This is part of a series of articles where we will discuss strategies to improve our long-term retention of information. This is especially important not just for anyone that wants to pass an exam, but for those that want to have the knowledge they need to help patients ready at a moment's notice.
The first thing to note is just how bad we are at remembering information long-term. We forget almost 70% of information we are exposed to almost immediately. Common strategies to improve long-term retention of information include rereading or relistening to the material or underlining and highlighting. While these techniques are very popular, they are also very ineffective if we want to remember something long-term.
Studying by exposing ourselves to material multiple times before a test does provide a short-term benefit to retention of information. However, if you ask someone to repeat the test just two days later, you'll find students that just reread or relistened to content forgot half of that material just two days later.
The reason this type of studying fails to produce long-term memory gains is simple: it is practicing only one step necessary for effective human memory. One of the most basic models of human memory imagines memory as a computer system and divides the process of remembering into three stages. First, a memory is encoded: that is the initial process where a memory forms-like writing a document. Second, there is storage: that is like taking the freshly formed memory and saving it to a computer. Then, there is retrieval: that is the process of pulling the memory out of storage into your mind to work with.
Rereading or relistening to material is a form of encoding practice, of practicing forming the original memory. It also builds the illusion of mastery because as one reads the texts many times, they become more familiar with it. But in real life situations, it isn't enough to encode memories really well. You also have to be able to retrieve them, often in seconds. That is why in our next article we'll talk about the ins and outs of retrieval practice, a very effective technique for reducing forgetting and remembering information long-term.
