Memory and Spelling

Research by psychologists on learning has given us some useful information about how our memory works:

  1. We remember things more easily if we organize them into groups, patterns, categories.
  2. We remember unusual things.
  3. We remember things that interest us most.
  4. We can only remember a few things at a time (7, plus or minus 2 “chunks”).
  5. It is difficult to remember things we don’t understand.
  6. Our memory works by building links.
  7. We remember things better if we already know something about them.
  8. Learning is an active task – we have to think about how we can remember something.

Klein, C., & Millar, R. R. (1990). Unscrambling spelling. London, England: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-51234-2. Reproduced by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.

Handout 8.5