Cognitive Science: How to Turn Information into Long-Term Memory

The Need for Cognitive Science

When I was at UCLA, I spent countless hours in the library, determined to excel. I’d sit at a desk for hours, flipping through my notes, highlighting passages, and reading my textbooks over and over. So you can imagine the disappointment I felt when I got my biology exam back—marked with a failing grade.

I could not believe it. After all that effort, how could this happen?

Frustrated and determined to figure out what went wrong, I went to office hours to speak with my professor. I explained to him how I had spent hours preparing for the exam, convinced that I had done everything I could to succeed. I expected feedback. But instead, he gave me a response I wasn’t expecting: “Well, according to your test score, it seems like you didn’t even open a book.”

His words hit me like a punch. He did not believe me.

I sat there stunned, trying to process what he had said. I had been completely honest about my efforts, yet it felt like nothing I did was enough. My mind raced with thoughts: Was I really not working hard enough? Was there something more I should be doing? What more do they want from me?!?

I left his office feeling defeated and discouraged. This failure made me feel inadequate, like I did not belong at UCLA. I started to question everything. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for science. Maybe UCLA wasn’t the place for me.

After my self-defeating comments subsided, I could not shake one question: Why were my peers doing better than me?

I had friends who seemed to be spending half the time I did on studying, and they were scoring higher. I could not understand it. They must be smarter than me. That’s all there is to it. But then, in the dorm lounge, I saw one of my peers studying. But she was studying differently from me. She was not reading the textbook. Instead she was writing down questions based on her readings.

“Hey. What are you up to?” I asked.

“Just studying. I’m writing down questions so that I can answer them later.”

I blinked, intrigued by her approach. “You’re writing down questions? Not just reading the textbook?”

She looked up and nodded, a small smile on her face. “Yeah. Reading alone doesn’t help me remember anything. So I write questions from my notes and try to answer them later without looking.”

That simple sentence struck me. I had spent hours reviewing, highlighting, and rereading my notes, hoping that repetition would help the information stick. But here was someone doing the exact opposite. She was not passively consuming the material. She was testing herself. Forcing her brain to retrieve what she had learned.

I thought about my study habits: sitting at the library for hours, flipping through page after page of notes, feeling like I was doing the work but getting nothing to show for it. 

That’s when it hit me. Maybe it wasn’t about how hard I was working, but about how I was working. I became determined to discover effective study techniques. And what better way to find out than through science. 

I threw myself into research, driven by the need to understand what I was missing. My Google search history became a breadcrumb trail of my journey:

Google Search: How do you effectively study according to science?

Click. Cognitive science….

“I have never heard of cognitive science before,” I said to myself.

Google Search: What is cognitive science?

Cognitive science is the study of the human mind and brain, and how they function and behave.

“Hmmm, this is the science I should be focusing on,” I thought. If anyone had answers about learning, it had to be this.

Google Search: According to cognitive science, how does the brain memorize information?

Click. According to cognitive science, the brain memorizes information by forming connections between neurons, called synapses.

“Yup, I know what neurons are. Interesting.” Ironic since I failed my biology midterm. But nonetheless…

Click. How memories go from short-term memory to long-term memory.

Google Search: What is the difference between short-term and long-term memory?

Click. The main forms of memory presented include sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Information from the world around us is first stored by sensory memory, thus enabling the storage and future use of such information. Short-term memory (or memory) refers to information processed in a short period of time. Long-term memory allows us to store information for long periods of time, including information that can be retrieved consciously (explicit memory) or unconsciously (implicit memory).

“That’s what I need! I need information to be in long-term memory.”

Google Search: How do you convert short-term memory into long-term memory?

And there it was.

According to cognitive science, my hours of reading and highlighting were not enough. I was not using the right techniques to retain the information. My peers were not necessarily smarter—they were just studying more effectively. They were using strategies that helped information stick in long-term memory, preventing it from fading away after a few hours.

In that moment, everything clicked. All the hard work I had put in was not wasted. It was just misdirected. I had been working hard, but not working smart. The good news? I was not alone. Many students fall into the same trap, thinking that reading and highlighting will do the trick. But what I learned is that studying isn’t just about time spent with your nose in a book. It’s about how you engage with the material.

It took me hours of research and experimentation to figure this out. But I don’t want you to go through the same trial and error that I did. So in this post, I’m going to break down the techniques I learned. Techniques that have been proven by science to make learning more efficient and effective.

Let me explain these strategies in a way that’s easy to grasp. I will start with an analogy that helped me: learning something new is a lot like building muscle at the gym. While this comparison has its limits, it illustrates the core process of how we strengthen our knowledge over time. The more you challenge your brain, the stronger and more permanent your memories become.

Understanding the Brain: How Neurons Create Memories

Your brain is made up of billions of tiny cells called neurons. The brain’s neurons connect and communicate with each other through networks called neural pathways. These neural pathways create every thought and memory you have. 

