{"id":28127,"date":"2013-02-06T05:51:37","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T10:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/?p=28127"},"modified":"2013-08-29T16:44:07","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T20:44:07","slug":"3-powerful-principles-for-remembering-learning-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2013\/02\/06\/3-powerful-principles-for-remembering-learning-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"3 powerful principles for remembering + learning anything"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" itemprop=\"contentUrl representativeOfPage\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\" alt=\"Joshua Foer\" src=\"http:\/\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2012\/11\/7\/1352294611197\/Joshua-Foer-008.jpg\" width=\"525\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Having an increasingly difficult time remembering things (and SO much to remember), we were very interested to read the Guardian&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\" The first is what's known as elaborative encoding. The more context and meaning you can attach to a piece of information, the likelier it is that you'll be able to fish it out of your memory at some point in the future. And the more effort you put into creating the memory, the more durable it will be. One of the best ways to elaborate a memory is to try visually to imagine it in your mind's eye. If you can link the sound of a word to a picture representing its meaning, it'll be far more memorable than simply learning the word by rote.  One of the best-demonstrated principles of memory...is the value of what's known as &quot;spaced repetition&quot;...the best way to secure memories for the long term is to impart them in repeated sessions, distributed across time, with other material interleaved in between. If you want to make information stick, it's best to learn it, go away from it for a while, come back to it later, leave it behind again, and once again return to it \u2013 to engage with it deeply across time. Our memories naturally degrade, but each time you return to a memory, you reactivate its neural network and help to lock it in.  \" target=\"_blank\">How I learned a language in 22 hours<\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.memrise.com\/home\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joshua Foer<\/a>&#8216;s successfully learning an obscure language using a learning website called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.memrise.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Memrise<\/a>. Memrise bases their language courses on three essential principles, excerpted here from the very long and interesing piece:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The first is what&#8217;s known as elaborative encoding. <strong>The more context and meaning you can attach to a piece of information, the likelier it is that you&#8217;ll be able to fish it out of your memory at some point in the future. And the more effort you put into creating the memory, the more durable it will be<\/strong>. One of the best ways to elaborate a memory is to try visually to imagine it in your mind&#8217;s eye. If you can link the sound of a word to a picture representing its meaning, it&#8217;ll be far more memorable than simply learning the word by rote.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>One of the best-demonstrated principles of memory<!--more-->&#8230;is the value of what&#8217;s known as &#8220;spaced repetition&#8221;:&#8230;<strong>the best way to secure memories for the long term is to impart them in repeated sessions, distributed across time, with other material interleaved in between<\/strong>. If you want to make information stick, it&#8217;s best to learn it, go away from it for a while, come back to it later, leave it behind again, and once again return to it \u2013 to engage with it deeply across time. Our memories naturally degrade, but each time you return to a memory, you reactivate its neural network and help to lock it in.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The third principle that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.memrise.com\/home\/\" target=\"_blank\">Memrise<\/a> has found to be essential is to make learning FUN (what a concept!).<\/p>\n<p>Related posts:<a title=\"how to remember anything\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2011\/03\/22\/how-to-remember-anything\/\" target=\"_blank\"> how to remember anything<br \/>\n<\/a><a title=\"keeping an instagram journal\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2012\/07\/09\/keeping-an-instagram-journal\/\" target=\"_blank\">keeping an instagram journal<br \/>\n<\/a><a title=\"dept of the future: how would you like to be remembered?\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2011\/10\/05\/dept-of-the-future-how-would-you-like-to-be-remembered\/\" target=\"_blank\">dept of the future: how would you like to be remembered?<br \/>\n<\/a><a title=\"a jar of air + memory\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2010\/07\/16\/a-jar-of-air-memory\/\" target=\"_blank\">a jar of air + memory<br \/>\n<\/a><a title=\"digital memory archive (photograph stuff then give it away)\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2011\/04\/06\/digital-memory-archive-photograph-stuff-then-give-it-away\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0digital memory archive (photograph stuff then give it away)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having an increasingly difficult time remembering things (and SO much to remember), we were very interested to read the Guardian&#8217;s\u00a0How I learned a language in 22 hours\u00a0about\u00a0Joshua Foer&#8216;s successfully learning an obscure language using a learning website called Memrise. Memrise bases their language courses on three essential principles, excerpted here from the very long and&hellip;<\/p>\n<a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\" https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2013\/02\/06\/3-powerful-principles-for-remembering-learning-anything\/ \">Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8361,458,31,6549,89,90,8364],"tags":[5757,2151,5759,771,5758],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 powerful principles for remembering + learning anything<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having an increasingly difficult time remembering things (and SO much to remember), we were very interested to read the 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