Improving Memory Psychology

Psychology covers many interesting areas of study. And psychology is present in our daily lives in so many different ways and because of that it changes many lives. There are two topics that we learned about that I thought were really interesting, to me personally. One topic was the chapter on Sleep – module 9. And the second topic I want to talk about is Improving Memory, which is in module 26: Forgetting, Memory Constructions, and Improving Memory.
I know that for many college students like myself sleep is often an issue. The schedule is very inconsistent because of all the assignments, late night group projects, exams, homework and for a lot of people procrastination. All those responsibilities don’t ‘allow’ us to sleep like we used to when …show more content…
Our bodies know the difference between night and day because of the biological clock. It knows when we are ready to go to sleep and how much sleep we need. This is also the part of our body that has issues to adjust to a new time zone when flying across the ocean to Europe for example. There are several reasons why we need sleep: it helps us recuperate, feeds creative thinking and helps to restore and rebuild our fading memory of the days experiences (textbook) are just a few of the many reasons. Most people are very lucky that they can just go to sleep very easily without many difficulties or other issues. Individuals with sleep apnea are not that fortunate. Sleep apnea is defined as a sleep disorder that causes people to periodically stop breathing during sleep. To give them a sounder sleeping, a better life quality and to relieve the sleep apnea symptoms, doctors recommend patients to wear a mask connected to a machine with an air pump, with a tube, that keeps the airways open (textbook). I chose this topic because I know my dad has sleep apnea and I always tried to understand why he always was tired and grumpy even on the weekends after a good amount of sleep and what that device actually does. My parents, of course, tried to explain it too, but the textbook gave me an even clearer understanding of this …show more content…
To learn and also remember material you should spread out your studying over several smaller study sessions during the day. The more you exercise and repeat your memories the stronger they will become (textbook). To make my studying easier, I decided to change my study habits and started to make flashcards. That way I would rewrite my notes I had taken in class and the information from the power points because the testing effect has proven that writing longhand leads to better retention of the material (textbook). I have noticed that through the years being in school, that I learn more by rewriting things. Before I started doing flashcards, I pretty much rewrote all my notes on pieces of paper but that was inconvenient since it was hard to learn each topic individually without looking at the next. Now that I make flashcards I can study the material everywhere I go whether it is on my way to the George on the bus, during lunch or waiting for the next class to start. Also in the book: Test your knowledge, to rehearse and find out what you don’t know yet. With flashcards, I can test myself because the term is on the front and the details on the back, the terms I don’t know I turn sideways so I know exactly which ones I need to study more. I also have my roommate test me on the material because sometimes we are all a little overconfident in what we known by simply remembering not understanding the