How to Use the ‘Association’ Technique to Remember What You Study

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Of all the study tips out there, from those that enhance reading comprehension to those that improve retention, the one I use the most is association, which has its own entry in the APA Dictionary of Psychology: It’s “a connection or relationship between two items (e.g., ideas, events, feelings) with the result that experiencing the first item activates a representation of the second. Associations are fundamental to learning theory and behaviorism.” Essentially, it’s any connection you can form between two items—like a phrase and an idea or a color and a word—that can help you later when you think of the associated item, which will inspire the second one to pop in your brain.

It might seem silly or like a call-back to elementary school, but making up little personal memory devices helps me with everything from test-taking to completing daily work tasks. There’s a reason it worked when you were in the first grade and there’s no real reason you should have stopped employing it as you aged. Here are some of the easiest ways to use association when you’re trying to improve your memory.

Make up a mnemonic phrase

In primary school, we all learned mnemonic phrases, like “my very educated mother just sat upon nine pizzas.” That one was designed to help us remember the names and orders of the planets by starting each word in the sentence with the first letter of its corresponding planet: Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc. I still make up nonsensical phrases to help me remember ordered lists; I did it for a number of my classes in grad school, though the content we were studying in my MPH program was arguably a lot more elevated and serious than pizzas and planets. The particular phrase I used in my Research Methods class was a little more gauche and inappropriate, so I shan’t reveal it here, but it stuck in my brain well enough that I remember it two years after I took the final exam I made it up for. It’s not just me, either; loads of research shows mnemonic devices truly help retention. I prefer to make up a sentence that somehow applies to my real life, but if the absurdity of mothers sitting upon pizzas works better for you, run with it.

Use rhymes and songs

Making up little rhymes or songs is also beneficial, though I’ll admit I don’t do this one as often. The “30 days hath September, April, June, and November…” rhyme is a famous one, but don’t overlook the value of songs. It worked for your ABCs and your 50 Nifty United States.

Start by organizing what you need to study and look for anything that might rhyme—but make sure it all stays in order if it needs to. Use a tune you know or make up a rhyme on the spot, but repeat it to yourself over and over until it sticks.

As an example, let’s look at the first four basic steps to take before conducting research: Identifying and developing your topic, preliminarily searching for existing research, locating materials, and evaluating your sources. A rhyme here could be something like, “Identify what you want to know / but check who’s done it before you go / now you find the tools to help / and judge the work of someone else.”

If you’re struggling here, you might want to ask ChatGPT. I don’t usually advocate for calling in AI when you’re studying, since you need to be learning the material yourself and not letting some robot do the work for you, but where I’ve found it to shine is in generation of things like this. There are a handful of ethical ways to study with AI and this is one of them. You won’t get the benefits that go with thinking and coming up with something on your own, but if you’re not creative by nature, the software can spit out a tune for you, you can rehearse it, and you can reap the benefits of that, instead.

I just gave it the same prompt as above—a well-known tune to help me remember the first four basic steps of research—and got this, which is meant to be set to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”:

Step one, choose a topic right,Make it clear and not too wide.Step two, search and look around,What’s already out there to be found.Step three, go and find the source,Books and journals, charts, of course.Step four, check if it makes sense —Is it strong, or just pretense?

Now you’re ready, well-prepared,To research with thoughtful care.

Whatever works!

Paint a mental picture

This is what I do most often: I assign little scenarios to groups of words and paint a mental picture that helps me remember them. For instance, the other night I was helping my boyfriend study accounting and discovered that “book value,” “carrying value,” and “net realizable value” all refer to the same thing. To help him remember that, I suggested imagining a little guy carrying a book and a net. The book could be in the net or the little guy could be carrying them both separately, but once you imagine the scene, it’s hard to forget it, even if it makes no sense or has nothing to do with the real topic at hand. Sure enough, he took his test and remembered all three words to describe the same concept with ease thanks to the fictitious little guy (and me).

When you’re studying for a test, think creatively. If something strikes you as interesting or brings to mind a silly, unrelated picture or idea, don’t dismiss it. Fortifying that mental relationship and making an association will only enhance your memory.

Original Source: https://lifehacker.com/the-best-ways-to-use-association-to-remember-what-you-1850861942?utm_medium=RSS