--Original published at Zach Nawrocki's Blog

I am currently a sophomore and I feel as though my study habits have improved dramatically from last year to this year. I feel as though my study habits this year are so much better then what they use to be but there are obviously still things that can be improved. Some of the things that I do well for studying is I start studying at least a week before a test, so I do not cram everything into one or two nights. One other thing that I do well is I restudy the stuff from one day to the next until I have gone over all the information and feel comfortable with it. Lastly, I not only read the slides or notes I took in class but also read the given book for the class and take notes on that. The one main thing I struggle with while studying which I feel a lot of students can agree on is staying focused for a certain about of time. This seems to be a growing problem among the younger population and is a real problem when it comes to studying and retaining information. For the first exam in this class I am reading the chapter in the book and taking notes on that then after I finish one chapter I am looking at the slides that were covered in class and connecting the information from the book to the information covered in class. To prepare for the next exam one thing I want to start doing is after each class go over the information again to make sure I understand it completely right after we go over it and ask any questions that I am confused about to better prepare for the upcoming test.

--Original published at Ariana's Blog

My study habits have changed drastically from high school to college. In high school, I never really had to study and when I did, I would just cram the night before. Once I got to college I knew that would have to change. Now, I try to review all my notes every day, just a quick read through so it starts to stick. Around 2-3 weeks before an exam I take an hour out of my day to study the material. A week before, I will really start getting deeper into the material and studying for a longer amount of time. I still cram a little bit of the information beforehand, but I usually start early enough and know the material well. I also try to get my other work done the week before the exam, so I have that time to commit to studying. Along with that, I like to have a study group with people who keep me focused and who want to study as well.  I am pretty good at taking breaks in between my studying, however, sometimes I take too many breaks. One thing that I could improve on is keeping my phone in a different room. It becomes a big distraction when I have it near me. My studying habits change with every class I take. Some classes need more time and some need less. 

For this class, I know I need a lot of time to study. I have already gone through my notes multiple times. I also have been trying to make note cards for definitions and important people after the lectures so I can learn those as we go. I am taking the reading seriously and trying to take notes that I believe are going to be important. Depending on how I do on the upcoming exam will determine whether I need to change my study habits for this class. 

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

The first day of school, finding the love of your life, marriage, and everything else a person may love in life, they have the power to remember it all.

No matter what the circumstance, people have evolved their way of understanding the situation with the power of their minds, rethinking past experiences or evaluating past advice to solve any problem at hand. For the most part, memories also serve as a timeline for everything a person has gone through and can be remembered if the impression was longlasting and memorable. That is how people from all ages can go about their lives as well with the information they learned earlier in their life, like the alphabet for example. People have to rely on memory to do jobs, know their location, focus on certain tasks in hand, and so much more.

Throughout the centuries, humanity has evolved with the use of technology, relying on their memories to create new ideas and innovations, which is far more powerful than any supercomputer built to this day. People’s minds not only have the power to remember, but to improvise, to create something new that may have worth in the future.

And even with the science of it all, to analyze the brain’s mechanics of memorization, there is no denying that memories and the inner workings of the brain have lead humanity into the time it has created now.

--Original published at Alex's Thoughts

I think that memory is a fickle thing. How the memory is experienced depends on the viewpoint of the person who is the subject of the memory. While someone may remember an event a certain way, other people who witnessed the same event at the time may have different associations with it, or remember the events occurring slightly different. As such, the experiences and memories that one has of life would appear to be entirely subjective to the person. As for why certain events appear to be set in memory stronger than others, I believe that hindsight is the best means for gauging this.

In particular, a personal experience that I remember like it was yesterday was when I decided I wanted to become an engineer. I was assisting my father in disassembling a tractor engine under a warm June sun. I was having a bit of difficulty getting the head off the engine, so he gave me some advice on loosening the bolts and told me that if another man created it, I should never be afraid to disassemble or work on a machine. He told me that I was just as capable as anyone who created the machine, so I shouldn’t underestimate my ability to work with machines in general. I went to sleep that night with the thought in my head, “If I can work with machines, why shouldn’t I be able to design them?” I began researching my career options, and soon settled on engineering as my desired career path. I believe that if I had not decided to become an engineer, I would merely have filed this memory away as a fond experience with my dad. However, hindsight has set this memory as the moment I made a life-altering decision, for better or worse.

