The psychology behind the best memorization techniques.
By: Practically Psyche
Our memories are core parts of who we are as people. They are a fundamental piece of the human experience and often inform the decisions we make. Although we perceive our memory most commonly like a piece of history, our memory is what shapes our past, present AND future.
Understanding our memory isn’t just for the psychology nerds. It’s for everyone, and honestly, especially for students. In this article, we’re going to be exploring the psychology behind some of the best memorization techniques, because ironically, understanding concepts like these helps you remember them better, not just pure memorization.
Just a disclaimer: everything in this article is based on existing psychological research, and all my sources will be linked below. Nothing in this article should replace professional medical or cognitive advice.
Our brains do not work like recording devices and despite this, we often treat them like they are. Rather, our brains operate best on an “active recall” system. This is a strategy that forces your brain to remember information you’ve absorbed in the past. Robert Bjork, a psychology professor at the University of California has nicknamed this term: “desirable difficulty”. It describes a level of struggle where it’s hard enough that you can work through it (albeit, with some struggle) but easy enough that you can solve it with the knowledge you already have.
However, active recall works best when in collaboration with another strategy called “spaced repetition”. To understand spaced repetition, and why it works, we need to get a basic understanding of how our brains work. Our brains forget things easily, because of something psychologists call “the forgetting curve”. It’s a timeframe in which, without review, your brain forgets information. 50% within the hour, 70% within the day and 90% within a week. Our brain does this in order to sort through the heaps of information that you encounter every single day; the colour of the car you drove past, the name of the shop you passed by and yes, even the material you learned in class today. If you don’t hear it or encounter it more than twice, your brain assumes it’s not important and lets it go. This is your working memory.
Spaced repetition counteracts the working memory’s forgetfulness by repeatedly introducing that information to your brain, affirming that this is important information to remember and store in your long term memory. This is the part where active recall and spaced repetition work collaboratively: when you successfully remember something after a gap in the initial introduction to now, you reset the forgetting curve, strengthen those neural connections and the memory of that information becomes stronger.
So how often should you practice spaced repetition and active recall? 10–20% of the time you need to remember the information. Say you’re memorizing some information for a test you have at the end of the week. Experts recommend you practice that information every other day, leading up to the test. Longer spaced repetition, with a fewer number of sessions is actually better for your long term memory; however, taking too much time is counterintuitive. Thus I recommend following the 10–20% rule and slowly working your way to longer spacings between the recall periods.
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However, as you’re practicing spaced repetition and active recall, keep in mind that it’s supposed to feel harder than cramming, because you’re actually forcing your brain to struggle in order to strengthen your long term memory.
So whether you’re studying for a test or trying to memorize a speech, at least now you know how your memory is working to remember that information and how you can support it.
Stick around, because in the next article, we’ll be exploring how to really understand the information you’re taking in and how that works psychologically.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Practically Psyche
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