memorizing and retain it and retrieve impormation (ref) Psychology_Schacter,Gilbert, Wegner(2009)

Psychologists have focused on mental

strategies that can enhance your ability to

acquire information, to retain it over time,

and to retrieve what you have acquired and

retained. Let’s begin with the process of

acquiring information—that is, transforming

what you see and hear into an enduring

memory. Our minds don’t work like video

cameras, passively recording everything

that happens around us. To acquire information

effectively, you need to actively

manipulate it.

1.

 One easy type of active

manipulation is rehearsal: repeating to-belearned

information to yourself. You’ve

probably tried this strategy already, but

psychologists have found that some types

of rehearsal are better than others.

 Studies show that this type of rehearsal

improves long-term learning more than

rehearsing the name without any spacing

between rehearsals (Landauer & Bjork,

1978).

2.

Simple rehearsal can be beneficial, but

one of the most important lessons from

psychological research is that we acquire

information most effectively when we think

about its meaning and reflect on its significance.

 ...In attempting to answer such questions,

you will need to review what you’ve

learned about behaviorism and then relate

it to other things you already know about. It

is much easier to remember new information

when you can relate it to something

you already know.

3.

 You’ll also learn later in this book about

techniques for visualizing information, first

developed by the ancient Greeks, that modern

psychological research has proven to

be effective memory aids (Paivio, 1969).

One such technique, known as the method

of loci, involves “mentally depositing” information

you wish to remember into familiar

locations and then later searching through

those locations to recall the information.

 For example, suppose you want to

remember the major contributions of

Wundt, Freud, and Skinner to the development

of psychology. You could use your current

or former home as the location and

imagine Wundt’s reaction time apparatus

lying on your bed, Freud’s psychoanalysis

couch sitting in your living room, and

Skinner’s rats running around your bathroom.

Then when you need this information, you

can “pull up” an image of your home and take

a mental tour through it in order to see

what’s there.You can use this basic approach

with a variety of familiar locations—a school

building you know well, a shopping mall, and

so forth—in order to remember many different

kinds of information.

4.

You can use each of the mental manipulations

discussed here to help you remember

and learn the material in this textbook

and prepare for your tests:

• Think about and review the information

you have acquired in class on a regular

basis. Begin soon after class, and then

try to schedule regular “booster”

sessions.

• Don’t wait until the last second to cram

your review into one sitting; research

shows that spacing out review and repetition

leads to longer-lasting recall.

• Don’t just look at your class notes or

this textbook; test yourself on the material

as often as you can. Research also

shows that actively retrieving information

you’ve acquired helps you to later

remember that information more than

just looking at it again.

• Take some of the load off your memory

by developing effective note-taking and

outlining skills. Students often scribble

down vague and fragmentary notes during

lectures, figuring that the notes will

be good enough to jog memory later. But

when the time comes to study, they’ve

forgotten so much that their notes are

no longer clear. Realize that you can’t

write down everything an instructor

says, and try to focus on making detailed

notes about the main ideas, facts, and

people mentioned in the lecture.

• Organize your notes into an outline that

clearly highlights the major concepts.

The act of organizing an outline will

force you to reflect on the information

in a way that promotes retention and

will also provide you with a helpful

study guide to promote self-testing and

review.

To follow up on these suggestions and

find much more detailed information on

learning and study techniques, see the

Recommended Reading by Hermann,

Raybeck, & Gruneberg (2002).

ref) Psychology_Schacter,Gilbert, Wegner(2009)