Learning and memory: 5 things to keep in mind

Article last edited on October 7, 2019 by Admin

How does memory work? How to improve it and learn without special efforts? Here are 5 simple things to keep in mind.

1. Talking about our memories rather than memory

Memory is what remains of our learning. It is the concrete trace that is kept in our neural networks.

Memory is not, however, a unified concept. Our brain has different specialized memory systems. When all is well, it is difficult to distinguish them since they work in harmony and are complementary. But diseases or cerebral lesions can affect some of these systems in a specific way and lead to singular forms of amnesia which highlight them.

We have, for example, nervous circuits specialized in the memory of events that we have experienced during our past life (episodic memory) which are not the same as those which allow the memory of the meaning of words, the function of things, their color or smell (semantic memory). And these two memories differ greatly from our motor memory, the one that allows us to remember how to ride a bicycle or how to tie our shoelaces.Traditionally, studies have focused on so-called explicit memories, that is, those whose content can be expressed verbally (like the first two examples above). But the progressive discovery of the great unconscious processing capacities of our brain has imposed another great category: implicit memory.

These are forms of memory that are acquired without our knowledge and where the recall of a memory is done automatically, without the efforts necessary for explicit memory. In addition to the procedural memory already mentioned above, several other implicit memory systems have been identified such as emotional conditioning, conditioned reflexes, priming effects, etc.

Not everything is learned the same way. explicit learning requiring, for example, more conscious attention and repetition than an implicit learning that often takes place without our realizing it.

2. Repeat at the right time to counter forgetfulness

Memory is “a faculty that forgets”, and that’s good! Indeed, far from being a deplorable weakness, forgetting is a normal, even essential phenomenon.Forgetfulness allows us to get rid of the huge amount of information that we deal with every day and that is deemed useless for the future. Without forgetting, our consciousness would quickly become cluttered with a lot of useless details. Forgetfulness will therefore take care of spontaneously removing everything that has not been encoded sufficiently and at the right time in our networks of nerve cells.

Memorizing information therefore means consciously prioritizing it to the detriment of the majority of the others, which will be forgotten. But even if we judge that a piece of information is important and should be remembered, it does not magically imprint itself in our memory. Encoding effort is required.

If a healthy lifestyle, restful sleep (see the sixth “work”?), sustained attention or good organization of information (see the fourth work) are all factors that promote memory, repetition work may still – be the most basic aspect of encoding.

Repetition is essential because our predisposition to forgetting is most effective. Without repetition, we can only retain about seven pieces of information for about 30 seconds. What mental rehearsal allows is precisely to move these elements from this short-term memory to long-term memory where they can be stored for months or even years.

This particular dynamic between short-term and long-term memory also allows us to understand why it is immediately after learning that repetition will be most effective. What happens then determines the fate of what has just been learned.

Some researchers even go so far as to say that we forget 90% of what we learn in class in 30 days and that most of this forgetting occurs within a few hours after class. For them, repeated exposure to information immediately during class is therefore much more effective for learning than assigning this function to homework that is done several hours later at home.

3. Build on what you have already memorized

Learning is the main activity of the brain, that is, constantly modifying its structure to better reflect the experiences encountered. Learning therefore means increasing the range of possible behavioral responses. This gain in knowledge, understanding or skill is made possible by the elements memorized following this learning.

One of the most fundamental characteristics of memory is its associative character. This means that we retain better when we can link new information to knowledge already acquired and firmly rooted in our memory. These then constitute a kind of framework on which new knowledge can more easily be grafted.

Therefore, taking time to find what can link new information to old one pays off in the end.

For example, if you are introduced to several new people, it is easier to remember their name if we immediately associate something significant for us with each of them (Mary has a navy blue dress, Paul has a beard like my uncle Paul, Carmen has a long neck like a cormorant, etc.). The color navy blue, Uncle Paul or the cormorant are mental images already well engramed in our brain and their phonetic or symbolic link with the new names constitutes a well-known mnemonic trick.Although it may seem counter-intuitive to add more elements to many other new elements to learn, several studies show that the more the encoding is elaborated during learning, the more easily the new data will be retained.

In neuronal terms, the new assemblies of neurons can thus use assemblies that are already well constituted to connect to them, and the routine activation of the old assembly makes it easier to activate the new one that has just associated with it.

See part 2 of the article

See part 3 of the article

See part 4 of the article

File / Text: Bruno Dubuc The brain at all levels

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