When you learn something new, your brain forms a new neural pathway. At first, this pathway is weak and temporary because the information is brand new. That’s why it’s easy to forget new things. But if you want to remember this new information for a long time, you need to make the neural pathway strong and long-lasting. The only way to do this is to practice using the information over and over again.

Think of this neural pathway as a muscle. If you only lift weights once and then stop, you won’t build strong muscles. The same thing happens to new neural pathways. They will disappear quickly if you don’t use and practice the new information. But if you practice the material over and over again, then the memory becomes stronger.

Now, you might be thinking, “But I’ve reread the material over and over, and it still doesn’t stick!” I thought the same thing. The problem is not the repetition. It’s how you’re engaging with the material. Let’s explore why simply rereading does not work and what you can do instead.

Building Strong Neural Pathways: The Secret to Lasting Memories

If you want to effectively build muscle at the gym, you need to adequately challenge them with heavier weights. The same goes for the brain. If you want information to stick to long-term memory, then you must use effective study techniques. These techniques need to challenge your brain adequately. There are many effective study techniques out there. Ultimately, it comes down to the big three: retrieval practice, spaced practice, and interleaving.

Retrieval Practice: Boost Memory by Recalling Information

Retrieval means remembering information without any clues or hints. Remembering something entirely from memory without any extra help is what is important here. 

Studies show that retrieving information works better for learning than other techniques like re-reading and highlighting texts.^1,2 But why is retrieval practice so effective? It works better because retrieving information requires hard work and effort from your brain. You can’t rely on any clues to help jog your memory. Your brain has to work hard to pull the information from memory on its own. 

You can say that retrieval practice is like lifting heavy weights at the gym. Heavy weights is what leads to stronger and bigger muscles. The same thing goes for your brain. Retrieval practice challenges your brain and helps make stronger neural pathways, converting short-term memory into long-term memory. Retrieving knowledge entirely from memory requires no hints or clues. It is the “heavy weight” that strengthens your brain’s ability to learn and recall information for the long-term. 

Re-reading and highlighting, on the other hand, do not make your brain work very hard. Yet that’s the default for a lot of us (one of the many reasons why I failed my biology exam). As stated in Make It Stick written by Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel, and Peter C. Brown, “Rereading text and massed practice of a skill or new knowledge are by far the preferred study strategies of learners of all stripes, but they’re also among the least productive.”³ Let’s talk about why so many of us fall into the trap of re-reading and highlighting our textbooks. It feels good, right? You’re flipping pages, marker in hand, feeling like you’re really nailing this study thing. But here’s the thing: it’s an illusion. Actually, cognitive scientists call this the “illusion of mastery.” Think about it. When everything’s right there in front of you, you find it easy to nod along. You think, “Yep, I’ve got this.” But what happens when you close that book and try to recall the information from your brain? Suddenly, it’s not so easy. And guess what? That closed-book scenario is exactly what you face in most exams. So why are we studying in a way that doesn’t prepare us for the real challenge? 

Now, let’s go back to retrieval practice. You know, actually trying to remember stuff without peeking at your notes. It’s frustrating. It’s uncomfortable. It might even make you feel like you’re terrible at learning. But guess what? That struggle is where the magic happens. It’s kind of like working out. You know that burn you feel when you’re lifting weights? That’s your muscles growing stronger. Same deal with your brain. When you’re feeling uncomfortable about not knowing the information right away, that’s your brain building stronger neural pathways.

So next time you’re tempted to just highlight your way through a study session, remember: if it feels too easy, it probably is. Embrace the struggle. Practice retrieving the information instead.

Spaced Practice: Optimize Learning with Timed Review Sessions

Spaced practice involves spreading out your studying over time, rather than cramming it all the night before a test. You might be thinking, “But I’ve crammed before and still passed tests.” While that may be true, let me ask you this: Could you remember the same information for the final exam? Did you remember it even after the course ended? Probably not. This is exactly why I failed my biology exam. By cramming at the last minute, I could not retain all the information that had been covered throughout the course. Trying to absorb weeks of material in one night did not give my brain the time it needed to properly process and remember everything.

So why does the brain forget information when we cram? This phenomenon can be explained with The Forgetting Curve. Psychologist Herman Ebbinghause produced this theory back in the 19th century.⁴

The Forgetting Curve is a graphical representation of decline of memory over time. According to the Forgetting Curve, a large amount of information is forgotten within the first few hours of learning it. After this rapid decline, the rate of forgetting slows down. However, information continues to be forgotten gradually over time. Eventually, some of the newly learned information is retained but cannot be recalled perfectly. Now this can be frustrating when trying to memorize information. So how can we overcome the Forgetting Curve?

