This blog is dedicated to highlighting not obvious, but incredibly important tips on learning and improving learning skills. These tips are proven by scientists and my experience. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me.
1. Exercise has a direct and positive impact on the hippocampus, a vital brain structure in memory processing. Aside from relieving stress and promoting blood flow, exercise has been shown to increase the development of new brain cells in mice. New brain cells go hand in hand with memory improvement. The good news if you are in school is that there are hundreds of opportunities to get exercise. Everything from school teams, writing a research paper to intramural to campus facilites like swimming pools, walking trails, exercise rooms and plenty of spare people around for pickup games, frisbee throwing or just walks across campus.
2. Try exercising your brain. Take a quick visit to the Neurobics website. Hey there's a ton of stuff out there. Instead of checking out entertainment world gossip on the net, try entering "brain exercise" in google and see what you get.
3. Learn something new. This may seem like overkill to a student already putting in twenty-five hours a week in classes and labs, but learning something you want to learn can be relaxing and stress reducing, as well as mentally stimulating. Plus it can give you a whole new slate of things to associate information to. Memory improvement is related to your ability to associate new information with existing information.
4. Relieve stress. Schedule relaxation sessions for yourself, or try meditation. Don't forget the exercise we talked about earlier. When studying, take a break every thirty minutes of so. Do a little stretching, move your arms, shoulders, neck and head. A great technique for lowering stress is to complete regular study sessions starting with the first week of class. If you do the assigned reading, review lecture notes immediately after class and regularly review learned material, you can eliminate a lot of the stress associated with exam week. And you'll remember more during the exam. Memory improvement will be automatic. Oh yeah. Plan assignments, leaving yourself lots of time. You know what happens if you don't...stress.
5. Pay attention to what you eat. Review what I've already said about the morning of an exam. Actually, it's good advice every day. Stay away from high sugar carbs. Get some protein first thing in the morning. Make a point of ingesting omega-3 fats. Cold water fish, flax seed oil, even some eggs available in the dairy counter will ensure you get the essential fatty acids you need for optimum brain function. If you don't regularly eat fish, consider taking an omega-3 oil supplement. A memory improvement herb that is widely prescribed in Europe is Gingko.
6. Connect emotion and relaxation to the information you want to remember for significant memory improvement. First, get into a relaxed state. Then find something you care about that you can relate the new informations to. Some event in your past, a person you knew, a place you went, an activity you participated in, something from your personal background that resonates within you. If you can't recall anything then dig deep for something you already know and care about; a hobby, a pastime, a book, a movie, something that made or still makes an impression on you. In a relaxed state of mind allow your brain to play with the information to be remembered and an association that means something to you. Recall will be much easier because the information will be locked together with a rich association.
Memory improvement, we all want it, we just don't know how to get it. Memory is a wonderful thing. It is widely believed by researchers that virtually every incident in your life is stored in your head somewhere. The problem is that you may not have stored it so that it can be easily retrieved! Memory improvement is possible though. Hypnotists seem to be able to extract incredible detail from a persons mind, and there are good reasons for it, as we will see.
Memory comes in several different flavours, just like ice cream. Each type of memory has it's own purpose. But you can harness your memory types, instead of simply being towed around by them. Memory improvement will occur when you consciously engage several different memory types while trying to remember information You can make retrieval much easier. Let's take a look at the different memory streams and how we can best use them.
I've extracted much of the information that follows from an article put together by Pat Wyman.
This is the famous short term memory. New information stops here for a while, until it is filed someplace else. It is limited and, as the name implies, short term. You can ususally only manage around seven separate info bits at a time in this memory center, and only hold them there for 15-30 seconds. If you don't make the effort to transfer them into working memory, they are gone. Information to be stored gets moved to intermediate or working memory. This is a circumstance where conscious action can have a dramatic impact on memory improvement.
Once in working memory you have an opportunity to make associations, comparisons and hook new facts onto similar facts to create stronger links for retention and recall. This is where word related information comes in and gets filed, through the semantic memory system. If you can't relate the information to something you know, or create an impression with it, you will likely forget 45% of the new stuff within an hour. Within a week, you will have lost 70%. This is why it is important to review notes immediately after a class. Exposing your mind to the information again increases retention immensely. Memory improvement in this case is automatic and immediate.
