Unexpectedly simple and effective technique improves memorization.

And she helps everyone, from students to Alzheimer's patients

When you are trying to memorize a new material, it is easy to be tempted to believe that the more effort you put in, the more you can then remember. However, periodic breaks, during which you literally do not have to do anything, may be exactly what you need to improve efficiency. Dim the lights, sit down, enjoy 10-15 minutes of quiet reflection, and you will find that you remember the facts you just learned much better than if you tried to spend this time more "productively".

Although it is already well known that when studying a new thing you need to know the measure, a new study confirms that during such interruptions it is necessary to strive for “minimizing interference” - intentionally avoiding activity that may interfere with the delicate process of memory formation. No deeds, email checking, web surfing. You need to give your brain a chance to recharge without any distractions.

A pretext for doing nothing may seem like an ideal mnemonic technique for lazy students, but this discovery may even offer some help to people with amnesia and certain forms of dementia - perhaps this is a new way to master a person’s latent, unused ability to learn and remember .



The remarkable advantages of rest without distractions, which encourage memory, were first described in 1900 by German psychologist Georg Elias Muller and his pupil Alfons Pilzecker. In one of his many experiments on memory consolidation, Miller and Pilzecker asked subjects to memorize a list of meaningless syllables. After a short study, half of the group was immediately given a second list for study - and for the rest they took a six-minute break before continuing their learning.

On checking in an hour and a half, the two groups demonstrated extremely different successes in the matter of memories. Test participants who took a break remembered almost 50% of their list, and the group who studied lists without the possibility of recharging their mental batteries recalled 28% of the items on average. This discovery suggests that our memories associated with new information, especially fragile immediately after recording this information, because of what they are more susceptible to interference from the next, coming after them, information.

And although several psychologists periodically returned to these experiments, it was not until the early 00s that the broader implications of this feature became known - they were discovered by cutting-edge research by Sergio Della Sal from Edinburgh University and Nelson Cowan from the University of Missouri.



The team needed to figure out whether, by reducing interference, it was possible to improve the memory of people affected by neurological injuries, such as stroke. Using an experiment reminiscent of Muller and Pilzecker’s first experience, they offered their participants lists of 15 words and checked them after 10 minutes. In some cases, the subjects immediately began performing standard cognitive tests; in others, they were asked to lie down in a dark room, trying not to fall asleep.

The effect of a small intervention turned out to be more serious than anyone could have imagined. Although patients with the most severe cases of amnesia showed no improvement, other people tripled the number of words they could remember - from 14% to 49%, which almost brought their abilities closer to the capabilities of healthy people.

The following results were even more impressive. Participants were asked to listen to stories and give answers to questions about them in an hour. If they were not allowed to rest, they could only remember 7% of the story; after the rest, this figure increased dramatically to 79% - an astronomical 11-fold improvement in the amount of stored information. The researchers also found a similar, though not so impressive, advantage in the case of healthy people - this time the effectiveness of the memory increased by 10-30%.

Former students of Della Sala and Cowan, Mikaela Devore of Heriot-Watt University, have already conducted several additional studies reproducing this discovery in many contexts . In healthy subjects, it was found that short rest breaks can also improve spatial memory - for example, they help to better remember the location of various signs in the virtual space. What is important, this advantage persists even a week after completing the memorization task, and helps both young and old people. In addition to those who survived a stroke, there are benefits in people in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.



In each case, the researchers simply asked the subjects to sit in a semi-dark, quiet room, without mobile phones and other similar distractions. “We do not give them any specific recommendations about what they should or should not do during the holidays,” says Devore. “But the questionnaires, filled out at the end of the experiments, suggest that most people just let their thoughts wander aimlessly.”

During the rest should not strain your mind. In one study, participants were asked to imagine a past or future event during a break, which seems to have further reduced their ability to recall recently learned material. Perhaps the safest thing would be not to strain the brain at all during the rest.

We strive to remember everything

If you are interested in trying other simple ways to improve your memory, perhaps the following strategies can help you:

• Check yourself. The so-called “return practice”, during which you intentionally force yourself to recall information, is much more effective than passive reading.
• Separate your lessons, wait a few weeks before returning to the material. It is often better to wait for the moment in which you will be on the verge of forgetting so as not to overload the brain with data.
• Talk to yourself. A simple description of the event fixes it in your memory.
• Add variety. Sometimes it is useful to mix and swap topics of your study, to alternate them, rather than learning each in large blocks.

The exact mechanism of this method is still unknown, although some hints were obtained thanks to a growing understanding of the memory formation process. It is now believed that after the first coding of memories in the brain, they go through a certain period of consolidation, fixing them for long-term storage. It was once believed that this occurs mainly during sleep, with an increase in the volume of communication between the hippocampus - where memory is formed in the first place - and the cerebral cortex, in a process capable of creating and strengthening new nerve compounds necessary for the subsequent process of extracting memories from memory.



Increased activity at night may be the reason why we often remember better what we learned before bedtime . But in the work of 2010 for the authorship of Lila Dawachi from New York University, it was found that this effect is not limited to sleep - a similar nervous activity occurs during periods of rest during wakefulness. In one study, participants were first asked to memorize pairs of pictures — to match faces with objects or scenes — and then let them lie down and give the brain a rest. Naturally, scientists have discovered an increase in communication between the hippocampus and certain areas of the visual cortex. What is important, according to her, is the fact that people who have increased the connections between these areas more clearly have better results for memory tests.

Perhaps the brain uses any rest time to consolidate what it has recently learned - and reducing external stimulation during these periods can facilitate this process. Apparently, neurological damage makes the brain particularly vulnerable to interference after the formation of a new memory, which is why such interruptions have particularly beneficial effects on the victims of stroke or Alzheimer's disease.

Other psychologists positively perceived the information about this study. "The effect is confirmed by many studies, and is preserved in various experiments and tasks for the test of memory," says Aidan Horner of York University. "This is amazing". Horner agrees that these results could potentially lead to the emergence of new ways to help people with disabilities.



From a practical point of view, he says, it may be difficult for some people to include a sufficient number of rest periods in their daily schedule in order to improve their memory. But he believes that such a technique can still help the patient learn new information — for example, the name and face of a social worker. "Perhaps a short period of rest during wakefulness will increase the chances that they will remember this person and will feel more comfortable with him later." Devore says that she knows one patient who helped her to learn the name of his grandson with such short breaks, although this testimony cannot be called strictly scientific.

Thomas Bageli of the University of Nottingham Trent in Britain is also cautiously optimistic. He points out that some Alzheimer's patients are already advised to engage in meditation to relieve stress and improve well-being. “Some of these techniques can also promote rest during wakefulness, and it’s worth exploring whether they work in particular because of reduced interference,” he says, although he says it will be difficult to do in the case of people with severe dementia. .

Beigley and Horner agree that in addition to clinical benefits for patients, a regular rest of the brain, without any distractions, can help all of us a little better to keep new material in our head. Still, for many students, a 10–30% improvement in memorization revealed may mean an improvement in grades by a step or even two. “You can include such a vacation for 10–15 minutes in your lessons in repetition,” said Horner, “and this may be useful for your ability to recall the learned material later.”

In the era of information overload, it is worth remembering that not only smartphones should be recharged. Our brain is also clearly necessary.