Entry #4 - Fast ... and Forgetting

FUNNY I'm learning about cognition. And learning. And memory -- and I'm not thinking...and forgetting as fast as I am reading.

Perhaps it is something with how I naturally read things. My usual process of going through any text book or study guide would be to read through a chapter once, then go through it again, this time color labeling the appropriate key terms, and then finally a 3rd time by writing a summary of key sections in the margins...AND then taking the multiple choice quiz....AND then writing out the reasons for I got the ones that I got incorrect, incorrect, AND then typing out a comprehensive set of notes for the entire chapter.

AND then I can move onto the next chapter, to repeat the ENTIRE process. AGAIN. For... 14 Chapters.

The thing is, if I don't do the above, I can't remember the essentials. I know the technique is somewhat ineffective as it is so time-consuming, yet I've previously managed to do this for APUSH as well as the first few chapters of Psych.

By first few chapters, I mean first few chapters.

And only that.

See, perhaps the "plot" of the Psych Barron's book just got a lot more interesting. Either way, I just couldn't find myself to stop and highlight (even though I couldn't really -- it was borrowed, but I penciled in and underlined) and ... I just moved onto the next chapter!

It was like I was on a wave of "plot momentum", where I do not stop in a fiction book to contemplate about what just happened but move on to see what happens next.

Needless to say, AP Psych is hardly a "story", yet with the book's many merits, the basic concepts were explained very well that it was both understandable and enjoyable to move on and understand the more complex concepts.

So I basically "broke the rule" aaaaand. Read to Chapter 13. That's right. Chapter 4 - 13.

How much do I remember?

Not really much. Which might lead to another problem that I am seeing surface with self-studying -- it is very easy to forget things.

I don't like to view this as something with memorization, but seeing it as a class without a teacher, where I value the teacher not really for his/her "teaching", but for his/her ability to make you know the information. Know it to a point where it becomes common knowledge.

As they say in psychology, the information only remains at short term memory for about 7 minutes, and then "fades" away. Hopefully now then, I will be able to benefit from the "recolleciton" process or the "relearning" process as I look into it more in depth.

Self-studying is a lonely thing. Buuut... all the knowledge is worth it :).