Last time I made a post such as this, I talked about a presentation / article I read at my college outlining the most effective ways of learning new information. In the same post, I gave the first 5 rules. Today, I bring the next 5. Without further ado, let us begin :)
6. Cloze Testing is your Friend!
Cloze tesing or cloze deletion is the process of laying out some information in front of you and getting rid of part of it so that when you come to it again to revise, you have to actively recall what is missing. This makes it much easier to stick to the minimum information principle that was discussed in the last post I made about the topic. Cloze testing makes use of the learning principle of ‘incremental reading’ that works by breaking up the key points of an article or piece of information into flashcards, or any other medium for conveying information, which are then learned and reviewed at regular time intervals over an extended period of time. The principle is even more effective when combined with the psychological spaced repetition effect – but we shan’t be discussing that here as it would take a lot more time. As such, I shall leave a link to it in the links section below.
But continuing on, a good example of cloze deletion would be as follows:
A status register, flag register, or condition code register is a (collection of status flag bits) for a processor. An example is the >(FLAGS) register of the x86 architecture or flags in a program status word (PSW) register.
Where the brackets signify a cloze deletion. My job to memorise this information would be to regularly review it and remember what goes where.
7. Use Mnemonic Techniques!
A mnemonic technique is more than just a devilishly hard to spell word. It is the act of relating one thing to another to aid retention and recalling previously learned information. For example, I need to remember the seven layers of the OSI model in Computer Science. This consists of physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application. A good mnemonic to remember this (and one that I personally use is): Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away. Remembering the individual layers and what they do is not the hard part. The hard part comes from the fact that the information that must be learned is in a list format. Therefore, most people will find it far easier to remember the mnemonic because it’s wacky and interesting compared to the boring ol’ OSI model.
That’s pretty much all there is to using mnemonics, it’s one of the simpler but highly effective techniques for easily retaining information over extended periods of time, especially where lists of info are concerned.
8. Avoid lists or sets of information!
As I discussed in the previous rule, lists of information make it far harder to effectively memorise and retain information. As such, life would be far simpler if we simply avoided them! The technical reason that lists are abhorrently bad for your memory is that to effectively retain information you should try to make sure that your brain works exactly the same way each time you actively recall a piece of information. When remembering a list, you may remember certain elements out-of-order or in a different order to last time, meaning it’s way harder for your brain to retain said information.
If you’re gonna take anything from this rule: just please avoid lists of information! You will have a much easier time if you do :)
9. Combat that Pesky Memory Interference!
Memory interference happens when having knowledge of one thing makes it harder to remember something about another similar thing. For instance, remembering the difference between the word ‘historic’ and the word ‘historical’ would be easy if you only knew one, but knowing the both of them makes things a lot harder. If you face some memory interference it’s best to give it the good ol’ search and destroy. Catching the effects of it before it makes you remember incorrect information is very important.
The best tips for combatting memory interference are to:
10. Optimise Wording
Optimising the wording of the information you’re trying to remember will reduce error rates, increase specificity, reduce response time and help concentration. Using as simple language as possible will ensure you get that ‘light bulb’ in your brain whenever you see the info.
Instead of using a more complicated word, just use a simpler substitution or 3 or 4 words if needed.
That is all for today, folks, I hope you have enjoyed. I shall be posting the next five tips in the next day or two. Have a good one :)
