College Education

Rule 5: Repeat to remember

While repetition is covered in this chapter, the main idea underlying this rule is that "information is remembered best when it is elaborate, meaningful and contextual … the quality of the encoding stage is one of the single greatest predictors of learning success … ‘quality of encoding’ means the number of door handles one can put on the entrance to a piece of information."

Medina makes three key assertions:

1. "The more elaborately we encode information at the moment of learning, the stronger the memory." The more meaning something has, particularly to the individual learner, the more memorable it becomes. So, if you want to remember something, make sure you understand it. Medina recommends that teachers make liberal use of relevant, real-world examples, which I’d also endorse strongly. Medina explains: "Why do examples work? They appear to take advantage of the brain’s predeliction for pattern matching. Information is more readily processed if it can be immediately associated with information already present in the learner’s brain."
2. "A memory trace appears to be stored in the same parts of the brain that perceived and processed the initial input." The human brain is not like a computer: "it has no ‘hard drive’ separate from its initial; input connectors."
3. "Retrieval may best be improved by replicating the conditions surrounding the initial encoding." Retrieval works best when the environmental conditions at retrieval mimic the environmental conditions at encoding. If this is true, then the most effective environment in which to learn would be on-the-job; to take the idea to extremes, the only people who should be taught in classrooms are teachers, and the only people who should be taught using computers are those who work on them!

My postings on Brain rules #1, Brain rules #2, Brain rules #3, Brain rules #4

The Brain Rules book

The Brain Rules website

Source: Clive Shepherd