Five memory hacks to make you smarter
//SUMMARY//
The article "Five Memory Hacks to Make You Smarter" provides practical strategies to improve student memory retention. Here are the five main study strategies, along with their corresponding memory hacks:
Rereading:
Problem: It's too passive and often ineffective.
Hack: Space out your reading sessions and test your understanding before revisiting the material to enhance engagement and memory stimulation.
Underlining and Highlighting:
Problem: Often done mindlessly, leading to little benefit.
Hack: Read the text thoroughly once before marking essential passages on the second pass to encourage active processing and better memory retention.
Note-taking:
Problem: Including too much information can dilute the effectiveness.
Hack: Be concise in your notes. Summarizing and paraphrasing key points helps deepen understanding and memory retention. Handwritten notes are often more effective than typed ones.
Outlining:
Problem: Overlooking the big picture can hinder understanding.
Hack: Create or use skeletal outlines to identify connections between topics. Focus on the structure rather than the details to achieve deeper learning.
Flashcards:
Problem: Overconfidence can lead to prematurely dropping flashcards from study rotation.
Hack: To ensure long-term retention, continue testing yourself on the flashcards even after you think you've mastered the content.
These strategies and enhancements aim to make studying more effective by promoting active engagement and deeper information processing.
A)
1)
Simply reading the things you need to remember for a looming exam over and over may not be the best way to retain information. Instead, you should use these tried-and-tested methods.
2)
No matter how smart you think you are, chances are that you sometimes fail to make the most of your memory. A series of surveys has shown that most students fail to use proven learning methods effectively, instead wasting their time on ineffective strategies.
One problem is that we often receive conflicting information from parents, teachers, and scientists, so we are unsure what work isn't.
B)
3)
Fortunately, a new paper published in one of the top psychology journals has examined the biggest misconceptions. It includes a list of the five most popular study strategies, potential pitfalls, and ways to use them more effectively.
4)
Strategy 1: Rereading
Are they learning new vocabulary? The most common strategy is to read the words and their meanings until they stick. Unfortunately, psychologists believe that it is too passive, meaning that most information fails to leave an impression.
5)
Memory hack: Space your reading
Passive rereading is probably the least effective study method, but it may sometimes feel inevitable if you lack a basic understanding of the concepts. However, you can make better use of those sessions by ensuring that you return to the material at regular intervals. You might read a chapter, move on to something else, and then reread it after an hour, a day, or a week to help stimulate the memory.
C)
6)
You can also benefit from questioning your understanding before you return to the material. This helps you tune your attention on the bits you do and don't know and increases your mental engagement.
7)
Strategy 2: Underlining and highlighting
Like rereading, this study technique is nearly ubiquitous. The idea makes sense: underlining keywords and phrases should help you engage more with the information and make it easier to identify the most essential passages later. However, although it can be more effective than passive rereading, underlining and highlighting often fail to work, with most students mindlessly marking up almost every paragraph without much discernment.
D)
8)
Memory hack: Pause to think
Instead, scientists suggest reading the text once through cold, then marking the relevant passages on the second pass. Forcing you to think more carefully about each point and its relative importance in the overall argument encourages the more active processing essential for forming stronger memories.
9)
Strategy 3: Note-taking
Visit any lecture theatre or library, and you will find students judiciously copying the most important facts into their notebooks. Like underlining and highlighting, the problems come when you fail to be informed about the material you include. Your overenthusiasm – and propensity to include everything mentioned – can quickly become a vice.
E)
10)
Memory hack: Be concise
Experiments have shown that the fewer words students use to express an idea in their notes, the more likely they will remember it afterwards. This is probably because creating summaries and paraphrasing force you to think deeply about the nub of the idea you are trying to express – and that additional effort cements it in your memory. These findings may also explain why it is better to take notes with a pen and paper rather than using a laptop: writing by hand is slower than typing and forces you to be more concise in what you note down.
F)
11)
Strategy 4: Outlining
Many teachers encourage their students to take a 'bird's eye' view of the course they are studying, presenting an overview of the key points to be learned in a structured, logical manner. Sometimes, the instructors create these outlines, but they may also encourage the students to do it for them.
12)
An instructional hack: Search for deep patterns.
New evidence suggests that students with a course outline tend to perform better since it allows them to identify the underlying connections between different topics. These studies indicate that it's often more efficient to begin with a skeletal outline before the research and to fill in more details as you progress.
G)
13)
Much of our learning is independent without formal instruction – but you can easily make bullet-point outlines of a text or lecture. Again, being concise is critical: you have to focus on the structure of the argument rather than getting lost in the details if you are to see those underlying connections and make the most of that deeper learning.
14)
Strategy 5: Flashcards
Self-testing (or "retrieval practice," as psychologists call it) is now considered the most reliable learning strategy, particularly for specific, detailed facts. There is considerable evidence that it can boost memory. Even so, there are still more and less effective ways of doing it.
H)
15)
Memory hack: Beware of overconfidence
Most people struggle to gauge the limits of their thinking, believing that their decisions are more intelligent than they are—and judgments of learning are no different. Indeed, one study found that the more confident people felt about learning a fact, the less likely they were to recall it later.
16)
We all underestimate just how easily we will forget material in the future. Flashcards can, therefore, backfire if you believe that once an item is successfully recalled, it will stick forever – leading you to 'drop' the card before it is cemented in your memory. Instead, continuing testing long after you think you know the word makes more sense.
