Improving Retention - Essay Example

Improving Retention The study of psychology is broad and includes many aspects of mental functioning that many would otherwise not think fall under its auspices. Within this spectrum of understanding, psychology has considered the way the mind functions and processes information. With this research a number of theories related to memory have been advanced. This essay considers psychological means of improving memory retention. Psychology reveals that there are a great number of steps that can be taken to improve memory retention.

In improving retention the first step that needs to be taken is that the individual must focus their attention on the object or material that they are attempting to remember. In these regards, it’s clear that the focus of thought is one of the primary actions to convert conscious awareness to stored memory. The next step in improving retention is to make consistent, yet spaced-out, efforts at retention. Bjork (2001) demonstrated that information that is researched in these consistent ways, rather than in steady state and fast ‘cramming’ methods, is not as well retained.

Other methods that must be taken are to organize the material in tangible ways. Rather than sporadically attempting to retain various information elements, research has demonstrated that the mind functions much more efficiently when the information that is attempting to be retained is grouped into discernable categories. This allows the mind to group and process this information into memory with much greater efficiency. In addition to these methods of memory retention, there exist areas of memory retention that are more common knowledge.

One such avenue within this field of psychological memory retention is the mnemonic device. Mnemonic devices function as association tools that aid the mind in recalling and retaining information. This functions as the individual is able to link the information to be retained with aspects of knowledge that remain more in terms of conscious awareness; thus, when the individual needs to remember essential information they are able to make recourse to this aspect of conscious awareness that is then linked to the other aspects of memory retention.

Within this mode of improving memory retention are further notions of linking the aspects of thought to other aspects of conscious awareness. For instance, an individual attempting to remember one aspect of information would link this information with a knowledge base they already have and consider the ways that the new information would contribute to furthered understandings. This allows the mind to contextualize and process the information with greater efficiency. A final means of memory retention is that the individual can link the knowledge to a visual image.

This functions both as a mnemonic device and as a means of storing information in a different aspect of cognitive functioning, which greatly contributes to retention rates. In conclusion, this essay as considered major psychological means of improving memory retention. While there are a great amount of means of improving retention, this essay has explored some of the most notable ways. Among these include the need for prolonged consistency rather than large-segmented means of retention. Other means require implementing mnemonic devices or linking the thoughts to other aspects of information to improve cognitive efficiency and retention.

References Bjork, D. (2001, March). ‘Learn how to learn.’ APS Observer, 14(3), 9.