After you had read the Collee article, what did you write down as the two or three points which ‘stuck in your mind as worth remembering’? (See your answer to Question 5.) Was your response anything like mine (on page 25)?
What did you say about how much you thought you would remember in two or three weeks’ time (Question 6)? How much do you think you should have been able to remember?
For example, should you have been able to remember any of the following information?
X The names of the different types of micro-organism.
X The symptoms of infection by Staphylococcus aureus.
X How many cases of salmonella infection were reported in England in 1988.
X What a salmonella bacterium looks like.
I didn’t try to remember any of these. If I ever needed to know any of these things, I’d go back to the article, or look them up elsewhere. If I were making a serious study of the subject, I might have a particular reason for being interested in one of these items and would make a note of it as I read. But, coming to the article ‘cold’, I assumed I was reading it to pick up a general idea of what food poisoning is and of the main mechanisms through which it occurs.
Facts, figures and names
Should you try to remember facts, figures and names as you read?
It depends what you’re reading for. Often, the answer is ‘No’, you need to note only the general gist of the information. However, if it’s made clear that particular facts are important, and that a detailed understanding is needed for future study, then write these facts down. But, even then, don’t try to remember every last detail.
The point which stuck in my mind – the deadly botulinal toxin – was not an important one. It just happened to catch my imagination. This shows that, as we read, our minds will register things which happen to connect with what we already know. It also shows that ideas and images we pick up may stay with us, bobbing about in our thoughts, whether or not we choose to remember them. This is a very spontaneous and immediate kind of learning – we read things that feed directly into our thinking. But, as in my case, what we learn in this effortless way may not be necessarily what we really need to remember.
The second point I remembered – the conditions under which bacteria
multiply quickly – was much more useful, as it is relevant to the general thrust of Collee’s article. But it wouldn’t be much use on its own. I need to be able to put together a fair amount of Collee’s general argument if I am to be able to place this information in context. So, how much of the general argument can I remember? As I noted in my answer to Question 6, the article was rather jumbled in my mind. I’d need to write some of it down to see the overall shape of the argument.
Actually, I’m not really sure how much I remember. How would one know?
Should you be able to sit down with a piece of paper and write out all the main points – or would it count as remembering if you found yourself explaining the difference between infections and intoxications in a casual
conversation? The fundamental question is ‘Has the article has made any changes to the way you think about food poisoning?’ If it has, then these changes will remain with you as traces of the activity of reading the article. If you try re-reading the article at a later date, you should be able to detect these traces, in that you should find the article easier to read. You should also be able to read other texts on the same subject more easily. All this is evidence that your mind has retained some elements of the re-organization achieved as a result of the original reading.
What are you trying to remember?
Your aim is not to ‘store’ all the words of the text in your mind. Even Collee, re-reading his article now, would probably find things he’d forgotten having written. If the author cannot recall in detail all that he or she has written, why should you remember it in detail?
Your purpose is to pick your way through the words to find the underlying ideas – the ‘bones beneath the flesh’. The words are there to help you to understand the ideas, but it is the ideas themselves which form the core of the text. These are what you should try to focus on; these are what you should try to remember. Of course, the attention you should pay to any text depends on its ‘status’. Is it an essential learning text, or does it form part of your general ‘reading around the subject’? With all texts, it’s the core ideas that should interest you. You can pick up clues as to the core ideas by looking at the contents list and section headings, at any ‘objectives’ listed in the text, at any summaries or lists of key points, and at the assignment questions associated with the text.
In essence, you want to be able to ‘think’ using the concepts and ideas put forward in the text. When you have understood what you have read, you have acquired that thinking capacity. You have produced the change in your mental structures, which was the point of your reading. This change is the most important kind of ‘remembering’.
The point of reading, then, is to be able to understand what you have read, and to be able to recall the key ideas and information when you need them again.
However, holding it all in your mind is by no means the only way. Your memory is too limited and too unreliable to serve as the main means of storing what you have studied. You can construct a much more reliable route back to what you have read if you make notes. You may, of course, need to do some deliberate ‘memorizing’ just before an exam, but for the most part,
understanding is more important than remembering. If you have understood and made notes, you can leave your memory to take care of itself.
Key Point
Don’t worry about your memory. Just write things down. It’s what you understand that counts.