Paragon House 1/e 1993 hardcover
by Higbee
Notes by Jeremy W. Sherman, March 2011.
Virtual Dog-ear
2 processes not structure
5 learned skill - more effective hard work
7 technique beats capacity
10 competence vs performance
13 how more important than how much (see 7 - cardboard box vs. Rolodex)
17 remember: encode - store - retrieve
18 accessible vs. available
19 short term < 30 secs, easy to disrupt, ~7 items
20 chunking: bigger items
26 recall: free/aided, serial, paired-associate
27 recognition
27 relearning aka savings
29 mnemonic systems change free recall to cued recall
30 memory is generative not duplicative
33/4 forgetting: decay, repression, distortion, interference, cue dependency
35 forgetting decreases rapidly with time
37 amount you know affects forgetting, not how fast you learn
38 imagery vs. verbal
44 sleep after learning helps, but before hurts
46 meaningfulness 47 (familiarity, rhymes, pattern, organization, association)
51 organization: sequence, categories 52 chunking
53 serial position effect: start and end w the hard stuff; work harder to record the middle
53 association
56 think around it - include learning context
57/8 imagery: concrete beats abstract; mental pictures help, the more vivid the better
59 attention: must get it before can forget it
60 attention to task beats time on task; voice memo to solve absentmindedness
62 repetition: necessary but not sufficient
63 overlearning helps
64 repeating transforms learning: trees to forest
64 relaxation
66 meditation and muscle relaxation
68 context: practice where perform or similar; recall ctx to recall learned; switch up ctx while learning
69 ctx: physical, psychological, and material
71 interest: aids attention, motivates remembering, increases repetition
72 feedback: sustains interest; aids adjustment; improves memory
80 spaced learning trounces massed learning (aka cramming)
83 progressive part method
84 RECITATION
85 SQ3R: survey, question, read, recite, review
88 underline after finishing section
88 spend half your study time reciting
89 review immediately after learning
90 effective for elementary on
94 mnemonics as elaboration tying unknown to known
95 mnemonic techniques vs. systems
99 first-letter mnemonics: acronyms and acrostics
100 first-letters: meaningful, chunked, cuing, total count
101 associate acronym with info verbally/visually
101 keyword mnemonic: substitute word + visual association; from L2 word generate concrete L1 keyword, then visually link image of keyword to meaning of L2 word (pato -> pot; duck wearing pot)
103 main function to impose meaning where meaning not inherent
104 effective visual associations: interaction, vividness, bizarreness
105 interacting not side-by-side; key and value become a single unit
106 vividness: motion, substitution, exaggerated size/number, familiar
109 abstract -> concrete by symbol or sound-alike
110 use your own mnemonics
112 verbal like visual, except instead of sub words use additional detail to concretize
114 limitations: time, abstract material, learning vs. retention, imagery ability, verbatim memory, interference (decoding failure), maintenance and transfer (generalization)
121 pseudo-limitations: impractical, no aid to understanding, more to remember, crutches, tricks
133 system to find first, get next, know when is last
133 link/chain system: form visual image per item; associate each image with the next
133 use link for serial learning tasks
134 use first association to come to mind now bc also first later
135 cue first item off source of list (person, book, store door)
135 story system: weave items into connecting story
135 story vs. link: sequence vs. pairs, assoc must fit story, longer lists make story writing harder, forward recall only, can be purely verbal
136 can use verbal only with link too, and verb + images with story
136 verbal mediators avoid need to pick concrete substitute for abstract items
144 reuse string of images to pair with items; no broken chain failures
144 also called topical system
144 overlearn images of locations in natural/logical order, then place item images in locations in series
146 recall by walking through locations
146 changes free recall to cued using serial (walk) and paired-associate (loc->item) learning
147 can use body parts or auto parts as locations, as well
147 distinctness of locations, not distance between, is key
147 same lookup time for loc to item whether concrete or abstract; abstract slower in reverse
148 can put more than one item in a location by making big interacting unit, but will lose order in that unit
149 to speed random lookup, put distinguishing marks every 5 locations, so max walk is about 2.5 to each item ("item 4 is 1 before the loc with the hand")
