Memory – Page 2 – Cognition in Class

April 26, 2026April 28, 2026

Understanding Versus Memorizing; Why Elaboration Is Better

By: Courtney Hart

Have you ever crammed for a test and immediately forgot what it is you learned afterwards. This is something I struggled with when first getting into college. I would study right before a test or some important assignment. I would get the topic down for the short period of time that I needed it but then when I try to recall it after a longer period. It was hard for me to remember, I used to blame my memory being bad, but I have come to realize it is just the way I was studying that was the problem. Well, that is because I was not trying to understand the information but just memorize it. One of the better ways to study is to understand. And that is exactly what the purpose of elaboration is. Elaboration is a technique that I learned that has helped me study and succeed within the learning environment.

April 26, 2026April 27, 2026

Why You Suck at Studying… And How to Fix It: The Hidden Problem of Cognitive Interference

By: Nate Talkad

You know that feeling when you’ve been studying for hours and hours the night before your exam, and you’re feeling prepared, and then you show up and think to yourself, “I have never seen any of this in my life”? It can be quite frustrating, confusing, and frankly a little demoralizing. But here’s the thing: your brain isn’t full of cobwebs, it’s just a little confused due to something called cognitive interference. A sneaky, everyday memory blunder that affects not just college students, but every single human without them even realizing it.

Cognitive interference happens when different memories compete with each other. Think of it like trying to listen to two people talking to you at the same time. You may catch some words from one person and some from another, and by the end of it, you’re left confused and not knowing what either of them were talking about. The same thing happens in your mind when old and new information overlap.

Understanding this phenomenon can completely change the way you study and scrape through your classes. let’s dig into what interference is, how it shows up in real life, and what the research says you can do to fix it.

April 25, 2026April 27, 2026

Retrieval Practice: Learning that Lasts

By: Joshua Frenden

Introduction

Got a big test coming up? Need to learn something that you’ll be able to remember long term? Retrieval practice might become your new best friend. “Practicing retrieval yields significantly greater long-term retention of the studied materials than just restudying them” (Moreira et al., 2026). This method of retrieval is something that many, including myself, have found to be a very “effective… learning strategy” (Moreira et al., 2026). With the goal of “familiarity and recollection” in mind, retrieval practice might be the study method that you have been missing out on.

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025

“Why I Forgot Stuff During the Test After Studying Really Hard”

By Walter Medrano

Have you ever studied really hard for a test, but when you sit down to take it, your mind just blanks out and you notice that you’re not as confident as you were while studying? That’s happened to me more than once. I’d study in my dorm, feel super confident, and then get to the classroom and suddenly forget everything. I used to think it was just nerves or stress, but it turns out there’s actually a reason this happens, and it’s called the encoding specificity principle. It may sound scary at first but it’s actually pretty cool once you understand it.

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

Studying hard but forgetting fast? Interference might be at fault

By Danika Apostolovich

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why you might have studied hard for an upcoming history exam, making sure you focus on the dates, people involved, and what countries might be involved within a war, just to completely blank and forget all of the details about what you studied when the exam is given out? This is especially frustrating when you know you put in the effort to do well on the test. Let me tell you, in college this especially gets hard when you have to balance so many different things on a daily basis.

Well Did you happen to also study for that spanish test that you have the next period after? As it turns out, the material from studying for that spanish test wound up interfering with your ability to accurately remember what you studied for the history exam.

This post will dive deeper into interference theory, specifically retroactive and proactive interference. So that when you are about to go on to your first semester of college, you can know how to avoid this unfortunate circumstance of forgetting info and instead replace it with better study techniques!

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

How Your Personal Experiences Help You Gain A Better Understanding When Learning Something New

By Raquel Frakes

Introduction

Going to school at any age requires us to learn new things every day. At times, it is hard to remember every topic or concept you have learned. College is a whole different ballgame, where learning and obtaining new information are crucial for our futures. College can be difficult because of other obligations or even jobs, so it is essential to find a successful method to recall information that you have learned. The Self-Reference Affect is one of those successful methods.

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

Clarity: Making Sense of Your Mind in College

By Jordyn Coppejans

Elaborate is what we constantly hear. Did you know we have a great elaborate machine in our brain that takes up what we experience and combines it? Our mind reconstructs what we experience and makes it different, but still lets us retrieve the right information for a deeper understanding of knowledge, like collage.

First, let’s dive into Elaborative Rehearsal, which uses meanings and connections to help transfer information to long-term memory. “Generating questions makes you think hard about the material and fosters comprehension (B. Wong,1995). Additionally, answering questions such as “Why is this true? Or what parts of this page are new to me? will help you to learn because it connects what you are learning to what you already know.” (Putnam et al.,2016) Looking at that quote, you can see that comprehension is done by connections and not just by memorizing information.

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

Serial Position Effect- The Middle Child of Memory

By Alyssa Bundren

Think of the last test you took. Was there a question on that test that you could not remember even though you knew it was in the study guide? Was it in the middle of the study guide rather than the beginning or end? This is the Serial Position Effect. As described, the Serial Position Effect is the tendency to remember information from the beginning or the end but to forget information. While this may seem straight forward, it can actually be quite complex and effect people more often than you would think. But do not worry, we’re gonna talk about it.

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

Don’t space out in class, space out your study time

By Elly Jones

Don’t exhaust yourself, use the spacing effect

It is easy to fall victim to procrastination and decide to cram a study session right before an exam. Procrastinating will only give you mediocre scores and a whole Lotta stress. Our brain can memorize information much more successfully when studying is spaced out across hours, days, or even weeks. Studying too much over a short period can lead to overstimulation of neurons and mental fatigue. If you want to get great exam scores while still being able to go out and enjoy yourself try out the spacing effect. Even if you only study for ten minutes every day for a week, you’ll have more success in memorizing the implementation than you would if you studied for two hours only once. You don’t have to give up your weekends to succeed.

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

What to remember things? Try the Levels of Processing!

By Ryan Bell

Do you want information to process better and stay in your LTM (Long Term Memory)? Well, all you have to do is follow the Levels of Processing Theory. The Levels processing Theory says the depth of processing information has a big impact on how well it is remembered.

What Is Levels of Processing Theory?

Levels Processing Theory is the theory that assumes that deeper, more meaningful engagement with information leads to better memory retention compared to shallow processing that focuses on surface details. It is also the idea that the way information is encoded affects how well it is remembered. The deeper the level of processing, the easier the information is to recall. With Levels of Processing Theory, there is some Circular reasoning, in the context of levels of processing, refers to the flawed argument where the premises are used to support the conclusion, and the conclusion is also used to support the premises, creating a loop without providing independent evidence for either.