by Daniel Clark
Understanding Memory is superior to mechanical memory. Understanding memory presupposes understanding content. This understanding refers not only to get a good overview of the topic but also to get a clear, logical connection between the various parts, and the content and the relationship between prior knowledge and experience.
How Do You Make Sense of Memory
Since memory has a regular feature, then in the learning process will often be consciously used to understand the memory, in memory when the active thinking, so as to achieve good results. If you don't use comprehension when you can, but use rote memory for meaningless repetition, you're not just doing half the work; you're making 10 to 20 times the difference.
When memorizing as long as the content is meaningful, we should put forward the request of "understanding first, then memorizing" to ourselves and divide the material into large and small paragraphs and levels, and find out the logical connection between them Instead of memorizing it word for word from the beginning.
We say that understanding memory is efficient and effective, but it does not mean that as long as we understand it will be remembered. To understand the thing we are trying to remember, we need to repeat many times. Some people understand a certain learning content, think that the learning process is over, do not ask oneself to remember them, no longer repeat memory, deepen impression, so, it is impossible to learn the content of complete and accurate memory.
The method of enhancing the effect of Memory by association is called Association memory method. Association is the mental process by which images of things related to a stimulus emerge when the brain receives that stimulus. In general, there is an association between things that are close to each other, opposite things, and similar things.
Associative Memory
There are three specific methods of associative memory:
(1) Close Association
Two or more things are similar or close in time and space so that if you think of one, you will recall the other, and it will be easier to remember them in a certain order. Sometimes, obviously very familiar with a foreign language word, even the word in the textbook can recall any position, cannot remember at once. At this point we can start from where the word is in the book, think about what Word is in front of it, followed by a word, so by repeated association, it is possible to recall the word.
(2) Similar Associations
When one thing is similar to another, it often leads to the Association of one thing with another. Connect the material of the memory to what you have experienced, and the effect will be good. In foreign words, there are sounds similar, meaning similar; these can use similar associations to help memory.
(3) Contrast and Association
When you see, hear, or recall something, you tend to think of the opposite. Comparing different kinds of knowledge and grasping their characteristics can help memory. That's the idea of contrast.
Associative memory can make our brains more active, and it can also make our minds creative, which is what many successful people do in order to improve their creative thinking and develop work projects. Human beings have been trying to develop their own memory since ancient times, and have summed up many effective memory methods. Everyone can sum up experience, strengthen learning, and improve memory according to his own actual situation, enrich your own "intelligence warehouse."
Exercise 1:
Take 30 seconds to introduce the following story to others and see how much you can remember.
This morning, Tommy, the rabbit died. He's my pet and my best friend. I cried for a long time because I knew I would never see it again. My father told me, Tommy, the rabbit is too old, like falling leaves in autumn, anyone and anything dies according to the law of life.
He also told me that it doesn't matter how long we lived together; what matters is how well we got along. When Tommy Rabbit was alive, he brought a lot of joy to our family, and we had a lot of fun together. I hope that wherever Tommy Rabbit is now, he will have a good time and remember me. I'll never forget it!
Exercise 2:
Study the following sentences carefully for 5 seconds, then close your eyes and write down everything you can remember. Let's see how many you can remember.
A buttoned-up plane, an ostrich astronaut, a pair of moccasins, a Swan, a Flying Eagle, a penguin, a sparrow, a baby crawling
This is the first little trick of memory that maybe everyone can do. Five of these 10 sentences are birds. So, if your brain automatically sorts them while you're doing the research, maybe they're the things you remember the most. Other bits of information, untrained people, are almost impossible to remember in an instant. So as long as you can apply a little bit of the rules to your categories, it will be easier to remember.
Exercise 3:
Here are 10 different things that you can remember in a very short time
Happy, two-foot, 25, ideal, textbook, teacher, shot, medicine, the right side, mirror.
You can make up this passage to help you remember:
I jumped "two feet" “happily”. When my body was in the air, it suddenly occurred to me that I was "25" years old and had not yet realized my "ideal". Had to take the "textbook" to the "teacher" for advice, but the accident happened: a "shot put" hit me, the teacher quickly brought "medicine", after a while, I looked at the "mirror". The wound on “the right side” is healed.
