Memory is an inseparable part of our lives, whether it is the procedural memory of how to ride a bike, the episodic memory of your last birthday, or the sum of memories providing the essential self-awareness of who you are as a person. Compared to how important this mental process is, most of us know surprisingly little about how it functions. We are often capable of remembering the tiniest details from our favourite TV show aired three years ago, but find it difficult recalling what was taught in Chemistry class yesterday.
How could we be in better control of what to remember? Memory is a complicated cognitive process where we perceive, rehearse, store and retrieve information and trying to understand its hidden mechanisms can potentially help us remember things more effectively, and longer.
According to the multi-store memory model, memory can be stored in different hypothetical “stores” in our minds. This includes sensory memory, short-term memory and long term memory. Anything we see or hear can enter the sensory memory store, but only when we pay attention to that information will it be transferred to short-term memory. However, as its name suggests, short-term memory also does not last for a long time. For a test situation, we need to store information in the long-term memory store.
There are several different ways to achieve this, some more obvious than others:
Rehearsal: Unfortunately, teachers are not lying to us when they say that revision is crucial. From experience, we all know that without rehearsals, information can be forgotten easily. This might seem like painfully obvious advice, but it is also one of the most effective.
Semantic Coding: To store a text word-by-word in our long-term memory would be an extremely difficult task. Remembering the overall message is on the other hand a much easier task. This is why we are encouraged to make our own notes instead of copying down what the teacher is saying. Understanding is not just the end goal of learning, but also a vital step in preserving the information for further use.
Retrieval: The more you struggle, the more you’ll remember. Just looking through your notes will not help you remember. Instead try quizzing yourself, discuss the topic with other classmates, or try explaining the concepts to your younger sibling. By challenging yourself in different ways, your brain gets the signal that this is important information worth remembering.
The Memory Palace: This is a technique where you build an imaginary location (usually a space familiar like home) to store different objects or concepts in order to remember them. When you try to recall, all you need to do is to walk around this imaginary palace and “see” the information. To make it memorizable, you can try to be creative, such as making a zombie apocalypse-themed zoo. Similar techniques include using mnemonic or writing a short story. Anything that makes it fun to remember!
Sleep: This is a frequently stated, but still underrated advice. Sleep does not only restore our brainpower but can also process information on autopilot. Use that to your advantage and give your body the rest when it needs to. You might be surprised the next morning just how much more you can remember.
by Wenmiao DP20