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Chapter 16

Improving Your Memory

+Tips for Selecting Passwords

Use a transformation of some memorable cue involving a mix

of letters and symbols

Keep a record of all passwords in a place to which only you

have access (e.g. a safe deposit box)

It is easier to recall the location of a hidden object when the location

is likely than when it is unexpected

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+Popular Mnemonic Aids

Harris (1980) surveyed housewives and students on their

mnemonic use:

Both groups used largely similar techniques; however,

Students were more likely to write on their hands

Housewives were more likely to write on calendars

External aids (e.g. diaries, calendars, lists, and timers) were

especially popular

…Today we have laptops, PDAs, and mobile telephones

Very few internal mnemonics were reported

These are especially useful in situations that ban external aids

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+Memory Experts

A Russian with an amazing memory

A former journalist who never took notes but could repeat back quotes verbatim

Had seemingly limitless memory for:

Digits (100+)

Nonsense syllables

Foreign-language poetry

Complex figures

Complex scientific formulae

His memory relied heavily on imagery and synesthesia:

The tendency for one sense modality to evoke another

His apparent inability to forget, and his synesthesia, caused great complications and struggle for him

Shereshevskii

The Mind of a Mnemonist by Luria

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+Wilding and Valentine (1994)

Innately gifted

Possess a close relative who

exhibits a comparable level of

memory ability

Highly practiced in certain

mnemonic techniques

Naturals Strategists

Naturals vs. Strategists

Tested both kinds of mnemonists at the World Memory Championships on two types of tasks:

Strategic Tasks

e.g. recalling the names of faces

Nonstrategic Tasks

e.g. recognition of snow crystals

Based on data in Wilding and Valentine (1994).

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+Spatial Navigation and Memory

During learning, superior memorizers:

Tended to have more activity in areas of the brain involved in spatial

memorization and navigation

This was likely related to their use of the method of loci

Involves visualizing to-be-remembered information at various

points along a known route

Uses spatial memory

Maguire et al.’s (2003) Neuroimaging Experiment

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+Ranjan Mahadevan

Held the world record for memorizing the most digits of pi

Various strategies contributed to this ability

Thompson et al. (1991) found that he had a digit span:

59 visually presented digits

63 for heard digits

Chunked digits into strings of 10–15 digits, not the typical 3–4

This initially indicated a natural enhancement of his basic memory capacity

Arguing against his natural superiority, he has an average:

Symbol span

Ability to remember the position and orientation of various objects

Memory for word lists and stories

It turns out that he uses various associations and patterns to group digits

A Natural Mnemonist?

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+Mnemonics

Method of Loci – place items in a location, then take a mental walk.

Peg-word System – use peg words as a structure and associate a list of items with them using visualization.

Story telling – a series of unrelated words is linked together within the context of a story.

Requires training to do.

+“This Old Man” Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZoEqJbizo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cYf9vkW_xU

http://www.totlol.com/watch/5d-6Q5V79CM/This-Old-Man/0/

+Pegword System

1 – bun

2 – shoe

3 – tree

4 – door

5 – hive

6 – sticks

7 – heaven

8 – gate

9 – wine

10 -- hen

+Visual Mnemonic Techniques

Goes back to classical times

To-be-remembered items are

associated with the locations

(e.g. places along a walk)

Effectiveness can be

diminished by introducing an

interfering spatial task

Kondo et al. (2004) found that

learning with this method

differentially activates:

Right inferior frontal gyrus

Middle frontal gyrus

Limitations of the technique:

Difficult to remember an item

out of order

Harder to deal with abstract

words or ideas

Makes it less useful in the

real world

Works better for orally than

visually presented material

Likely because visual

presentation interferes with

visual imagery

Method of Loci

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+Visual Mnemonic Techniques

Memorize a list of words that

rhyme with digits one to ten

One = Bun

Two = Shoe

Three = Tree …

Now imagine each to-be-

remembered item interacting

with one pegword

e.g. for “battleship,” imagine

a battleship sailing into a

floating bun

Limitations of the technique:

Requires extensive training

Easier to use with concrete

materials

It may not be very useful in

everyday life

Pegword System

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+Visual Mnemonic Techniques

Imagery Technique:

Come up with an imageable substitute for the name

e.g. Eysenck = “ice sink”

Come up with a prominent facial feature of the person

e.g. a nose

Link the two

e.g. The nose could be the sink’s faucet

Unfortunately, this can be too time-consuming for real life

Expanded Retrieval Practice:

Retrieve the name at increasing intervals after first hearing them

Morris et al. (2005) found that in a naturalistic setting:

Expanded retrieval practice procedure led to 50% better recall than no strategy

Having no strategy was actually better than using the imagery technique!

