Memory key, speaker says
by Elizabeth Ventura, Reporter

     One will never forget anything really learned, an academic advisor told students last week.
     Annie Dobbins, South Campus counselor, presented Improving Your Memory Helps Raise Your Grades to students needing to improve their ability to remember facts and data.
     "When you first learn things you hear, you remember it 100 percent. But the farther you get away from the material, the easier it is to forget," she said.
     A student can increase the ability to remember things through repetition, sight, touch and participation, Dobbins said
     "Learn how you learn best and develop a learning style," she said.
     Dobbins explained three ways the memory can retain information.
     "Sensory memory comes in and is gone in a few seconds. Short-term memory is just for a few weeks, and it's gone," she said.
     "You want to remember things for a long period of time. By keeping in practice a learning style, it can increase your ability to retain information for a long period of time, and that information can change to long-term memory," she said.
     Dobbins said a person could develop long-term memory by learning to remember information and ideas through association, visualization, personalization and interest.
     Dobbins conducted a memory activity using visualizations.
     Magazine pictures were passed out, and students had to describe and mention as much information as they could recall.
     Dobbins also gave different examples to help students understand several learning techniques such as a puzzle, tying shoes and driving.
     "Every time you do something continuously, it increases chances that you will not forget," she said.
     A student can develop a learning technique just like a puzzle.
     One develops a systematic way of putting a puzzle together and having an idea of what direction to go.
     When the puzzle is taken out of the box, one looks at the picture, divides colors and starts with corners.
     People usually have several techniques or different methods to create an improved learning style, Dobbins said.
     "The first time you learned to tie your shoe, you learned how to do it because you just didn't say 'I can't do it.' You got up and practiced until you were successful and believed what you could do," she said. "If I can believe it, I can achieve it."
     Dobbins advised students to practice learning techniques.
     When people learn to drive, they think they can really handle it but when it comes to parallel parking, that's when it gets tough, Dobbins said.
     "All of the data comes together for the good; you must do something that will help you not forget the material," she said.
     Information was also shared from a videotape, Memory Skills: Power Learning.
     The video explained how to associate with things that are easily forgotten.
     Using a peg word system and visually linking things in the mind can help a person remember things and places.
     A person can remember the city Minneapolis by picturing mini apples or Springfield by picturing a field of springs.
     One can also try to attach a person's name with something that will help remember the name.
     If someone's name is Bill Campbell, the name can be remembered by picturing a dollar bill and Campbell's Soup.
     According to the video, by using a learning technique, people will think that a person has improved his memory but the person actually has obtained a better information retrieval system.
     The video is available in the Center for Academic Success, ACB 170 on South Campus.
     For more information about the video, call 817-515-4924.