Highly Effective Study Method

The objective of this essay is to attempt to construct an ideal study method based on accepted theory and empirical evidence on how it improves memory. The layout of this essay will first state a suggested study habit known and thereafter stipulate the theory from which it was drawn from, providing empirical evidence that supports the theory. The study methods that will be discussed are depth of processing and elaboration, encoding specificity and state dependent learning, practice and consolidation, mnemonics and retrieval failures.

The first study habit to be tackled is to match learning and testing conditions, suggests that memory gets more recovered when the encoding and retrieval conditions relate to each other as close as possible. This theory is called the encoding specificity principle, according to Godden & Baddeley we encode information based on when it takes place. When you study or encode information in a classroom you are more likely to retrieve it later on when you are tested on the material, reason being is simply that you have matched the conditions of encoding to that of retrieving memory because you retrieve memories in the place where they were received (Sternberg, Sternberg & Mio, 2012).

This theory of encoding specificity was established due to the experiment that was conducted by Godden and Baddeley in 1975 and was therefore titled the “DIVING EXPERIMENT”. The procedure of the experiment was, they divided the participants into two groups were one group was required to wear diving apparatus and had to study a list of words while underwater. The other group was taken on land and they were also given a list of words to study. Later on the two groups were further divided so that half of the participants w...

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