Memory: Crash Course Study Skills #3

Summary

In this Crash Course Study Skills episode, Thomas Frank explores the science of memory, explaining the stages from sensory to long-term memory and the physical changes in the brain that occur. He discusses the importance of spacing out learning for better retention and introduces techniques like mnemonics, spaced repetition, and active recall to optimize study efficiency. The video also highlights the Spacing Effect and the Leitner System for effective memorization, and concludes with a promotion for The Great Courses Plus.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Memory is a complex process involving stages like sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
• 🔍 Sensory memory has a very short attention span, and most information is lost almost immediately.
• 📍 Short-term or working memory is like a computer's RAM, temporary and limited to 4-7 bits of information at a time.
• 🔬 Information moves to long-term memory through the hippocampus, which uses neurotransmitters to encode it.
• 💡 The formation of new synapses and the use of chemicals like BDNF are part of the physical changes in the brain during memory formation.
• 📚 Spacing out learning over time is crucial for effective memory encoding and retrieval.
• 🔑 Understanding why we forget, such as the brain's encoding process and the importance of neurotransmitter levels, helps in improving memory retention.
• 🗝️ Mnemonics and creating unusual associations can make abstract or mundane information more memorable.
• 🔗 Making multiple connections to a memory, especially in different contexts, strengthens it.
• 📉 Herman Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve shows that memories decay quickly unless regularly recalled.
• 📈 The Spacing Effect and the Principle of Desirable Difficulty suggest that recalling difficult memories strengthens them more than easy ones.
• 📝 Spaced repetition techniques, like the Leitner System, optimize study efficiency by adjusting review intervals based on memorization progress.
• 🤖 Digital spaced repetition apps, such as Anki, TinyCards, and Quizlet, facilitate the implementation of spaced repetition.
• 🛠 Active recall during study sessions, rather than passive reading, challenges the brain and improves memory retention.
• 🎓 The Great Courses Plus offers a variety of lectures that can further enhance study skills and understanding of memory.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the Crash Course Study Skills episode presented by Thomas Frank?

The main topic of the episode is understanding how memory works and how to make it work better to optimize the way one studies.

What is sensory memory and how does it relate to the information we take in from our senses?

Sensory memory processes everything our senses detect or experience. It has a very short retention span, and most of the information it takes in is lost almost immediately, with only some moving into short-term or working memory.

How is short-term or working memory described in the script, and what is its limitation?

Short-term or working memory is likened to a computer's RAM, where memories are not permanent and can disappear after 15-30 seconds if not rehearsed. It can handle about 4-7 bits or items of information at a time, and this limit can be slightly increased by chunking.

What is the role of the hippocampus in the process of memory formation?

The hippocampus plays a crucial role in encoding information into long-term memory by augmenting it with neurotransmitters, which transmit details about the information and eventually lead to the formation of new synapses.

What does the process of memory formation cause within the brain, and why does it take time?

Memory formation causes physical changes within the brain, including the movement of neurotransmitters, the forging of neural pathways, and structural improvements in neurons using proteins like BDNF. It takes time because, similar to muscle strengthening, these changes require time to solidify.

According to the script, why is cramming for a test not effective, and what principle supports this claim?

Cramming is not effective because it does not allow sufficient time for new neural connections to solidify. This is supported by the principle that higher mental functions need to be spaced out to allow for this consolidation, as new learning can overwrite old learning if there is insufficient time between them.

What is the Forgetting Curve, and what does it demonstrate about memory decay?

The Forgetting Curve, developed by Herman Ebbinghaus, is a model that demonstrates how memories decay quickly unless they are accessed repeatedly. It shows the rate at which information is forgotten over time without reinforcement.

What are the two different strengths of memories according to the Forget-to-Learn theory presented in the script?

According to the Forget-to-Learn theory, memories have two strengths: storage strength, which does not weaken and represents the permanent encoding of a memory, and retrieval strength, which can fade with time if the memory is not recalled.

What is the Spacing Effect, and how does it relate to the difficulty of recalling a memory?

The Spacing Effect is the phenomenon where the more a memory's retrieval strength has faded and the greater the difficulty of recalling it, the greater the increase in learning will be when the memory is recalled. It suggests that effortful recall strengthens memory more than easy recall.

What is the Principle of Desirable Difficulty, and how can it be applied to studying?

The Principle of Desirable Difficulty states that to maximize the efficiency of studying, one should find the point right before forgetting something. It can be applied by using spaced repetition techniques, which increase the time between study sessions for each piece of information.

Can you explain the Leitner System and how it helps with efficient studying?

The Leitner System is a method of spaced repetition that uses five boxes, each representing a specific study interval. Cards start in Box 1 and move to the next box when answered correctly. If answered incorrectly, they go back to Box 1. This system ensures that the most effort is spent on the information that is hardest to remember, thus maximizing study efficiency.

What is the importance of active recall in studying, and how does it differ from passive reading?

Active recall is important in studying because it involves retrieving information from memory without seeing it, which is what is required in exams and real-world situations. It differs from passive reading, which does not challenge the brain to retrieve information and is less effective for memory retention.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Understanding Memory Functions and Enhancing Study Skills

The script introduces the topic of memory and its function in learning, humorously speculating about future technologies like neural implants and flying cars. Thomas Frank, the host, outlines the purpose of the episode: to explore how memory operates and how to improve it for better studying. The episode delves into the scientific aspects of memory formation, including sensory memory, short-term memory, and the process of encoding information into long-term memory. It explains the limitations of working memory and how to overcome them by chunking information. The role of the hippocampus and neurotransmitters in memory consolidation is also discussed, along with the physical changes in the brain that occur during memory formation.

05:03

📚 Maximizing Memory Retention Through Spacing and Repetition

This paragraph delves into the importance of spacing out study sessions for effective learning, referencing Herman Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve and the Forget-to-Learn theory. It discusses the dual nature of memory strength, including storage and retrieval strength, and how the act of recalling information strengthens the memory. The Spacing Effect and the Principle of Desirable Difficulty are introduced as methods to optimize study efficiency. The paragraph also explains the Leitner System and spaced repetition techniques, which are tools to manage study intervals effectively. It concludes with advice on using active recall during study sessions to simulate the retrieval process that occurs during exams or real-world applications.

10:03

🎓 The Great Courses Plus: Expanding Knowledge and Study Skills

The final paragraph of the script serves as a promotional segment for The Great Courses Plus, an on-demand subscription service offering access to a vast array of video lectures taught by award-winning professors. The service is highlighted as a resource to further improve study skills and explore various topics of interest. The script mentions a special offer for Crash Course viewers, including a free one-month trial, and encourages viewers to support Crash Course through Patreon to keep the content free and accessible to everyone. The production details of the Crash Course Study Skills series are also provided, giving credit to the team behind the series.

Keywords

💡Memory

Memory refers to the cognitive process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information. In the video, memory is the central theme, as it discusses how the brain processes and retains information, such as remembering algebra or where you left your car keys. The script explores different stages of memory, including sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory, and how they relate to the efficiency of studying.

💡Sensory Memory

Sensory memory is the initial stage of memory processing where the brain briefly holds all sensory input before most of it is discarded. The video script uses the analogy of a five-year-old at the DMV to illustrate its short attention span, emphasizing that only a small portion of this sensory information moves on to short-term memory.

💡Short-term Memory

Short-term memory, also known as working memory, is a temporary storage system for information. The script likens it to a computer's RAM, highlighting that it can only hold about 4-7 items at a time and will lose this information unless it is continuously rehearsed. This concept is crucial for understanding the limitations on how much new information can be processed at once.

💡Long-term Memory

Long-term memory is where information is stored for an extended period. The video explains that information must be encoded with the help of neurotransmitters in the hippocampus to move to long-term memory. This process involves the formation of new synapses and physical changes in the brain, which is why cramming is not effective for long-term retention.

💡Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain that transmit signals between neurons. In the context of the video, they play a key role in the encoding process of long-term memory by augmenting information with these chemicals, which helps in the formation of new synapses and the strengthening of neural pathways.

💡Synapses

Synapses are the connections between neurons where information is passed through neurotransmitters. The script describes them as gaps between neurons that allow for communication, which is essential for the formation of memories and the process of learning.

💡Spacing Effect

The Spacing Effect is a learning technique where increasing the time between study sessions can enhance memory retention. The video explains that this effect is due to the increased difficulty in recalling information over time, which, when overcome, strengthens the memory. It is a key concept in the script's discussion on effective study techniques.

