MAXIMIZING STUDY TIME AND RETENTIION

Hey all, A lot of people read books one at a time, as for me, I have a number of trivia books I enjoy reading including some educational texts that provide informative topics ranging from science, art, literature, etc. I like to learn a lot from a variety of different sources. My question is that because I jump from one interesting topic to the next is it possible that I am being counter-productive? Is the onset of new knowledge going to offset my former knowledge? I feel like I am retaining the information I have learned thus far, but I tend to analyse my process too much and would like to know what your opinions are on this. Am I not going to retain as much because I am jumping from one topic to the next
This reminds me of something I read recently in the NY Times about how to maximize retention in studying:
“Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting — alternating, for example, among vocabulary, reading and speaking in a new language — seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain than does concentrating on just one skill at a time…
The advantages of this approach to studying can be striking, in some topic areas. In a study recently posted online by the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, Doug Rohrer and Kelli Taylor of the University of South Florida taught a group of fourth graders four equations, each to calculate a different dimension of a prism. Half of the children learned by studying repeated examples of one equation, say, calculating the number of prism faces when given the number of sides at the base, then moving on to the next type of calculation, studying repeated examples of that. The other half studied mixed problem sets, which included examples of all four types of calculations grouped together. Both groups solved sample problems along the way, as they studied.
“A day later, the researchers gave all of the students a test on the material, presenting new problems of the same type. The children who had studied mixed sets did twice as well as the others, outscoring them 77 percent to 38 percent. The researchers have found the same in experiments involving adults and younger children.”Learning, studying and storing information requires a great deal of memorization skills. Memorization doesn’t come easy to those who have serious issues in doing the task at hand itself – memorization. But for everybody else, it’s a task that comes naturally whenever necessary or needed. The thing about memorization is that not too many people have the knowledge to optimize the function of their brain and memorization abilities to the best it can offer. This what has been missing in man, the missing link in solving common setbacks and pitfalls in memorization.

What not too many people know back in the day when the advantageous technology called the Internet has not been born yet was the power or the natural ability of a person’s mind to use its memorization skills to maximum. The mind receives information from a set of list and retains the first few items, the last ones and some parts in the middle of the list with no problems. This process is called “primacy” and “recency” but the problem isn’t faced not until the task of recalling the entire items in the list is specified. This isn’t the problem at all; in fact, it’s what the normal brain does.

The solution to the problem of optimum learning and memorization is to give the brain a rest. It’s important to break down the total time for studying into 40-50 minutes because the times the brain rests is the same time when it actually absorbs all the information learned from the last 40-50 minutes work.

The idea is to give the brain more breaks, approximately 10 minutes each break time so when it starts to work again, the natural extremities of the brain (“primacy” and “recency”) starts to work to receive information from where it has last stopped. 10 minutes because the brain’s retention ability works about this long and then drops off again. This idea makes the brain work naturally and efficiently without putting any pressure to the student.

So sounds like your varied approach might actually help rather than hurt. There’s more, but you can find it

Maximize Learning Channels

Man are given a brain and 5 senses. When teaching or learning, we should make use of all the brain and 5 senses to maximize learning, understanding and retention.

Typical form of learning is lecture. Lecturer gives a speech - that is hearing. Sometimes he uses PowerPoint slides (or draw on a white board), that is seeing. If he writes ... that is using our Left-brain. He may draw a diagram, and thereby engaging our Right-brain. He would ask questions so that we have to think of our answers and speak it out - using our mouth. Answering requires us using our brain to do processing and speaking it out engages not only our mouth but our ears to hear what we are speaking. It would be better if the Lecturer could, besides using diagram, convey his thought through action --- some motions of our hands and feet like dancing. Better still, if we could taste and smell. That would create a lasting experience.

Has anyone ever teach with all the sensory and processing channels that we have ? The answer is Yes. He is Jesus. In the Holy Communion, Jesus used the bread to represent His body. He broke the bread to show His body was broken for us. Then he passed the bread for us to touch(feel) and eat (taste). Later he took the cup of wine and told us the wine represented the His blood that was shed for us to cleanse away our sins and to seal the Covenant with us. The wine was passed to us to partake. We could taste and smell the wine, remembering what it stood for. The whole process of watching Jesus and participating in eating and drinking engage our 5 senses, body movement and brain.

Another example could be Baptism through immersion. The full immersion represents the burial and death of our old self and the pulling out of us from the water shows for our resurrection to a new life. When submerged, we can feel the water covering us and cleansing us. We cannot breath in the water and we struggle for breath. It is all an excellent learning experience that last with us for a long long time.

In summary, when we give another lecture, let's try to engage all the channels of inputs....

1. Tell story (parables) to relate to our Brain. Story always engage our interests and we can remember them well.
2. Use Picture and Diagrams ... Engages the Eyes and Right Brain.
3. Use Motion & Actions to engage the body
4. Have a object where touch/feel can be engaged.
5. Use Taste and
6. Smell to increase the impact.
7. To help memory, we should perhaps have rhythm in our key summary statements so that we can sing along.

As students, we should also

1. rephrase and write down in our own words (left brain),
2. draw it our with diagrams (at least a mindmap using right brain),
3. recite out what we wrote,
4. act out what we learn, and
5. see if we could feel,
6. taste and
7. smell the things