Page 290 - Use Your Memory

USE YOUR MEMORY
will be able to make continually fewer and fewer connections
between the dwindling amount of information he has learned and
the increasingly formidable and nonunderstandable information
that threatens him.
5 Contrary to 'common sense', your memory of what you have
learned rises during the breaks you take rather than immediately
beginning to fall. This rise is due to the fact that your left and right
hemispheres 'sort things out' for a little while on an unconscious
level after you have finished taking in information during a learn-
ing period. When you return to your learning after the break you
are therefore actually in possession of more conscious knowledge
than if you had carried on without the break. This last piece of
information is particularly important because it dispels those deep
feelings of guilt that you may experience when you find yourself
naturally taking a break but at the same time thinking that you
ought to be getting 'back to the grindstone'.
Your breaks should usually be no longer than two to ten
minutes. During each break you can allow your mind to rest by
going for a short walk, making yourself a light nonalcoholic drink,
doing some form of physical exercise, auto-suggesting, medi-
tating, or listening to quiet music.
To consolidate and improve your memory even further, it is
advisable at the beginning and end of each learning period to
perform a very quick review and preview of what you have learned
in the previous learning periods and what you are going to learn in
the coming ones. This continuing review/preview cycle helps to
further consolidate the information you already have, gives you
growing confidence and success as you progress, allows your mind
to direct itself toward the next learning target, and gives you a
bird's-eye view of the territory you are going to explore mentally
during your entire learning session.
Combining your knowledge of the rhythms of your memory in
time during a learning period with the Basic Memory Principles
and using your creative imagination, you will be able to form
imaginative links and associations throughout your period of
study, consequently transforming the sags in the middle of the
learning periods into nearly straight lines.

Recall after Learning
Once you have made it easier for your recall to work well during a
learning period, it is important for you to do the same thing for
your recall after the learning period. The pattern of recall after
learning contains two 'surprises': first, you retain more of what

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