
Articulatory Rehearsal: Saying something over and over again (out loud or in your head) in order to remember it.
Refreshing: When attention goes back to previous things you needed to remember, usually pretty automatically.
Elaborative Rehearsal: Attaching meaning to what you need to remember by associating it with something else or putting it into a context that you can remember (e.g., putting a list of items into a sentence that is meaningful for you so you can remember it).
Did you know that these 3 techniques that people often try likely don’t actually improve our working memory? Now, I won’t say they never work; that isn’t true. But they really only help certain parts of our memory and only for some people. More info tomorrow!
Credit for this amazing visual abstract goes to Jenny Chen, a volunteer and undergraduate from the University of Maryland.
Citation: Oberauer, K. (2019). Is rehearsal an effective maintenance strategy for working memory?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(9), 798-809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.06.002