150 mind automatically remembers locations
151 placing words in spatial patterns improves recall (mind mapping exploits this)
152 recall hindered if loci present during learning but not recall
154 search loci regularly for stored reminders
155 reduce interference by using multiple sets of loci or progressive elaboration
158 pegwords serve as mental hooks to hang items on
159 pegword is concrete word associated to number by rhyme (zero-hero), meaning (zero-empty box), appearance (zero-donut)
159 hard to find pegwords for numbers gt 20
160 can use rhymes or switch systems with each decade; compound peg word (bun-bun for 11) vulnerable to interference
160 alphabet pegs (initial sound or first letter); doesn't help random access the way numbers do
\
hay, bee, sea, deed, eve, effort, jeep, age, eye, jay, key, el, hem, hen, hoe, pea, cue, oar, ass, tea, ewe, veal, double you, ax, wire, zebra
\
all concrete:
ape, boy, cat, dog, egg, fig, goat, hat, ice, jack, kite, log, man, nut, owl, pig, quilt, rock, sock, toy, umbrella, vane, wig, x ray, yak, zoo
\
161 peg vs. loci: locations and pegwords very similar; locations are spatially ordered pegwords
162 differences: peg has random access, loci makes large number of cues easy, loci a little easier to learn and use
163 avoid abstract pegwords
163 avoid pegwords for categorized lists - categories interfere with use of pegwords
165 combined keyword-loci-peg system: keyword is concrete substitute; peg sets scene; loci fill scene (airplane scene through zoo scene - 26 x 10 = 260 items)
169 visualize pegwords to count reps
174 digit-sound equivalents:
1 t/th/d (1 downstroke)
2 n (2 downstrokes)
3 m
4 r (last letter of "four")
5 l (Roman 50)
6 j/sh/ch/soft g (backwards script J???)
7 k/q/c/hard g (K made of 2 sevens)
8 f/v (script f like 8)
9 p/b (p is mirror 9)
0 s/z/soft c (z for zero)
All sounds but w h y (ignored), zh like azure (grouped with 6), ng (often 7 but sometimes taken as 27)
177 number->pegword - easy to come up with tons of pegwords, easy to do random retrieval since based on numbers. Pick concrete words that begin with the sound. For multi-digit numbers, can use single word with all sounds (145 trail) or multiple words (8890 five apes).
178 link words to remember numbers (6149234949 -> sheet rope gnome rib robe - change keys to reduce interference)
181 mental notepad - store then review; topic decades or daily decades
182 cards - suit sound + num sound (4 of clubs -> car, 9 of spades -> soap)
183 alphabet pegword + num sound
184 numbers: word or phrase; either each consonant sound or only first consonant of each word is significant
184 use s for decimal (salt .51, barley sold 945.51)
186 birthday: name-month-day -> friend jam name with month substitute word Jan 23rd or friend-denim 1-23 using structured phonetics
186 weekly appointments like dentist-windy-toes 10 am Wednesday with month subwords
187 multiplication tables: new ma = witch, wash key = rain
190 paired-associate task: see face, recall name
190 recognition, not recall
192 name memory better and faster than faces
192 names harder than other words - not as common
193 priming names helps recall
193 hearing name later improves recall - have more familiarity and cues to associate with name at that point
195 1. Make sure you get name: Pay attention, ask to repeat, repeat it yourself, write it down.
196 2. Make name meaningful: Use name itself or substitute words.
196 3. Focus on face: note distinctive features. Learn how many features there are and how they vary (Laughery - Computer-guided recognition and retrieval of facial images). Judge personal traits.
198 4. Associate face with name: specifically, associate distinctive feature with name meaning.
199 5. Review the association. Review as soon as possible after meeting, then periodically.
204 absentmindedness a broad name
205 prospective remembering: forgetting to do something
205 habitual vs. episodic remembering
205 habitual: work into daily routine
206 episodic: make a list (loci/phonetic) or visualize to associate act/object with intended action (husband with phone around neck -> remind him to make a call)
206 familiar/butler: 9-ft Gleech (Dr. Seuss character)
207 external reminder: calendar, alarms, book by door
208 symbolic environmental change: string on finger, book on floor - associate with action to remind what to do, not just that there was something to do
209 retrospective remembering: forgetting whether you did something, where you put something
210 paying attention to what you're doing will help: say to yourself what you're doing
212 mnemonics work in education
213 Yodai mnemonics; Masachika Nakane
215 lofty education goals in addition to, not instead of, memorization