Visual Imagery, Information Dumping, Environment Matching, Practice Test Questions, and Test Taking Retrieval Strategies

Visual Imagery

Imagery is the ability to produce mental pictures of things that have previously been seen or can be imagined visually. Visual associations are used to facilitate retrieval when old, familiar images are associated with images of information to be remembered.

Students often use this method unconsciously as a means of remembering information. They can become more efficient by recognizing the process and working to make images more vivid.

Material from a wide variety of subjects may be symbolized and remembered using visual associations. Abstract concepts and events as well as things may be entered into and retrieved from memory using the strategy.

Visual association is similar to visual elaboration, except that visual association relies on linking to images that already exist in memory while visual elaboration does not. In addition, visual association is usually done by the student him/herself and is not usually written down. Visual elaboration is covered in the Memory page of the General-Purpose Learning Strategies main stack.

The following are guidelines for visual imagery.

• Identify the new information to be remembered.
• Identify an image from existing knowledge that reminds you of the new information.
• Make the image large, exaggerating features and enlarging it to unusual or unnatural proportions.
• Make the image as bizarre or unusual as possible.
• Produce associations that are different from what might be expected.
• Images may be still or, better yet, animated. When motion is added to a mental picture, it helps the mind to retain and recall it.
• Add sounds or smells to the image if you can.

The following are examples of the visual imagery strategy.

• To remember that the Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773, imagine a sailing ship with costumed people throwing boxes of tea over the side. Above this ship imagine the numbers "1773" flashing on a neon sign in the sky. Smell the salt water and listen to the sound of crashing waves.
• To remember the parts of a computer's central processing unit (arithmetic-logic unit, control unit, clock, registers, and bus), image a large, loud yellow bus dropping people off at an office, where a controlling boss barks out orders, an employee works feverishly on math problems and enters the answers on oversized blue registers, and a huge neon digital clock hangs over everyone's heads.

Information Dumping

A specific test-taking strategy that aids in retrieval is dumping. Information dumping refers to quickly writing down all information that one feels he/she may forget or confuse otherwise. It is done before looking at the test questions.

If you fear you will forget or confuse names, dates, formulas, or statistics, dump that information on the back of the test as soon as it is distributed. You should also dump visual aids, organizational aids, and other "tricks" that were used to encode the information (see the Visual Aids section of this page). Then refer to the dumped information for answering questions.

Environment Matching

Environment matching refers to matching the internal and external environments of task preparation with the internal and external environments of the task situation. It is often used for exam preparation but is appropriate for other tasks, such as public speaking.

The internal environment reflects what the student thinks about the material and him/herself, while the external environment refers to the setting in which the student undertakes an activity. Retrieval is enhanced when task-preparation and task-completion environments match to some degree.

Practice Test Questions

The most proven, yet least used, way to study for exams is practice tests. Sample questions allow one to assess one's retrieval success before the exam; areas of weakness are identified and addressed prior to taking the actual test. Students may make up their own questions, or they may answer questions on old tests or in the textbook or student workbook accompanying the text.

Practice tests have many benefits. This strategy may be used to prepare for nearly any type of test. They help one to anticipate what the test may look like, reducing anxiety and stress. Practice tests are a valuable way to assess one's understanding of the information, distinguishing what is known and what needs to be learned. Writing one's own questions requires that one thoroughly understand and evaluate the information. When used effectively, practice tests improve one's mental preparation for an exam, bolstering confidence and positive attitudes. Finally, writing and/or answering practice questions forces one to repeatedly review the material, which enhances memory registration and recall.

Some students may complain that making up and/or answering practice questions is too time consuming. However, the advantages of the strategy greatly outnumber the disadvantages. If time is a concern, students may form study groups for sharing the responsibility. Each member writes some questions, and the group meets to exchange and answer the questions.

The following are guidelines for the practice test questions strategy.

• Consider the types of questions.
• Find out what types of questions will be asked on the test: essay, multiple choice, true-false, etc.
• Look on the syllabus, ask the instructor, examine old tests, or talk with former students in the class.
• Write practice questions.
• There are several approaches to writing practice questions. Turn the section headings in the book into questions. Take sets of related pieces of information and write questions focusing on that relationship. Look for the main ideas presented in each lecture and form them into questions. Change the numbers given in math problems and rework them. Ask the instructor for a few sample questions to get an idea of the how he/she writes questions.
• Until you become accustomed to the strategy, you may want to use prewritten questions instead of making up questions. There are several sources of practice questions: old exams, review questions at the end of each chapter in the textbook, and student workbooks accompanying the text.
• Because writing one's own questions requires thorough examination of the test material, students should attempt to move in this direction as they become more proficient.
• Record the questions.
• Depending on personal learning strengths and preferences, students may choose to record the practice questions as a list on paper, individually on flash cards, or as a list on audio cassettes.
• Answer the questions.
• There are three options at this stage. Students may answer the questions as they write them. Or, students may answer the questions later, using the notes and readings as references. In either case, students may want to record the page numbers on which the answers are found in the notes or book.
• The third option is to use the questions to as a practice test after reviewing for the exam. This is done without the use of notes or other study materials.
• Record the answers.
• Again, students may record the answers on paper, flash cards, or audio tapes.
• Review the answers periodically.
• To be really effective, practice questions should be reviewed periodically to test recall and to improve understanding.
• Look at the flash cards during "down" time between classes or while standing in line. Listen to the tapes while commuting to school or to work.
• Change the order.
• Shuffle the questions so the information is not learned in a particular order.
• This insures that one is actually learning the information itself, rather than order of questions and answers.
• This also helps one to prepare for tests in which the questions are arranged oddly; instructors don't always arrange questions topically or in the order in which the information was covered in class.
• Practice.
• It takes time to gain proficiency in this strategy.
• Both writing the questions and predicting what might be asked on the test require practice.
• These skills should improve as students are exposed to a variety of tests and as they learn more about their instructors' test-writing habits.
• Don't lose heart when your questions don't appear on the test. If you've used the strategy effectively, chances are you know the material well enough to answer different questions.

Examples of practice questions are given in most of the pages in the Content-Specific Learning Strategies main stack.

Test-Taking Retrieval Strategies

A common academic task that requires efficient retrieval skills is test taking. Test-taking retrieval strategies vary according to the type of material to be covered, the types of test questions, and a student's preferred learning channel.

The Test Taking page in the General-Purpose Learning Strategies main stack extensively describes and illustrates test-taking strategies in general as well as strategies for specific types of tests. While most test-taking strategies are used during an exam, some are used before or after the test. Examples of strategies covered in the Test Taking page that relate to retrieval are studying in the test room (or environment matching, also covered earlier in this page), information dumping (also covered earlier in this page), starting with the questions one knows best, looking for clues in other parts of the test, and writing outlines.