Do you know it is normal to forget? That the majority of
forgetting occurs immediately after learning? That you can improve
your ability to remember?
Remembering is a three-stage process:
|
RECEPTION
Information enters through
our five senses.
RETENTION
It
is held in short-term memory until let go or transferred to
long-term memory to be used later.
RECOLLECTION
Requires
effort to retrieve it when needed. |
THINGS TO TRY TO IMPROVE YOUR
MEMORY
- Decide to remember. This puts you in an active frame of
mind.
- Review new information right away even if only for a brief
period of time.
- Review on a regular basis.
- Use your senses and learning styles to facilitate reception,
retention, and recollection.
- Combine review with physical activity.
- Sing it, rhyme it, dance it. Make it silly.
- Record the information and listen to it.
- Draw it--graphs, charts, pictures, flow charts,
colors--whatever.
- Use acronyms such as ASAP for As Soon As Possible.
- Associate or relate new information to your experience or what
you already know.
- Review in small segments.
- Emotional associations are the strongest memories we have. Use
them.
- Recite and repeat--out loud and in writing, if necessary.
- Relax and visualize.
- Organize information in meaningful patterns.
- Create visual and/or physical prompts and place them where
you'll see them.
- Use key words to remember series and processes.
- "Chunk" information into small parts that you can remember.
- Learn more about how memory works. It will help you identify
more ways to improve.
Improving your memory takes effort and active practice on your
part. Developing good study skills in other areas, such as active
learning, concentration, time management, and relaxation, will help
you remember and retrieve information for college.
