How to Remember What You Learn

Original Editor - Michael Rowe

Top Contributors - Ewa Jaraczewska, Jess Bell and Kim Jackson  

Introduction

Memorisation is a process that involves cognition, and it occurs in the human brain. The information that needs to be memorised must be repeated periodically to complete the memorisation process. To capture student's interest, a massive amount of information and engaging materials are now available for their studies. Yet students often complain about the challenges of studying when they have to memorise, learn and master all the information presented in the class. It is a never-ending and arbitrary stream of facts, and students must decide which ones to retain in memory. The teachers assume that students know how to learn. In reality, students practice ineffective learning and study techniques. They trust a specific study condition, which often does not offer an expected outcome.

Internet technology and social media have changed how people receive, retain, and share information. Searching for information online may lead to offloading memory and forgetting. On the other hand, retrieving information from memory, even when unsuccessful, can help to strengthen memory and enhance learning of new information.

This article offers a toolkit that can be utilised to accomplish remembering. It may help to prevent students from drowning in the material they need to learn and memorise.

Memory

Memory is the capacity to store and retrieve information.

Diagram of how the filter theory of selective attention operates. From Wikimedia Commons

Broadbent Filtering Model

Broadbent Model of Attention is based on the theory that humans cannot consciously attend to all sensory inputs simultaneously. Individuals can only process a limited amount of sensory information at any given time, so only a fraction of the information they are exposed to makes it their conscious experience of the world. The human brain can filter out most of the incoming sensory information. This is called selective attention, or the ability to focus on the task.

Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory (STM) is the working memory that enables storing information for short periods of time, holding it for later processing. STM stores about four to seven pieces of information, known as chunks. Chunking is a grouping of small chunks into larger chunks. This is a form of information compression that makes it more memorable and increases working memory capacity.

Memory Trace

• An initial memory is called a memory trace
• Memory trace is weak
• It must be reinforced through intentional practice to retain information for a significant period of time

Myths Around Memory

1. Text must be re-read to remember: It is an illusion of knowledge because you only recognise the text while reading it.
2. Highlighting information in different coloured pens helps you to remember it: There is no evidence supporting this type of activity.
3. Cramming for a test is a good way to remember things: It is an ineffective technique for remembering information in the long term.
4. Working through the night is a reasonable strategy when preparing for an assessment: Sleeping well is essential to encoding memories.

Memory Storing

Memory storing occurs in two steps:

Step # 1: Holding information in the working memory (short-term memory)

Step #2: Moving information into long-term memory. It occurs in three stages:

Stage 1: Encoding: converting incoming information into new synaptic connections. The student's ability to focus attention improves the likelihood of new information being encoded.

Effective Learning Rule # 1: Selective attention. Your ability to focus attention improves the likelihood of new information being encoded. Setting up the learning environment helps pay attention to the information that matters.

Stage 2: Consolidating: memory traces are moved into higher capacity long-term storage.

Effective Learning Rule # 2: Emotional salience. If the information excites you, moves you, or reminds you of special times, you will more likely encode it.

Effective Learning Rule # 3: Relevance. If you have a mental model to attach the new information, you will likely encode it.

Effective Learning Rule # 4: Comprehensibility. You're more likely to encode it if it makes sense to you.

Stage 3: Retrieving: information is recouped from long-term storage

Effective Learning Rule # 5: Retrieval practice. The more frequently you actively recall information, especially in the early stages of memory formation, the better your memories will be.

Process of Forgetting

Facts About Forgetting

• We lose about 70% of what we've heard or read.
• The last 30% of information fades more slowly.
• We quickly forget most of what we pay attention to.
• To improve learning, we need to interrupt the process of forgetting.

Forgetting Curve

The forgetting curve is a graph that shows the average rate at which information fades from memory, which indicates the following:

• The half-life of new information is about a week unless we spend time reviewing the material
• Active retrieval is a simple way to keep the memory for longer periods of time

Memory Strength

Memory strength is the durability of the memory trace left in the brain. The stronger the memory, the longer the period of time that a person can recall it.

Information Recall

Recalling information acquired just a few hours earlier may be difficult. The following are the factors associated with this phenomenon:

• Memorising by re-reading the information 3-4 times: 'The illusion of knowledge.
  • It does not play any role in helping you to remember what you are reading.
  • Allow to anticipate the words and the order in which they appear.
  • It creates the feeling of familiarity with the text, but it is not a knowledge.
  • You cannot explain the concept in your own words.
  • Re-reading a text called massed practice is the least productive remembering technique.
  • This is a less cognitively demanding approach to remembering. It only makes you feel like you are learning.
• Memorising by using environmental cues that help fill in the knowledge gaps: The illusion of explanatory depth.
  • Recalling information may be impossible without all the environmental cues used to remember (the physical setting, the patient you are using the equipment on, or the medical folder you just reviewed).
  • It creates a superficial explanation for knowledge (for example, using mainstream resources instead of specialised resources to learn about pathology).

Strategies To Remember More

The stronger the memory, the longer we can recall it.

The following four strategies are the most effective for improving the consolidation and retrieval of information: retrieval practice, distributed practice, interleaved practice, and elaboration.

Retrieval Practice

Retrieval, or active recall, is retrieving encoded chunks of information from long-term memory. It includes answering questions or explaining concepts without referring to the source and using your own words to answer the question.

The following are the strategies to improve retrieval of information:

• Recalling high-level concepts from memory through:
  • Focusing the retrieval practice on concepts the lecturer has talked about
  • Choosing a paragraph of text that's linked to the lecture from earlier in the day
  • Repeating what was read in your own words
  • When satisfied that you can explain the concept without looking at the source, move on to the next paragraph

Distributed Practice

Distributed practice is also called spaced repetition or distributed learning. It includes retrieving information at increasingly longer intervals. One rule of this practice is that you must practice retrieving information where you are about to forget it.

The following strategies will help you to choose the information you want to remember:

• The computer-assistance system ( examples of resources: Aniki) is a free-spaced repetition flashcard system. It uses an algorithm to surface the information you want to remember when the algorithm says you might be about to forget it.
• Make a daily habit of reviewing information that you want to remember. This strategy is based on the evidence that daily 10–15 minutes of spaced repetition testing will help you remember.

Interleaved Practice

Interleaved practice is when you mix different but related concepts into your practice of actively recalling information. It helps you integrate existing information with new information by using the brain's ability to identify connections between chunks of information. Example: a review of the knee anatomy, physiology, and functional movements.

The following strategies will help you to recall information using interleaved practice:

• Choose 2-3 different areas of the same broad topic.
• spend one “session” of about 30–45 minutes to work through each topic, explicitly looking for relationships between these subtopics.
• consolidate your understanding by asking the following questions:
  • Where do they connect? What areas in each subtopic seem most important relative to the other subtopics? How do they influence each other?

Elaboration

Elaboration is the practice of explaining and expanding on concepts you recall from memory, using your own words and without referring to the source material.​

• It is a strategy for connecting new information to existing information
• It creates a relationship between variables that connects concepts to each other.
• It is a conversation with the author, where you create and answer questions

Workflow for Remembering What You Have Learned

Daily workflow should take no longer than two hours and include the following steps:

1. Create a habit of reviewing your work daily following the established cue.
2. Set up your environment to avoid interruptions and distractions.
3. Review and expand your daily notes.
4. Find additional information through reading.
5. Write with the aim of achieving an important learning objective.
6. Include the concepts from today's lectures into your retrieval practice and add them to your spaced repetition system.

Resources

• Rozenblit L, Keil F. The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth. Cogn Sci. 2002 Sep 1;26(5):521-562.
• Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm