Understanding our memory

By Danielle Moody
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
November, 2010

I learned how to say "Hi", "Thank You", and "Goodbye" in Chinese today! That was very exciting, I love to learn new languages. This was Professor Dengting's way of introducing the memory lesson to our class. I like how she always finds interesting ways to help us remember a lesson- doing out-of-the-box things like that make a mark in your memory much better than just a lousy lecture.

We also attempted to remember a long number on the board- I started to make a song up with the numbers and was able to remember 9 of them, I probably could have remembered more if I had a few more seconds. I think I have a fairly good memory, I remember many things from my childhood that my parents are amazed I can remember. As far as tests are concerned, it takes me a few days to study for an exam- I definitely cannot be up until two in the morning the night before studying. To remember information for a test I need to spread it out over a series of a few nights of studying. I'd say that this is a good study habit, especially after the memory curve that Professor Dengting showed us in class. The most memory is lost within the first 24 hours that you learn it, and the more days you review and follow up with your studying- the more you will retain.