Repetition:

Scott Hagwood:

"You’ve heard the old saying about the three most important things in selecting real estate: location, location, location. Unfortunately, too many people assign a similar importance to a basic memory technique: repetition, repetition, repetition. They seem to think that if we just hammer away hard enough and long enough with brute repetitive force, we’ll chisel the information into our long-term memory. How sad. When we approach memory through brute repetition, we become slaves to it. We think that if we “just do the time” we will eventually earn freedom from the monotony. It doesn’t take long, though, before we begin to ask ourselves, “How much is enough?” That quickly evolves into, “When can I stop?” What is most discouraging is that memorizing through repetition is too often the way we or our children are taught to learn in school. I don’t know about you, but if I never hear the voice of “Multiplication Mallory” intoning again and again that “three times three is nine,” it will be too soon. How many valuable hours are wasted the night before exams as students across the country cram in order to recall names, dates, and definitions? Clearly, we give repetition too much weight in the memory process. Just consider how many things you see or hear only once and yet can recall without trying and without error? I can remember my first date with Janet, the first time I drove a car, my first (and only!) hole-in-one, and my first day on my first job. These memories come to me easily despite the fact that each was a onetime event. A teacher in our local school system introduces sign language to several groups of first-graders. Each group is shown how to sign the alphabet once. Each letter is pronounced at the same time as the specific hand position for that letter is shown. The children immediately repeat the letter back. At the end of the exercise, the teacher spells out words and sentences by sign language and the children write down what they see. You’ll probably be amazed to learn that over 90 percent of the children get every letter, word, or sentence, a true testament to the ability to memorize without repetition.
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I’m not completely knocking repetition. No question about it, repetition is an important tool in enhancing memory. But too much of a good thing can be bad. Sometimes too much repetition can actually inhibit recall. In a research study in which volunteers were given lists of words to remember, one group was given a rehearsal strategy: They were told to repeat each word as many times as possible before the next word was given about six seconds later. The second group was asked simply to remember the words and wasn’t given any tips or strategies about how to do so. The second group performed much better in recalling the words than did the first group. In other words, the frequency of the repetition interfered with the first-group’s learning process. In an interview with Gunther Karsten, the reigning German National Champion, who currently holds the world record for remembering random binary numbers (3,027 random binary digits given only thirty minutes of study time), I asked him how many times he repeated the numbers. “Twice,” he said. How can anyone remember 3,027 of anything, especially binary numbers, after looking at them only a couple of times? Gunther simply uses the Law of Association to link new information, such as the list of binary numbers, with images and experiences that make sense to him. We’ll get into more detail about how he does that later. The important thing to know now is that like most people with well-developed memories, Gunther is just an ordinary human being. He wasn’t born with the gift of extraordinary memory, he simply trained the same memory that all of us have, and that training is not dependent on frequent repetition."