ABSTRACT
Listening effectiveness is greatly enhanced by excellent memory. Understanding the three memory systems and the ways in which recall can be improved can have a significant positive impact on listening effectiveness.
Memory involves three separate systems: immediate, short-term, and long-term. You cannot remember anything unless you first focus your attention. In short-term memory, pieces of information are held just long enough to use them such as in conversations. The methods of retaining information in STM are presented. Because information is held on a short-term basis, interference of any sort results in forgetting.
Strategies for putting information into LTM and then retrieving it are then explained. Organizational systems called schemas provide categories for perceiving, interpreting, and remembering incoming information. Common LTM strategies include association by context and category, mediation, visual imagery, and mnemonic techniques.
The obstacles to memory are then discussed, including repression and distortion, retroactive inhibition, rigid thinking, and the primacy and recency effects. Aging is also discussed as it affects memory. Finally, a number of ways in which students can improve their memory are described.
