This is the most effective way to learn

Chapter 31 Important Material to Remember at the Beginning and End

There is a proverb that says: Once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of well ropes for ten years.Although this sentence has nothing to do with memory, it tells us the fact that the first impression of things plays a big role in people's understanding of things.Similarly, the first memory has a great influence on the length and depth of the memory in the future.As the psychologist Bisas pointed out in his work: "Retention and reproduction depend to a large extent on the intensity of attention and interest when the relevant mental activity first appears."It seems that the efficiency of memorization can be improved by using the strength, precision, depth, and breadth of things perceived for the first time.

Psychological principles of emphasizing head-to-tail memory
Each of us has deep feelings in this regard. When we meet someone for the first time, the impression we give to others often determines our relationship with him in the future.For example, when we have memorized a large number of English words, the ones we can recall are probably the first and last few.The middle part has almost been forgotten, why?

Psychological research also tells us that the content of memorization before and after will interfere with each other, thus affecting the memory effect.In the memory process, the things remembered first have an inhibitory effect on the things remembered later, which is called proactive inhibition (we use ? to express); the things remembered later also have an inhibitory effect on the things remembered first, called retroactive inhibition (We use ? Bing to express).

It can be seen that the beginning A and the ending F are only subject to one-way inhibition, while the middle parts B, C, D, and E are subject to two-way inhibition, and the more the middle part, the stronger the inhibition.

[Experimental support] American psychologist Dr. He Puland once did such an experiment. He arranged twelve words in a row and asked others to memorize them.The test results show that almost no one will misremember the first word and the second word. Starting from the third word, the errors gradually increase, and the seventh and eighth words have the highest errors. Afterwards, the errors gradually decrease. The correct rate of No.12 words is as high as the second word.Similar phenomena are common.

Using head-to-tail mnemonic techniques

After understanding the laws of how memory materials are affected by proactive inhibition and retroactive inhibition, we should minimize the impact of proactive inhibition and retroactive inhibition on memory in memory learning.How to use this characteristic of memory?
(1) Put important things in the beginning and end to remember.

If you are speaking, you should tell everyone what is important in advance, and then emphasize it at the end.In this way, everyone will have a deeper impression of what you want to say, so as to achieve their own goals.

(2) To memorize large-scale materials, you can use the segmented memory method, so that each segment has a beginning and an end, artificially creating conditions for improving memory.

(3) You can change the order of memorizing several nouns or major questions at a time, and change the beginning and end every time you memorize them, so as to distribute the review force evenly.Breaking things down and adding heads and tails is also a good way to avoid proactive and retroactive inhibition.

A large amount of knowledge is memorized continuously at one time, so that the knowledge "fights" and interferes with each other.If a large amount of memory material is divided into small pieces of memory, one part is memorized and the other part is consolidated, each section has a beginning and an end.In long-term learning, there must be a break in the middle, or memory and non-memory are interleaved, which also increases the number of beginnings and endings of memory activities.In the head or tail of the memory, there is no proactive inhibition or retroactive inhibition, and the memory effect is good.

(4) Reasonably organize memorization materials, try to make the adjacent learning content completely different, and prevent the occurrence of inhibition.

For example, if you have just finished studying history, do not study Chinese to reduce the interaction between materials.Putting difficult materials at the beginning and end of learning is also a good way to avoid retroactive inhibition or proactive inhibition and improve memory.

(5) Arrange time reasonably.

Take the time to study after waking up in the morning, and the memory effect is good.Because the brain after a night’s rest is empty, there is no effect of proactive inhibition; sleep after studying at night is not affected by retroactive inhibition, so read the notes before going to bed or close your eyes and recall what you learned that day. good.

We have to make full use of the "golden time" of morning and evening.It will be better to review the materials memorized before going to bed the night before and review them when you wake up the next morning.They can be used to memorize difficult materials.Furthermore, in the long-term study, you should take a break in the middle, the best time is [-] minutes to [-] minutes, so that the number of beginnings and endings is increased.

In short, making full use of the beginning and the end will enable people to achieve significant memory effects in the same time and with the same energy.

Two points should be paid attention to when using the head-to-tail memory method
(1) It is also applicable in the memory process that requires a long time.

If the memory is a fairly long period, be careful not to ignore the role of the tail.What does that mean?That is to say, no matter how proficient we have memorized the content to be memorized before, we must review it when we need to use it at the end.Proper review before taking a test or assessment plays a very important role in the re-enforcing of memory.Don't be "anticlimactic".

(2) Emphasis on head and tail memory is used to remind readers not to forget the important role played by head and tail in strengthening memory.It can be used to make an impression.Paying attention to the head and tail memory does not mean that the middle part can be discarded.On the contrary, because the middle part is easy to forget, we adopt the method of breaking the whole into parts, simplifying the complexity, and increasing the head and tail.For those memory materials that cannot be shortened and are difficult to segment, the application of the strategy of "taking care of both sides and strengthening the middle" at this time is extremely important.

(End of this chapter)