💡Spaced Repetition

Spaced repetition is a study technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time. The video script recommends this method for optimizing study sessions and leveraging the Spacing Effect, with the Leitner System being an example of how to implement this technique.

💡Leitner System

The Leitner System is a method of using flashcards for memorization that involves sorting them into different boxes based on how well the information is remembered. The script describes this system as a way to ensure that the most effort is spent on the information that is hardest to remember, thus maximizing study efficiency.

💡Active Recall

Active recall is a study technique where learners actively attempt to remember information without looking at the material. The video emphasizes the importance of this method over passive reading, suggesting that it should be a central part of the study process to strengthen memory.

💡Encoding

Encoding is the process of converting information into a format that can be stored in memory. The script mentions a lecture by Professor Steve Joordens on 'Encoding—Our Gateway into Long-Term Memory,' which is related to the video's theme of understanding how to improve memory and study skills.

Highlights

The future of memory storage with neural implants and the humorous inquiry about flying cars.

Introduction to the Crash Course Study Skills with Thomas Frank focusing on memory improvement.

Explanation of the complexity of memory science and the role of nerve cells, chemicals, and electrical jolts.

The process of memory formation and retrieval detailed in Crash Course Psychology episodes.

The importance of understanding memory for optimizing study methods.

Memory stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and the limitations of working memory.

The concept of 'chunking' to increase the capacity of working memory.

The journey of information to long-term memory involving the hippocampus and neurotransmitters.

Physical changes in the brain during memory formation, including the creation of new synapses.

The ineffectiveness of cramming and the need for spaced learning for memory consolidation.

The Forgetting Curve by Herman Ebbinghaus and its implications for memory decay.

Forget-to-Learn theory explaining storage strength and retrieval strength of memories.

The Spacing Effect and its impact on learning efficiency through increased recall difficulty.

Principle of Desirable Difficulty and finding the optimal moment to review information.

Spaced repetition techniques and the Leitner System for efficient memorization.

Use of digital spaced repetition apps like Anki for language learning and other subjects.

Application of the spacing effect to non-flashcard subjects like math or sports.

Emphasis on active recall during study sessions for better memory retention.

The Great Courses Plus promotion for improving study skills with expert lectures.

Transcripts

This episode is supported by The Great Courses Plus.

Hi, I’m Thomas Frank, this is Crash Course Study Skills,

and if you happen to be watching this at whatever point in the future that we all get neural implants to let us store our memories on servers in space,

what I’m about to tell you is woefully inaccurate.

Also, do we have flying cars yet?

For those of you who still rely on that mushy gray stuff in your cranium to remember things, though, listen up.

Today we’re digging into how your memory works and how you can make it work better.

At least, I think we are.

Nick, we’re not filming those makeup tutorials today, are we?

[Theme Music]

The science of how memory works is complicated, to say the least.

After all, how do we explain how a bunch of nerve cells, chemicals, and electrical jolts

somehow let you remember algebra, where you left your car keys, and all the lines to The Dark Knight?

Well, it’s simple. We, uh…. rely on Hank from 3 years ago to do it for us.

Seriously, there are two whole episodes of Crash Course Psychology that go through the entire process of how memories are formed and retrieved.

But just like Xzibit left to his own devices in a car dealership, I can’t resist putting crash courses in your Crash Course.

Plus, understanding how your memory works will help you to optimize the way you study.

So let’s do a quick review.

Your brain turns information into memories by putting it through a few different stages.

The first is sensory memory, which processes pretty much everything your senses detect or experience in the real world.

That sensory memory has the attention span of a five-year-old at the DMV, though, so most of what it takes in is lost almost immediately.

But what does stick moves into your short-term or working memory.

This type of memory is sort of like the RAM in your computer – the memories don’t stick around permanently.

In fact, unless you continuously rehearse what’s floating around in working memory, it’ll pull a disappearing act after about 15-30 seconds.

This can also happen if you try to cram too much in at once, because your working memory can really only handle 4-7 bits or items of information at a time.

Now you can somewhat increase this limit by grouping bits into chunks –

like splitting “FBIKGBCIA” into FBI, KGB, CIA, but there’s still a limit.

