remembering

Practice may not always make perfect, but a novel study of Midwestern middle school science students suggests it just might. New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that students who received three quizzes on content questions before a unit test performed at the “A” level on those test questions, compared with a “C” level on questions that were not quizzed beforehand but still on the test.

Photo by Janet GumpertRemembering to take daily medications can be a challenge, but new research offers tips for strengthening those memories.Doing something unusual, like knocking on wood or patting yourself on the head, while taking a daily dose of medicine may be an effective strategy to help seniors remember whether they’ve already taken their daily medications, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

How would you remember this strange image?A psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis is shedding new light on strategies people use to learn and then remember images, showing that some techniques are more effective than others. Brenda Kirchoff, Ph.D., WUSTL research associate in psychology in Arts & Sciences, used functional magnetic reasonance imaging to identify four major learning and memory strategies that range from visual to verbal, each relying on different parts of the brain. The findings eventually may help provide behavioral modification treatments for individuals with memory impairment, including adults afflicted with age-related memory loss and early onset Alzheimer’s disease.