Biology Forums - Study Force

I tend to forget most the stuff that I read. I even forget most of the topic that I once felt confident in. How do you guys retain information and concepts that you studied? Is it repetition? Is there a trick to memorize stuff for a long time?

It's natural to forget things you've learned, that just means the information isn't memorable. For learning to become memory it must be directed through the emotional filter, in other words, it should have a profound effect on you. For example, we all have those ah ha moments, those are more likely to become memory if the information is repeated over and over again. What I usually do is write the information down over and over again until I finally retain it long enough to write my test. If I forget it, it's our brains way of saying that it's not useful to our survival, so forget it.

Also, some key points to consider:

• Emotions influence where new information is processed in the brain. For learning to become memory it must be directed through the emotional filter (amygdala) along the route to the reflective, higher brain – the prefrontal cortex.

• High stress results in information transport to the lower, reactive brain where the behavioral responses are limited to fight/flight/freeze.

• The brain is “wired” to stop expending effort when experience predicts a low prob¬ability of success.

• Motivation from positive experiences is necessary to overcome the brain’s resistance to applying effort when it has low expectation of reward.

• Expectation of pleasure motivates attention, effort and memory. Dopamine release “fuels” pleasure.

• Students are more motivated when they WANT to LEARN what they HAVE to learn.

• Goals that are clear and desirable promote attention, motivation, effort, and reduce stress.

• Effort increases when there is awareness of one’s incremental progress toward a desired goal.

Thank you for such an insightful answer, and yeah most of the things we learn aren't actually helpful for our survival, that's a funny way to put it

Thanks, and you're welcome :D

To be honest I usually cheat with test bank on a pdf file on my phone.  Search + type in the question and wa-lah! I got my bachelor degree in Biochemistry.  Why overcome the obstacles when you can just go under it?