Now, all this happens primarily in your brain’s prefrontal cortex,

but eventually the information has to make its way to other areas of the brain if it’s going to be encoded in long-term memory.

To greatly simplify things, it’ll first head to the hippocampus, which augments it with chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Along with many other functions, these transmit details about the information – metadata, if you will.

Eventually, this leads to the formation of new synapses, which are essentially connections between neurons – though the neurons don’t actually touch.

Instead, they prefer to keep a small gap between each other and let more of those neurotransmitters move information between them.

The whole process of memory formation causes physical changes within your brain:

neurotransmitters shuttle all over the place, neural pathways are forged,

and neurons themselves undergo structural improvements using proteins such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.

And, just like the process of strengthening your muscles through exercise, this all takes time –

which is why cramming for a test doesn’t work, and why you can’t instantly just download jujitsu into your brain like Neo.

As Pierce J. Howard noted in his book The Owner’s Manual for the Brain:

“Work involving higher mental functions, such as analysis and synthesis, needs to be spaced out to allow new neural connections to solidify.

New learning drives out old learning when insufficient time intervenes.”

Now that you have a bit of an understanding of how your memory works, one crucial tip should be clear:

you have to space your learning out over time.

But we’re not going to just leave it at that, because – as cognitive scientists have known for a long time – the way you do that spacing matters quite a bit.

To explain this, let’s start with why we forget things in the first place.

Part of the reason is that your brain doesn’t encode all memories equally.

During the long-term encoding process, the hippocampus will use different levels of neurotransmitters based on, among other things, how important the information is.

And this plays a big role in how strongly it’s embedded in long-term memory.

This filtering mechanism is great for survival, as it allows your brain to safely disregard unimportant things,

like what you had for breakfast two weeks ago, while paying special attention to what’s important, like that fact that there are ninjas behind you right now.

Unfortunately, you can’t always consciously decide what’s important and what’s not,

which is why it can be hard to remember all the details from that history chapter you just read.

At a primal level, your brain just doesn’t think the details of Genghis Khan’s war with the Quarismian Shah in 1219 are as important as a bear attacking you.

However, there are a few tricks you can pull to make it care a bit more.

First, understand that your brain latches more readily onto things that are tangible, visual, and uncommon than it does with the abstract or the mundane.

Because of this, it can be helpful to develop mnemonics, which are mental devices that help you associate pieces of information in ways that are easier to remember.

And mnemonics can take many forms.

You can create sayings to remember sequences of letters – such as “Ernie Ate Dynamite, GoodBye Ernie” to remember the names of the strings on a guitar.

Or you can make up weird stories in your head that includes cues to the information you’re trying to associate.

Like, the way I remember that Helsinki is the capital of Finland is by imagining a giant flaming sinkhole in the ground opening up with a bunch of sharks jumping out of it.

Since it’s weird, it’s easy to remember, and it helps me associate the words Hell, Fin, and Sink, which in turn connect Finland and Helsinki.

Additionally, the more connections that lead to a memory, the stronger it’ll be – especially if they’re learned in different contexts.

When I first learned about caravels, which were those small ships that Portuguese explorers used to travel down the African coast in the 15th century,

I had a hard time remembering that name – caravels.

But once I started using them in Civilization V to build my empire –

and to make sure Ghandi never got far enough to nuke me, the memory became a lot more solid, since I was interacting with it in a new context.

Of course, you still have to repeatedly access your new memories once they’re encoded if you want them to stick around.

This is pretty much the iron law of memorization:

Except in cases where they’re attached to a particularly intense emotional experience, memories fade away unless you repeatedly recall them.

Well, sort of. Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

In the 1880’s, a German psychologist named Herman Ebbinghaus wanted to understand how memories decayed over time,

and he especially wanted to know how long the process took.

He began by running countless tests on his own memory, forcing himself to recall long lists of meaningless letters until eventually, he came up with the Forgetting Curve.

While largely hypothetical and simplistic in its details, this model demonstrated how memories decay quickly unless accessed again and again.

Since Ebbinghaus’s days, our understanding of how memory decays has come a long way.

According to the Forget-to-Learn theory, which is presented in Benedict Carey’s book How We Learn, memories actually have two different strengths:

storage strength and retrieval strength.

Picture your brain as a library where none of the books ever get stolen or damaged.

When a new book is put on a shelf, it’s there for good.

