprising the colors of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

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Review. According to Daniel Schacter's decay theory, transience is the fading of neurochemical connections in time. By reviewing the material, or just by referring to your notes, these connections are continually cultivated and are therefore strengthened. Strong connections between neurons facilitate better, that is, more accurate and faster recall. Remember. When you are trying to remember the material during tests, it is important that you make use of effective retrieval cues. Mnemonics are useful for lists of facts, such as names, places, and dates. Concepts are better recalled by taking advantage of the way information is organized in memory. For example, when trying to remember the divisions of the autonomic nervous system, it might be helpful to re-imagine the hierarchical division of the nervous system.

Memory