Remembering
Success is largely based on what you know — everything you know informs the choices you make. And those choices are either getting you closer to what you want or increasing the distance between you and your ultimate goals in life.
Success is largely based on what you know — everything you know informs the choices you make. And those choices are either getting you closer to what you want or increasing the distance between you and your ultimate goals in life.
Many people want to learn better and faster, retain more information, and be able to apply that knowledge at the right time.
But the reality is that we forget a lot of what we learn. Human forgetting follows a pattern. In fact, research shows
that within just one hour, if nothing is done with new information,
most people will have forgotten about 50% of what they learned. After 24
hours, this amount increases to 70%, and if a week passes without that
information being used, up to 90% of it could be lost.
To improve knowledge acquisition and retention, new information must be consolidated and securely stored in long-term memory.
According to Elizabeth Bjork, PhD, a professor of cognitive psychology at UCLA who worked on a theory of forgetting
along with Piotr Wozniak, a Polish researcher best known for his work
on SuperMemo (a learning system based on spaced repetition), long-term
memory can be characterized by two components: retrieval strength and
storage strength. Retrieval strength measures how likely you are to
recall something right now, or how close it is to the surface of your
mind. Storage strength measures how deeply the memory is rooted.
Research shows that within just one hour, if nothing is done with new information, most people will have forgotten about 50% of what they learned.
If
we want our learning to stick, we have to do more than just aim to read
a book every week or passively listen to an audiobook or podcast.
Instead, reread chapters you didn’t comprehend the first time, write
down or practice what you learned the previous week before continuing to
the next chapter or lesson, or take notes, if that works for you. If
you are struggling to remember, refer to the information. By forcing
yourself to remember past information, you’re cementing the new
knowledge in your mind.
Research
indicates that when a memory is first recorded in the
brain—specifically in the hippocampus—it’s still “fragile” and easily
forgotten.
Our
brains are constantly recording information on a temporary basis to
separate vital information from the clutter — scraps of conversations
you hear on your way to work, things you see, what the person in front
of you was wearing, discussions at work, etc. The brain dumps everything
that doesn’t come up again in the recent future as soon as possible to
make way for new information. If you want to remember or use new
information in the future, you have to deliberately work on storing it
in your long-term memory.
This
process is called encoding — imprinting information into the brain.
Without proper encoding, there is nothing to store, and attempts to
retrieve the memory later will fail.
In the late 19th century, Herman Ebbinghaus, a psychologist, was the first to systematically tackle the analysis of memory. His forgetting curve,
which explains the decline of memory retention in time, contributed to
the field of memory science by recording how the brain stores
information.
Ebbinghaus
once said, “With any considerable number of repetitions, a suitable
distribution of them over a space of time is decidedly more advantageous
than the massing of them at a single time.”
In a University of Waterloo report
that looks at how we forget, the authors argue that when you
deliberately remember something you’ve learned or seen not long ago, you
send a big signal to your brain to hold onto that information. They
explain, “When the same thing is repeated, your
brain says, ‘Oh — there it is again, I better keep that.’ When you are
exposed to the same information repeatedly, it takes less and less time
to ‘activate’ the information in your long-term memory and it becomes
easier for you to retrieve the information when you need it.”
Most
lifelong learning will inevitably involve some reading and listening,
but by using a variety of techniques to commit new knowledge to memory,
you will cement new information quicker and better.
Spaced repetition
One method is spaced repetition
— repeating intake of what you are trying to retain over a period of
time. For example, when you read a book and really enjoy it, instead of
putting it away, reread it again after a month, then again after three
months, then again after six months, and then again after a year. Spaced
repetition leverages the spacing effect,
a memory phenomenon that describes how our brains learn better when we
separate out information over time. Learning something new drives out
old information if you don’t allow sufficient time for new neural
connection to solidify.
The 50/50 rule
Dedicate
50% of your time to learning anything new and the rest of your time to
sharing or explaining what you have learned to someone or your audience.
Research shows
that explaining a concept to someone else is the best way to learn it
yourself. The 50/50 rule is a better way to learn, process, retain, and
remember information.
For
example, instead of completing a book, aim to read half, and try
recalling, sharing, or writing down the key ideas you have learned
before proceeding. Or better still, share that new knowledge with your
audience.
You
could even apply the 50/50 rule to individual chapters instead of the
whole book. This learning method works really well if you aim to retain
most of what are learning. The ultimate test of your knowledge is your
capacity to transfer it to another person.
“The
best way to learn something truly is to teach it — not just because
explaining it helps you understand it, but also because retrieving it
helps you remember it,” says Adam Grant.
Topic demonstrations
Another
valuable method is to make the most of topic demonstrations to
understand a topic inside out. Unlike simply reading or listening to an
explanation, demonstrations show you how something works and help you
visualize the concept. When learning photography, design, public
speaking, negotiation, or a useful new technology, watching
instructional videos that demonstrate what you’re trying to learn can
improve your retention rate.
Sleep
Finally,
use sleep as a powerful aid between learning sessions. Sleep after
learning is a critical part of the memory-creation process, and sleep
before learning strengthens your capacity.
Evidence
shows that short naps help reinforce learned material. The authors
explain, “We suggest that the mere onset of sleep may initiate active
processes of consolidation which — once triggered — remain effective
even if sleep is terminated shortly after.” The results show that even a
period of sleep is enough to help you remember what you’ve learned.
Longer naps (60-plus minutes) are also great for storing new information
into our permanent memory. A good night’s sleep is even better for
memory recall and clear thinking.
The
more the mind is used, the more robust memory can become. Taking
control of information storage will not only help you retain new bits of
information but also reinforce and refine the knowledge you already
have.
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