strategies for improving concentration and memory
DESCRIPTION
Study environment on how to improve your skills for concentration and memoryTRANSCRIPT
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Strategies for Improving Concentration and Memory
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There are some specific skills that can be learned to improve ones success as a student.
Once something is stored in our brain, we never forget it. We may, however, have difficulty recalling the information.
Good concentration will enhance our memory.
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Concentration Basics Study Environment
Distraction free no matter if studying biology or playing pool, focus
on the task at hand and eliminate distraction.
No friends
No computer games or TV
No phone calls
If you like music in the background, okay, but dont let it be a distraction.
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Concentration Basics Conditions
Chair Is it comfortable enough that you can sit for 45 to 50 minutes at a time?
Desk do you have adequate space to spread out?
Lighting should not cause eye strain.
Temperature should be comfortably cool.
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Concentration Basics
Improve your attitude Some subjects may not be of high interest to you. Some subjects may not seem relevant to your field of study. You must maintain a positive attitude . To get your degree, you must pass all these courses, not just the ones you like.
Attend to the task Concentration is a must for successful reading. Concentration is improved if you study when you are the most alert, least tired and in good physical health.
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Activity
Read the 12 words on this page.
Glass Speaker Fall
Ready Basket Frame
College Shoes Medium
Spoil Hello Final
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Activity (paper and pencil needed)
On a piece of paper, write down as many of the 12 words as you can recall.
How did you do?
Were you able to recall all 12 words?
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Remembering Information
Techniques for Remembering Information
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Techniques for Remembering Information
Repetition Mind Picture
Grouping Rhyme
Acronym Acronymic Sentence
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Repetition
Read the facts.
Write the facts.
Say the facts.
Repeat the steps three or more times.
Use repetition when you want to remember a few facts, usually not more than 4 or 5 facts.
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Repetition
Using the repetition technique, try to remember the following underline facts.
An explorer named Columbus is said to have discovered America in the year 1492.
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Repetition
Which words would you underline?
Marco Polo explored Asia and traveled to China in the late 1200s.
Ferdinand Magellan is famous for sailing around the world in the early 1500s.
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Repetition Fill in the blanks to show what to do when using the repetition
technique. First (1)___________ the facts.
Second (2)__________the facts.
Third (3)____________the facts.
Finally (4)____________the steps.
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Mind Picture
Mental image or picture created in the mind, which later can be used to recall information.
Say the facts.
Create one or more pictures in your mind.
Focus on the picture(s) and say the facts.
Recall the picture(s) when you need to remember the facts.
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Mind Picture
Which ones would be easy for you to remember using the mind picture technique?
The years 1914, 1940, 1953, 1986
Something you saw on TV
The most interesting thing you did yesterday
The names of the last 5 presidents of US
The events that took place in the last story you read
What you ate for your last meal
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Mind Picture
For foreign language vocabulary select the foreign words you need to remember, then identify an English word that sounds like the foreign one. Now imagine an image that involves the key word with the English meaning of the foreign word.
Example: In Spanish the word cabina means phone booth. Invent an image of a cab trying to fit in a phone booth.
When you see the word cabina you should be able to recall this image and retrieve the meaning.
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Mind Picture
Image-Name Technique: invent a relationship between the name and the physical characteristics of the person.
Example: Shirley Temple her curly (rhymes with Shirley) hair around her temples.
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Grouping
Technique for remembering facts that go together in some way.
Look for ways that facts to be remembered can be
grouped together.
Write a name for each group.
Write the facts that go with each group.
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Grouping (paper and pencil needed)
Group the following facts. Write a name for each group. Then write the facts under the name of each group.
pencil, paper, magazine, pen, book, chalk, chalkboard, poem, cardboard, newspaper
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Grouping
Sorting large amounts of information into categories can help you remember information more accurately and retrieve information faster.
By sorting terms into major categories, you will place a value on the terms and give them meaning. Otherwise, these concepts would be difficult to learn and remember if you were merely trying to memorize the individual terms.
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Grouping
Suppose you had to learn the following concepts for a business class:
tools, labor, trees, wildlife, human resources, minerals, machinery, capital, resources, factories, tractors, water, power plants, manpower, natural resource, typewriters
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Grouping
Natural Resources Capital Resources Human Resources
Minerals tools labor
Water machinery manpower
Trees power plants
Wildlife factories
tractors
typewriters
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Rhyme
Use of verse to remember information such as the following:
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Thirty days has September,
April, June, and November
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Rhyme Technique
Write a line that ends with a word to be remembered.
Write a 2nd line that ends with a word that rhymes with the word to be remembered.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for other words to be remembered.
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Rhyme technique
Here is a rhyme to remember the names Harry and Mary.
My friends name is Harry.
His sisters name is Mary.
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Rhyme Technique
Fill in the missing words to complete the rhyme.
Christopher Columbus was not a tailor.
He was a good old______________.
He sailed across the ocean blue
And discovered American in the year _________.
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Rhyme Technique (pencil and paper needed)
Write a rhyme that will help you remember the following facts.
William Shakespeare was a very bright English fellow who wrote a play with the title King Lear. He also wrote a play with the title Othello.
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Acronyms
Acronyms are formed using the first letter of each fact to be remembered. The letters are arranged to form a pronounceable word.
The acronym may be either a real word or a nonsense word.
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Acronyms
1. Write the facts.
2. Underline the first letter of each fact.
3. Form an abbreviation using the underlined letters.
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Acronyms
CALF is an acronym that is a real word. It can be used to remember the names of these states: Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana.
LEAT is an acronym that is a nonsense word that can be pronounced. It can be used to remember the names of these US presidents:
Adams, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Truman.
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Acronyms HOMES is an acronym for remember the geographical location of
the Great Lakes.
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
ROY G. BIV helps science students remember the colors of the visible spectrum
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
Can you think of an acronym that you have used?
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Acronyms (paper and pencil needed)
Form an acronym for each of the following sets of facts:
Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada
Finch, owl, lark, wren
apple, tomato, lettuce, endive
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Acronymic Sentence
A technique for remembering facts by creating a sentence from words whose first letters help you remember the facts.
Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.
Parentheses- E xponents- M ultiplication- D ivision- A ddition- S ubtraction.
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Acronymic Sentence
The following acronymic sentence was created to remember that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan all have a seaport on one of the Great Lakes.
Indians were mining ore in May.
Illinois Wisconsin Michigan Ohio Indiana Minnesota
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Acronymic Sentence
Create an acronymic sentence to remember the following information:
Fruit and vegetable group: apple, pear, orange, banana, carrot, bean, radish
Polar bears caught racing after big otters.
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Remembering Information
We have looked at six techniques for remembering information.
Repetition Mind Picture Grouping Rhyme Acronyms Acronymic Sentence
Lets decide which technique to use with a given set of
facts.
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For each of the following write the name of the remembering technique that would be most appropriate to use to remember the
facts.
Facts easy to visualize ______________________ A short list of facts you can remember quickly and easily. ______________________ Facts with words that sound alike ______________________
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For each of the following write the name of the remembering technique that would be most appropriate to use to remember the
facts.
Facts whose first letters can be arranged to form a pronounceable word
________________________
Facts that can be organized into categories
________________________
Facts that can be remembered by creating a sentence from words whose first letters help you remember the facts
________________________
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Remembering Information
Which technique was used?
Billy created lines of verse that ended with words that sounded alike.
____________________
Rosa organized a set of facts into categories.
____________________
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Remembering Information
Susie created a sentence from the first letters of facts. _____________________ Luis formed images in his mind.
_____________________
Elizabeth wrote and repeated facts several times.
_____________________