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of improving conceptual learning, or for how long the effects last. Overall, it is probably worth re- reading something a few days after you first read it, but as we shall see shortly, other techniques may be more beneficial. Mnemonics and imagery Mnemonics and imagery are similar techniques, in that both involve trying to associate the information you are trying to remember with other types of memory. For example, you might be familiar with Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which says that children develop sequentially through four stages, characterised by different cognitive abilities: s ensori-motor, p re-operational, c oncrete operational and f ormal operational stages. Some people use the mnemonic ‘Some People Can Fly” (using the first letter of each word to represent each stage) to help them to remember the four stages in the correct order. Alternatively, the Big Five Model of Personality measures five different personality types, which can be remembered using the acronym OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). Imagery works similarly: for example, figure 3.3 demonstrates a simple visual way of remembering how positively and negatively skewed frequency distributions compare to a normal distribution, which you may find helpful in your research methods classes.

Figure 3.3: A negatively skewed distribution starts with a near flat line, which resembles a negative, or minus, sign, whereas a positively skewed distribution starts with a near vertical line, as is found in a positive, or plus, sign. This can be a useful imagery technique to help you to remember the shape of the different curves. So, can these sorts of memory tricks work as a study skills technique? According to Dunlosky and his colleagues, most of the evidence suggests that mnemonics and imagery can help people to learn simple concepts, such as memorising vocabulary when you learn a new language. However, the memories are not very durable, and seem to be quite easily forgotten. It also seems to take people longer to remember things this way, perhaps because they need to process both the relevant information that they are trying to recall and the mnemonic or image. You might find these sorts of techniques useful for memorising new psychology terminology, or basic facts like the ones I’ve described here, perhaps for a multiple-choice test or similar assessment, but they probably won’t help you to gain a deep understanding of the psychological theories or debates that will help you to write a good essay. Elaborative processing: why, why, why? So far, we have looked at some of the most popular revision techniques, but the findings from Dunlosky et al.’s review have been somewhat negative! However, some techniques show a little more promise. Summarising your notes or reading, and explaining key concepts to other people,

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