Question

Short term memory is limited both in the amount of information it can hold at one time, and in how long it can hold information. Describe several strategies one might use to overcome the capacity and duration limitations of short-term memory. How might one use these strategies when studying for course materials ? Provide concrete examples

Answer 1

Rehearsing - Rehearsing the study material regularly will ensure that the information is remembered well and not forgotten. Reading the material once and just assuming that you will remember it will not help, as it may be soon forgotten, but when the material is read several times and recalled without the help of text book, the information tends to be remembered. For example. You read about the various psychology chapters in a day and assume that you may recall everything, but later on it is very hard to recall it as it has not ben reheared.

Deep processing - Deep processing is a technique where the emphasis is not on memorizing of the material but to understand it well. As understanding something will make the information be remembered. So, while reading, it is important to pay attention to the meaning of what is being read and elaborating that material, and relating it some some real world situation so that it is understood well.

Mnemonics - Using Mnemonics is a very effective way to retain information through remembering cues such as the first letters of the words. These words could be important points or subheadings to organize the information. For Example. To remember the colors of the rainbow, we may simply remember the name "Roy G. Biv", and this will help us remember all the first letter of the colors of the rainbow.

Mindmap - Mindmap is a an important tool to organize materials into meaningful units and parts. Mindmaps are the organizational units of information, and show us how one concept is related to another. For Example. It is very helpful to have mindmap of the human nervous system than remembering each and every component of it.