Page 291 - Use Your Memory

YOUR MEMORY'S RHYTHMS
you have learned after a few minutes have passed since the end of
your learning period; second, you lose 80 per cent of the detail you
have learned within twenty-four hours of having learned it. (You
can make use of this dramatic fall to help you 'take the coats off
your 'memory coat hangers' as discussed in chapter 6.) The rise is
beneficial, so you want to make use of it; the decline can be
disastrous, so you usually need to make sure that it does not
happen. The method for both maintaining the rise and preventing
the decline is Review by Repetition.
If you have been studying for one hour, the high point in your
recall after learning will occur approximately ten minutes after-
wards. This high point is the ideal time for your first review. The
function of your review is to imprint the information you already
have in your mind, in order to make it more 'solid'. If you manage
to review at the first high point, the graph of recall after learning
changes, and instead of the detailed information being lost to
recall, it is maintained, as shown in the graph on page 170. For
example, if you had studied for one hour, your first review would
take place after ten minutes and your second review would take
place twenty-four hours later. From then on, your review should
take place only when you feel the information is perhaps slipping
away. On average, these reviews all occur over units of time that
are based on calendar elements, i.e., days, weeks, months, years.
So, you would review after one day, then after one week, then after
one month, then after half a year, and so on.
Each review need take very little time. The first one should
consist of a complete reviewing of your Mind Map Memory Notes
or information after the learning period. This may take as much as
ten minutes for a one-hour learning period. After the first review,
each subsequent review should consist of a quick jotting down of
the basic information in your area of interest, and then a compari-
son of your quick notes with your basic notes. Any areas you have
left out can be filled in, and any new knowledge you may have
acquired during the period between reviews can be added to your
original notes. In this manner, your recall of all the information
that you need to have constantly available can be guaranteed.
It is useful to compare the minds of people who consistently
review with the minds of those who do not. People who do not
review are continually putting information in and letting that same
information drain out. These people will constantly find it difficult
to take in new information because the background knowledge
they need to understand that new information will have gone. In
such a case, learning will continually be difficult, recall will always
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