90 + Chapter 4 Memory and Learning Where Are You Now? ‘Take a few minutes to answer yes of no to the following questions, Do you often know the answer to a question but find that you can’t think of it? Do you organize or group information to help you remember it? After you study, do you go back and test yourself to moniter your learning? Do you make up rhymes or wards to help you remember some information? Do you space your practice when reviewing information? Do yeu try to memorize all the information that you need to know for an exam? Do you often find that you get confused by closely related information? Do you often forget a lt of the information that you studied by the time you take the test? bo you ever remember exam answers afte the exam is over? — Do you try to remember information just by making up a rhyme, word, or other memory aid? —_ Tora. Ponts Give yourself 1 point for each yes answer to questions 2, 3, 4, and 8, and 1 point for each no answer to questions 1,6, 7, 8,9, and 10. Now total up your points. A low score indicates that you need to improve your memory strategies. A high score indicates that you are already using many good memory strategies. UNDERSTANDING MEMORY PROCESSES Doing well on exams requires an effective study plan, active study strategies, and a good memory. What you typically think of as learning involves storing information in your memory so that it wall be available later when you need it. In this chapter, you'll gain a better understanding of how information is learned. This will help you understand why you need to use a variety of active learning strategies to learn and retain course material. “Having a good memory” involves both putting information into memory and getting it back out—both storage and retrieval. Can you recall a time when you thought you had studied a particular topic well enough that you knew it for the exam, only to find that you couldn't remember the information dur- ing the test? Perhaps you never really got the information into your long-term ‘memory, or perhaps you simply were unable to recall it when you needed to. Why do we forget? How do we learn? Many students really don’t understand how mem- ory works, Do you? Learning about how we store and retrieve information will help you understand why some study strategies work and others don't. Over the years, psychologists have tried to develop theories to explain how memory works. One of the most useful of these is the Information Processing Model. Information Processing Model ‘The Information Processing Model suggests that memory is complex and consists of various processes and stages. For example, there are atleast three types of mem- ory: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (ITM),