Learning, Memory, and Study Systems

A. The Basics of Learning

Rival theories of memory place very different restrictions on the capacity of the brain. In practice, the maximum is rarely reached: we can learn what we need to, and we can retain it. More important than the capacity of the brain is the organization of material in your memory. Through your own experience, you are probably aware of the difference between short and long-term memory. Items in short-term memory are quickly displaced; most people can recall having looked up a telephone number, read it, and forgotten it before dialling. While this phenomenon is largely due to poor concentration, short-term memory is almost this vulnerable and volatile. It is also limited in what it can successfully store--which limits the value of cramming. Long-term memory is more capacious and more stable; you can reliably retrieve information decades old, even if you have not consciously used it in the interim.

Repetition is usually a key part of keeping information in your mind. Actions you repeat become so familiar that you may be oppressed by them: keen squash and tennis players can play out whole games during sleeping and waking dreams; video game addicts are often haunted by screen images and the need to respond to them. Some of this can be useful: it stimulates preparation. Certainly it demonstrates the power of repetition. Repetition is not enough, however; it is quite possible to read the same chapter repeatedly and yet learn nothing. Your approach to study should be guided first of all by your knowledge of yourself, but also by your understanding of a few basic characteristics of learning.

1. Intervals of Repetition

Knowledge of a given body of material declines from 90 % to 10 % within a week. If you review the topic before forgetting, the review will be brief and the benefits pronounced. Each time you return to the material, both your short and long-term memory of it will improve. If you review only after you have forgotten the material, you will absolutely lose your labour: you will be re-learning rather than reviewing.

Implications for practice:

1) Review repeatedly; reviewing only once or twice is not usually enough

2) Avoid waiting too long (until you forget); delay wastes study time.

3) Expect to review difficult material at shorter intervals--the more difficult and unfamiliar the material, the shorter the review interval will be.

2. Distribution

Learning advances more quickly in many short sessions than it does in a few long ones. This is especially true of definitions, lists, and vocabulary.

Implications for practice:

1) Break large tasks (indigestible chapters, complex assignments) into manageable stages.

2) Plan your study carefully so that you have time to tackle material in stages.

3. Proactive/Retroactive Inhibition

Each successive item learned interferes with those you have already learned and are trying to keep in memory. As you try to recall the earlier items, you forget the later; as you learn the later, you forget the earlier.

Implications for practice:

1) Avoid cramming; you can actually end a session of cramming knowing less than you did at the start.

2) Distribute initial study and review at intervals to reduce competition for short-term memory space.

4. Clustering

Joining together related details makes each item easier to recall. Isolated facts are difficult to remember by sheer effort of mind. Even the most experienced actors acknowledge that the lines they always forget are the ones which have no obvious part in a dialogue and no essential colouring of their own. Concentrate on the way a detail works with other information; when you remember the relationship you will remember the minor point as well. A bare date, for example, is easy to forget. If you master a whole cluster of related information, the relationships between pieces of information will help reinforce your memory.

Example: Single date in Elizabethan History--1558, accession of Queen Elizabeth I

Cluster: 11 years after death of Henry VIII (1547)

6 years before birth of Shakespeare (1564)

ruled for 45 years (until 1603)

acceded to the throne at age 25 (b. 1533)

5. Association

Memory aids based on the natural associations between words and groups of words can help solidify specific information. All the features of poetry--rhymes, meter, epithets, metaphors--are in origin mnemonic devices. This oldest system of making material memorable still works.

Implications for practice:

1) Create memorable rhymes to fix related terms in your mind.

2) Memorize cycles, series, and processes with narrative jingles.

6. Knowledge of Performance

Testing yourself has a far greater impact than simply reviewing. Testing focuses your attention on specific elements (areas of ignorance), turning a passive review into a motivated search for answers.

Implications for practice:

1) Use a note-taking approach like the Cornell System which creates an automatic testing system.

2) Create questions as you read, and test yourself at the end of each section of text.

7. Interest

While most people enjoy possessing knowledge, few enjoy the process of acquiring knowledge. Learning is hard work, and much of the early work is dull.

Implications for practice:

1) Practice forcing your interest--actively seeking aspects of a course that interest you.

2) Keep in mind the application of your learning--the greater possibilities it will open up (especially when these seem remote!).

8. Habituation

At the age of 20, George Bernard Shaw quit his office job to become a writer. Years later he wrote about the lasting effects of his office discipline:

My office training had left me with a habit of doing something regularly every day as a fundamental condition of industry as distinguished from idleness. I knew I was making no headway unless I was doing this, and that I should never produce a book in any other fashion. I bought supplies of white paper . . . and condemned myself to fill five pages of it a day, rain or shine, dull or inspired. I had so much of the schoolboy and the clerk still in me that if my five pages ended in the middle of a sentence I did not finish it until the next day. On the other hand, if I missed a day, I made up for it by doing a double task on the morrow. On this plan I produced five novels in five years. . . . I have risen by sheer gravitation, too industrious by acquired habit to stop working.

