Know why I am doing a series on this?
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Chunking?
CONTENTS
Chunking is an encoding strategy used in memory
Chunking is not restricted to short-term memory
Some examples of chunking in daily usage
The Chunking Method can be used by students to remember thirty things
Chunking can be used to succeed in Competitive Exams
The Chunking Method can be used to write a thesis
The Chunking Method can be used to Study an Essay
Introduction
Chunking is a powerful technique for memorizing large amounts of information so that we can remember it whenever we need it. When students are bombarded with so much information, they are at a loss to figure out how to retrieve it. A
majority of students fail to score as many marks as they are capable of simply
because of ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Chunking’.
Chunking
is used almost every day by us. If we know how to do chunking properly, we will
never lose our keys, papers, files, things, etc. Watch the video below to
understand the processes involved in chunking.
Chunking is an encoding strategy used in memory
One
thing you should keep in mind is remembering is only a part of the memory
process as I have mentioned earlier in ‘What
Psychologists Don’t Talk About Remembering?’ If your encoding
is stronger, your remembering will also be robust. The best way to encode is
through chunking.
Chunking
is a conscious
process of deliberately organizing incoming information that helps us
to store and remember it. So, as pointed out in ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk
About Concentration?’, it is not relegated to the subconscious processing of
information but you are using your consciousness to provide a structure to the
existing information.
Another
aspect is, that chunking can happen at the encoding stage or the retrieving
(especially redintegration) stage. You can use it either to aid your storage of
information or to retrieve stored information (through retrieval cues or tags).
This
is something that psychologists don’t talk about!
Chunking is not restricted to short-term memory
One
glaring mistake made by psychologists is to refer to chunking as a tool to
improve short-term memory. At the same time, they say short-term memory has a
very short duration of a few seconds and a limited capacity of four to seven
chunks. Then how come students and adults can remember so many things when they
chunk it? You just can’t study everything within 30 seconds before the
examination!
In
reality, as far as my research goes, chunking is used not merely to strengthen
short-term memory but to send the information from short-term memory to
long-term memory. A short poem to recall the number of days in a month, “30
days hath September”, which I might have studied 60 years ago, I still
remember. I also remember “VIBGYOR” and “BODMAS”, which I would have learned in
primary classes.
Do
the psychologists mean to say that I have been rehearsing these every minute
for almost six decades? I may not have used them for over forty years and I
still remember them.
So,
essentially, chunking is done to send the information from the short-term store to the
long-term store through working memory. This is something that
psychologists don’t talk about Chunking.
Psychologists
are right when they give examples of using a phone number. We can remember it
well until we use it and once that is done we lose the information. However,
they fail to notice that this is a “Conscious Capture” operation. The moment we decide consciously that we no longer
need the information; we lose it even if we have stored it through
chunking. Just because we forget it doesn’t mean that it is out of our memory.
We can still use relearning to get back what we have lost.
In
‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Concentration?’, I have mentioned the Reorganization
stage where chunking helps in codifying the available information to enhance
memory. Chunking also aids our Intention to attend in concentration apart from
memorizing.
Some examples of chunking in daily usage
While
operating on a computer, a better organization of files chunked under
appropriate subfolders, folders, subdirectories, directories, and root
directories will help us retrieve specific information. If you are good at
chunking, you will not lose any files on the computer. Chunking under proper
heads will also help you in searching for the files or specific information.
You
can use chunking on your mobile phones, too. As and when we download several
apps, putting them all individually is a waste of time while accessing them.
Hence, it is better to chunk them into folders. For example, you can club all
apps related to banking under one folder “Bank”. Certain apps you use regularly
can be chunked under your ”Personal” folder, and so on.
The Chunking Method can be used by students to remember
thirty things
Now,
the important question comes in terms of where students can use chunking.
Instead of explaining to the students the process involved in chunking, it is
better to guide them with specific examples, so that they can immediately put
to use what they have learned.
I
have just given examples of thirty things you can remember using the chunking
method. However, the list is endless. Whenever you have a lot of information
you can condense them into chunks and then make meaningful associations so that
you can easily retrieve them.
The
following list provides an easy guide for students to try to remember through
chunking.
1. 1. Abstract
ideas
2.
Anatomical
names
3.
Any
headings
4.
Chemical
names
5.
Circuits
6.
Disasters
7.
Formulas
8.
Grocery
lists
9.
Islands
10.
Laws
11.
List
of wars
12.
List
of words
13.
Medical
terms
14.
Minerals
15.
Names
of places
16.
Names
of rulers
17.
Numbers
18.
Parts
of a diagram
19.
Periodic
tables
20.
Resources
21.
Rivers
22.
Shopping
lists
23.
Species
24.
Speeches
25.
Statutes
26.
Steps
in textbook
27.
Technical
terms
28.
Tenets
of religion
29.
To-do
lists
30.
Vocabulary
The following picture gives
you an overview of all these 30 things.
