The Best Memorization Techniques | WowEssay Research

Are you a student and think you need to improve your memorization skills? Have you always been bad at memorizing? Have you never won a single game of Who’s Who because you cannot remember where each character is? In this article, you will find some of the best memorization techniques that will allow you to memorize more data faster.

Whether you are studying high school, a career at university, a higher degree, or preparing for competitive examinations. There will always come a time when you have to memorize certain parts of the syllabus. So if you are a student, pay close attention to the following techniques, tricks, and tips that will help you memorize better. WowEssays Service will even give you some tips that you can apply to train your memory.

How does memory work?

You have been using techniques to develop your memory all your life, and you didn’t know it. Even if you are not aware of it, you have a great memory. Don’t you believe it? Think about this: every day. You perform an infinite number of acts that you have memorized over time, even if you are not aware of it. Something as familiar as plugging in the TV, making coffee, sending a message, or tying your shoelaces are acts that your brain has stored so that you now perform them instinctively. For these are processes that you have memorized.

We could address the functioning of memory by giving scientific data, talking about proteins and their effects on the brain, or about studies and paradigms. We are not going to do that because we believe it is better to focus on how your brain works when memorizing data, which concerns us.

But how does the memorization process work? Well, memorization is a three-phase process: the encoding, storage, and retrieval phases. Knowing how each of these phases works is essential to understand how your brain works when memorizing something.

Encoding phase:

Let’s start by giving an example: you went on a trip to Paris a few months ago, and now that you are thinking about it, you remember perfectly that walk you took along the Seine. You remember the cold on your face. You remember the smell of the crepe stand, and you are even able to remember how you felt at that moment. All this information is processed during the encoding phase of memory.

In the encoding phase of memory, our brain takes all the information given and processes it in its entirety, i.e., it encodes it. To do so, it uses all the resources at its disposals, such as sounds, smells, sensations, or images. All that which later builds our memories is acquired in this phase.

It is in this encoding stage that the so-called semantic memory comes into operation.

Semantic memory is the part of the memorization process in which we can remember data by making associations of concepts, which manages what we could call immediate memories. If I ask you, for example, what are the colors of the Japanese flag? You will quickly answer white and red, and you will do it almost instinctively. It is semantic memory. We believe these memories have a long duration in time and which we can access selectively whenever we need them.

Storage phase:

During this phase, all the small pieces that make up the information are stored in different areas of the brain. These areas are interconnected by neurons, which build incredible networks of connections that contribute to keeping the information that has been previously encoded. It process will be decided whether what is happening will be a short-term or long-term memory.

Short-term memory could be called your brain’s address book — thousands of pieces of information that your brain processes and stores temporarily are stored here daily. Most of this data is discarded every day, and other more relevant data becomes part of the long-term memory.

Long-term memory is what allows you to retain memories and information of all kinds over a long period. Have you ever heard that you never forget to ride a bike? Or that you will never forget your first kiss? Those kinds of memories are what is stored in our long-term memory.

Retrieval phase:

This phase is in charge of retrieving the memories or data that we search for in our memory, the one that makes us recall again something that happened or that we learned at a given time. The retrieval phase is the gymnastics of the neurons. Since every time we remember something, we make the neuronal connections to which this memory is linked get more robust, which happens during the study.

When we review something we have already studied, we are retrieving information that we have previously memorized. And every time we review and remember this information, we strengthen its memorization and the ability to retrieve it when we need it, for example, in an exam or your work.

Now that we know how memory works, it will be much easier to understand how memory works with each of the memorization techniques we will see below.

The best memorization techniques

Mind maps, mnemonic rules, spaced repetitions. What is the best memorization technique? There are no good or bad techniques, but you must know them and try them because each person will work better one or another, depending on our abilities. The best thing is that you understand how they work to put them into practice and see which one suits you best.

Memorization through stories

As with the Memory Palace method, memorization through stories is based on creating an invented account to transform a piece of information into long-term memory. It does so in one of the ways we all like best: by creating a narrative.

Since the beginning of time, people have loved to be told stories. It’s hard for you to remember what your teacher told you in class a few days ago, but you certainly won’t forget the story of Little Red Riding Hood, even if the last time you heard it was 25 years ago. This doesn’t happen because you don’t care about what your teacher told you. It’s about the way we process information.

When we are told a story, we become alert. We listen and empathize with what is being conveyed. Whatever they have told us, if it has been able to generate emotion in us, we are likely to remember it later without a problem. On the other hand, if you tried to remember the same information simply by reading it, you would probably have more trouble memorizing it. Why? Well, because when we are told or read something that generates emotion, whatever it is, our brain becomes alert, so it is more predisposed to learning.

So, how can we put this method into practice? As we said before, by creating your own story. Read the information you need to remember and start building a report that contains the facts you need to memorize. Create characters, situations, and characteristics that make you put yourself in the person living the story. It doesn’t matter if it is well narrated or if it is absurd. The only thing that matters is that it generates some emotion in you so that, when the time comes, you will be able to access the information it contains without any problem.

Mind maps

Mind maps are a type of study and memorization method. Starting from a base concept, we create a series of branches with information associations to develop the central idea further.

It would start from a central idea or theme on which we would create branches of information to complete the base idea. Once the main components have been made, you can add more details to each of them to create a network of data to complement the main idea or theme. While you are developing the map, you will be memorizing concepts and locations so that, at the end of it, you will have a clear image in your mind of where each of the data you have captured in it is located.

How to train your memory

Yes, you read that right. Memory, like any other muscle in the body, can be trained. So you’re going to have to train your memory to squeeze its full potential. Keep in mind that the ability to memorize in a highly efficient way is not acquired overnight: like any other exercise, it needs a good technique and a dose of daily training.

As with any physical training, you must start from less to more. So begin by memorizing simple things without too much complication and gradually and progressively increasing the difficulty of learning. Only here, in addition to training hard, we must be open-minded and willing to play a little with the absurd, as it is a great way to memorize ideas.

Visualization:

As we told you earlier, our brain can remember images easily. It is not the case with abstract concepts such as numbers, for example. That’s why you should start training your brain by memorizing a few simple facts but relating them to something visual. And for you to learn it well, the weirder or more striking, the better. Do this every day with a few simple concepts, and you will see how effective it is after a few weeks.

Animation:

Once you have mastered the visualization, we will start with the next step: the animation. This training is based on making dynamic the images that we memorized previously. When we make the photos vibrant, we allow the relationship between different ideas to create a network of information that we will assimilate as a game.

It involves all the senses:

Sometimes we remember something from the past by a smell, a taste, or a sound. When you master the two previous exercises, add the rest of the senses to the equation. Visualize the information, create an animated story to complement it, and add sensations that make you feel that transmit emotions. Do it little by little, without too much data and keep adding information until you get what you are looking for with these exercises: remember the data, that is, the story that you have assembled in your mind in any way, regardless of whether you place it by name, an image, a fact or a sound.

Put these exercises into practice whenever you can. Do it every day, with a few concepts at a time, so that, when the time comes, you will know how to use this technique to perfection.

In the end, when we do these exercises, what we are trying to do is to help your neural system to establish as many connections as possible. It doesn’t matter if it takes a day or a month. It is a matter of training, and little by little, you will be able to remember so much data.