Memorization - Elaborative Rehearsal vs Rote
To strengthen neural networks, students can use many different kinds of rehearsal strategies and distribute these efforts over time. Explain to students that there are strategies for memorizing that can fool them into thinking they understand something when they don't, and there are strategies for memorizing that will strengthen their memory and understanding.
ElaborativeFocus is on meaning and understanding, showing relationships between ideas and connecting new knowledge with old.
Use elaborative rehearsal strategies to learn and remember complex ideas. Learn to remember the information, not repeat it verbatim. There is too much information to memorize all words in each textbook. Create a distributed study schedule: Schedule frequent rehearsal sessions of sufficient length distributed over time. For example, cramming a 20-hour study period 2 or 3 days before the exam is not as efficient as 20 hours spread over 2 to 3 weeks of regular review. See Distributed Review of Material. Use all feedback to evaluate and revise your approach to learning including tests, assignments, papers, etc. Organize a variety of effective study materials, i.e. lecture notes, flash cards, textbook notes and diagrams, research. Review: 1) Review a section of your study material 2) Look away and ask yourself, what are the key concepts, supporting details, etc. 3) Confirm the accuracy of your thinking 4) Recite your study materials aloud by looking away and saying the same information again This process engages multiple senses (sight and sound), creating stronger neural networks. See Stages of Memory to understand where forgetting occurs. |
RoteMore about remembering than understanding.
Surface processing such as memorizing by sheer repetition. Use rote rehearsal strategies to memorize facts and details. Reading information and recalling information strengthen different neural connections – recalling information on a test requires the neural networks that manage recall (that’s why only reading something over and over is an ineffective way to memorize it) Memorize by chunks: Recite the entire text you want to memorize Recite the first chunk of information from the text Recite the first chunk without looking at the text Recite the first and second chunks of information Recite this longer chunk aloud without looking at text Keep adding chunks until you can correctly recite them 5 times Take a 10-minute break and again recite the entire text aloud from memory until you can do it correctly 5 times Recite daily the entire text from memory. You can substitute writing for reciting in any of the step; it’s effective to alternate. |
Tools for memorizing
Flashcards:
There are many online flashcards sites. One is www.quizlet.com. Create flashcards in minutes then test yourself or play games to help you remember in a fun way. Another is www.gflashcards.com. Create text, image, audio flashcards on gflashcards.com, then study easily using gFlashcards for Web, iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Concept Mapping:
This is a great tool for organizing topics and ideas, making the brain more active, and increasing the changes of memory recall. Create concept maps for almost any course. Connections are in hierarcharial order which is great for organization. When creating concept maps, begin with the main idea or topic sentence and connect to sub ideas and examples. Use colour coding and draw pictures of main ideas, subordinate ideas and details to assist memory. Concept mapping is excellent for elaborative memory as students restate their readings in their own words, connect ideas, use key words and show relationships.
There are many online flashcards sites. One is www.quizlet.com. Create flashcards in minutes then test yourself or play games to help you remember in a fun way. Another is www.gflashcards.com. Create text, image, audio flashcards on gflashcards.com, then study easily using gFlashcards for Web, iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Concept Mapping:
This is a great tool for organizing topics and ideas, making the brain more active, and increasing the changes of memory recall. Create concept maps for almost any course. Connections are in hierarcharial order which is great for organization. When creating concept maps, begin with the main idea or topic sentence and connect to sub ideas and examples. Use colour coding and draw pictures of main ideas, subordinate ideas and details to assist memory. Concept mapping is excellent for elaborative memory as students restate their readings in their own words, connect ideas, use key words and show relationships.
Mnemonics
Source: Omrod, J. (1999). Human Learning 3rd ed. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
VERBAL MEDIATION
A verbal mediator bridges the gap between the word to be remembered and a key word. For example, chemical symbol for
gold-Au-by thinking "Ay, you stole my gold watch!"
Chemical Symbol Metal Mediator
Au gold "Ay, you stole my gold watch!"
Homonym Meaning Mediator
add addition To add is addition.
ad advertisement To place an ad is advertisement.
VISUAL IMAGERY
A visual image can be formed quickly and retained for a long period of time. Following are three methods of visual imagery.
