+
Chapter 16
Improving Your Memory
+
Most Common Passwords on the
Internet
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3
Tips for Selecting Passwords

Brown et al. (2004) – 31% of students admit to having forgotten
one or more passwords.

Fool the hacker and you are likely to also fool yourself.

45% of students use their own name in password construction – a
bad idea.

Use a transformation of some memorable cue involving a mix
of letters and symbols

Keep a record of all passwords in a place to which only you
have access (e.g. a safe deposit box)

It is easier to recall the location of a hidden object when the location
is likely than when it is unexpected
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4
Popular Mnemonic Aids

Harris (1980) surveyed housewives and students on their
mnemonic use:


Both groups used largely similar techniques; however,

Students were more likely to write on their hands

Housewives were more likely to write on calendars
External aids (e.g. diaries, calendars, lists, and timers) were
especially popular


…Today we have laptops, PDAs, and mobile telephones
Very few internal mnemonics were reported

These are especially useful in situations that ban external aids
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List of Mnemonics (see Box 16.1)

Shopping lists

Writing on hand

Richard of York Gave Battle in
Vain (rainbow colors)


Diary
Story Method – make up a
story connecting items in the
proper order.

Mentally retrace steps to
locate an object.

Set an alarm to remember to
do something (wake up, for
cooking, for other tasks).

Pegword Method – one-bun,
two-shoe, three-tree…


Rhymes (in 1492 Columbus
sailed the ocean blue)
Method of Loci – visualize
objects in a familiar place then
revisit it in your mind.
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Mnemonics (Cont.)


Turning numbers into letters,
such as to remember a phone
number.

Calendars, wall charts, year
planners, display boards, etc.

Asking other people to
remember things for you.

Leaving objects in special or
unusual places so they act as
reminders.
Writing notes and to-do lists
for yourself.

Face-name association –
imagine Mr. Hiles with hills
growing out of his beard.

Use the alphabet as a retrieval
cue to search for a name.
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7
Memory Experts
Shereshevskii
The Mind of a Mnemonist by Luria

A Russian with an amazing memory


Had seemingly limitless memory for:






Digits (100+)
Nonsense syllables
Foreign-language poetry
Complex figures
Complex scientific formulae
His memory relied heavily on imagery and synesthesia:


A former journalist who never took notes but could repeat back quotes verbatim
The tendency for one sense modality to evoke another
His apparent inability to forget, and his synesthesia, caused great
complications and struggle for him
+ Wilding and Valentine (1994)
Naturals vs. Strategists
Naturals

Innately gifted

Possess a close relative who
exhibits a comparable level of
memory ability

Tested both kinds of mnemonists at
the World Memory Championships
on two types of tasks:
 Strategic Tasks
 e.g. recalling the names of
faces
 Nonstrategic Tasks
 e.g. recognition of snow
crystals

Strategists
Highly practiced in certain
mnemonic techniques
Based on data in Wilding and Valentine (1994).
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9
Spatial Navigation and Memory
Maguire et al.’s (2003) Neuroimaging Experiment

During learning, superior memorizers:

Tended to have more activity in areas of the brain involved in spatial
memorization and navigation

This was likely related to their use of the method of loci

Involves visualizing to-be-remembered information at various
points along a known route

Uses spatial memory
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10
Rajan Mahadevan
A Natural Mnemonist?

Previously held the world record for memorizing the most digits of pi (30,000)


Thompson et al. (1991) found that he had an unusual digit span:



Various strategies contributed to this ability
59 visually presented digits
63 for heard digits
He chunked digits into strings of 10–15 digits, not the typical 3–4



This initially suggested a natural enhancement of his basic memory capacity
However, arguing against a natural superiority, he has an average:
 Symbol span
 Ability to remember the position and orientation of various objects
 Memory for word lists and stories
It turns out that he uses various associations and patterns to group digits.
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Mnemonics

Method of Loci – place items in a location, then take a mental
walk.

Peg-word System – use peg words as a structure and
associate a list of items with them using visualization.

Story telling – a series of unrelated words is linked together within
the context of a story.

