Elaboration

But as children we are taught to study by looking at new information over and over until we somehow remember it. This can be a tedious and difficult process – especially while our minds try to protect themselves by shutting out the boring activity of rote memorization.

Instead of fighting with our brains, we can use them instead; inviting novelty and even surprise. We can think along a strange path while questioning the things we are trying to remember.

Actors do this while memorizing scripts. They read out their lines, then consider what they would be feeling with each word. Then they imagine why they feel that way and imagine their character's emotional history. They contemplate a lot of things, things not even in the script, but this novelty is presented in their tone, movement and posture. Through elaboration they quickly commit their lines to memory.

We can do something similar.

While trying to remember something new, we can do it through interrogation, and elaborate upon it by asking questions. Then we can find answers to those questions. We might end up thinking a lot as we elaborate, but this is the goal, to think. By doing something that isn't boring, we invite novelty into our thoughts and the possibility of surprising connections.

As an example, let's try and remember the name Hedwig von Restorff, the name of the woman who discovered the Restorff Effect.

Did you know that Hedwig is a woman's name? No, I didn't know that.

Who in popular culture is named Hedwig? Harry Potter's owl.

Was this owl a female? Yes, but they used a male owl in the movie because male snowy owls are more white than female snowy owls.

Was Hedwig von Restorff white? Yes, and she was German and "von" is a German word associated with royalty.

It's strange that von is lower case, why is it lower case? The "von" is lower case because it used to mean "from". So her name would mean Hedwig from Restorff, or Hedwig von Restorff.

If she is from Restorff, where is that? There is a Restorff island near Papua New Guinea, it's tiny and gorgeous, but she's not from there.

How am I going to remember Restorff? You can remember Restor, like she is resting in peace, because she is dead – she lived from 1906 to 1962, and she discovered the isolation effect in 1933.

That's wild, 1933 is also when Hitler was sworn in as the Chancellor of Germany, after that he immediately burned down the Reichstag and blamed it on the Communists, killed them, then dismantled democracy, consolidated power and made Germany a fascist state. She would have been discovering this isolation effect while this political craziness was happening in Germany.

Wild, but she's dead now, Hedwig von Restorff is dead, "Restor in peace", that's kind of stupid, but how do I link the ff to the end of the part of the name? As Hedwig the owl is flying away from her name's sake, Hedwig von Restor, two feathers fall (FF), and those are appended to the Restor name as Restorff binding them together forever.

Well isn't that sweet, and corny, "falling feathers", but can we do something else too? Yes, the owl is a female and she discovered the Restorff effect while fascism was on the rise: ff, like the SS, but a lot nicer.

Fascism is pretty dark, I don't want that in my head when I think about the Restorff effect or Hedwig von Restorff.

Ok, well, look it's right there in the name! Hedwig is a female name and "von" means "from". We know she's dead, "restor in peace", add the two ff's to the end.

Ok, that's a bit better, but can we use the Restorff effect to remember the last two f letters? Yes, Hedwig von Restorff.