Memory & Learning Skills - Fundamental Skills For Life

You have to be interested in what you want to remember or memorize. Lets say for instance you love to study History more than any other subject. Do you think you would remember History more than your studies in other subjects? Absolutely. By becoming more interested in what you are studying, you are also giving more attention to it. This increases your chances of recalling it again from your memory when you need it.

You need to be able to focus well and put your full attention on what you are learning. If you easily get distracted by things around you, it will take you longer to memorize and remember things. Find a quiet place so you can concentrate on what you are reading, learning, or observing.

Use Your Imagination

You must use your imagination. Be creative. Learn to visualize what you are reading etc. I don't mean just get the pictures, really experience it with all your senses. Many memory techniques require the person to think of the most outrageous and exaggerated images to help them remember certain facts or information. The funnier and more out-of-this-world the images, the better chances you will retain data in your mind.

Visualize some pleasant experiences you had recently. Try to get get the sensations at the time, the feelings, the emotions, the smells, the sounds, the sights, the colors. This will freshen your mind and make it easier to retain information.

 

Healthy Lifestyle Will Help

A healthy lifestyle can definitely help. A good diet, regular exercise and enough sleep create a mind that is alert and energetic. It is far easier to recall stuff when your mind is alert and not sleepy. There are also some vitamins that apparently help to improve memory. Check out your local health food store.

 

Memorization Linked To Learning Styles

The way a person learns affects the sort of mnemonics they should consider using. Remember, too, no one uses one style exclusively. There is usually significant overlap in learning styles.

Since visual learners make up around 65% of the population, most mnemonic devices utilize visual images to aid memory.

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER:
 

• Use positive, pleasant images.
   
• Vivid, colorful images are easier to remember.
   
• Jot down every diagram, map or symbol written on the board by the instructor.
   
• Even with printed course notes in front of them, visual learners still benefit from written information of their own, symbols, diagrams, etc.
   

AUDITORY LEARNERS relate most effectively to the spoken word. They will listen intently to a lecture, then rely on printed notes or their own notes. Often times, summaries of ideas developed in a book or a series of lectures will help the auditory learner understand the material.

Readily understanding material is essential to learning and remembering. Auditory learners make up about 30% of the population. Another excellent manner for the auditory learner to remember is to teach the material to someone else.

As passive learners, we remember only 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, and 30% of what we see. When you teach someone else, you retain 70 % of what you teach. When you tell and show someone you retain 90% of what you say and do!

 

Using Mnemonics

'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. Mnemonics are methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. A very simple example is the '30 days hath September' rhyme. The basic principle of mnemonics is to use as many of the best functions of your brain as possible to store information.

Mnemonic techniques are more specific memory aids. Many are based on the general memory strategies that were presented earlier. Although it can be easiest to remember those things that you understand well, sometimes you must rely on rote memory.

 

Visual Imagery

Create a visual image representative of the material you are trying to learn.

For example, if you were learning Freud's concept that human personality has three main parts. You might picture a WWF wrestling match between SID Vicious and the Libido KID (ID = inborn instinctual drives, namely aggression and sex).

In the stands are their mothers scolding them and reminding them to be kind to each other (SUPEREGO = that part of us that motivates us to behave in an ideal manner as defined by parents and culture). In the ring is thereferee (EGO = that part of us that helps us confirm to what the external world requires).

So, when asked on a test to explain Freud's 3-part notion of personality, you recall the image of the wrestling match and the roles of the Id, Ego and Superego

Method of Loci

This is a mnemonic device which combines a strategy for searching memory along with visual imagery.

Choose a literal and familiar pathway (e.g. daily route to school, work, walking the dog) or environment (e.g. your room or some other familiar place). Memorize prominent landmarks along that route or in that environment. Then, in your imagination, place visual representations of the material you are learning at those landmarks. For example, if you were trying to learn a list of Freuds defense mechanisms (e.g. repression, projection, sublimation) you could picture a room with an iron in one corner (for repression), a slide projector (for projection) in another and a toy submarine (for sublimation) on a shelf.

On a test when asked to name Freuds defense mechanisms you picture the room and then you will see the iron, projector and submarine and recall the relevant defense mechanisms.

 

Our Memory Techniques Guide will lead you to a perfect memory, you were dreaming for !

When applied correctly they are so powerful that can improve your memory many times. Don't worry, they have nothing to do with your mind - they are just tricks how to better remember information.

Memory techniques are very simple. The best part - they can be applied in just minutes. Memory techniques go deep in the history - even ancient people used them. They were especially used by ancient orators to remember long speeches.