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University Advisement Center

MEMORY

Types of Memory Use

Recall: The ability to capture and bring forth ideas (without cues) that you have been previously exposed to.

Recognition: The ability to capture and bring forth ideas (with cues) to which you have previously exposed.

Memory Systems

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Short-term


Limited information (3-5 chunks) held for a matter of seconds

Focus on information moves it to Working Memory
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Working


Limited information (5-9 chunks) held for a matter of minutes

Memorization strategies move it to Long-Term Memory
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Long-Term


Unlimited information available for recall indefinitely

Will decay over time without the use of ongoing recall efforts
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Memorization Strategies
Rehearsal & Chunking
Associate & Relate
Mnemonics
Systematic Mnemonic Devices

Practice rehearsing & chunking the information you need to memorize:


Rehearsal: Recite the information to be memorized to yourself or to someone else who can check your accuracy.

Chunking: Break information to be memorized into smaller, related chunks.
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Practice associating information to be memorized with personal experience:


Value: associate the importance of the information to your life

Purpose: associate the information with a clear purpose or motive for remembering it

Relationship: associate the information with memories or experiences you have had with it

Random: associate the information to random, outrageous, sensory, and novel images, phrases, or ideas
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Practice associating information with related words, phrases, or images:


Visual: connect the information to images whose names sound like what you want to memorize

Verbal: connect the information to words whose names sound like what you want to memorize

Connective: connect the information to words whose meaning is similar to what you want to memorize
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Practice associating information to be memorized with organized systems:


Peg Systems: associate information with pre-defined, numbered lists of words

Loci Systems: associate information with images from a familiar location arranged in chronological sequence

Storytelling: associate information with different plot elements from a familiar story

Matching/Pairing: associate information with its real-world components in an intentional sequence
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