Addie Cooper, per 2
AP Psychology, Mr. Dowell
28 August 2012
Memory Essay Having the ability to learn and expand on new information had generally been easy for me in the early years. In elementary school, my short term memory was very sharp and I could remember my newly stored information quite easily. This could have been because I was always yearning for new information I found interesting. I didn't have to worry about how I studied because we always reviewed the new information until it became custom to us. As the years have passed and I find myself a senior in high school, I realize my ability I retain information has weakened and my interest level has reached a stand still. After learning about the ideas of how we encode, store, and retrieve our memories, I have discovered that there is more than one way to absorb and remember things. After watching a video by Dr. Chew, ideas began to click with one another and some of the new terms have made it easier and more fun to test my memory. This increase in attention is greatly needed because my work load continues to grow. In order to keep new an old information, as well as apply what I'm learning, I will need to change the way I study and use concepts. Below are a list of tips that I think will vastly improve my study habits and help on my everyday practices when applied:
● Use rehearsal when effortful processing is being used. This means that in order to maintain information in consciousness I will continuously repeat the process of understanding new information. I could use tools like flash cards and techniques like mnemonic devices.
● Use chunking to organize encoded information. This would require sorting items into familiar units that can be remembered almost automatically. The use of a concept map would help with chunking and should be used when breaking down chapters into manageable sections to improve memory on information.

● To improve long term