Give Yourself Feedback!

To guide or control your learning process, first, you must accept that recall operates on a feedback principle.

Look at this illustration of how your memory naturally works by linking, connecting, and associating information that you acquire.

See: When you see a picture or a pattern you will remember more detail and your memory will last longer. This is visualization.

Think: When you can relate or integrate new material with your background knowledge you reinforce your memory. This is called manipulation.

Understand: Integrating new knowledge with your previous understanding or using a new concept to do something causes relearning to occur.


Recall: Telling back or recalling in your own words not only is a good way to test memory it is also a good method of reinforcing your memory. Once you have perceived the information your brain organizes and processes the information—personalizes it by your own interpretation.

After reading or hearing new information you must give yourself feedback to optimize recall. After you receive the information you should think or reflect and elaborate on it.

Form a variety of associations among the points you wish to remember. Through this thought process you derive some understanding of it and you are able to recall it in some manner acceptable to you. By reflecting, elaborating, or relearning you make the information more memorable—the richer the associations, the better the memory of it.

Reflection and elaboration help you control the learning process. Other factors can influence how much control you have over your own learning.

Fact: You retain much more information if you relearn or reinforce your learning