My theory is that in hindsight, memories that correspond to important events in our current life are the ones that stand out the strongest. For example, a person that is stranded on a desert island would have little use for memories about enjoyable movies they saw as a teenager, but be attempting to recall any survival information they’ve absorbed over their life. In my example, this memory serves as the basic structure to why I became an engineer as I am actively pursuing a degree in Engineering. As for a means to measure this phenomenon, I’d interview participants about their current status in life. This includes everything ranging from marital status to income stability. I’d then ask what 3 memories stand out the strongest to them after talking about their life. In theory, the most prevalent events occurring in their life should prompt a memory related to the event to stand out above the rest. For example, if a subject is getting married, an event that would most likely stand out to them is when they met their significant other. If they are dissatisfied with their current job, a memory that might stand out is that one opportunity that may have worked if they had taken it. If correlations like this are present in a majority of subjects, then my theory that current events hold some influence over how strongly we perceive certain memories is validated.

Memory is strange, but it is an essential part of how humans interact and learn throughout life.

--Original published at Grace's College Blog

I have had to improve my study habits since coming to college. In high school, I would rarely spend a lot of time studying for exams because I was busy with extracurriculars. In college, I have more time to study and spend time reviewing material. When studying for an exam though, I tend to procrastinate studying until the day before. I spend hours reviewing the material and making flash cards and rewriting information to help me remember. Positive habits are making flash cards and not being finished studying till I know the information which will, most of the time, take the whole day. For this class in particular, I started making flash cards after we get new material, every week. Flash cards are helpful because you’re writing the information down and then have a good study tool. I do need to review the practice questions after we complete the quizzes every week. I also need to look over my notes every day after class to make sure I have a general idea of what he had discussed. I need to improve by beginning studying immediately after we are given new material, in order to help me remember the information for a longer period of time. I also need to be more confident and ask questions during class if I don’t understand something, instead of thinking I’ll just look at it again later.

--Original published at JanellesCollegeBlog

Since coming to college, I have had to change my study habits from high school. I have found in college it is very important to begin studying in advance, whereas in high school I was able to get away with beginning to study for exams the night before. I also was able to just read through my notes and memorize information, whereas in college it is more about understanding the content than memorizing it.

I have done well at studying a little each day for classes, so I do not feel overwhelmed right before exams. In most classes I have found making flashcards is the most efficient way for me to study. This way I can mix up the information and not memorize it in a certain order. I also do well with being efficient during the time I study. I study in chunks and take breaks, so I will not be as distracted during the small chunks of time I am studying.

I believe I could improve my study habits by asking more questions of my professors and classmates when I am confused. Often when I am studying and come across a concept I do not understand, I pass over the concept and do not try to get clarification on it. This is a bad habit I would like to break. I could also improve my study habits by trying to study information in multiple ways to master content rather than just flashcards.

For the first exam in this class I have been studying the information a little bit each day. I have also been making flashcards. As well as flashcards, I have also utilized the study guide provided on Canvas.

To study better for the second exam, I think it would be helpful to ask more questions in class when I am confused about a topic. I do not always realize in class I am not grasping a concept, but when I go back over my notes after class sometimes I find I did not fully grasp a concept in class. This is when I believe I could go back to the professor or classmates for clarification. I am looking forward to learning more about memory in class this week.

--Original published at Jill Distler's Psychology Blog

Some memories are “stronger” than others, you remember them better than others. Why do I remember my second birthday party so well, but not my eighth? I believe that memories are day to day experiences that the brain takes in while we are awake, and then during the filtering process while we are asleep, they are officially saved in different “files” in the brain. But why are some more easily accessible than others? I feel that during the storage filtering process, dreams that are connected to increased hormone levels or larger changes in mood are ones that become easier to recall in the future. Memories connected to chemical reactions in the brain could be the reason why some appear “stronger” than others. 