Habit is everything. The more conscientiously you adhere to a specific system, the more likely you will be to perform what you intend.

Implications for practice:

1) Adopt a definite, systematic study system adapted to each subject.

2) Maintain a regular study schedule.

B. Practical Study and Memory Tips

Understanding the way you learn helps you explore your study skill repertory. The brute-force approach is not the only way to tackle mastering information! Any number of special arrangements of material or approaches to studying may make retention easier. Here are ten useful memory tips; you have undoubtedly tried some of them already:

1. Teach it!
2. Change your study habits.
3. Map or illustrate material.
4. Compete.
5. "Walking through" the material.
6. Recite material aloud.
7. Use the information.
8. Write it down.
9. Burn daylight.
10. Keep the body alert.

1. One of the best ways of fixing something in your mind is by teaching it. Teach difficult work to a friend, or establish a study circle, and put one another in charge of particular sessions or topics.
2. If your system is not working, change it--change every feature of it. Study in a different place if your room is too comfortable or too noisy. Study at different times if you find there are too many interruptions or if you feel too tired. Experiment--don't pursue a losing course!
3. Maps and pictures are memorable and the details are spatially connected. Try drawing your notes--even when they concern an abstract concept. You may find the image more effective than any amount of repetition.
4. Part of the pain and alienation of studying derives from isolation. Make study a social event by turning it into a competition. Find someone of about your own ability and compete to master your program. Have contests for mnemonics and systems of memorization--even prizes! Alternatively you can post a performance bond, with the winner collecting from the first to default on planned study sessions.
5. Standing desks are becoming popular once more. Standing or even walking as you study can help you concentrate. After all, motionless sitting is usually a signal for the body to relax and sleep--try walking through your work.
6. Reciting was once the standard approach to mastering material; it is still useful. When you say material aloud you link the concepts not only to mental images of the words, but to your memory of speaking and hearing. If you find a proposition which you absolutely cannot retain, try studying it until you know it--and then say it out loud a half-dozen more times. Singing is sometimes even more effective, as it brings rhythm and rhyme into play. Whether singing or reciting, compose your own version of the material, if this is possible without distorting it: the products of your own mind are usually easier to remember than are the products of someone else's.
7. What you use, you remember. Reading, writing, and reciting are the standard ways of "using" information while studying, but many other approaches are possible, particularly in problem-based courses.
8. Writing is useful, although it is both slow and painful (and recalls elementary school punishments!). Writing a grocery note, even if you lose it in the parking lot, helps you remember what you need. Writing forces us to be logical and coherent; unless we are unusually happy calligraphers, the process also encourages us to focus on the key points and make our statements concise--to save us work!
9. Work during daylight when you can. Most people concentrate more effectively during the day--if they can find the time and motivation to work then. Late night study may well be ideal a few people, but most will suffer more and learn less than they would if they rearranged their schedules.
10. Sitting motionless (or worse, lying down) is a signal to your body to shut down. Keep alert by spending brief periods--about ten minutes each hour--in vigorous exercise. Don't break off your study session, but spend a brief time in vigorous motion. Running from the bottom to the top of the Harriet Irving Library is a great way to wake up your body!

C. Study Systems

To this point we have considered mainly tactics. You may discover that you need a clear strategic plan as well. Formal study systems help you to develop habits by "automating" many of the necessary steps. One widely known approach is the "SQR³ (pronounced "ess que are-cubed") system:

Survey

Question

Read

Recite

Review

Survey:

During the first stage of study, you survey the text (see QuickNotes on Rapid Reading).

• Read the introduction, the conclusion, and then quickly read through a few representative paragraphs.
• Quickly skim through the main tables, illustrations, and charts.
• Look over the end of chapter questions; these will indicate the main points you should focus on during your detailed reading.
• Look up unfamiliar terms in the glossary.



Question:

• Develop questions of your own to guide your reading of the chapter.

Read:

• Read through the chapter, making notes (either directly on the text or on Post-It notes you can stick in appropriate sections), answering your questions, and underlining or highlighting as you go.

Recite:

• Read the material out loud; you may find it useful to walk around as you do so.

Review:

• Within the next few days, before you have a chance to forget what you have mastered, review the material. Testing yourself is an excellent review technique (see "Basics of Learning" above).

A study system provides a consistent set of steps to follow; this helps to make study sessions more automatic and more frequent!