SCIENCE&HEALTH: Scientists investigate memory processes
By Shauntel Lowe
March 6, 2006 9:00 p.m.
As finals approach, many students are trying to find the most
effective ways to study, evaluating what worked and did not work in
the past.
Appropriately enough, researchers at UC Irvine and University
College London are examining which environmental factors best
prepare the mind to learn new information as part of a new study on
memory.
One researcher involved with the study, Dr. Michael Rugg,
director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
at UCI, said researchers’ observations indicate that there is
more to remembering information than what is happening in the brain
when learning is occurring.
During the study, researchers used a screen to present adults
with words that they were asked to remember later. Prior to the
appearance of the words, a symbol was flashed on the screen, cueing
the subjects that the word was coming. During the process, the
amplitude of the brain’s electrical activity was measured per
millisecond, which enabled researchers to precisely distinguish
activity before and after the presentation of the words.
By making observations immediately before the words were
presented, researchers were able to see what was going on in the
brain as it prepared to learn something new.
They found that the amplitude of electrical activity in the
brain before the presentation of the words was greater for the
words that subjects were able to remember than for those they could
not recall.
If researchers are able to build upon the results of this study,
they may one day be able to help students figure out how to best
prepare themselves to learn, Rugg said.
Some observations already have practical application. With
winter quarter drawing to a close, many students are opening their
books, some for the first time, in a potential grade-saving effort
to store ten weeks of information into memory before finals. But
this type of studying, better known as cramming, does not result in
long-term retention of the information, Rugg said.
“When you’re trying to learn, spaced practice is
better than massed practice,” he said.
However, due to procrastination, many students feel cramming is
often the only option they have to learn information.
“It’s effective for classes you haven’t
studied for at all,” said Catherine Manabat, a second-year
global studies and English student.
Though cramming at the end of the quarter may work sometimes,
some students do acknowledge that it would help them to learn the
material ahead of time.
“It would be better if I studied more progressively
throughout the quarter instead of pushing it when I need to do it.
Generally, it would make more sense if I understood (the material)
as it’s being taught,” said Paul Bien, a second-year
electrical engineering student.
In addition, Rugg said students should not study for long
periods of time uninterrupted.
“You would be better off if you devoted one hour in
15-minute sections, interrupted by something else, than spending
one solid hour,” he said.
Rugg said taking breaks periodically, as well as switching
subjects, helps people learn and retain information better.
“The idea is that, in the psychology of learning,
you’re establishing a kind of new context in which learning
is going on. Instead of simply getting a diminishing return trying
to learn something over and over (you are) establishing learning a
new (thing) and that seems to be beneficial later,” he
said.
Manabat agreed and said that taking five or 10-minute breaks
helps her rest her mind.
“If I just study through, I might get burned out,”
she said.
And despite popular belief, Rugg added, repeating information
over and over is not the most effective way to learn more complex
material.
A true understanding of the material and integration of new
information with what people already know creates a distinctive
memory trait that will give them the best chance of remembering
information later on, he said.
As for the immediate implications of the study, Rugg said so far
researchers cannot yet specifically determine what factors actually
influence memory.
But researchers are not expecting a simple answer, he added.
“We don’t think it’s as simple as whether
you’re concentrating hard or not,” he said.
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