Have you ever asked yourself: “how could I consolidate memory to remember more when I am learning new things?”
- What is memory consolidation?
- Why is memory consolidation needed?
- How to consolidate memory
- How to consolidate memory in employees’ training
Memory consolidation is a process that supports the formation of memory. It has a lot to do with the principle: “If you don’t use it, you lose it!”.
Only by hearing information, there is no guarantee that this will land in long-term memory. Until the information becomes long-term memory there is a long way to go and consolidation is one of the steps in achieving this goal.
We have seen throughout the articles the 4 pillars of efficient learning:
1.st acquire the information. To do that successful attention is the key factor.
2.nd you have to practice immediately the newly learned information.
3.rd while practicing you might encounter some mistakes, eighter in your cognitive model or in the application. Don’t let yourself be disappointed by mistakes because learning from mistakes and corrective feedback is a pillar of learning.
4.th and the last pillar that remained to be discussed is how to consolidate memory.
What is memory consolidation?
“Consolidation is the process of strengthening the mental representation for long-term memory.” (Brown, Roediger III, McDaniel)
By consolidating the memory we strengthen the neural networks responsible for holding that information. We do that by activating and reactivating the networks. Memory consolidation enhances remembering.
The best example, to understand what happens with our knowledge when we don’t consolidate it repeatedly, is the case of a foreign language. If we learn a foreign language but we don’t speak the language regularly, we forget a great part of it.
The reactivation of information is the one responsible for what we know as: “If you don’t use it, you lose it!”.
Why is memory consolidation needed?
Well, we need to consolidate the information, and pretty soon after the learning. Because the freshly and newly information is liable, is subject to modifications or even to disappearance.
Didn’t happen to you that you read a piece of interesting technical information, that you have perfectly understood at the moment of reading. One week later when you wanted to share it with your friend you notice that you don’t remember the specific terminology. Or that you encounter difficulties even in the narration as if your mental film about this fact would be erased in places? This is because you allowed one week to pass without consolidating that information. The information faded.
The whole learning process is based on consolidation. Just to follow my example with learning a foreign language, have you noticed that before you are able to speak a foreign language, you are able to understand it? You are more likely to remember the meaning of a word when you hear it than to remember the word and say it yourself.
Consolidation is responsible for this precious moment when you are able to retrieve information out of your memory. But in order to be able to retrieve something out of your memory, you should first save it and then retrieve/remember it repeatedly. The more often you retrieve the better it consolidates. The first encounter to retrieve something will be tedious, but no pain no gain. It will get better after some repetitions.
How to consolidate memory?
There are 3 main activities that support memory consolidation. It depends very much on each in what proportion are implemented
- Repetition
- Retrieval (active testing)
- Sleep
In this article, I will discuss only the first two: repetition and retrieval. They go hand in hand but are slightly different than you might imagine. Most people take the “repetition is the mother of learning” verbatim. So, when they repeat the material to be learned they reread the text. Rereading the text is NOT an efficient way to consolidate memory. Because what it does, is actually rising familiarity with the text, contributing to the illusion of knowledge.
If this is not optimal, how should you then practice repetition?
The idea is to repeat only what you don’t remember. This implies that you first try to remember something in the first place. In one of my articles, I stated that learning means 2 things:
- memorizing = encoding the information
- recalling/remembering = retrieving the information
1. Memorizing
And here is the recipe and how to combine the two for efficient learning. After you have acquired the new information, you should check how much have you retained by recalling it in the near future (the sooner the better). If I write that you have to actively test yourself, will you curse me?
I know that people don’t react well to the word “test” and most of us are happy that school is over, exactly for this specific reason. But if you can put aside the after-effects of school tests, believe me, testing yourself will become your best friend in terms of learning.
2. Recalling
When you perform active testing, and here I have to underline first the difference between passive and active testing:
Passive testing means recognizing the correct answer out of more possible answers (the multiple-choice questions).
Active testing means formulating the answer yourself, either in writing or verbally, with your own words by recalling it from the memory.
Only in the case of active testing you are strengthening the mental representation of that knowledge. You consolidate it because you retrieve it and activate the corresponding neural path. The more often you activate a neural pathway the more stable it becomes. The more often you use it, the harder it dissipates. Just to imagine how powerful this method is, think about a very often activated path as a highway. And a path not often activated would be a path in the wood.
When you start the process of testing how much information you have retained, you won’t remember too many details. No problem! It is absolutely normal. Now is time to reopen the material and read again the details that you don’t remember. You know those lines that you underline the books with, in all rainbow colors for a later revision. Yes, the rainbow is there after the rain, after you have tried hard to remember. The harder you try and the more time you give yourself to remember the better it is for memory consolidation. Only then, when you don’t remember or you are not sure about the answer, you go to the “rainbow” colors in the material and reread the text. The role of the colors is to help you find the test faster. Because when you underlined it you knew that this is important and you must retain it.
How to consolidate memory in employees’ training
In employees’ training, the problem with “teaching” in form of lecturing/presentations is that it doesn’t offer time for consolidation. And not only does not offer the time to retrieve and reflect upon the information. But it doesn’t give the trainee chance to come back to the details of the material for repeating the forgotten details. The drawback of not having the consolidation pillar in the employees’ training process can be avoided by recording the training on videos. Videos are available, regardless of time and space. All the details are there for the employees to practice and apply, test themselves, and revise the material for corrections. To verify their understanding after reflection upon it or through tests, to consolidate properly the memory.
