■ Cognitive Science Reveals the 'Ultimate Study Method' Experiment 1: Second-year students at Incheon Mansu High School were given a one-page science text and asked to memorize it for 7 minutes. One team was given another 7 minutes to memorize it, and the other team was given a descriptive test in which they had to recall what they had memorized for 7 minutes. In the short-term memory test 5 minutes later, the study-study team won with a score of '61 points to 55 points'. However, in the long-term memory test a week later, the study-exam team succeeded in reversing the score with a score of 45 points to 53 points. This is because if you passively reread what you have learned, it will disappear from your short-term memory, but if you actively try to retrieve it from your memory, it will go into your long-term memory. Unlike computers that store 100% of what you input, the human brain transfers what you have learned to your long-term memory only when you make an effort to retrieve it. Therefore, an efficient way to study is to try to retrieve as much as possible rather than trying to store as much in your head. 'Effort to recall memories' is the 'ultimate study method' revealed by cognitive science. ■ Distributed study: Studying that makes you recall what you have learned a lot is real studying. Experiment 2: First-year students at Incheon Sky High School were asked to memorize 40 difficult GRE words. They studied 20 words for 4 minutes and then took a break, five times for a total of 20 minutes, and memorized the other 20 words for 20 minutes without taking a break. In the test after 5 minutes, the average score for both methods was 95-6 points. This is because many students got 100 points both times. However, in the test a week later, the words memorized while taking breaks in between scored 54 points, and the words memorized without taking a break scored 33 points. If you divide your study time and study consistently, you have to make an effort to recall memories each time, so much more of them are transferred to long-term memory compared to massing. This is a study method that cognitive scientists call 'distributed study (spacing)'. Even with the cram-short-term memory study method, you can get a perfect score on the test right away. You can also send your child to a short-term academy to prepare for the midterm exam and get a perfect score. However, it is not something to be happy about. In the long term, you cannot keep up with students who studied with long-term memory. This is because the college entrance exam is a long-term battle. ■ The top student in the entire school studies with long-term memory. When the reporting team observed the study of the top student in the entire school, a second-year student from Incheon Mansu High School, and the top student in the entire school, a first-year student from Haneul High School, both of them were using the long-term memory study method. They recall their schedules while walking to school. They recall what they learned last time from memory. It is good if they remember well, but if they do not, they look it up again during morning study time. Henry Roediger III, a professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, says that it is okay to fail to recall a memory. This is because if you have the right feedback to look up what you cannot remember, you will remember much longer. Through this process, the content learned is organized and strengthened as it is connected to what was already known. The reason why the top student in the morning study period tries to recall what he learned last time is because he wants to connect it to what he will learn today. Computers remember 100% of unrelated information even if it is stored in a disorderly manner, but the human brain can remember only by connecting and organizing related information through memory retrieval. ■ There is a gap between the rich and the poor in studying. In Experiment 1, when the same text was studied in the same place for the same amount of time, the top student in the school remembered 24 out of 30, while another student remembered only 10. There are many factors, but it is closely related to long-term memory. Students who have a lot of things in their long-term memory can remember much more efficiently for a long time because they have many things to connect when they learn something new. On the other hand, students who studied with short-term memory have fewer things to connect in their long-term memory, so they have fewer things to connect and are disadvantaged in their memory. There is a gap between the rich and the poor in studying. It is the same principle that if you have little capital, you will not make much profit even if you work hard. ■ Does academy interfere with long-term memory study? According to the results of interviews with students who participated in the experiment, students thought that distributed study would be better, but