//New words//
looming
Approaching is likely to happen soon, often causing worry.
The deadline is looming, so we need to finish the project quickly.
retain
To keep or continue to have something.
He decided to retain his old books instead of selling them.
misconceptions
Incorrect or mistaken beliefs or ideas.
There are many misconceptions about the effectiveness of specific diets.
pitfalls
Hidden or unsuspected dangers or difficulties.
He warned us about the pitfalls of investing in volatile markets.
impression
An idea, feeling, or opinion about something or someone.
Her speech made a lasting impression on the audience.
hack
A clever solution or shortcut.
I found a hack to clean my keyboard using sticky notes.
inevitable
Sure to happen; unavoidable.
Ageing is an inevitable part of life.
ensuring
Making sure that something will happen.
Ensuring the safety of passengers is the airline's top priority.
intervals
Periods between events or activities.
We should take breaks at regular intervals during our study sessions.
stimulate
To encourage activity or growth.
The new policy is designed to stimulate economic growth.
engagement
Participation or involvement in an activity or event.
Social media can increase customer engagement with brands.
ubiquitous
Present, appearing, or found everywhere.
Smartphones have become ubiquitous in modern society.
discernment
The ability to judge well.
Her discernment in choosing friends is admirable.
relevant
Closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand.
Make sure your comments are relevant to the discussion.
overall
Taking everything into account.
Overall, the project was a great success.
judiciously
With good judgment or sense.
She spent her money judiciously, ensuring she had savings for emergencies.
judicious
Having, showing, or done with good judgment or sense.
The manager made a judicious decision to postpone the meeting.
overenthusiasm
Excessive excitement or enthusiasm.
His overenthusiasm sometimes leads to unrealistic expectations.
propensity
A natural tendency to behave in a particular way.
She has a propensity for punctuality, always arriving on time.
vice
Immoral or wicked behaviour.
Gambling can become a dangerous vice if not controlled.
concise
Giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words.
Please keep your explanations concise and to the point.
nub
The central point or heart of a matter.
The nub of the issue is that we need more funding.
cement
To make a relationship, agreement, or idea more potent or specific.
Their shared experiences helped cement their friendship.
efficient
Achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.
The new system is far more efficient than the old one.
skeletal
Very basic or minimal.
They provided a skeletal outline of the plan.
bullet-point
A list format that uses dots to organize information.
Please summarize your ideas in bullet-point form.
beware
Be cautious and alert to the dangers of.
Beware of the dog sign on the gate.
overconfidence
Excessive confidence in one's own abilities.
His overconfidence led him to underestimate the difficulty of the task.
gauge
To measure or estimate.
We need to gauge the audience's reaction to our presentation.
underestimate
To think that something is more minor or less important than it is.
Do not underestimate the importance of regular exercise.
Five memory hacks to make you smarter
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180904-five-memory-hacks-to-make-you-smarter
Add info No1)
[Effective study methods evaluated from over 200 studies] Underlining and rereading are bad for memorization / Tests are a tool to generate learning / Stanford's Tomohiro Hoshi explains [EDUCATION SKILL SET]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjPV3qhcSA&t=934s
1)
Traditional Study Methods
Standard Techniques: Summarizing, underlining, keyword memorization, self-testing.
Reevaluation: Reading and Underlining are less effective alone, with minimal impact on retention after the first read.
2)
Effective Study Practices
Retrieval Practice: Recalling information from memory without aids significantly boosts retention, potentially by 1.5 to 2 times.
Interleaved Practice: Mixing different subjects during study sessions improves learning compared to focusing on a single topic.
3)
Personal Study Habits
Intensive Reading: One speaker prepared for exams by reading textbooks multiple times, up to 100 times.
Memory Techniques: Techniques like creating mental images and summarizing were also used.
4)
Cognitive Science Insights
Recent Research: Advances in neuroscience and psychology suggest that many traditional study methods are based on anecdotal evidence rather than scientific efficacy.
5)
Optimal Methods: Effective study strategies identified by research include spaced repetition and self-testing.
6)
Specific Techniques and Findings
Underlining: Limited effectiveness for comprehension and recall.
Rereading: Minimal benefits beyond the initial read, with subsequent reads having diminishing returns.
Self-Explanation: Beneficial but challenging for those without foundational solid understanding.
7)
Testing: Effective for learning, not just assessment, as it encourages active recall and engagement.
8)
Practical Recommendations
Balanced Approach: Combining methods like retrieval practice and interleaving with traditional techniques.
Mindful Practice: Focusing on scientifically backed methods for better learning outcomes.
9)
Avoid Over-Reliance: Avoid relying solely on less effective techniques like underlining and rereading.
10)
The discussion ultimately emphasizes using scientific insights to inform and improve study practices, moving beyond mere anecdotal or traditional methods to achieve better academic outcomes.
Add info No2)
It's on the rise in Japan too! What are the characteristics and benefits of "alternative education" that develops non-cognitive abilities?
The word "alternative" itself means "alternative" or "option." So, what exactly is alternative education?
"The role of alternative education is not one but can be divided into three: diversity, alternative, and different. The easiest to understand is "diversity." it means "a variety of options other than general public and private schools."
"Alternative" does not mean improving what already exists but creating an alternative. "Different" means having the function of questioning the values and methodologies that are now taken for granted.
While valuing oneself, one must accept others as others and differences. That is the great significance of the existence of alternative education."
In other words, alternative education is meant to explore and develop "different values" from existing education and not to deny or replace it.
