Free course · 6 lessons · 20–30 min
Why you remember and forget
How memories form and fade, and what that means for how you study.
What you’ll learn
Plan your studying around spaced reviews and self-testing, and explain the memory science behind both.
Before you start
No background in psychology or neuroscience is needed.
Course outline
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Chapter 1
Getting it in
How your brain decides what to keep, why it holds so little at once, and what sleep does overnight.
- How a memory gets madeWhy you can't draw a logo you've seen thousands of times, and what attention and meaning have to do with it.3 min
- The small desk in your headWhy you can only juggle a few things at once, and how experts seem to hold so much more.3 min
- What sleep does with your dayHow fresh memories become lasting ones overnight, and why an all-nighter costs you twice.3 min
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Chapter 2
Making it last
Why forgetting follows a curve, how to bend it, and why the memories you keep aren't recordings.
- The forgetting curveWhat a man memorizing nonsense found about forgetting, and why spaced reviews beat cramming.3 min
- Test yourself instead of rereadingWhy pulling a memory out does more than putting it in again, and why rereading fools you.3 min
- Why memories can be wrongEach time you remember something you rebuild it, and the rebuild can pick up details that never happened.3 min