Especially Difficult Memorization Tasks. Lesson 13.

 

Some memory work seems more difficult than others. We have already covered learning math. Here we will consider such tasks as expanding vocabulary, learning foreign language, and remembering dates and places, and music.

Vocabulary

The obviously important factor in thinking is vocabulary (or, in math, number fluency). Everyday thought is conducted with words. A limited vocabulary limits the range and rigor of thought. Sadly, young people generally have limited vocabularies. I see this every year even with upper-division college students in a course where I require them to write essays. They frequently use words that don't match the ideas they are trying to convey and fail to use words precisely. Children who grow up in culturally deprived homes are handicapped because they are exposed to the limited vocabularies of their parents. Teachers and parents should make it a point to expose children to new works and to instill a commitment to using words precisely.

Research suggests that some review sessions need to be widely spaced by two months or more from the initial learning. The amount and spacing of foreign language vocabulary learning has an enormous effect on how well the material is retained years later.  In one study, 300 English-foreign word pairs were studied with either 13 or 26 relearning review sessions at intervals of 14, 28, or 56 days. Retention was tested for 1, 2, 3, or 5 years after the end of training. Although longer intervals between learning a review impaired acquisition slightly, this was offset by substantially higher long-term retention.  Thirteen review sessions spaced at 56 days yielded retention comparable to 26 sessions spaced at 14 days apart.

One experiment related to flash cards has examined the role that retrieval had on the ability to recall that same material after a delay of a week. College students were to learn a list of 40 foreign language vocabulary word pairs, which were manipulated so that the pairs either remained in the list (were repeatedly studied) or were dropped from the list once they were recalled. It is like studying flash cards: one way is to keep studying all the cards over and over again; the other way is to drop out a card from the stack every time you correctly recalled what was on the other side of the card.

Number of self-testing events and their spacing are influenced by the number of retrievals that are correct. It helps to repeat self-testing on cards already correctly recalled. In one study where students studied flash cards of 35 Swahili-English word pairs, the students were asked to practice until they got the vocabulary correct using either the entire stack or five stacks of seven cards each. Researchers instructed students to study the flashcards until they had gotten each translation correct either once, five, or 10 times, before taking a final quiz a week later. Getting the stack correct five times was three times more effective for the final quiz than getting the stack correct only once. Also, study of one big stack was better than five little ones.

A related study examined the correctness effect when college-aged students were asked to study for a week a pack of 48 paired Swahili vocabulary words with their English translations. To facilitate learning, students were taught to use a cue (word, phrase or concept) to link both words of a pair. Students controlled how many times they felt they needed to repeat study of a word pair until they reached 1, 3, 6, or 9 correct retrievals. Immediately after finishing the learning, students gave an estimated rating of how well they thought they had learned the material. On an examination given one week later, gains in correct answers were larger with more correct retrievals during the study period.

Student predicted judgments of their learning are important in real-world study because such judgments govern how long students will practice what their assigned learning. Judgment of learning success was found to depend on the number of self-testing events, their spacing, and the number of correct retrievals.

Another study established that best learning occurs when students can correctly recall items multiple times during the initial learning experience. In that study, students studied 70 Swahili-English word pairs either 1,3,5,7,8, or 10 times during encoding. For example, a cue and target pair were initially presented to study for 10 seconds. Then during practice the cue was presented and learners were given eight seconds to show they could recall the target. Incorrect recalled targets were given a four-second restudy opportunity before moving on to the next word pair. Pairs continued to be rehearsed until they reached the assigned level of correct remembering (1, 2, 3, etc.). The subjects were divided into two groups, one taking an exam within 25 min after study and rehearsal and the other one week later. Results revealed best final exam performance when the test-item presentation intervals were long and when the final test occurred 25 min after the study and rehearsal. Almost none of the word pairs were learned when the learning occurred when the intervals were short and the final test was delayed for a week. The best final learning occurred when the initial learning practice retrievals were correct and when more time elapsed between each recall attempt (6-minute lag versus 1-minute lag).

There are some other general strategies for building vocabulary. I have a couple of ideas based on memory principles.

            Learn word prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes and suffixes are great aids. “Pre” suggests before or ahead of time; “ism” suggests a state of being, “re” suggests back or again, and so on.      

            Learn word families. Many words come from the same family. If you know what one word in the group means, you can get the general idea for the others from the context in which they are used. The other words will be easier to remember because they are similar to the word you already know. Here are some word groups.

            despise, despicable, despot, despotism, despoil

            habit, habitat, habitation, habitual, habitué

            jet, jettison, jetstream, jetty, jet set, jetlag, jetsam

            line, liner, lineman, linear, line drive, line-up

            parent, paternal, pater, patriarch, paternity, patrician, patricide

Create images for strange new words. Examples:

            Gazebo: see yourself staring (gazing) at the ugliest boy (bo) you ever saw standing in a             building that only has a roof, no walls. Feel disgust.