Okay, when you're done, close your eyes, write down the 10 words on the page, and you'll see that you've got them all right, even in the right order! The good thing about this kind of memory is that it's easy to do, and once you remember it, it's hard to forget. You can write as you wish. Everyone is a master at writing. You are a master at remembering as well as writing. The general method of memory is the study of material extraction and generalization, the key to the method of memory.
Although the human memory potential is great, see what to remember what, see how much to remember how much, not only impossible but also unscientific. What you lose, you gain. What you simplify, you strengthen. The so-called simplification is to extract the keywords in the material, and then synthesize these words to form a simple or a group of "information symbols," so as to facilitate the brain to receive, store and extract.
Scholars at home and abroad are good at using the method of general theory. When they express their views, they often use a few simple words, a few sentences, an article or a book of the content of a highly summarized. In essence, the process of generalization is also the process of generalization, that is to say, to reduce what one sees, hears, thinks and thinks to the most essential one word, one word or one sentence.
Importance of Summary
The goal of general memory is to grasp the main points from a large amount of material. Generally speaking, there are several methods:
Main Summary
A book, an article, or even a poem, contains rich ideological content. No matter what the size of a masterpiece, as long as its subject can be extracted, you can grasp the gist of it and remember the whole of it in a nutshell.
Summary of Contents
In learning, we often encounter too much information. To make a summary of contents, you can choose some keywords, seize the main plot for memory. For example, the "Synopsis'' at the beginning of a novel, or the "introduction to a new film" before a film is released, all belong to the synopsis. When you need to write out the details, just remember each paragraph as appropriate and increase the number of words in the narrative.
Short summary
For those longer words, names, concepts of a high degree of simplification, to give it a new name, this is the commonly used abbreviation summary. For example, the United States of America is simply called "the United States." What's interesting is that after remembering this simplification, over time, people actually get used to not caring about the full name.
Order in Summary
This kind of generalization is to summarize the learning material according to its original order and to emphas
ize its order when memorizing.
Summary of Figures
Use numbers to sum up memorizing materials, such as "the 14-point peace plan”, "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence,” " September 11, 2001, " and so on. These are Strong, evocative numerical generalizations.
Acronyms
The Mnemonics are simple and fun, but it takes a little work to get the first words into meaningful sentences at the beginning. But once they are made, it's unforgettable.
The above-mentioned generalizing methods can be used separately and synthetically. When using the method of generalization, we should grasp the learning materials through the whole passage, understand and make clear the relationship between them, and then summarize the main points of the materials.
Exercise 1:
World War II can be boiled down to the following points:
Background: The two major military blocs formed in the struggle of the imperialist countries to redivide the world and have rampantly expanded their armaments and prepared for war, aggravating the war crisis.
Time: 1939 ~ 1945.
Nature and consequences: It is a predatory and unjust war between imperialists. It brought great disaster to the people of the countries.
Figurative Memory
The method of figurative memory is to use the figurative method in rhetoric to make it figurative and concrete so as to improve the efficiency of memory. People write articles and speak metaphorically because vivid and appropriate metaphors not only make language and content memorable but also seem fresh and interesting and can also trigger people's Association and thinking which will make it easy to deepen the memory.
Parables are closely related to memory, and those novel and appropriate parables are easy to be incorporated into people's existing knowledge structure, and the material described often leaves an unforgettable impression.
Its function mainly manifests in the following aspects:
Turn the Unknown Into the Known
Scientists, for example, used the metaphor of "eggs" when they talked about the internal structure of the earth in "earthquake and earthquake archaeology”: The Earth's interior is roughly divided into the crust, mantle, and core as the three major parts. The whole earth is like an egg; the crust is like an eggshell; the mantle is like a protein; the core is like an egg yolk. In this way, those who do not know the knowledge by using the existing knowledge we can make people easy to understand and grasp. Metaphor can be experienced by many people and has a unique natural phenomenon with a vivid expression which not only broadens people's horizons but also deepens memory.
Turn the Dull Into the Vivid
Some things if straightforward, people will feel insipid, and the proper use of metaphor, often will make insipid things lively, exciting, and exciting people.