This represents storage strength, which, according to the theory, doesn’t weaken.

Once a memory is encoded, the neural pattern can only get stronger.

Now, unfortunately this library has a particularly lazy librarian who doesn’t do a very good job of keeping the library’s catalog organized.

This represents retrieval strength, which does fade with time.

Unless you go in and organize the catalog – or recall the memory – you’ll eventually lose track of it.

Thanks, Thought Bubble. Now here’s where it gets good.

The more a memory’s retrieval strength has faded, and the greater the difficulty of recalling it, the greater the increase in learning will be.

This is called the Spacing Effect.

It’s essentially the “No pain, no gain,” of the mental realm;

the harder you have to work to recall something, the greater the reward for doing so.

There’s an obvious catch, though – if you wait too long, the retrieval strength diminishes so much that you won’t be able to recall the memory at all.

This where the Principle of Desirable Difficulty comes in.

To maximize the efficiency of your studying, you want to the find the point right before you’re about to forget something.

And you can do this by using spaced repetition techniques.

The general idea behind spaced repetition is to steadily increase the amount of time in between each study session for any piece of information.

So instead of reviewing a fact or concept once every few days,

you’d use a schedule like this where you’d wait a day between the first and second sessions, three days between the second and third, and so on.

To do this precisely, you need a system that tracks your progress in memorizing each piece of information you need to study – since it never happens evenly.

If you’ve got 100 Japanese kanji to learn, it’s inevitable that you’ll remember some easier than others.

If you use the exact same time delays for every kanji, you’ll spend too much time studying some, and others won’t ever be learned at all.

To solve this problem, you can use the Leitner System.

In it, you’ve got five boxes, each of which represents a specific study interval.

Box 1 gets studied every day, Box 2 every three days, Box 3 once a week, and so on.

Every fact or term gets its own flash card, and all cards start off in Box 1.

Once you get a card right, move it to the next box.

And if you get a card wrong – no matter what box it’s in – send it back to Box 1.

If you play by these rules, you’ll ensure that you maximize your efficiency by spending more time studying the cards you have the weakest grasp on.

The increasing time intervals of the boxes also help you leverage the spacing effect and get to close to that point of desirable difficulty.

There are also a ton of spaced repetition apps for both computers and smartphones that will let you make this whole process digital.

The best known one is probably Anki, which is free on most platforms, but there’s also TinyCards, Quizlet, and many, many others.

Now when it comes to subjects that aren’t easily studied through flash cards – like math or even a sport like skateboarding – it’s harder to use a rigid spaced repetition algorithm.

However, the spacing effect applies here as well, so be sure to space out your practice over time.

During any given day’s practice, you’ll eventually hit a wall where you stop making progress

whether it’s learning derivatives in calculus or kickflips in skateboarding

– but if you come back to it a few days later, everything will be more likely to click into place.

In each of these study sessions, make sure you’re putting the focus on recalling information from your own memory.

As we talked about in our video on reading assignments, there are two main kinds of memory – recognition and recall.

Recognition is what happens when you’re exposed to information you’ve already seen before and remember it.

But recall involves dredging the information up from the depths of your memory banks without seeing it,

which is exactly what you’ll have to do in both your exams and in many real-world situations.

So when you study, make sure you’re focusing on active recall.

Don’t just passively read over your notes or slides – use them to create quizzes for yourself,

or challenge yourself to sit down and write out a summary of what you’ve learned from memory.

If you’re studying a subject like math or physics, put a huge emphasis on practicing with real problems and actually use the concepts and formulas you’ve learned.

In short, studying should feel like work, and it should challenge your brain.

When it does, you’ll remember more while spending fewer hours at your desk.

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.

This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus, an on-demand subscription service

where you can get unlimited access to over 7,000 different video lectures about any topic that interests you,

including science, literature, history, math, even cooking or photography.

The classes are taught by award winning professors – from the Ivy League and other top schools around the world.

If you're looking to improve your study skills further, you might like this lecture from

Professor Steve Joordens, called Encoding—Our Gateway into Long-Term Memory where you'll learn more about how to improve your own recall.

Right now, The Great Courses Plus is offering Crash Course viewers a free one-month trial.

Go to thegreatcoursesplus.com/studyskills, or click on the link in the video description below, to start your free trial today.

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