To combat this phenomena and retain information for a longer period of time, it is best to review the material consistently over time. According to the Forgetting Curve, the best time to review material is just before you are about to forget it. This is where spaced practice comes in. Review sessions should generally be done in this order:

1. First Review

• The first review should be done within 24 hours of learning the new material.

2. Second Review

• The second review should be done a few days after the first review session. Most people opt for 3 days after the first review session.

3. Subsequent Reviews

• Reviews after the second review session should be spaced out longer.
• A week later, then 2 weeks, a month, and so on.
• Intervals can be adjusted based on how well you remember the information.

Spaced practice is a lot like going to the gym consistently. You cannot build muscle by cramming all your workout sessions in one day. You have to go to the gym consistently over a long period of time for muscle growth. Your brain works the same way. If you want information to be stored into long-term memory, then you need to retrieve information from your brain consistently over time (Cepeda et al., 2006). 

Interleaving Study Strategy: Improving Problem-Solving and Retention

When studying a topic, people tend to study in blocks, focusing on one topic at a time. This is exactly what I did for my biology exam. But for simplicity, instead of using biology as an example, let’s use shapes.

Let’s say you’re learning how to calculate the area of different shapes. With a blocked approach, you would practice finding the area of triangles first. Once you master that, you move on to practicing how to find the area of squares. After mastering squares, you move on to finding the area of circles, and so on and so forth. Block studying in this example means studying each shape type separately, mastering one before moving to the next. 

However, according to cognitive science research, you’d benefit more from interleaving.⁵ Interleaving means mixing up different topics and types of problems during a study session.

Let’s go back to the area example. With interleaving you wouldn’t completely master triangles first before seeing other shapes. Instead, you’d mix up triangles, squares, and circles together in the same practice session. You calculate the area of a triangle, then a square, then a circle, then loop back to another triangle area problem, and so on. You’d continually alternate between the different shape types rather than practicing them one type at a time until mastery.

This interleaving approach provides several benefits:

• It enhances your ability to discriminate between different types of problems and subjects, improving overall problem-solving skills.
• Interleaving encourages more effortful retrieval practice, as your brain has to work harder to switch between topics. This strengthens memory and deeper understanding.
• It better prepares you for tests and real-world situations, where different problem types are rarely presented in separate blocked sections. The problems are usually interleaved.

By interleaving your practice, you train your brain to rapidly identify the characteristics of each problem type and choose the appropriate solution strategy, just like you’d need to in an exam or applying your knowledge in reality.

So instead of studying topics in strict blocks, intentionally mixing up your practice forces more active retrieval and discrimination of concepts, leading to more flexible knowledge that transfers better.

Think about it as building muscle at the gym. Instead of spending an entire workout session focused only on one type of exercise, like bicep curls, you mix up different exercises throughout the session to get an effective workout. 

Cognitive Science in Learning: Applying Memory Techniques for Better Results

That moment in my professor’s office, when he questioned how serious I was about my studies, ended up changing everything for me. It forced me to dig deeper into why my study techniques weren’t working. What I discovered changed everything. It wasn’t that I didn’t belong at UCLA or that I wasn’t cut out for science. It was that I had not yet learned how to study effectively. By embracing cognitive science and applying techniques like retrieval practice, spaced repetition, and interleaving, I was able to transform my hard work into meaningful results. I started receiving better grades and, more importantly, truly engaging with my education in a way I hadn’t before. Studying no longer felt like a dreaded, fruitless effort. It became something I looked forward to, as I finally saw the results of my hard work. By the end of my senior year, I had not only conquered my academic challenges but was also honored by being placed on the Dean’s Honors List at UCLA. What once felt impossible had become a reality, all because I learned how to study effectively.

Whether you’re a teacher or a student, using these learning techniques can make a big impact. As a teacher, you can incorporate retrieval practice, spaced repetition, and interleaving into your lessons and homework to help your students retain information longer. As a student, you can apply these methods in your own study sessions. Instead of just re-reading your notes, challenge yourself to recall information without looking. Spread out your study sessions over time rather than cramming, and mix up the topics you’re reviewing. By doing this, you’re giving your brain the right kind of workout. Just like lifting weights makes your body stronger, these study strategies strengthen your memory. You’ll find that learning becomes easier, and you’ll remember things for much longer. So, give these techniques a try and see how they can transform your learning!

Notes:

1. Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003
2. Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In M. A. Gernsbacher, R. W. Pew, L. M. Hough, & J. R. Pomerantz (Eds.), Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society (pp. 56-64). Worth Publishers.
3. Ebbinghaus, H. (2011). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology (H. A. Ruger & C. E. Bussenius, Trans.). Martino Fine Books. (Original work published 1885)
4. Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Belknap Press.
5. Taylor, K., & Rohrer, D. (2010). The effects of interleaved practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(6), 837-848.  https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1598