Requires training to do.
+
Method of Loci
Pick a route
through a familiar
location, then place
items along that
route.
To recall them, walk
back through the
rooms and visualize
the items left there
previously.
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“This Old Man” Song
Elmo alphabet song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZoEqJbizo
This Old Man by Rockosaurus Rex:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cYf9vkW_xU
More traditional version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmPDYkCBuoY
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Pegword System
1 – bun
2 – shoe
3 – tree
4 – door
5 – hive
6 – sticks
7 – heaven
8 – gate
9 – wine
10 -- hen
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15
Visual Mnemonic Techniques
Method of Loci

Goes back to ancient Greeks

To-be-remembered items are
associated with the locations
(e.g. places along a walk)


Limitations of the technique:

Difficult to remember an item
out of order

Harder to deal with abstract
words or ideas
Effectiveness can be
diminished by introducing an
interfering spatial task



Kondo et al. (2004) found that
learning with this method
differentially activates:

Right inferior frontal gyrus

Middle frontal gyrus
Makes it less useful in the
real world
Works better for orally than
visually presented material

Likely because visual
presentation interferes with
visual imagery
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Method of Loci vs Rehearsal
(a) Memory performance for a 2000-word text at a short retention
interval as a function of type of presentation (written vs. oral) and
learning strategy (rehearsal vs. method of loci). (b) Memory
performance at a 1-week retention interval as a function of type of
presentation and learning strategy. Data from De Beni et al. (1997).
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17
Visual Mnemonic Techniques
Pegword System


Memorize a list of words that
rhyme with digits one to ten

One = Bun

Two = Shoe

Three = Tree …
Now imagine each to-beremembered item interacting
with one pegword

e.g. for “battleship,” imagine
a battleship sailing into a
floating bun

Limitations of the technique:

Requires extensive training

Easier to use with concrete
materials

It may not be very useful in
everyday life
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18
Visual Mnemonic Techniques
Remembering Names

Imagery Technique:
 Come up with an imageable
substitute for the name
 e.g. Eysenck = “ice sink”
 Come up with a prominent
facial feature of the person
 e.g. a nose
 Link the two
 e.g. The nose could be the
sink’s faucet
 Unfortunately, this can be too
time-consuming for real life

Expanded Retrieval Practice:
 Retrieve the name at
increasing intervals after first
hearing them

Morris et al. (2005) found that in
a naturalistic setting:
 Expanded retrieval practice
procedure led to 50% better
recall than no strategy
 Having no strategy was
actually better than using the
imagery technique!
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Verbal Mnemonics
Reverend Brayshaw’s (1849) Metrical Mnemonics

Offered up rhymes to help remember 2000+ dates and facts

Presented a system for converting a number sequence into a
word to help remember dates and the likes

Vowels were inserted where needed

Could be useful for remembering PIN numbers
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
00
B
D
G
J
L
M
P
R
T
W
St
C
F
H
K
N
Q
V
X
S

Z
e.g. 1914 (World War I begins) = CTBS  CAT BASE
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20
Other Verbal Mnemonics

Take the first letter of each word you want to remember in sequence
and construct a sentence with those initial letters


Helpful for recalling the order of items, assuming that the words
themselves can be reliably recalled when cued with the first letters
 e.g. the colors of the rainbow
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet
R
O
Y
G
B
I
V
Richard
Of
York
Gave
Battle
In
Vain
Story Method:


Links together a series of unrelated words in the correct order within the
context of a story
Limitations:
 Takes a while to construct
 Hard to retrieve items out of order
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21
Mnemonics and Existing Knowledge

Mnemonics work when they make use of our current knowledge

Kalakoski and Saariluoma (2001)




Participants:
 Helsinki taxi drivers
 Students
Task:
 Remember 15 Helsinki street names, either
 Connected streets presented in their real, spatial ordering
 Connected streets presented in random order
 Unconnected streets presented in random order
Results:
 The drivers outperformed students when connected streets were used
 When unconnected streets were used, the groups performed equally
Conclusion:
 The drivers’ existing spatial knowledge was an asset only when the
materials fit neatly into that structure
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22
Principles for a Better Memory
Ericsson (1988)
Requirement
Description
Encoding Principle
Information should be processed
meaningfully, relating it to preexisting
knowledge
Retrieval Structure Principle
Cues should be stored with the information
to aid subsequent retrieval
Speed-Up Principle
Extensive practice increases the speed of
encoding and retrieval
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23
From Normal to Mnemonist
Ericsson and Chase (1982)