Episodic memory is spatially context sensitive. What I mean by that is episodic memories have a strong attachment to place. Many people have clear memories of where they were when they learned some new information. And when they go back to that place, those memories come flooding back. We have associated the space or place with what we learned. A classic example is when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon. I can clearly remember the family in the living room, the furniture, the old black and white TV, though it was 35 years ago. Another more recent example is when the news of Princess Diana's death was first broadcast. Many people have clear recollections of that moment.
The spatial connection can be important because when we learn information in one setting (classroom or field) and then are expected to regurgitate it someplace else(auditorium set up for term exams), there can be a significant drop off in performance. It makes good sense to review critical information in the location you'll be when you are tested on it. Might seem weird to check out your crib sheets in the gym, but for memory improvement on specific items, it could mean a lot.
The famous muscle memory we all used when learning to ride a bike. Hey, you might get rusty, but you never forget. We have a tremendous capacity for muscle memory, and good thing it is. You'd hate to have to consciously figure out the mechanism for walking every time you had to do it, especially if you had gum in your mouth at the same time. The suggestion here is that when you wish to remember something, with the assistance of procedural memory, assume the same position you were in when you learned it. Makes it kind of tough during exams if you study laying on your back, or swinging from a trapeze. This is a good argument for correct body posture and a clear workspace during study times.
This is known as conditioned response memory. In this type of memory certain stimuli trigger recall. The first few notes of a song may allow you to recall the rest of the tune, the words, and what you were doing the first time you heard it. Automatic memory can open pathways to other memory types. Repetitive association of information with a stimuli (that you can control) is a powerful tool for memory improvement.
The strongest links in our memory are those with emotional content. In fact, strong emotional content can have the opposite effect just as easily, causing us to lock thoughts away, or have difficulty remembering. Certain emotional states of mind, like fear, sadness or stress/panic can make recall extremely difficult. What does this tell you about the state of mind you want to be in when studying? If you can be relaxed, with a clear picture of the rewards and benefits associated with remembering in your mind while you approach your work, you have a much better chance of bringing the facts back when you need them.
Now can you guess how the hypnotist does his magic memory improvement? When they are trying to get a subject to remember something they first get them to relax. They make a point of easing any fears or worries the memory might raise. They work with the subject to evoke the memory of the place. They get them to imagine they are performing the same actions. They even suggest that the subject can hear the birds, or smell the flowers and hear the sounds that were present at the time of the memory they are trying to recall. Only after all this preparation work do they suggest that the subject can then bring the memory forward to their conscious mind. As you can see, memory improvement is not magic at all. It's brain science.
If you have ever even vaguely wondered about this, then it might be true.
How many times have you blown off doing homework in favour of a date or hanging out with your “other half”? Every once in a while this is fine to do – and you certainly shouldn’t spend all your time studying. But if you’re consistently missing deadlines and not studying at all then, I’m afraid I have to say, your boyfriend/girlfriend is ruining your grade, you need to set some boundaries.
How do you do this? Talking. Explain that you have a lot to do (no, you don’t have a bunch of deadlines suddenly, and certainly don’t say that you have been skipping work to hang out – they’ll want to know why you can’t keep doing it!), and that you need some time to get the work done – and as soon as it is done you can go back to normal.
Now the key here is to not cut that person out of your life totally while you deal with the backlog. Realistically you won’t be able to plow right through all your work in a night or two, and if there’s too much you’ll burn out before getting even halfway through. So if you’ve been going straight from class to their house go home for an hour or so and get as much done as you can, then you can go over and spend the evening with him or her and relax properly knowing that you work is being done.
If your boyfriend/girlfriend is unhelpful or even ridicules you when you say you need to do work you may need to rethink your relationship. It can be hard to want what’s best for someone else when it’s not so good for you, but if they truly respect you then they’ll understand – especially if it’s not cutting into your time together too much.
And remember folks, it’s all about balance!