Remembering Names

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+Verbal Mnemonics

Offered up rhymes to help remember 2000+ dates and facts

Presented a system for converting a number sequence into a

word to help remember dates and the likes

Vowels were inserted where needed

Could be useful for remembering PIN numbers

e.g. 1914 (World War I begins) = CTBS CAT BASE

Reverend Brayshaw’s (1849) Metrical Mnemonics

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 00

B D G J L M P R T W St

C F H K N Q V X

S Z

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+Other Verbal Mnemonics

Take the first letter of each word you want to remember in sequence and construct a sentence with those initial letters

Helpful for recalling the order of items, assuming that the words themselves can be reliably recalled when cued with the first letters

e.g. the colors of the rainbow

Story Method:

Links together a series of unrelated words in the correct order within the context of a story

Limitations:

Takes a while to construct

Hard to retrieve items out of order

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

R O Y G B I V

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

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+Mnemonics and Existing Knowledge

Mnemonics work when they make use of our current knowledge

Kalakoski and Saariluoma (2001)

Participants:

Helsinki taxi drivers

Students

Task:

Remember 15 Helsinki street names, either

Connected streets presented in their real, spatial ordering

Connected streets presented in random order

Unconnected streets presented in random order

Results:

The drivers outperformed students when connected streets were used

When unconnected streets were used, the groups performed equally

Conclusion:

The drivers’ existing spatial knowledge was an asset only when the materials fit neatly into that structure

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+Principles for a Better Memory

Requirement Description

Encoding Principle Information should be processed

meaningfully, relating it to preexisting

knowledge

Retrieval Structure Principle Cues should be stored with the information

to aid subsequent retrieval

Speed-Up Principle Extensive practice increases the speed of

encoding and retrieval

Ericsson (1988)

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+From Normal to Mnemonist

Had a university student (SF) practice the digit span task for 1 hour per

day for 2 years

Over this time, his span increased from about 7 items to 80 items

Encoding and retrieval principles in action:

He increased his span to 18 items by relating numbers to known

running times (e.g. 3594 = “Bannister’s time for the mile”)

He further increased his span by organizing those chunks into a

hierarchical structure

Speed-up principle in action:

He became much faster at chunking and organizing the numbers with

extensive practice

However, his newfound ability did NOT generalize to other memory tasks

He maintained average letter and word spans

Ericsson and Chase (1982)

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+Learning Styles

Learning Style Emphasis Predicts

Surface • Rote learning of ideas and facts

• Little focus on content

• Little motivation to study

• Similar to shallow level of processing

Poor examination

performance

Deep • Learning to understand

• Relating ideas to evidence and

integrating information

• High motivation to understand

• Similar to deep level of processing

Good examination

performance

Strategic • Seeking the study techniques to get

the best grades

• Motivated to be efficient

Great examination

performance

Biggs’ (1987) Study Process Questionnaire

The questionnaire assesses students’ dominant approach to

learning

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+Morris’s (1979) SQ3R Approach

Stage Goals

S Survey • Figuring out how the reading is organized

• Read the summary or scan the piece

Q Question • Thinking of relevant questions to which each section should

answer

• Do this for chunks of text of 3000 words or less

R1 Read • Reading through each chunk in order to:

• Answer the questions formulated above

• Integrate information to pre-existing knowledge

R2 Recite • Trying to remember the key ideas of each chunk

• If forgotten, repeat the Read stage

R3 Review • Remembering the key ideas from the chapter and

combining the chunks after finishing the entire piece

• Return to Read stage, if necessary

Five Stages of Effective Reading

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+Morris’s (1979) SQ3R Approach

Benefits of the SQ3R approach:

Avoids the student’s illusion

The false confidence students get as they skim through a chapter,

finding that the material seems familiar (i.e. they’d be able to

recognize it)

However, the actual test is likely to be:

More anxiety-provoking

Asking them to recall (rather than recognize) the information

Five Stages of Effective Reading

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+Testing Effect

Testing Effect:

The finding that long-term retention is best when the information is repeatedly tested during learning

Task:

Students were asked to memorize a prose passage through either

Repeated Study (SSSS):

Passage was read four times without a test

Single Test (SSST):

Passage was read three times, followed be a recall test

Repeated Test (STTT):

Passage was read once, followed by three recall tests

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Karpicke and Roediger (2006a)

Results:

Repeated study is most effective at the short retention interval

At learning, this group expected the best long-term memory

Considered the least effortful/demanding condition

Repeated testing is most effective at the long retention interval

i.e. the testing effect

+Explaining the Testing Effect

Storage Strength:

