How to stop forgetting(Scientifically-backed)
Remember everything 101, By a certified psychology student, no bs-guide
Yes, I know you remember the lyrics to a random song from 2017 verbatim and not your study material you revised 5 seconds ago. Yes, I know you remember watching a random car driving down the street in 5 seconds when you were 8 and other random moments of insignificance and not the content you pulled an all-nighter for. And as convincing as it seems, no. You do not have academic-based dementia.
As a psychology student, I spend half my time studying about memory and the other half crying because mine doesn’t work. However, after thorough investigation through my notes, research from other external sources, and various processes of trial and error, I may have just cracked the code to improve your memory, prove you’re not developing premature Alzheimer’s, and maybe save you a good 7 hours of sleep while I’m at it.
— > Now I’m aware a lot of us have time constraints given our vigourous lifestyles or even our low attention-span, which is why I’ve provided a summary at the beginning, an explanation of the summary, particular focus on enhancing memory summary, and If you’d like a detailed summary, simply read the words in bold ←
To summarise the article the solution is: To simply form associations between existing memory and new material.
CHAPTER-1: HOW MEMORY WORKS. (Explanation)-
Memory is developed in 3 different phases:
1. Sensory Memory, 2. STM(Short-term memory), 3. LTM(Long term memory) Long term memory is the most reliable and longest storing phase.
To remember information effectively, we must register information in the LTM. To do so we have to follow this process called “Ellaboratove Rehearsals” Which involves forming associations, relations or connections between already existing information and new information(read (3rd) part of the example)
Information transfers from LTM through STM, information in STM is retained by Maintainence rehearsal, where one actively repeats or exposes themself to the information they wish to retain. (read (2nd) part of the example)
Information enters the STM from Sensory memory, Sensory memory lasts for less than 30 seconds, To retain information from sensory memory, Selective and Intentional attention must be given to it. (read (1st) part of the example)
For example, You’re a 3-year-old trying to learn the phrase “Cherries are dark red” if this phrase was simply looked at, it would enter sensory memory and fade away(1ST), If this phrase was looked at and analysed with intention to learn it for more than 10 seconds it would enter STM. If learnt at face-value by constantly repeating the phrase(Maintainence rehearsal) it would retain itself a little longer in the STM (2ND) If the information was retained by forming connections like, If the child knew “Apples are red” and association could be formed between “Apples are red” and “Cherries are dark red) registering it into LTM(3rd).
CHAPTER-2: TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE MEMORY.(Standardised methods)
- Mnemonics: (I like to call it “minor memory”)
a) The keyword method: Let’s say you’re trying to learn vocabulary from a foreign language. In this method, An english word(known language) that sounds similar to the desired word to be learnt in the new language is associated. Eg: “Pato” -spanish for “duck” is associated with “Pot” in english.
b) The method of Loci: Visualisation. Say you have to remember a series of words in a particular order, Let’s say, a list of groceries in a particular order( I know, I know notes app, Ai assistant, paper, yada yada yada, but pretend you’re in the medeival era devoid of paper) Visualise the items in a particular place you know well eg, bread, tomatoes, egg, cheese and the way from your living room to the kitchen. Imagine bread at the entrance of your door, tomatoes on your living room table, egg by the clock, and cheese on the counter of your kitchen. all you need to do is take a mental walk from your living room to the kitchen, imagining the items there so you can recall the items on the list (A realistic example would be using this with th periodic table)
c) Chunking: Several small units are used to form large meaningful chunks, we need to discover some organisation principles which can link the smaller units
d) First Letter Technique: Pick the first letter of each word you want to remember and form a new word from those letters. eg: VIBGYOR- Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.
2) Works especially when you’re studying for a test:
a) Active recall- with breaks: Constantly revise or recall the information as you’re living out your day, give yourself surprise quizzes. This helps solve trace decay( See Chapter-3, cause-1)
b) Minimising Interference: (Read chapter-3, cause-2 for deeper understanding) Arrange your learning session/ study in a way that you do not learn similar subjects one after the other( Eg: Do not learn Algebra and Arithemethic together) Instead, pick up an unrelated subject (Eg: English) If that isn’t possible, give yourself long, intermittent rest periods between learning the similar subjects.
c) Active Repetition: (Maintainence Rehearsal) Repeat your desired material to be learned out loud several times before explaining it or summarising it to yourself. This helps solve trace decay( See Chapter-3, cause-1)
3)Advanced: (deep-rooted memory tactics)
a) Deep-level Processing: (Craik and Lockhart) : Processing information in terms of the meaning they convey rather than attending to their surface features leads to better memory.
