With the beginning of a new school year upon us (here in the US at least), I thought I’d share a memory/study tip that I like to share with clients. This is something that I wish I had known when I was in school, but has still been helpful for me even though I learned it later in life.
The way we put information into our brain impacts how well we can access it and pull it back out later. Human brains like to know the big picture — if we can get an idea of what the big picture is first, and then fill in the details, we will understand where those details fit into the big picture and will therefore be able to make sense of them and remember them better.
This understanding can be helpful for students reading textbooks or journal articles. If there is a chapter summary or article abstract available, read that first (to get the big picture); then read the section headings of the entire article/chapter (this is like creating file folders in your brain); and finally read through the actual article or chapter (this is putting those details into the file folders). Organizing the information you put into your brain will help you be organized in its retrieval.
You’re welcome! 🙂