Over the past weeks we have looked at how we can add meaning to help us remember things. This included how we familiarity and rhymes can help. This week we look at finding meaning through patterns. When things have a pattern, you are much more likely to remember them.

The next way we can add meaning to help us remember is through rhymes. Cast your mind back to school when you were learning so many new things? Did your teachers use rhymes to help you remember things? Things like “I before e except after c’. Rhymes give meaning to material that doesn’t inherently have meaning and in doing so, helps us to remember.

This week we look more into what helps us remember somethings better than others starting with something called familiarity. Do you remember things that are different or unfamiliar better? Generally, the more you know about something the easier it is to learn more about it. Learning grows more learning. Learn more here.

How did you learn for exams? Many of us were taught to rote learn. To write things out over and over and over again until it ‘stuck’. But is this a good way to remember things? Experiments have shown that things that mean something to a person (things that they understand) are much easier to remember than things that don’t. Learn more here.

We have seen how important memory is. It affects every part of our lives. We have seen that each type of memory has its strengths and weaknesses. How can we use this knowledge to our advantage? In the coming weeks we will look at how to improve our memory or more accurately how to make best use of our memory. We will start with some basic fundamentals behind most strategies to improve memory.