Remember Genova Memorize

 I'm reading Remember by Lisa Genova.  It's really interesting.  It's all about the science behind how we remember things.  I'm not finished with it...only about 1/4 of the way through it...but it's interesting and has had some useful information.

Here are the things that have stood out to me so far:

1.  To create a memory, 4 things have to happen:  First, your brain encodes or captures a sight, sounds, smell, emotion or meaning and paid attention to this stimuli.   Second, your brain consolidates the collection of stimuli into a single pattern of connections.  Third, your brain stores this in a neural pathway.  Fourth, your brain retrieves and allows you to recall this experience or knowledge.  If any of these steps are missed, a memory isn't created.  (And a great deal of what we do each day does not go through all of these steps.)

2. Memory isn't stored in one specific place in your brain.  They exist in pathways created when that specific combination of sights, sounds, smells, emotions, etc. occurred and in the locations where those stimuli were captured.

3.  This seems like a no brainer, but to create a memory, we have to be paying attention.  Often when we think we have forgotten something, we didn't actually create a memory because we weren't paying attention.  (This is why we may lose our keys or fail to remember where we parked in the shopping center or not be able to remember someone's name shortly after being introduced to them...we weren't paying attention so a memory wasn't formed.)  In order to pay attention, we need to limit or eliminate distractions and also recognize that a specific detail is important.  Genova points out that even though we have seen thousands of pennies, most of us have not paid close attention to every detail of the penny and can't with complete accuracy recall all of the details of the penny.  In an experiment, only 1 out of 85 undergraduates could draw the Apple logo perfectly from memory.  

4.  Chunking information helps you keep it in your working memory (short term memory) better than a long string of unrelated information.  It's easier to remember short words for a minute than long words.

5.  There's a whole chapter on how muscle memory works.  It is created differently and retrieved differently than our memories of past experiences.

6.  Repetition helps us develop memory, but quizzing yourself is even more important.  So if you're trying to memorize your multiplication facts, repeating "3 x 8 is 24, 3 x 8 is 24, 3 x 8 is 24" will be helpful.  But asking yourself, "What is 3 x 8?"  Genova explains a study in which people were given pairs of Swahili and English words.  The students were split into 4 groups with slightly different study techniques.  Two of the groups incorporated quizzing themselves as part of their study, and two of the groups didn't incorporate any self quizzing.  Those who quizzed themselves retained 80 % of the word pairs a week later, but those who didn't only recalled about 35%.

I'm going to talk to my kids about this.  But I also plan to incorporate this into how I teach next year.  I plan, especially with multiplication, to incorporate regular self-testing into our week.

LESSONS LEARNED:  

*If something is important to me, make sure I'm paying attention and repeat the information to myself.

*Incorporate self-testing/quizzing into my teaching and also into my efforts to memorize information.