Do you keep learning new vocabulary in a foreign language, but after a few days you find it difficult to remember the meaning of each word, so you have to start all over again?
Well, this time I’m going to share with you my secret about stronger memories. Let’s start with Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, who performed an experiment in which he observed the reaction of a few dogs in his laboratory, before feed-time. He noticed that the dogs had associated the ring of the bell with food, so they were salivating every time the bell rang. By expanding this experiment, he made one of the greatest discoveries: the conditioned reflexes. Conditioned reflexes consist of two parts, which in behaviorist terms are called Unconditioned Stimulus (a.k.a food in this case) and Unconditioned Response (a.k.a salivate). For those learning a foreign language the Unconditioned Stimulus is the new word, while we want the Unconditioned Response to be the meaning of this word. But how do we achieve that?
The ring of the bell caused the dogs to think of food and only after that they started to salivate. So in our case,in order to associate the new word with its meaning, we have to visualize it completely. Basically to try to see, taste, feel, hear or smell the new word. For example when you read the word pomme (=apple in French), do visualize a green tasty apple, take a bite, taste it, hold it in your hand, while at the same time keep the word in your mind. By doing so, the next time you come across the word pomme, all those memories will bump into your mind and you will remember its meaning much easier. Of course, you have to repeat the process once in a while, in order to prevent those memories from fading, but still it won’t take the same amount of time as it would if you were just trying to memorize them.
Well, this time I’m going to share with you my secret about stronger memories. Let’s start with Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, who performed an experiment in which he observed the reaction of a few dogs in his laboratory, before feed-time. He noticed that the dogs had associated the ring of the bell with food, so they were salivating every time the bell rang. By expanding this experiment, he made one of the greatest discoveries: the conditioned reflexes. Conditioned reflexes consist of two parts, which in behaviorist terms are called Unconditioned Stimulus (a.k.a food in this case) and Unconditioned Response (a.k.a salivate). For those learning a foreign language the Unconditioned Stimulus is the new word, while we want the Unconditioned Response to be the meaning of this word. But how do we achieve that?
The ring of the bell caused the dogs to think of food and only after that they started to salivate. So in our case,in order to associate the new word with its meaning, we have to visualize it completely. Basically to try to see, taste, feel, hear or smell the new word. For example when you read the word pomme (=apple in French), do visualize a green tasty apple, take a bite, taste it, hold it in your hand, while at the same time keep the word in your mind. By doing so, the next time you come across the word pomme, all those memories will bump into your mind and you will remember its meaning much easier. Of course, you have to repeat the process once in a while, in order to prevent those memories from fading, but still it won’t take the same amount of time as it would if you were just trying to memorize them.
Definitely gonna use that method the next time I'm learning a language! Thanks!
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