            Adumbrate (meaning incomplete understanding or explanation): see a “dumb brat” with a dunce cap, sitting in the corner partially hidden by a screen. Sense the pain he must feel at being so ostracized and tries to hide.

            Daguerreotype (an early photographic process on metal plate): visualize a picture on a sheet of metal and you have stabbed it with a dagger because you hate it so much.

            Perspicacious (meaning especially insightful): see yourself working up a sweat (perspire), scratching your head with question marks around it, then jumping up with a eureka  moment when you realize you figured it out.

Foreign Language 

In this globally interconnected world, many people want to learn a foreign language. In my own case decades ago, I stumbled through Russian and French because they were required for my Ph.D. Most recently, I am trying Spanish, because I live in Texas.

            Some things I know that help learning foreign language is the use of flash cards for vocabulary (using images, not just the words).

            Another thing I know is the value of strategic approaches and planning. For example, I first have to confront my negative attitude (negative attitudes impair learning). I have a negative attitude about the irrational things in language. Take the gender business in Spanish and many other languages. Why does everything have to have a sex identification, like male and female endings for inanimate objects? That is just plain stupid! Irregular verbs are another problem. When I was in high school, I learned Latin, which wasn’t so bad, because it was a much more orderly language than the modern languages that “evolved” from it. Latin wasn’t broken. Why didn’t people leave it alone?

            My first strategic realization was that I had to get over my pique. Who was I punishing with my negative attitude? Certainly not the people who created the irrationalities in the language. No, my attitude would be a de-motivator for me to learn. So, I tell myself, “Get over it.”

            Next, I think about some basic principles that might expedite my learning. You don’t have to be a professor of modern languages to know that certain key components in language include the following:

1.       Meaning of words. Here, try to recognize cognates (words similar to English words you already know. For other words, try to think of mental images that represent the meaning.

2.       Gender identification. Fortunately, you can usually predict whether a word is male or female just from the meaning of the word. Most macho-type words are male; soft, feminine type words are usually female. Unfortunately, there are exceptions, which you just have to memorize by brute force.

3.       Verb conjugation. Look for patterns. All “regular” verbs have the same pattern. In Spanish, all verbs end in AR, ER, or IR. The conjugation pattern is similar. For each, you drop the infinitive ending and add endings to the stem of the word. For AR words, the ending is either o, as, a (singular) or amos, ais, or an (plural). For ER words, the endings are o, es, e (singular) or emos, eis, en (plural). For IR words, the endings are o, es, e (singular), or imos, is, en (plural). Even irregular verbs have generally predictable patterns, except for a couple of endings.

4.       Counting. Here, again, look for patterns. In Spanish you have to brute-force memorize the first 19 numbers, but thereafter predictable patterns emerge.

5.       Articles, like “a,” and “the.” In Spanish, you only have to remember “un” for “a.” But, since the article has to be a gender match to the word it refers to, you have to add an “a” (una) to refer to female words. If you are referring to a definite person, you must use “el” or “la,” depending on the person’s gender. Plural references add an “s” (as in “los/las”)

Pronouns, like I, you, he, etc. In Spanish, there is a definite pattern that includes gender recognition and singular vs. plural. It becomes easier to remember if you organize words in a table.

	Female	Male	Male or Male/?
This That These Those	esta      esa       estas esás	esto or este eso or ese	estos esos

 

Well, you may not want to learn Spanish, so I won’t expand further. My point here is that learning is greatly facilitated when you look for patterns. Memorize the patterns, and it is easier to memorize the specifics.

            The point is this: structure your learning material in ways that work best for you. Develop a strategy. Look for patterns. A strategic approach should also include developing ways to categorize things in the most useful way for memorization.

Dates and Places

There is a number coding system that makes it easier to remember numbers. This is especially useful for remembering dates. The code is as follows:

The principle is to first convert an integer (0 through 9) to a letter that is a consonant. Then insert vowels between the consonants to create a word that can be imaged. Words are constructed by insert vowels, which are neutral and do not affect the scheme. Think of vowels as wildcards. So, in the example above, 44 stands for “rower,” with the word constructed by inserting appropriate vowels between the two r’s that represent number four.

A set of rules determines how to construct number-associated images. The rules dictate what letters and sounds go with numbers 1 through 0, as follows:

 

Number — Letter or Sound — Mnemonic Aid

1 — t or d — each letter has one down stroke

2 — n or kg/gn — two down strokes (kn/gn have same sound)

3 — m — three down strokes

4 — r — last letter of word “four”

5 — L — Roman numeral  for the five in 50

6 — j,  ch, sh,   soft g — reverse J looks like 6,

7 — k, ck, hard g or c — attach a flipped 7 to a straight line on its left

8 — f, ph, v — F joined with another upside down F

9 — p or b — backwards p or a rotated b look like 9

0 — z, s, soft c — Z as in zero, soft c as in cent

 

It may seem like a lot of trouble to memorize these rules, but once done, it gives you a lot of memory power. You can construct all sorts of images based on these rules (see number-image list below for 1 to 100).

