Memorization is the first step in learning and precedes application.

• We had to memorize the alphabet before we could alphabetize, use a dictionary, etc.
• We had to learn the sounds associated with letters before we could read.
• We had to learn the values associated with numbers before we could do math.

Professional competence requires memorization of information.

• We want doctors to know about diseases and medications without having to look everything up.
• We want law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and judges to know the laws without having to look them up.
• We want teachers to know their subject material without having to look everything up.

How Memory Works

1. PAYING ATTENTION → SHORT-TERM MEMORY
   
2. REHEARSAL & ASSOCIATION → TRANSFER TO LONG-TERM MEMORY
   
3. RECALLING ASSOCIATIONS → RETRIEVAL FROM LONG-TERM MEMORY

Why don’t we remember everything that has ever happened to us? First of all, we don’t pay attention to everything around us. Our attention is selective. We block out things that we consider to be unimportant. We ignore things that we consider to be irrelevant.

 

Think about what things you do remember from your childhood. Why do you remember them? Most likely, you have thought about them; mulled them over, run the memories through your mind like movies; associated them with feelings, impressions, patterns, etc. In other words, you have rehearsed them and attached meaning to them.

 

If you were asked what you had for lunch two days ago, you may not be able to say, but if you were asked what was the most memorable meal you had recently, you could probably think of something based on some association (meaning) you have attached to it (a pleasant or unpleasant experience, a person you ate with, an unusual circumstance, etc.) You would use the meaningful association to recall the details of the food.

 

How can you improve your capacity for memorizing large amounts of information?

• Believe that it is possible, and want to do it.
• Decide that the information is important and relevant.
• Understand how memorization works (attention, rehearsal, association, and retrieval) so that you know what you need to do to make it happen.
• Use some memory strategies
• Practice, practice, practice. Your capacity to memorize large amounts of material will improve with practice.

Flash Cards

• Use one card per piece of information (smaller cards are better).
• Put clues on one side and the answer on the other.
• Carry these around with you and practice often.
• You are learning to associate the information on one side with that on the other and searching for meaningful connections to do so.
• This techniques is easily combined with chunking, mnemonic devices, and visualization.

Chunking

• Our minds can hold up to seven related bits of information relatively easily.
• Use categorization/classification (i.e., find ways to group information) to relate different bits of information (association).
• The more meaningful the common factor, the better (e.g., all relate to a certain overall concept), but sometimes it comes down to words that start with the same letter or have the same number of syllables (a mnemonic device, generally a short-term memory crutch because of lack of meaning).
  

Mnemonic Devices

 

Acronyms

• Use the first letter (or sometimes 2 letters) from each word to make something that is a word or sounds like a word. Here are some well-known examples:
  • FOIL for the process to get the product of two binomial terms E.g., (3x + 5)(2x – 7) (first, outside, inside, last)
  • FACE for the notes in the spaces from bottom to top in a treble clef
• Sometimes order is important; sometimes it isn’t.

Rhymes

• Make a rhyme to trigger recall. Here are some well-known examples:
  • Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; all the rest have thirty one except February.
  • I before e except after c or when the sound is ā as in neighbor or weigh.

Acrostics

• Use the first letter of each word as the first letter of a word in a sentence or phrase.
• Especially useful when order is important, e.g.
  • Every good boy deserves fudge – for the notes in the lines from bottom to top in a treble clef
  • My very educated mother just served us noodles– for the order of the planets from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Visualization

• Bizarre imagery
  • Create bizarre or funny mental images associated with the information you are trying to remember, e.g., a big bone with a bunch of holes in it for osteoporosis.
  • Funny or exaggerated images are easier to remember, e.g., giant or tiny things or ironic combinations.
• Loci Method
  • Imagine placing the items you want to remember in specific locations in a room with which you are familiar; then imagine walking through the room and identifying the items.