Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2016 - (Page 57)
SCIENCE OF LEARNING
CREATING
BRAIN-COMPATIBLE
MATERIALS
- ART KOHN, P H.D.
Some materials are inherently harder to
learn. For example, take a minute, and try
to memorize the following letters: CI AOS
HAUF OHR DMV.
It's hard, isn't it? Your brain wants to impose
meaning, but the 15 letters seem random
and research shows that our brain is terrible
at remembering random facts.
You probably face similar challenges when
asked to teach your employees equally
random bits of information about your
company's products or procedures. They
simply can't remember everything. One
solution is to teach these disparate facts
in new and exciting ways. Perhaps you can
insert a new drag-and-drop game into the
learning exercise or provide incentives for
people who pass a quiz. A better possibility,
however, is to restructure your content so
that it is more meaningful and therefore
easier to learn.
Using the current example, consider how
much easier it would be if we rearranged the
letters into more meaningful chunks: CIA
OSHA UFO HR DMV.
Now, instead of having to learn 15 letters,
they simply need to remember five more
meaningful chunks. This is a whole lot
easier. To extend this logic even further,
we can combine these syllables into a
single easily remembered sentence: The
CIA discovered OSHA violations and a UFO
in the Human Resources department of
the DMV.
Suddenly, the entire collection of 15 letters
becomes easy to remember.
MNEMONICS
Making difficult material more accessible
lies at the heart of effective teaching.
Mnemonics are memory devices that are
proven to help learners recall information.
There are many types of mnemonics and
each is best suited to remembering different
types of material. Most mnemonics fall into
two broad categories:
(1)Verbal: those that organize operative
terms into a distinctive pattern
(2)Visual: those that involve the creation of
memorable images
VERBAL MNEMONICS
Within the category of verbal mnemonics,
the best known technique is the method
of word associations. In this technique,
simple cues such as acronyms organize
the disparate information into a single
pithy statement. For example, students
can remember the name "Roy G. Biv" to
be reminded of the sequence of the color
spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo and violet). Researchers
found that subjects who used this word
association technique recalled six times
more information than subjects who used
simple rote techniques.
In another technique, known as the
method of fixed rhythms, verbal material is
organized into verse or other phonological
order. For example, the jingle "Thirty days
has September..." is effective because its
rhymes and lyrics make it memorable. These
same principles of lyric and verse enabled
Homeric bards to memorize the Iliad in its
T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - SPRING20 1 6 I WWW.TRAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE
entirety, and in more modern times, enables
even our most mediocre learners to recall
lyrics from a vast number of popular songs
and television commercials.
VISUAL MNEMONICS
Among the visual mnemonic techniques,
the method of loci - which Roman orators
developed to help them recall major points
during their long speeches - promotes
memory by associating important ideas
with familiar locations. To use this technique,
students need to imagine strolling through
a sequence of familiar locations such as the
front entrance, their desk, the conference
room, the cafeteria and so on. Then, when
they need to remember the twelve stages
of a sales fulfilment procedure, for example,
they associate each stage with a location
along their walk.
In one test of the method of loci, college
students memorized a list of 40 concrete
nouns by placing the objects at various
locations around campus. When tested
immediately, the students correctly recalled
an average of 38 of the items. When the test
was delayed until the next day, they recalled
an average of 34.
By restructuring difficult content, learners
are better able to apply meaning and
improve recall. Mnemonics can be a useful
learning tool to make complex information
more memorable.
Dr. Art Kohn is an internationally recognized
professor, speaker, consultant and cognitive
psychologist who helps organizations apply
insights from science and technology to solve
their organizational challenges. Email Art.
57
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2016
Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2016
Transforming the Classroom Experience
Table of Contents
Onboarding Successful Leaders
Will the App Become the New Classroom?
The Evolving Classroom
Developing Micro-Learning for Micro-Moments
Testing the Waters with Mobile Learning
Incorporating Instant Messaging into Communciations Training
Tools for the Mixed Physical and Virtual Classroom
Training a Diverse Workforce
Next Generation Classroom: Providing the Ultimate Learning Experience
Meeting the Five Moments of Need
Save the Learners: Build a Serious Game Strategy
Universal Design for Learning
Cars.com: Revolutionizing the Classroom Experience
Crossing Cultural Training
The Changing Face of Training Outsourcing
Design Learning so Everyone Gets an 'A'
Creating Brain-Compatible Materials
Four Ways to Become an Agent of Learning, Not Change
BizLibrary Invests in the Science of Memory
Company News
What's Online
Training Talk
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