Hi! I have been studying psychology for my finals all spring, and while I was studying about how the whole memory system works, I decided to make up a short list of some useful tips for you guys!
All of these tips are based on psychologically proved information, and these tips are not made up by me.
First of all, what we want to know about memory is that we create new memories in our brains by creating new connections between our neurons, right?
But connections between neurons disappear everyday, and only the ones we use frequently will survive. For this reason, my first tip for you would be…
1. Revise, revise and then do some revising
I’m listing this obvious tip first, because revising affects especially on how long the information is going to staying with you. You want it to stay long, right? Still, it matters how you plan to study. Memorizing everything by heart is great, but you don’t really give your everything studying like that (of course some things require this kind of studying!). The most effective ways to memorize things are 1. to categorize them in smaller pieces, 2. to critically discuss and consider the claims and subjects, 3. to apply the things you study to your everyday life situations.
2. Make up visualizations
Many people who compete in memory competitions use this kind of method to memorize a lot of information in a very short time. But anyone can learn to use this method. The idea is to create a vivid image of something that is very familiar to you. It could be your apartment, your school, your jogging path. And then try to place words in your image, and try walking through it. The idea is that by mentally walking through that place, you see the words and remember them. Also, the more personal you can create these images, the more chances there are that you will be able to remember them afterwards.
3. Try to organize your memories
Now you’re thinking that this lady must be mental, how can I organize my memories? It’s not like my brain is a bookshelf, right? Well, worry not because I am going to illustrate this for you: memory can the compared to a library. If the library has millions of books, but they have not been organized in any way, finding a certain book can take months.
So, if you want to find something in your memory, you will need a clue on how to remember it. Something that relates to it. A word, a person, a picture, a sound, a smell, an example… you name it. The ground rule for this is that the more unique, task-specific and meaningful your clues are, the better you can find what you’re looking for.
I hope that someone will find this helpful! Also, I’m terribly sorry for some of the spelling mistakes I might have done, because English is not my first language. (These are my notes, and I translated them from Finnish)
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