Improving Memory
- 2. Mnemonics Research into forgetting and memory has lead to possible suggestions by psychologists of how to improve our memories. There are many memory techniques to improve memory, these techniques or memory aids are called mnemonics . They usually work by linking the new material to be memorised with information already in long term memory. By making these links encoding is helped and retrieval is easier.
- 3. Mnemonics You probably already know many mnemonics (memory aids). These are some common ones we all use: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. Never Eat Shredded Wheat Some people also remember which months have 31 days and which don’t by using the knuckles technique Make a list of all the mnemonics you use.
- 4. Imagery Research shows that we can remember information better if can also form an image of it. This may be because it enables us to make a link with information we already know, but also because it ties together two types of information one which is verbal (either spoken or written) and one that is visual.
- 5. Bizzare Images Paivio asked participants to learn lists of words some of which were very easy to create images of, like house, car or plant (these are called concrete words) and other words were more difficult to visualise, for example hope, fear or sense (these are called abstract words). He found that the participants recalled many more of the concrete words (easy to visualise) compared to the abstract words (difficult to visualise). He conclude that if we are able to visualise information it increases our ability to recall it. The more bizarre the image visualised the easier it is to remember as we have made it distinctive.
- 6. Method of Loci The method of loci technique also relies on imagery but links these images to a route that you know well. You use a place or route that you know well, for example your route to college or a route through your house and then form links between points on your route and the things you want to remember.
- 7. E.g. to remember a shopping list: Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath tub cleaner. You could associate this list with a journey to a supermarket. Mnemonic images could be: Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road Past garage: with its sign wrapped in kitchen roll Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails Traffic lights : chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tires send up jets of tomato soup as I drive through it Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the top level Supermarket car park: a filthy bath tub is parked in the space next to my car!
- 8. Think about a route you often take, that you know very well. Write down the key landmarks in order on that route. Now try to remember the following list of words by linking them to the key landmarks in your journey. Picture them associated with the landmark in some way. Try to make the images as bizarre as possible. Bread, Orange, Fish, Cabbage, Saw, Seal, Eggs, Stamp, Video, Paper, Clock, Cheese. Draw you images at your landmarks as a cartoon strip, using the cartoon strip grid provided.
- 9. The Link Word Technique Another mnemonic which involves imagery is the link word (or key word) technique. This can be very useful in learning a foreign language. The techniques is to focus on some apart of the foreign word which you can turn into an image that will help you remember what it means. E.g. In French Wine is Vin (pronounced van) Five is Cinq (pronounced sank) Wine
- 10. The Link Word Technique For the each of following foreign words draw a picture to help you to remember their meanings in English French Escargot - snail Chou-fleur – cauliflower Tapis – rug/carpet Italian Rosa - Pink Piedi – Foot L’avvocato - Lawyer Japanese Mado – window Hana – flowers Ichi, Ni, San – one, two, three
- 11. Organisation Another type of technique to aid memory is organisation. Bower et al gave two groups of people lists of words to remember (each group received 4 sets of 28 words, making 112 words in total). The lists were the same for both groups, but one group was given the words in an organised, hierarchical manner, while the other group was give the same words selected randomly. The group that received the words in an organised form remembered 65% of the words, whereas the group that received the words in a random order only remembered 20% of the words. Form this we can conclude that organisation improves recall.
- 12. Organisation Organisation is a good memory technique for learning and memorising information for exams. To organise information you have to think about it first this additional processing helps retain the information. Also it requires you to make links between parts of the material which will help retrieval. There are several ways you can use organisation: Hierarchical organisation – starting with a general category which is then divided into several subcategories, which are then divided into further more specific information Mapping – mind maps show how information is linked, you can see the various sections of a topic and how they are related. In a sequence – this involves ordering information, such as alphabetically, by size, or by time.
- 13. Turn to page 107 in your textbooks, on one side of your A3 paper copy out the hierarchical diagram of the memory chapter, and complete it. Then on the other side of your paper, create a mind map detailing the social influence chapter. (Pages 3-13)
- 14. Test…….. Write down the list of words you memorised last lesson, run through your journey in your mind to help you. The answers are: Bread, Orange, Fish, Cabbage, Saw, Seal, Eggs, Stamp, Video, Paper, Clock, Cheese.
- 15. Test…….. Now write down the English meaning for the following words that you learnt last lesson. Hana – flowers Chou-fleur – cauliflower Ichi, Ni, San – one, two, three L’avvocato - lawyer Escargot - snail Rosa - pink Piedi – foot Mado – window Tapis – rug/carpet