The words, all nouns, that you make up from these consonants can be a single word that includes all the consonants or several words that are sequentially linked. The number system can be useful for long-term remembering of some things, like dates, for example. If you wanted to remember that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, you could build a memorable picture as follows: a number code for 1776 could be dog (17) and cage (76). Couple this with whatever image comes to mind for the Declaration, such as the liberty bell. Now picture your dog sleeping in its cage crate, being awakened by the ringing bell. For the link to July 4, you might want to add a firecracker image that goes off after the bell rings, like a Pavlov experiment where the bell rings, unconditioned firecracker stimulus goes off, and dog responds with jumping around in his cage.

The other use for this system is to create an easily remembered peg list. To convert this to a numbered peg list, you make up words using these rules. For example:

 

1  tie 2  knee 3 ma (mom) 4 rye 5 law 6 jaw` 7 key 8 ivy 9 bow 10 toes 11 tot 12 tin 13 dam 14 door 15 tail 16 dash (-) 17 tack 18 dove 19 tub 20 nose

21 nut 22 nun 23 Nero 25 nail 26 nacho 27 neck 28 knife 29 knob 30 mice 31 mat 32 moon 33 mummy 34 mower 35 mule 36 match 37 mug 38 movie 39 mop 40 rice

41 rat 42 rain 43 ram 44 rower 45 roll 46 roach 47 rock 48 roof 49 rope 50 lace 51 lot 52 lion 53 lime 54 lure 55 lily 56 leash 57 log 58 lava 59 lip 60 cheese

61 sheet 62 chain 63 jam 64 cherry 65 jail 66 judge 67 check 68 chef 69 ship 70 case 71 cot 72 coin 73 cam 74 car 75 coal 76 cage 77 cake 78 cave 79 cap 80 fez (hat)

81 foot 82 phone 83 foam 84 fur 85 file 86 fish 87 fog 88 fife 89 fob (watch fob) 90 bus 91 bar 92 bone 93 bum 94 bear 95 bell89 fob (watch fob) 90 bus 91 bar 92 bone 93 bum 94 bear 95 bell 96 beach 97 book 98 beef 99 pipe 100 daisy

 

Although the list has 100 pegs, they are relatively easy to memorize because they are constructed by a rule. If you know the rules for converting numbers to letters, you can even generate your own word peg in case you forget.

There are even more powerful uses of this code than remember numbers or dates. Suppose you are trying to memorize a textbook, page by page. Suppose on page 47 (rock) the page explains alpha rhythms, showing an EEG trace, and pointing out that they occur mostly when eyes are shut and that alcohol and sedatives lower the frequency. So, to remember this, you visualize a rock floating on ocean waves that look like the graphs you saw in the book. You only see this image when you shut your eyes. Imagine opening your eyes and the rock/wave image goes away. Shut your eyes, see the rock/waves again. Then imagine drinking a beer, and the waves get larger and slower (i.e., fewer of them).

You could go through a whole textbook like this. How would you deal with several textbooks? This problem, not easily solved, is how to un-remember what is on the pegs. After all, you use the pegs over and over again for different items. Actually, this did not seem to be a problem when I was using this system to memorize magazine content. Clearly, this system works best only for items you just want to remember for a short while.

Music

Music is hard for most people to learn. You not only have to memorize the notes, their timing, and sequence, but you have to train the body parts like fingers, lips, and tongue to execute the notes.

            “You’ve probably heard the old joke: “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, practice, practice!” Well music practice does take time, and it’s probably not a satisfying answer for people looking to learn music quickly. But surely there are techniques and strategies to expedite the process. Here’s one method I’ve created using related memory principles:

1.     Skim the whole score to identify hard and easy parts and phrases that repeat. Then start at the beginning, memorizing in chunks, one or a few bars at a time, depending on the capacity of your working memory. After memorizing a bar or phrase, see if you can play it without peeking. Musicians do not learn a new piece from beginning to end all at once. They often start at the beginning of a piece and learn a small section until they get it right. Then they learn the next piece. Then they practice stitching the pieces together. They repeat this process until they get to the end.

2.     Memorize the mechanical acts needed to play the notes (keys on a piano, valves on a clarinet, etc.). Learn one hand at a time. Look at the hands and keys while playing.

3.     Play what you have just memorized from memory and repeat until you feel it is mastered. Play one hand at a time, then play with both together. Don’t peek at the score until after you have played the section. Check for any errors in your recall.

4.     Play the chunk slowly at first, then test the tempo by playing with a metronome.

5.     Move to a different chunk and repeat steps 1-3. Add one bar or phrase at a time. Mark sections of the score as they are learned.

6.     Join the latest chunk with those previously learned and play from the beginning.

7.     In the next practice session, rehearse what was learned in the previous session before moving on to new material.

Sources:

Bahrick, H.P., Bahrick, L.E., Bahrick, A.S., & Bahrick, P.E. (1993). Maintenance of foreign language vocabulary and the spacing effect. Psychological Science, 4, 316–321.

Klemm, W. R.   Memory Power 101. (New York: Skyhorse).