They had a university student (SF) practice the digit span task for 1
hour per day for 2 years

Over this time, his span increased from about 7 items to 80 items


Encoding and retrieval principles in action:

He increased his span to 18 items by relating numbers to known
running times (e.g. 3594 = “Bannister’s time for the mile”)

He further increased his span by organizing those chunks into a
hierarchical structure
Speed-up principle in action:


He became much faster at chunking and organizing the numbers with
extensive practice
However, his newfound ability did NOT generalize to other memory tasks

He maintained average letter and word spans
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Learning Styles
Biggs’ (1987) Study Process Questionnaire

The questionnaire assesses students’ dominant approach to
learning
Learning Style
Emphasis
Predicts
Surface
•
•
•
•
Deep
• Learning to understand
• Relating ideas to evidence and
integrating information
• High motivation to understand
• Similar to deep level of processing
Good examination
performance
Strategic
• Seeking the study techniques to get
the best grades
• Motivated to be efficient
Great examination
performance
Rote learning of ideas and facts
Little focus on content
Little motivation to study
Similar to shallow level of processing
Poor examination
performance
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Morris’s (1979) SQ3R Approach
Five Stages of Effective Reading
Stage
Goals
S
Survey
• Figuring out how the reading is organized
• Read the summary or scan the piece
Q
Question
• Thinking of relevant questions which each section should
answer
• Do this for chunks of text of 3000 words or less
R1
Read
• Reading through each chunk in order to:
• Answer the questions formulated above
• Integrate information to pre-existing knowledge
R2
Recite
• Trying to remember the key ideas of each chunk
• If forgotten, repeat the Read stage
R3
Review
• Remembering the key ideas from the chapter and
combining the chunks after finishing the entire piece
• Return to Read stage, if necessary
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Morris’s (1979) SQ3R Approach
Five Stages of Effective Reading

Benefits of the SQ3R approach:

Avoids the student’s illusion

The false confidence students get as they skim through a chapter,
finding that the material seems familiar (i.e. they’d be able to
recognize it)

However, the actual test is likely to be:

More anxiety-provoking

Asking them to recall (rather than recognize) the information
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27
Testing Effect
Karpicke and Roediger (2006a)

Testing Effect:
 The finding that long-term retention
is best when the information is
repeatedly tested during learning

Task:
 Students were asked to memorize a
prose passage through either
 Repeated Study (SSSS):
 Passage was read four times
without a test
 Single Test (SSST):
 Passage was read three times,
followed be a recall test
 Repeated Test (STTT):
 Passage was read once,
followed by three recall tests

Results:
 Repeated study is most
effective at the short retention
interval
 At learning, this group
expected the best longterm memory
 Considered the least
effortful/demanding
condition
 Repeated testing is most
effective at the long retention
interval
 i.e. the testing effect
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Testing Helps Long Term Memory
Memory performance
as a function of
learning conditions
(S, study; T, test) and
retention interval (5
minutes vs. 1 week).
From Roediger and
Karpicke (2006).
Copyright ©
Blackwell Publishing.
Reproduced with
permission.
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Explaining the Testing Effect
Bjork and Bjork (1992)

Storage Strength:


Relative permanence of a memory trace
Retrieval Strength:

The accessibility of a given memory trace

Easy retrieval does not increase storage strength

Difficult retrieval increases storage strength and leads to longterm memory performance

Working hard to give yourself recall tests during studying is highly
beneficial to long-term retention
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30
Testing with Feedback
Pashler et al. (2005)

Task:



Results:


Learn Luganda–English translations
 Some participants got corrective feedback on incorrect test trials
during study
 Others did not receive feedback
Tested 1 week later on the vocabulary
Recall for the words they had gotten wrong a week before was about
five times better if they had received immediate feedback.
Conclusion:

Testing yourself with feedback is best for long-term retention
 Tip: Use flashcards; don’t just re-read your notes!
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31
Mind Maps
Buzan and Buzan (1993)

Mind Map:

A note-taking/brainstorming
strategy consisting of a
diagram, including:

A central idea

Related ideas


More closely related
concepts are located
closer to the central
concept
Links connecting them
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32
Benefits of Mind Maps
Presumed Benefits

Encourage active learning

More natural than linear note
taking

Ideas are distilled to their core,
leaving out unimportant details

Visual images may be easier to
remember

Color coding can be used to
indicate category relations
Empirical Benefits

Farrand, Hussaine, and Hennessy
(2002)
 Task:
 Learn the material by:
 Mind mapping
 Usual study techniques
 Tested 1 week later
 Results:
 Mind-mapping group recalled
10% more
 Even though mind mappers
had less motivation for their
technique

Budd (2004) suggested that
students favoring a “doing” learning
style are more motivated to use
mind maps than people with a
“thinking” learning style
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33
Vocabulary Learning
Keyword Technique

Keyword Technique



Form an association between the new word and an English
word/phrase sounding like it
 The sound-alike word becomes the keyword
Create a mental image with the keyword linking the two
Example:
 Word:
 zvonok (pronounced zvah-oak; means “bell” in Russian)
 Keyword:
 “Oak”
 Image:
 An oak tree covered with bells
+ Keyword Technique
34
Ellis and Beaton (1993)

Receptive Vocabulary Learning



Results:
 Providing noun keywords yields
better memory than other
strategies in receptive learning
 Productive learning does not
seem to benefit from keywords

Conclusion:
 In productive learning, retrieving
the keyword when presented with
the English word didn’t provide
enough information to recall the
foreign word

Follow-Ups:
 Keywords can benefit productive
learning with enough practice
e.g. producing the appropriate
English word to a foreign word
Productive Vocabulary Learning

e.g. producing the right foreign
word to an English word
Adapted from Ellis and Beaton (1993).
+
35
Learning Verbatim
Actors Learning Lines

Noice and Noice (1996)


Actors start the process of memorizing lines by focusing on the
needs and motivations of the characters

This lays down the structure for and helps deeply encode the
material

Allows them to understand why certain words were chosen for a
particular character

This is associated with better gist recall; however, actors are
surprisingly good in their verbatim recall as well
Actors use contextual information (e.g. gestures, stage moves, and
facial expressions of other actors, as well as their own physical
positions) to facilitate recall of the lines
+
36
Attention, Interest, and Knowledge

Information on any given topic will be remembered better by
individuals who have great interest in it than those who don’t


e.g. the Swazi’s of South Africa superior memory for information
about cows (Bartlett, 1932)
Interest in a topic is positively associated with pre-existing
knowledge and schemas into which new information can be
integrated

e.g. existing soccer knowledge correlates highly with the ability to
remember made-up soccer scores (Morris et al., 1981)
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37
Motivation
Locke’s (1968) Goal-Setting Theory

Assumptions:




Conscious goals have a
major impact on people’s
motivation and behavior
Self-assigning more difficult
goals is associated with
better performance
It is important to be fully
committed to the goal

Goals should be SMART:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-framed
The theory holds up when there
is a single, specific task without
distraction

However, real-life goals are
much more complicated …
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38
Motivation
Gollwitzer’s (1999) Implementation Intentions

Implementation Intentions:

Objectives explicitly
specifying in detail how,
when, and where individuals
are going to achieve the
goals they have set
themselves

Creates an “instant habit”


Reliably triggered by
relevant cues
Offer an improvement over
goal-setting theory for realworld intentions

Implementation instructions
 Can reduce susceptibility to
distraction
 Especially if they aim to
ignore distractions rather
than increase focus on the
task of interest
 e.g. saying, “Whenever
the distraction arises, I
will ignore it!”
 Can enhance the chances of
people achieving their goals
 e.g. Gollwitzer and
Brandstätter’s (1997)
Christmas homework
+
Examples of Implementation
Instructions

Natalie says: “When one of my roommates knocks on the
door, I will tell her that I’ll see her at 8 pm.”

“Whenever the distraction arises, I will ignore it” works much
better than “I will not let myself get distracted”

Gollwitzer and Brandstätter’s (1997) Christmas homework:

75% of students with implementation instructions completed their
Christmas reports

33% of students without instructions completed reports