Relative permanence of a memory trace

Retrieval Strength:

The accessibility of a given memory trace

Easy retrieval does not increase storage strength

Difficult retrieval increases storage strength and leads to long-

term memory performance

Working hard to give yourself recall tests during studying is highly

beneficial to long-term retention

Bjork and Bjork (1992)

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+Testing with Feedback

Task:

Learn Luganda–English translations

Some participants got corrective feedback on incorrect test trials during study

Others did not receive feedback

Tested 1 week later on the vocabulary

Results:

Recall for the words they had gotten wrong a week before was about five times better if they had received feedback then

Conclusion:

Testing yourself with feedback is best for long-term retention

Tip: Use flashcards; don’t just re-read your notes!

Pashler et al. (2005)

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+Mind Maps

Mind Map:

A note-taking/brainstorming

strategy consisting of a

diagram, including:

A central idea

Related ideas

More closely related

concepts are located

closer to the central

concept

Links connecting them

Buzan and Buzan (1993)

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+Benefits of Mind Maps

Encourage active learning

More natural than linear note taking

Ideas are distilled to their core,

leaving out unimportant details

Visual images may be easier to

remember

Color coding can be used to indicate

category relations

Farrand, Hussaine, and Hennessy (2002)

Task:

Learn the material by:

Mind mapping

Usual study techniques

Tested 1 week later

Results:

Mind-mapping group recalled 10% more

Even though mind mappers had less motivation for their technique

Budd (2004) suggested that students favoring a “doing” learning style are more motivated to use mind maps than people with a “thinking” learning style

Presumed Benefits Empirical Benefits

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+Vocabulary Learning

Keyword Technique

Form an association between the new word and an English word/phrase sounding like it

The sound-alike word becomes the keyword

Create a mental image with the keyword linking the two

Example:

Word:

zvonok (pronounced zvah-oak; means “bell” in Russian)

Keyword:

“Oak”

Image:

An oak tree covered with bells

Keyword Technique

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+Keyword Technique

Receptive Vocabulary Learning

e.g. producing the appropriate

English word to a foreign word

Productive Vocabulary Learning

e.g. producing the right foreign

word to an English word

Results:

Providing noun keywords yields better memory than other strategies in receptive learning

Productive learning does not seem to benefit from keywords

Conclusion:

In productive learning, retrieving the keyword when presented with the English word didn’t provide enough information to recall the foreign word

Follow-Ups:

Keywords can benefit productive learning with enough practice

Ellis and Beaton (1993)

Adapted from Ellis and Beaton (1993).

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+Learning Verbatim

Noice and Noice (1996)

Actors start the process of memorizing lines by focusing on the

needs and motivations of the characters

This lays down the structure for and helps deeply encode the

material

Allows them to understand why certain words were chosen for a

particular character

This is associated with better gist recall; however, actors are

surprisingly good in their verbatim recall as well

Actors use contextual information (e.g. gestures, stage moves, and

facial expressions of other actors, as well as their own physical

positions) to facilitate recall of the lines

Actors Learning Lines

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+Attention, Interest, and Knowledge

Information on any given topic will be remembered better by

individuals who have great interest in it than those who don’t

e.g. the Swazi’s of South Africa superior memory for information

about cows (Bartlett, 1932)

Interest in a topic is positively associated with pre-existing

knowledge and schemas into which new information can be

integrated

e.g. existing soccer knowledge correlates highly with the ability to

remember made-up soccer scores (Morris et al., 1981)

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+Motivation

Assumptions:

Conscious goals have a

major impact on people’s

motivation and behavior

Self-assigning more difficult

goals is associated with

better performance

It is important to be fully

committed to the goal

Goals should be SMART:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-framed

The theory holds up when there

is a single, specific task without

distraction

However, real-life goals are

much more complicated …

Locke’s (1968) Goal-Setting Theory

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+Motivation

Implementation Intentions:

Objectives explicitly

specifying in detail how,

when, and where individuals

are going to achieve the

goals they have set

themselves

Creates an “instant habit”

Reliably triggered by

relevant cues

Offer an improvement over

goal-setting theory for real-

world intentions

Implementation instructions

Can reduce susceptibility to distraction

Especially if they aim to ignore distractions rather than increase focus on the task of interest

e.g. saying, “Whenever the distraction arises, I will ignore it!”

Can enhance the chances of people achieving their goals

e.g. Gollwitzer and Brandstätter’s (1997) Christmas homework

Gollwitzer’s (1999) Implementation Intentions

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