Some lifehacks about memorization of information

Quick memorization of large amounts of information

1. Insight

Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, developed "the forgetting curve" that shows how long a person can keep new information in the memory. For example, rote learning (or learning by heart) of a material without grasping its meaning leads to the fact that after one hour you will remember about 60% of the information, 35% after 10 hours, and after 6 days you will get no more than 20% of the learned material from the depths of your memory. On the other hand, meaningful information is stored in the so-called long-term memory, and therefore is remembered much longer, especially if it is repeated periodically. Also, if you get into the essence of the studied material you will remember it 9 times faster.

2. Spaced repetition

Repetition is the mother of learning. And indeed, the more often we repeat the learned material the less it is forgotten. The method of spaced repetition will help remember information of any size. If you need to learn a verse quickly or to prepare for an exam in rush mode use the following repetition algorithm: the first repetition - 20 minutes after memorizing; the second one - after 6 - 8 hours; the third one - after a day. In order to memorize the material better it is recommended not just to reread but to retrieve it actively from the memory, that is, to remember it consulting the source. If you have to memorize a large amount of information which will be useful to you not only for the next day or week follow this spaced repetitions:

the first repetition - right on the day of memorization (repeat all the material);

the second one - after 3 days (repeat only the key points highlighted by you or the author);

the third one - after 6 days (repeat all the information but try to do it in a different order). Ideally, it is recommended to repeat the studied material every day however give it no more than 15-20 minutes so as not to overload the brain. Another tip: try to explain incomprehensible or hard-to-remember points to someone. If there is no one willing to listen to a lecture on the probability theory or the importance of the Renaissance for painting simply talk through the part of the information that causes the greatest difficulty to the imaginary interlocutor. As you do this, your brain will automatically pick up the simplest possible wording.

3. The Edge Effect

This phenomenon which was also discovered by H. Ebbinghaus, consists in the fact that we memorize faster and reproduce more accurately the information that is located at the beginning and at the end of the text. You don't think so? Let's do a little test of attention and memorization. We will sound out a series of words that you need to repeat. Ready? Chocolate, leaf fall, train, newspaper, radio waves, bed, tower, joy, sleep, construction, pen, chess. Which words from the list did you recall first? Chocolate and chess? What about the words in the middle of the list? How many of them were you able to reproduce? Three? Five? Well, you have a lot to strive for. But how does the edge effect help you remember information? Easy! Read the text you need to learn. Highlight the most difficult parts and start memorizing them first or last. Of course, we can't say that the edge effect works all the time for 100% but the most of the time it does.