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.
In our last article (link: Secrets to Long-Term Learning Part 1: What Strategies Don't Work, and Why? | ARRT Volunteer Portal) we discussed just how severe a problem forgetting is and the often-ineffective means people use to combat forgetting. The first strategy we are going to outline for improving memory is retrieval practice. Retrieval practice is pausing while learning material to practice the act of remembering. The mere act of trying to remember something helps to move something from short-term to long-term memory.
The easiest ways of doing this are to quiz ourselves as we read and summarize things we read as we read them. The mere act of taking a quiz after presenting material improves recall a week later by 50%. For recall practice to be efficacious, three conditions must be met: The practice should happen multiple times, require effort, and be spaced out over multiple times.
The secret to retrieval practice is that it emulates how we learn skills in the real world. Think of the nomad hunting in the field: they must practice hunting whenever they get hungry, it requires effort to do effectively, and they get hungry at spaced intervals.
To practice what we preach, here is a short quiz to help you remember the content of this and the previous article.
1) What percentage of material do we forget immediately after exposure?
2) How much can recall of material be improved a week later by quizzing once on the material after exposure?
3) What are the three conditions of effective retrieval practice?
4) How much information is lost two days after a test if the only preparation was rereading?
Key:
1) 70%, 2) 50%, 3) Repeated retrieval practice, effortful retrieval practice, spaced out retrieval practice, 4) 50%