To test my theory of chemicals in the brain reacting to experiences during the day being the reason they become stronger memories after a night of sleep, I would first get a random sample of people using dating apps. The number of participants would obviously vary depending on how many people agreed to participate, but hopefully it would be an equal number of participants. In this study, two people would be paired and would be placed in a room together and forced to have a “typical” first date. We would monitor the levels of oxytocin in the brain while the two individuals spoke and got to know each other. After a few weeks, the individuals would be reintroduced to the original room to replicate the first date. Oxytocin levels would be monitored again, only a researcher would be present as a third party, initiating conversation based off of the previous date’s discussions. If the oxytocin levels spike during the reintroduction of the memories originally made on the first date, then it may prove that stronger memories are related to chemical reactions in the brain. 

--Original published at Ally'sCollegeBlog

Without memory we have nothing to shape us as individuals, we would all just be robots. Memories help us connect with the world around us. For example, when 9/11 occurred, it was traumatizing for many people. My mom was sitting at home with me and saw the broadcast of the event on the news. It shaped her and help her become more aware of situations and more involved in political issues. She can remember the day very vividly, almost like it was yesterday. I have the same feeling with the first day of my summer trip. I went on a six and a half week trip across the country in the summer of 2017. I do not remember every moment, but I do vividly remember the first day. It was super awkward because I am not exactly an extrovert. On the other hand, It was the first day of the best three months of my life.

I do not know why this day is so engraved into my mind, as I have many first days that I can not even recall. First day of high school, kindergarten, and work are all examples of days that I can not remember. I think this is because human brains are wired to sort through information. Whether it is information coming from our eyes, eyes, mouth, or hands. Maybe the first day of high school is not as important as other days in my life. Maybe my brain has sorted through the days of my lives and found the ones that have shaped me as an individual, and threw out the ones that do not matter.

For my study I would want to research how people use their memories and life experiences in different situations. How does a firefighter, who was involved in 9/11, react to certain occurrences in their career nowadays. I would get participants from all walks of life. I want the group of people to be as random as possible so I can generalize my claim. I would put each participant is individualized test after finding out what their most vivid memory is. I would monitor how they react or response to the stimulation. It would not cause harm to someone emotionally or physically. My ideal outcome is figuring out how memories affect us and why.

--Original published at Olivia's College Blog

The brain has many ways of internalizing certain experiences; sometimes it may even block out certain memories from stressful or traumatic situations. When we say something is ‘memorable’, we are probably referring to types of experience that are more emotionally stimulating than we typically experience. Situations that are out of the ordinary have the power to generate especially vivid memories. For example, a mother might recall the weather conditions from the day that her son struck his first homerun in baseball. A girl might remember the exact outfit she was wearing on the day of her surprise 16^th birthday party. Situations of great significance that are rather surprising, shocking, or exciting can make memories that are stronger than others. 

              In the extreme example of 9/11, most people could tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time of the event. I think one theory for this is because those memories help to remember the rest of the experience. It becomes an easier task for the brain to remember that day, and to relive the experience in their memory, if they have a lot of other information to help bring out the details. If the brain remembers that, on 9/11, you were on your way to pick up your 1 month old from day care on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon, your memory will take you farther in remembering the significance of that day. The same can be said for any other situation that we find significant enough that our brain internalizes very specific details of the situation.

--Original published at Jess Principe's Blog

By: Jess Principe

In my opinion, the stronger the memory is to the person, the more valuable the experience was to the person. If something very exciting happens in your life such as graduating high school, scoring your first goal in a sports event, or meeting someone you love for the first time, those memories will be stronger and stick with you longer because the experience was very important to you as well. Likewise, the scariest experiences a person encounters in their lives will be just as scarring from a memory standpoint as well. For our generations, the Sandy Hook School shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing, and Hurricane Katrina all stick out to me and I can remember exactly where I was when all three happened because I was scared during those events, as well as scared during the aftermath of these events when viewing them through social media.

An interesting way to test the strength of memories is to ask a randomly selected group of people to identify their top three happiest memories and scariest memories and have them summarize where they were  or what they were doing when these memories occured. If the memories are significant events (whether they are exciting or scary) in their life or to the outside global community, then it would be easy to confirm that the stronger the memories, the more significant the event. If the memories seem to be random days or insignificant events that seem to still stick strongly to the person, then it conveys that memories can be strong but arise from insignificant events.