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8. See and Say
- University of Wisconsin Press
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Remembering Tips S9 REMEMBERING TIP 8 See and Say Back in grade school, we all had show-and-tell. Besides being fun, teacher knew it helped us to remember. That's because it combines two big memory prods: sight and sound. If we can tie visual images to things we want to remember, we remember them better. (Try it: without looking back, see if you can remember what idea the image of old-man-on-thebicycle demonstrated in the previous tip.) If we hear someone explain an idea to us, that too helps us remember it. So make use of sight and sound to help yourself remember . Make the diagrams and other visual depictions of your study material that are shown in Learning Tip 9. Learn, too, to make tangible pictures in your mind to remind you of the ideas and facts you want to remember. For example, to remember the date the Industrial Revolution began, you could picture an appropriate scene from Dickens or City Lights or even the movie Norma Rae and carve the date, in your head, on a machine in the picture. (Visual imagery like this is the secret behind some of the memory feats of great magicians.) To get sound working for you, talk over your coursework with a friend. When you're studying a foreign language, it is particularly helpful to say the words aloud. In class, say them along with the teacher or student who is reciting. While studying, tell them to yourself. When you read a chapter, summarize its parts, bit by bit, out loud as you go along. Explain it to yourself. Tell yourself how it connects to what you read before, and listen to yourself talk. (If you're selfconscious , do this type of study alone.) Combine see and say techniques. Tell yourself the visual image you have created to remember a particular fact or 60 STUDY SMARTS idea. Then combine auditory and visual memory with muscle memory: as you write, say the words aloud. As you make a diagram, tell yourself what the connections are. Get all three memory devices working together, and you'll end up with more than triple the benefit. ...