Chunking can be used to succeed in Competitive Exams
Suppose
you are asked a question about a mountain, your general knowledge must allow
you to know at least some of the famous mountains. One good way to chunk them
is to classify them across continents. Another is to chunk them according to
their heights. You can categorize them as tallest, taller, and tall so that it
is easy to remember.
Let
us say you have to remember the flags of different countries. One best way is
to classify according to the number of horizontal divisions, vertical
divisions, crosses in the center, etc.
Similarly,
you can think of ways to remember through chunking. It could be names of
countries, currencies, cities, seas, or almost any list.
Suppose you are asked a general knowledge question in a competitive exam. It could be a multiple-choice question that asks, “Which continent produces more manganese? – (a) Asia (b) Africa (c) Australia (d) Europe” You can’t answer this question without having studied the information through chunking. Through chunking you will find out that the correct answer is Africa. [Manganese production by country. (2024, November 8). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_production_by_country].
Similarly,
you can ask different kinds of questions (See ‘Pass
any exam equipped with these Questions’) and try to answer them
using the chunking method.
The Chunking Method can be used to write a thesis
A
thesis may contain hundreds of references, both primary and secondary. You
wouldn’t have referred to them in one go. This happens over several months. I
have seen many research students misplacing reference material or forgetting
the information they had collected.
To
solve such problems, first identify the number of chapters you are going to
write. These will form the major chunks. Sections and subsections will form the
minor chunks. You can even classify information under headings, subheadings,
constructs, concepts, quotes, or citations. Whatever information you come
across during your research make sure that you place that information within at
least one of the chunks.
Some
information you will have to place in more than one chunk. For instance, when
you are reviewing previous research, the information you come across will go to
the “Review” chunk and the reference to that information will be placed under
“Bibliography”. Make sure they are linked in some way so that you don’t lose
track of it.
You
can use cue cards if you are not familiar with using the computer.
Most
people start writing a thesis only after they complete the research. This is
detrimental to systematic presentation. Start writing the thesis from the day
you start with your synopsis. This will help you in restructuring and refining
the thesis at a later time.
The Chunking Method can be used to Study an Essay
Students
writing competitive exams will have to write a lengthy essay within the short
period allotted to them. They spend a lot of time during the exam thinking
about what to write, scratching out what they have written, and wondering how
to start the paragraph.
I
will teach you a technique that is rarely talked about by either teachers or
psychologists. Try this on one essay and you will see a lot of difference.
You
will be using chunking as a method of study rather than as a method of
memorizing.
Pick
up any well-written essay on a topic you like. During practice, some people
suggest to you to read through the essay you have selected, several times to get
an idea of how the essay is written. This approach will lead you nowhere. Your
job is to read the essay to identify points. First, try to break it
into chunks and then later you have to fill in the gaps. Try to analyze it in
the following ways. Check how many points have been used by the author to:
1.
Introduce
the topic.
2.
Provide
background information.
3.
Explain
the main idea.
4.
Present
current trends.
5.
Apply
the idea generally and specifically.
6.
Pros
and Cons.
7.
Suggestions
and recommendations.
8.
Summary and conclusion.
Let’s
assume that usually, each paragraph contains one point. Sometimes important
points are written in bold letters or italics, or underlined. Note down these
points on a sheet of paper. Let us say, you get 2 3 5 3 3 6 3 2 points
respectively. Now chunk this and try to remember it as 353 (one unit), 363 (2nd
unit), and 22 (3rd unit – first and last points).
Now,
close the essay, and using the points you have noted down, try to write an
essay of your own. You would have had a rough idea of what the author must have
written when you glanced through the essay to note down the points. Keeping
that in mind, try to elaborate on each of the points as much as possible in your
essay.
Once
you complete the essay, read the original one and compare it with what you have
written.
Do
this with a few more essays and see for yourself how proficient you have become
in essay writing.
During
the exam, most people suggest that you spend time thinking of what to write,
writing points randomly, organizing them, etc., which will take up most of your
precious time. If you practice the method I have put forth here, you can start
writing your essay as soon as you choose the topic. This will leave you enough
time for revision and editing.
Try
this and let me know in the comments how you have succeeded!
Conclusion
Chunking,
as we have seen, is a powerful technique that can be used especially to encode
large information. It can also be used to retrieve information that is already
stored by us. Chunking helps in sending information from short-term store to
long-term store. We can ease our daily functioning through chunking. Students
can learn the technique so that they can easily remember any information
necessary for facing the examination, both regular and competitive. Chunking
can also be used to write a thesis or to study an essay. In the next article, I
shall be sharing with you how to master a textbook using the chunking method.
Know why I am doing a series on this?
Let me know if I am wrong. I have started this series because there
are hundreds of things psychologists don’t talk about. I feel that it would
benefit everyone if they did so. I hope at least now, they will make a
beginning.
This is
an attempt to bring to the fore what has been hidden for a very long time.
Next:
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