Weekly newsletter of Ritu Pandey — Creative Brains Rock

In this issue, I will be writing more about the techniques of learning, retrieval practice, and elaboration.

How to help your brain learn more and retain knowledge longer. — Part II

Hi, in this issue I will be writing more about the techniques of learning — retrieval practice and elaboration.

Retrieval Practice: You have read a lot and you have revised all the information. But how much do you remember? You can improve your memory of important concepts by regularly retrieving information. In retrieval practice, you recall information from your memory. You sit down in a place where no one disturbs you and you then try to remember the concepts. If you find remembering the whole information difficult this way, you can design tests that aid in recalling information. You can prepare the questions or you can ask a friend to write down questions from the source. The third method that people are trying these days is using flashcards. Questions are written down on one side of the flashcards and the other side has the answers. Recent research suggests the use of mnemonics for retrieval and reinforcing information. You can form certain letter patterns or develop some idea that can be associated with the information you are reading. Later on, while retrieving the idea or the pattern of letters, you will be able to remember the whole concept. Retrieval practice strengthens our memory and helps in transferring and applying knowledge to new situations. Retrieval practice is not easy and requires effort as you are withdrawing information stored in the long-term memory but as your brain works harder your memory becomes sharper.

Elaboration: If you are able to connect any new information with what you already know then that is called elaboration. For example, say you are trying to reach ‘street y’. You already know how to reach ‘street x’ and ‘street z’ but you have no idea of ‘street y’. If someone tells you that ‘street y’ is the next but parallel lane to ‘street x’ and starts just before ‘street z’, then you are able to draw a mental picture of where ‘street y’ could be and now you have some idea about ‘street y’ too. So how did this happen? It happened because your brain was able to connect the new information (‘street y’) to the already existing stored knowledge (about ‘street x’ and ‘street z’). Apart from adding information to the already existing long-term memory, you can also ask questions to yourself. Asking a lot of “why” and “how” questions aids in initial understanding and this process is called elaborative interrogation. Elaborative interrogation has been found to be effective because of the nature of specific questions you ask yourself and also because you try to find out answers either from different sources or by compelling your brain to mine deeper into the memory. Hence now why don’t you try to retrieve and elaborate on all the information you have just read? Sounds like a difficult mental exercise, but believe me every effort you put in will be worthwhile. You engage your brain more and learn more while I look into techniques that can strengthen our brain, sharpen our memory and expand our learning capacity. See you in the next issue, take good care of yourself. Bye.