If you ’re attempt to commit something to memory , you should n’t just scan the same flash card over and over . You should read it aloud , according to a fresh study from the University of Waterloo in Ontario , Canada .
The enquiry , published in the journalMemory , come up that the routine of reading and speaking text aloud is a more effective way torememberinformation than reading it silently or just hearing it read aloud . The twofold effect of both speaking and audience help encode the memory more powerfully , the study reports . The fresh research progress onprevious workon the so - calledproduction effectby Waterloo psychologist Colin MacLeod , who is also one of the current paper ’s author .
The current study test 95 college bookman over the course of two semesters , asking them to retrieve as many words as potential from a listing of 160 noun . At one session , they read a list of words into a microphone , then returned two hebdomad after for a follow - up . In some situations , the participants read the word of honor presented to them aloud , while in others , they either discover their own recorded phonation played back to them , heard transcription of others translate the words , or read the words silently to themselves . later on , they were test to see how much they remembered from the leaning .
The participants remembered more parole if they had read them aloud compared to all other conditions , even the one where masses heard their own voices reading the words . However , hearing your own phonation on its own does seem to have some effect : it was a undecomposed memory tool for participants than hearing someone else speak , perhaps because people are good at remembering things that demand them . ( Or maybe , the researchers propose , it ’s just because people find out it so bizarre to take heed their own recorded voice that it becomes a salientmemory . )
The findings " suggest that production is memorable in part because it include a distinctive , self - referential portion , " the researcher write . " This may well underlie why dry run is so valuable in erudition and memory : We do it ourselves , and we do it in our own voice . When it add up time to recover the information , we can use this distinctive element to help us to commend . "
The message is loud and clear : If you require to remember , you should both read it and talk it aloud .
