Page 214 - Keys to College Success

The movement of information from short-term to long-term memory and back
again strengthens the connections. Learning happens and memories are built when
neurons grow new dendrites and form new synapses. When you learn an algebra for-
mula, for example, your brain forms new connections. Every time you review it, the
connections get stronger.

Why You Forget
Issues with health, nutrition, and stress can cause memory problems. Research shows
that even short-term stress can interfere with cell communication in the learning and
memory regions of the brain. However, the most common reason that information Note Taking, Memory, and Studying
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fails to stay in long-term memory is ineffective studying—not risking the effort neces-
sary to earn the reward of retention.
Retaining information requires continual review. If you review the material over
time—after 24 hours, a week, a month, six months, and more—your reward is knowl-
edge retention. If you do not review, the neural connections will weaken, and eventu-
ally you will forget. In a classic study conducted in 1885, researcher Herman
Ebbinghaus memorized a list of meaningless three-letter words such as CEF and
LAZ. He then examined how quickly he forgot them. Within one hour he had forgot-
ten more than 50% of what he had learned; after two days, he knew less than 30%
of the memorized words. His experiment shows how fragile memory can be without
regular review. 5
Neuroscientist Karim Nader’s research shows that once a memory is solidified in
the brain, it is to some extent rebuilt each time it is remembered and can be altered
by environment or circumstances. For example, people often recall an event from
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the past inaccurately because they’ve heard someone else tell the story or want to
forget some aspect of it. For your purposes as a college student, this emphasizes the
importance of both regular repetition and studying in as consistent an environment
as you can manage.
Now that you know more about how memory works, get down to the business of
how to retain the information you think is important and access that information when
you need it.

Use Mnemonic Devices

Mnemonic devices (pronounced neh-MAHN-ick) work by linking new information to
what you already know. They depend on vivid associations that engage your emotions
and give you a “hook” on which to hang facts and retrieve them later. Because mnemon-
ics take effort to create and motivation to remember, use them only when necessary—
for instance, to distinguish confusing concepts that consistently trip you up. Also know
that no matter how clever they are and how easy they are to remember, mnemonics have
nothing to do with understanding. Their sole objective is to help you memorize.
Mnemonics all involve some combination of imagination (coming up with vivid
images that are meaningful to you), association (connecting information you need to
know with information you already know), and location (“locating” pieces of informa-
tion in familiar places). They offer the reward of lasting memory in exchange for the
risk of getting a little wacky. Here are some common types to try.

Visual images and associations
Imagining a compelling visual image and connecting it to information helps improve
memory, especially for visual learners. To remember that the Spanish artist Picasso
painted The Three Women, for example, you might imagine the women in a circle
dancing to a Spanish song with a pig and a donkey (pig-asso). The most effective images
involve bright colors, three dimensions, action scenes, inanimate objects with human
traits, and humor.

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