- Attaching sentimental meaning or personal interests to the subject.
- Asking as many possible questions on the subject to allow deeper understanding.
b) Enough Retreival Cues: When you learn something, think of retreival cues inherent in your study material, identify them and link parts of the study material to these cues. cues will be easier to remember in comparison to the entire content and the links you have created between the cues and the content will facilitate the retreival process. This also helps improve Interference and Retreival failure( See Chapter-3 cause 2 and 3)
c) Ellaborative Rehearsals(Tip): Relating/ Associating information to
- Episodic- Stores information related with events and connection between events, containing biographical details of our life making them mostly sentimental. (Eg: Your 6th birthday party.)
- Semantic memory- General, logical data and information learnt in early childhood (Eg: 2+2=4) enhances association forming.
CHAPTER-3: WHY FORGETTING OCCURS.
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I’d like to explain why exactly forgetting even happens in the first place:
To define: Forgetting is essentially the “Apparent” loss or modification of information already stored in an individual’s memory.
It happens due to 3 reasons:
- Trace decay:
(Also known as the disuse theory) assumes that memory leads to physical modification in the CNS(central nervous system) that we call “Memory traces”
when these “Traces” aren’t used for a long time, they’re deemed unnecessary by the brain, and are simply thrown away. Like the evolution theory, In the same way your wisdom teeth and appendix no longer serve a primary purpose, they begin to dissapear.
However, this wouldn’t explain why people with a good night’s sleep remember information they’ve collected prior to sleeping. Since according to the theory, prolong disusage of memory material leads to it fading away, sleeping and gaps in active recall should weaken memory and lead to forgetting. which gives rise to the second cause:
- Interference:
This theory suggests that forgetting occurs due to interference between various information in the memory’s storage.
Since learning, remembering and memorising involves formation of associations between memories intact in the brain.
When people accquire such associations, they enter into the brain’s memory without any conflict. However, conflict arises at the time of remembering/ retrieving information. The best way to visualise it, is to imagine these sets of information competing each other to enter your awareness.
Read example:
Let’s say you give your friend a list of words in section A. and B. without specific or meaningful categories and ask them to recall the words in Section A. It is highly likely that they will recall words from section B due to interference.
Intereference can either occur when:
a) Information you have learnt in the past interferes with recently learned information. (Proactive) or when
b). Newly learned information interferes with the recollection of previously learned information. (Retroactive)
3. Forgetting due to Retrieval failure:
Forgetting can also occur due to absent or innappropriate “Retrieval Cues”
Read example to understand:
Let’s say you are provided with a list of words from different categories meshed together (Say, insects, vehicles, countries) Caterpillar, Germany, bus, Ukraine, car, Mosquito, Estonia, Moth, Bicycle etc.
Later you’re asked to recall these words, Chances, are you’ll fail in recalling all of them. However if I had categorised them:
Vehicles(Retreival Cue): Bus, Car, Bicycle
Insects(Retreival Cue): Caterpillar, Mosquito, Moth
Countries(Retreival Cue): Germany, Ukraine, Estonia
You’re more likely to remember them due o the presence of Adequate retreival cues
CHAPTER-4: ORGANISATION SUMMARY. + Pro-tip
For long term rememberance, most effective, (Eg: core concepts, Life lessons)
Ellaborative Rehearsals
To remember something a while longer (Eg: Chunking for a test) Maintainence Rehearsals
General memory: Serial position effect: Information learnt at the beggining and end of the learning session is recalled better. Pro-Tip: Position important aspects of your study towards the beginning and end.
Ultra pro-tip: Auditions and performances can also be arranged this way to help the judges remember you regardless of the quality of performance.
