Learning and retaining information for many people within today’s school system is a struggle. Information can become skewed, easy to forget, mixed around and confused with other topics learned along with the information you’re trying to retain. There are many techniques or tips and tricks one can use to become more efficient in storing information in their mind and keeping it there. One of these techniques is interleaving. Interleaving is a technique used for retaining information at a higher rate in both short term and long term memory. The process of interleaving involves mixing around ques ..read more

Have you ever found yourself the night before a huge exam cramming in hours of studying when you could have started days ago? Or have you spread your studying out when preparing for a huge exam? I would guess that most people would agree with the first question even myself would agree with ending up in that situation before a huge exam. But which method is more effective to receive the greatest outcome from the exam that you are preparing for? First is to know these are both cognitive processes the first one being massed practice and the second one being distributed practice. Distributed pract ..read more

College..especially psychology classes are all about putting the learning material into an abstract idea. College classes are notorious for a specific teaching style, which involves the professor giving a lesson, students writing down the notes, the professor then giving homework or a quiz over the material you were given. Every. Single. Day. Why not try something new, such as concrete examples? Why not try to put your real life into the material to get a better understanding of the material you are receiving from the professor. Make learning a little more entertaining. I am a college student ..read more

By Alexis Charlton To all college students, especially freshmen, are you tired of blanking on tests? Are you tired of studying for hours and not remembering your content? I have something to tell you, it’s not how long or how hard you study, it is how you study. How would it feel to show up to a test and feel more confident than ever? How would you feel about sleeping peacefully the night before a test? I can give you the answer on how to feel confident and calm before you show up to a test. Once again, it is not about how long you study, it is all about how you encode the information you stud ..read more

As an incoming student, you may be wondering how to make the best of your learning and retention of new information. Well lucky for you there are many cognitive processes that may help you learn and retain information, one of which is the generation effect. In this blog post, we will be exploring the basics of the generation effect in cognitive psychology, we will discuss its benefits, and even provide you with some tips you may add for good study habits.  What is Generation Effect? The generation effect is a cognitive phenomenon that touches on the superior retention of information that ..read more

Have you ever studied for a test but then when the time came to actually take the test you  completely blanked? Many factors play a role in how well our memory works in different  circumstances. One way you can try to improve your memory when studying for school is to use  the encoding specificity principle. The encoding specificity principle is the idea that when we  learn information we are processing both the information and the environment in which we  learned it so we have better recall of that information when we are trying to remember it in an  environment ..read more

Picture this: you’re standing at the starting line of the biggest 5k race of your life, but you were so nervous you forgot your running shoes. Now what do you do in this situation? You could always just put your Crocs into “sports mode,” but that probably wouldn’t end well. Instead, you may try to borrow a pair of shoes from a friend. What’s the first thing you would do before slipping them on? You will probably take a quick peek at the inside of the tongue to check the size label to see if they fit your feet. That’s your brain using a schema! “Schemas support memory and perception by providin ..read more

Though I lack statistical data, I am willing to bet it is safe to assume that most have heard “What were you thinking?” a time or two. Am I right? As a child, I heard this often. As a parent, I say it often. I still hear it, too, but not from my parents, from my wife. As Forrest Gump said: “Sometimes we all do things that, well, just don’t make no sense.” (1). You may be wondering what this has to do with being a college student, and I must confess, I am wondering the same. Just kidding. Or am I? Implicit in Forrest Gump’s statement is our ability to use reason to form conclusions, i.e., make ..read more

By Zachary Rice Have you ever found yourself binging a Netflix series, scrolling social media for hours, or just simply taking in extra unnecessary information in the midst of finals week for no particular reason? If you said, “Yes” to any of those examples and are in a desperate crunch to try and improve your situation, then I believe chunking is exactly what you need to try! Although the disclaimer to this technique is that it will only be useful, if you have actually already attempted studying. The reason for this is that chunking is best used post-study session, when you’re attempting to ..read more

By Zachary Briggs As a business major at the college I am enrolled in, I initially anticipated my psychology course to not have any meaningful value to my life in the future. Do not… I repeat, do not approach this subject with that mindset. This semester I learned about many concepts within psychology that affect our lives daily such as sensory & short-term memory, long-term memory, attention, reasoning; the list can go on. One concept that was very intriguing to me and I would like to share my understanding and knowledge about is Perceptual Organization. Perceptual Organization is somethi ..read more