Mnemonics That Actually Work
Mnemonic techniques work by giving arbitrary information a structure and an image, which makes it far easier to encode and retrieve tha
2 September 2026Read →
How encoding, consolidation and retrieval actually work, and why most everyday forgetting is an attention problem.
Mnemonic techniques work by giving arbitrary information a structure and an image, which makes it far easier to encode and retrieve tha
Information reviewed at spaced intervals is retained far better than the same total time spent in one block, a finding replicated for o
Emotionally significant events are consolidated more strongly, largely through amygdala involvement in modulating hippocampal encoding,
Brain training reliably improves performance at the trained task, but evidence that it transfers to everyday memory or general cognitio
The testing effect is the finding that actively retrieving information strengthens memory far more than reviewing it does, even though
Working memory holds a few items for seconds while you use them; long-term memory stores information indefinitely. Most everyday compla
Consolidation is the process that converts a fragile new memory into a stable one, and the majority of it happens during sleep — partic
Forgetting a name seconds after hearing it is almost always an encoding failure rather than a memory failure — the name was never store
Handwriting is slower, which forces summarising rather than transcribing, and some research associates it with better conceptual unders