Turn the Abstract Into the Concrete
Some things are abstract and can be seen, touched, and easily remembered by a clever analogy. We know that the image of the spring breeze is not distinct, but it is compared to the concrete image of scissors. It makes people immediately realize willow tree green, Willow Green, willow leaves thin, the behavior of the spring breeze. The use of figurative memory actually adds an associative clue that can help us open the door to memory.
Outline for Memory Improvement
The method of key memory is the method of memorizing by analyzing and summarizing the learning materials and generalizing them into the form of an outline. Therefore, we should be good at summing up the scattered knowledge into an outline, which is an efficient measure of memory. The so-called key, in fact, is a book or an article in the main context. Writing an outline is the analysis, synthesis, and generalization of the material.
In the emphasis, we should not only reflect the main content of the material, the spiritual essence and the logical relationship between them but also highlight their own language style, so as to properly and accurately express. The process of writing an outline is the process of understanding the material and consolidating the memory.
So, how to use the key outline method to carry on the memory? Here are three ways to do this:
(1) Outline of Analysis
This is the process of understanding the learning material. For example, for a book, you can first look at the content of the Synopsis and table of contents, from the structure of the relationship between the chapters, and then look at the foreword and Afterword to understand the writing background and writing intention.
For an article, first go through several times, in the understanding of the whole basis, divided into paragraphs, master the overall context of the article, for the preparation of the outline. Through the analysis of the material to make it organized, put them into the brain's original knowledge structure, thus improving the brain's ability to organize information.
(2) A Comprehensive Outline
Summary Process for learning material. For example, based on dividing the article into paragraphs, write out the general idea of the paragraph, and summarize the theme of the whole article, which captures the main link of the article. After that, further find out the main points of the article, difficult points, and write out the outline in text form; this is the need to remember the key.
(3) Presentation Outline
Whether it is a book or an article, some outline is already prepared by others, such as the directory, can be borrowed for their own use. However, it's best to write your own. Close the book or article, with their own language, the analysis, synthesis, and printed in the mind of the outline of the expression, for learning material memory to lay a solid foundation.
The most general and concise outline is the table of contents. A table of contents tells the story of a book and helps you remember the material as a whole. A table of contents is a guide to the overall memory of a book, so reading a book should begin with a table of contents.
How to Increase Memory Constantly
The key memory method should pay attention to the following:
Prioritize:
According to the content of the study materials, clear each part of the position in the outline, to the main body as the outline, secondary from the omitted, must not everything.
Review in time:
There is an outline is not overnight, but also in the appropriate time to review, try to write a few times, to be able to last.
One method has been used: to remember the contents of a book, look at the outline several times and find it familiar, or write it down by heart, on a piece of paper of the same size and in the same format Write it down in the same order.
If you can't remember something, you can leave a line blank before you write anything else. When really cannot recall, you can follow the original outline, with another color pen, fill in the blank, correct the error.
In this way, the forgotten part of the memory, there will be a deep impression, to strengthen the memory is very good. Interval alternating memory method is to put different properties of materials or things, according to the time distribution of the alternate memory method.
This kind of method can be seen everywhere in the work-study; we often apply it consciously or unconsciously. For example, students have a 45-minute class and a 10-minute recess. The two subjects on the worksheet, arts, and science, are always cross-arranged, with few arts or sciences juxtaposed.
Simple memorization of a material over a long period of time is not effective. At this time if you change another material to learn, you can change the "exciting center" eliminate inhibition, improve memory effect. The effective and proper use of alternate intervals can be learned from the practices of many great men of history.
If the interval alternating memory method is used properly, it will get twice the result with half the effort, but if it is not used well, it will get twice the result with half the effort. In the process of learning and memory, can make a scientific schedule, to experiment with alternate interval memory.
This kind of memory method, it is according to the Memory Law of C
erebrum, science arranges review time, undertake the method of circular memory. This method is similar to interval memorization, except that it refers to the scientific method of learning material, and interval memorization involves not only time intervals but also the alternation of different materials.
The study found that the information sent to the human brain, no matter how its original activation of brain cells, left a deep imprint in the brain, as time goes by, it will gradually fade away. The rule is to forget quickly at first and then slowly.