Behaviors For Effective Learning And Memory - Improving Everyday Memory: Improving Memory Understanding Age Related Memory Loss

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Behaviors for effective learning and memory

Certain behavioral strategies can help improve your ability to learn new information effectively and retain it over time.

Focus

Your ability to focus your attention and absorb information quickly declines with age and contributes to age-related memory loss. The slowdown in processing causes a bottleneck of information entering your short-term memory, reducing the amount of information that is acquired and encoded into long-term memory. You can enhance your focus and attention by doing the following:

• When someone is talking to you, look at the person and listen closely. If you missed something that was said, ask the person to repeat it or to speak more slowly.

• Paraphrase what was said to make sure that you understood it and to reinforce the information. For example, if someone says, "We can see the movie either at Loews Theater at 7:30 or at the Paramount at 7:50," you might respond, "Which would you prefer, 7:30 at Loews or 7:50 at the Paramount?"

• If you find that you tend to become distracted during conversations, try getting together with people in quiet environments, such as homes instead of noisy restaurants. When you do meet people at a restaurant, sit at a table near a wall. If your companions sit against the wall and you sit facing them, you'll be able to focus on them without having your attention wander to other diners.

• You can improve your ability to focus on a task and screen out distractions if you do one thing at a time. Try to avoid interruptions. If someone asks you something while you're in the middle of reading or working, ask if the person can wait until you're finished. Don't answer the phone until you've finished what you're doing — let voice mail take the call.

Repeat

You will remember new factual information more effectively if you repeat it to yourself or out loud. If someone gives you directions, for example, repeat them to the person to make sure that you got them right. Discussing newly learned material with a friend or colleague is another way to help reinforce it in your mind.

Ensure comprehension

The more thoroughly you understand new information, the greater the odds that you will remember not only the general concept but also the details. You can improve your comprehension by rereading material, asking questions about it, and discussing it.

Make a note

How many times have you had a brilliant idea while getting ready for bed or standing in line and then forgotten it? Many people assume that if a thought is important enough, they will remember it. But this is unrealistic. When something significant occurs to you, write it down as soon as you can. The act of writing things down actually helps reinforce them in your mind, so you may not even need to refer to your notes to help jog your memory.

Simply writing down an idea can make it easier to recall.

Before going to the doctor's office, make a list of questions you want to ask or things you want to mention. Jot down thoughts as they come to mind: ideas related to your job, possibilities for birthday and holiday presents, the names of restaurants you'd like to try or books you'd like to read, or movies that you didn't see when they were first released. These are the sorts of ideas that often fade with time, but that you know you'll want to remember.

Practice spaced rehearsal

Research on learning has shown that "spaced rehearsal" is more effective than "cramming." In other words, you will remember something more effectively if you rehearse it for one minute once an hour for 10 consecutive hours than if you rehearse it for 10 minutes all at once.

If you have trouble retaining complicated information — for instance, when you read an article, take a course, or start a new project at work — try using spaced rehearsal. Write down the main points of what you have just learned and then review your notes once or twice. Read them again the following day and then again the day after. Spacing out these study sessions gives your brain a chance to consolidate the information that you have learned and form a more durable memory of it. Neuroscientists have found this technique helpful even for people with mild cognitive impairment.

Do small tasks first

It's only natural to turn your attention to the large, important tasks at hand and let the mundane tasks slide. The problem with this approach is that small tasks, like answering phone messages and filling out a form for your child's school photo, tend to pile up and then get forgotten. If you act on them quickly, you don't have to worry about remembering to do them later.

Be patient

One of the main reasons memory declines with age is that the brain processes information more slowly. But just because you take longer to understand something doesn't mean you won't get it eventually. Give yourself the time you need to absorb new information. Don't consider it a sign of personal failure that you need to slow down in order to learn something new. Experts note that the speed with which you learn new information is just one component of your mental abilities, and it's not even the most important one.

Many older people who participated in the MacArthur Foundation Study on Successful Aging said that when mental pursuits were important to them, they could compensate for the slowdown in their mental processing by being patient with themselves and working harder.

Last updated:	January 23, 2007