1. PAYING ATTENTION → SHORT-TERM MEMORY
2. REHEARSAL & ASSOCIATION → TRANSFER TO LONG-TERM MEMORY
3. RECALLING ASSOCIATIONS → RETRIEVAL FROM LONG-TERM MEMORY

Why don’t we remember everything that has ever happened to us? First of all, we don’t pay attention to everything around us. Our attention is selective. We block out things that we consider to be unimportant. We ignore things that we consider to be irrelevant.

Think about what things you do remember from your childhood. Why do you remember them? Most likely, you have thought about them; mulled them over, run the memories through your mind like movies; associated them with feelings, impressions, patterns, etc. In other words, you have rehearsed them and attached meaning to them.

If you were asked what you had for lunch two days ago, you may not be able to say, but if you were asked what was the most memorable meal you had recently, you could probably think of something based on some association (meaning) you have attached to it (a pleasant or unpleasant experience, a person you ate with, an unusual circumstance, etc.) You would use the meaningful association to recall the details of the food.

How can you improve your capacity for memorizing large amounts of information?

• Believe that it is possible, and want to do it.
• Decide that the information is important and relevant.
• Understand how memorization works (attention, rehearsal, association, and retrieval) so that you know what you need to do to make it happen.
• Use some memory strategies.
• Practice, practice, practice. Your capacity to memorize large amounts of material will improve with practice.

Memorization Strategies
- Flash Cards	- Chunking	- Mnemonic devices

Strategies for remembering, recalling, and understanding (continued)