1. Method of Loci (places)
Use when remembering lists of information, ideas in paragraph order for an in-class essay or main points in a presentation. Use a
familiar route that requires no effort to visualize the landmarks on the route. Make sure it is familiar and go over it mentally to determine the landmarks before placing key words at each landmark. The route can be in your house from one room to another, a journey you have taken that you know well, etc. You can choose different routes for different topics you want to remember. For example, a journey from house to work would contain 25 landmarks along the way.
2. Pegword Method
Pegwords are rhyming words for numbers, for example, this rhyming poem is sometimes used as a pegboard:
One is buns
two is shoe
three is tree
four is door
five is hive
six is sticks
seven is heaven
eight is gate
nine is vine
ten is hen
This forms a series of pegs for attaching other word lists. For example, to remember the sequence of a food chain, visualize a picture with parts of the poem. Begin with one to remember the first of the food chain ... the sun as the energy source so form an image of a hamburger bun baking under the sun, two creates bacteria called primary consumer in a shoe on the ground making its own food from the sun, three organisms called secondary consumers hanging from a tree eating the primary consumers, four tertiary consumers eating the secondary consumers at your neighbour's front door, five quaternary consumers eating tertiary consumers under a bee hive, six top predators eating quaternary consumers on sticks. Remembering the food chain simply by starting with one is buns and imagining the hamburger bun under the sun, two is shoes with bacteria called primary consumer in a shoe making food from the sun, and so on.
3. Keyword Method
Choose a keyword that closely resembles the word you need to remember. This is useful in teaching English or foreign languages, paired associates as provinces and their capitals or cities and their products. For example, horse in German is das Pferd, so picture an image of a horse driving a Ford. It's important that the student creates effective images on their own, they remember a connection between two items in the same image, and that they don't relay on specific information, just the idea as imagery does not preserve details effectively (pg. 302).
Source: Omrod, J. (1999). Human Learning 3rd ed. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
VERBAL MEDIATION
A verbal mediator bridges the gap between the word to be remembered and a key word. For example, chemical symbol for
gold-Au-by thinking "Ay, you stole my gold watch!"
Chemical Symbol Metal Mediator
Au gold "Ay, you stole my gold watch!"
Homonym Meaning Mediator
add addition To add is addition.
ad advertisement To place an ad is advertisement.
VISUAL IMAGERY
A visual image can be formed quickly and retained for a long period of time. Following are three methods of visual imagery.
1. Method of Loci (places)
Use when remembering lists of information, ideas in paragraph order for an in-class essay or main points in a presentation. Use a
familiar route that requires no effort to visualize the landmarks on the route. Make sure it is familiar and go over it mentally to determine the landmarks before placing key words at each landmark. The route can be in your house from one room to another, a journey you have taken that you know well, etc. You can choose different routes for different topics you want to remember. For example, a journey from house to work would contain 25 landmarks along the way.
2. Pegword Method
Pegwords are rhyming words for numbers, for example, this rhyming poem is sometimes used as a pegboard:
One is buns
two is shoe
three is tree
four is door
five is hive
six is sticks
seven is heaven
eight is gate
nine is vine
ten is hen
This forms a series of pegs for attaching other word lists. For example, to remember the sequence of a food chain, visualize a picture with parts of the poem. Begin with one to remember the first of the food chain ... the sun as the energy source so form an image of a hamburger bun baking under the sun, two creates bacteria called primary consumer in a shoe on the ground making its own food from the sun, three organisms called secondary consumers hanging from a tree eating the primary consumers, four tertiary consumers eating the secondary consumers at your neighbour's front door, five quaternary consumers eating tertiary consumers under a bee hive, six top predators eating quaternary consumers on sticks. Remembering the food chain simply by starting with one is buns and imagining the hamburger bun under the sun, two is shoes with bacteria called primary consumer in a shoe making food from the sun, and so on.
3. Keyword Method
Choose a keyword that closely resembles the word you need to remember. This is useful in teaching English or foreign languages, paired associates as provinces and their capitals or cities and their products. For example, horse in German is das Pferd, so picture an image of a horse driving a Ford. It's important that the student creates effective images on their own, they remember a connection between two items in the same image, and that they don't relay on specific information, just the idea as imagery does not preserve details effectively (pg. 302).