Improving memory helpful in learning, counselor says
by Gala Trimble, Reporter

   Improved memory provides improved learning, which improves grades, a South Campus counselor told participants in the most recent College Student Success Seminar.
   “The problem is most students don’t really get the information to begin with, or they do, but they cannot retrieve it,” Annie Dobbins said.
   In presenting Improving Your Memory Helps Raise Your Grades, Annie Dobbins told a crowded Texas Room on South Campus that once students really get information into their memory, they will not lose it, but they must make the information a part of their lives.
   “Students must take ownership of information,” she said.
   They must be interested and have a positive attitude.
   If a student starts a math class saying, “I can’t do math; I’m horrible at it,” that student has just killed any possibility for success, Dobbins said.
   Success in learning is all about attitude, perception and developing some helpful skills, Dobbins said.
   Sensory memory, like subliminal suggestion, creates an instant trigger and lasts about 30 seconds.
   Movie theaters used to flash popcorn and cold drink images on the screen so quickly a movie patron might not even realize it was there, but would quite likely get up and go to the concession stand, Dobbins told the group.
   Short-term memory stores information only long enough to accomplish a task.
   The information is retained only three to four minutes, or as long as it takes to perform the required task.
   Short-term memory is where the names of new acquaintances go at a meeting or a party.
   Without reinforcement, there is a sudden realization that the face looks familiar but the name has vanished.
   Long-term memory results from deep cognitive processing, Dobbins said.
   Long-term will last a lifetime: riding a bike, remembering a childhood home. It is memory reinforced by a conscious effort to hold on to information, the counselor said.
   Many methods and skills can increase the likelihood of achieving deep cognitive processing, or real learning.
   One of the most effective devices, Dobbins said, is repetition, whether it is used to learn to tie one’s shoelaces, write the alphabet or drive a golf ball.
   Association is another effective method to improve memory.
   Dobbins recounted that she can remember exactly where she was and what she was doing when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
   Her memory of that occasion is similar to how people will always remember the circumstances when they learned of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers Sept. 11, 2001.
   The videotape Memory Skills: Power Learning explained and demonstrated visual linking.
   Learning is a method of reinforcing memory by creating vivid, even bizarre, visual images linking information to memory.
   To remember a grocery list or list of cities, names or facts, one can create a story linking the items in the list to key visual images.
   The funnier or more extraordinary the images are, the easier they are to remember.
   Remembering names at a gathering can be enhanced by the same visual technique.
   Moving from table to table, Dobbins asked students for other activities that enhance learning.
   One student suggested teaching someone else as a learning tool.
   Another student recommended becoming involved in a study group of at least three students.
   Endorsing these suggestions, the counselor added to the list: acronyms, role playing, peg word systems, rhyming and even the visualizing of oneself in the information in the textbook.
   “People learn in many different ways,” she said.
   Some students are auditory learners and gather information from what they hear in lectures while visual learners need to see or read in order to retain information.
   Other people learn best by hands-on experiences and are called kinesthetic or tactile learners.
    For most, a combination of these various modes of learning is most effective.
    Students who make notes in their textbooks as they study, take notes during class lectures and then take time to consolidate the notes from both sources will profit the most from school, Dobbins said.
   They are not simply memorizing the information to pass a test, but hearing it, seeing it and writing it down; they are taking ownership, Dobbins said.
   This seminar was the fourth in a series of seven College Student Success Seminars being offered by the South Campus counseling department.
   Seminars yet to come include Effective Note Taking: Getting the Most Out of What the Instructor Says, Tuesday, Oct. 14; ABCs to Success: Setting Goals and Making the Right Decisions, Part I, Tuesday, Oct. 28.
   Part II of ABCs to Success: Setting Goals and Making the Right Decisions will be Tuesday, Nov. 11.
   Self-Love & Self-Esteem Lead to Self-Empowerment will be Tuesday, Nov. 25.
   All seminars are 12:30-1:30 p.m.