The Michigan Daily-Friday, September 29, 1978-Page 9
Pro recalls defective memories
ByJERRY LEHRMAN
Students whose memories are
already crying under this term's on-
slaught of phone numbers, faces, and
w formulas can take heart. Despite the
barrage of information associated with
pthe beginning of the academic year, a
University psychologist assures
students they can improve their
memories to handle their mind-
boggling work load.
"The memory is infinite in its
capacity and usefulness, but like a
piano, you must learn to play it," says
Prof. Henry Wellman.
LEARNING, according to Wellman,
should ;not be looked upon simply as
.verbatim memorization but rather as a
problem-solving task. Students should
learn to understand their own
memories and learn to recognize what
things they remember better and what
information they already know, he ad-
ded.
Students can learn new information
more easily and remember new facts
longer if the data is integrated with
previous knowledge, Wellman said. By
fitting the new'information with the old,
Mao's
By PETER PETESCH
The Revolutionary Communist Youth
Brigade gave a presentation in the
:Union Wednesday night to bring atten-
tion to what the group considers a
-recent "turnaround of revolutionary
gains" in the People's Republic of
China (PRC).
Approximately 30 peOple gathered in
the Kuenzel Room to watch a film en-
titled "Mao Tse tung, Greatest
Revolutionary of Our Time," and
listened to Raymond Lotta, a member
of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
talk about the supposed shift to the
right in Chinese politics since the death
of Mao.
DURING THE speech, part of the
Brigade's "Mao's Last Great Battle"
Problem solving is key
to 'etaining
students give it a frame of reference
and make the new data part of their
personal knowledge structure.
Prof. William McKeachie of the
University Center for Research in
Learning and Teching recommends
students ask themselves two important
questions en route to more accurate
memorization: "What is the writer
trying to accomplish, and how do the
details relate to the author's theme?"
MCKEACHIE NOTES that rote
memorization techniques, carried over
from high school, can handicap many
students in their studies.
"THE BELIEF that knowledge will
somehow soak in if you just plow
through the material is wishful
thinking," McKeachie said. "Learning
depends on active reading and
thinking."
Organization of material is also an
in formation
important element in memorization,
Wellman explained, since most studen-
ts forget information after exam day.
One reason why students have more
difficulty in studying a new subject is
because no previous mental structure
exists to hang the new knowledge on.
IN ADDITION to mental filing,
Wellman recommends several
techniques to aid students in
memorization, including "verbal
relearsal" (repeating the information
over and over until it is memorized)
and "packing" (using one item as a cue
for recalling other items, such as
"supermarket" being the cue for an en-
tire grocery list). "Elaboration,"
another recall technique, involves
associating persons' names with their
occupations, hometowns, or appearan-
ces.
The great Greek orators, whose
speeches often went on for hours
without the benefit of outlines or notes,
used the "method of loci."
"Envisioning a familiar scene,"
Wellman relates, orators would
organize the points of their speech to
correspond to a tree, stream, house,
and other objects. As they spoke, they
visually walked past these landmarks
until they had covered all of their sub-
ject matter."
Despite the mass of information
thrown on students daily, they still are
at an advantage because of access to
external devices such as calendars,
calculators, and tape recorders.
"The practical approach is to cover
all bases," Wellman concludes. "Train
your memory by mentally rehearsing,
organizing, and elaborating the
material you want later to retrieve. But
also store it on notes, calendars, and
photocopies."
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October 13, 1978
gains seen losing
meeting, Lotta made the claim that
post-Mao leadership in the PRC has en-
ded the progress of the Cultural
Revolution by encouraging economic
growth in place of the "political
mobilization" of the working class.
"What we are witnessing is the
reversal of all the changes of the
cultural revolution," Lotta said,
"benevolent leaders are trying to
determine what is right for everyone
(instead of allowing the working class
to rule). The working class is in
shackles once again."
He went on to explain that the PRC is
now in a state of socialism, which is, in
his words, "a transition between
capitalism and communism." He
asserted that the new leadership is at-
ground
tempting to turn the present system
back to a capitalistic state.
LOTTA STATED the new Chinese
leaders "defeated (the communist
movement) organizationally, not
politically. The defeat of the working
class is only temporary."
Diane Clark, spokeswoman for the
Revolutionary Communist Youth
Brigade, "a sort of youth group in con-
junction with the Revolutionary Com-
munist Party," said she though the
"only solution is a revolutionary
struggle - working people running a
socialist society - ultimately Com-
munist of classless."' She added the
evening's focus on "Mao's Last Great
Battle" was to show how we can deal
with capitalism and oppression.
a
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