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Three tests for a self-made cue — made when storing, specific, and there when needed — with labels, keyword pictures and scenes.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will build cues that pass three tests, split an overloaded label, make keyword and scene cues, and name the test a weak cue fails.
Last lesson, the cues were supplied: first letters, a category, a store's aisle signs. Most of the cues in an ordinary week are ones you make yourself: a label, the front of a card, a picture, a scene. Some of them work and some find nothing. This lesson is about telling which is which before you need it.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Specific cue | A cue that points at few things, ideally one. |
| Cue overload | What happens when one cue points at many things: it helps with none. |
| Encoding specificity | The finding that a cue works best when it was present while the thing was learned. |
| Keyword method | Linking a new word's sound to a familiar word, and that word to the meaning, in one picture. |
| Acronym | A word made from first letters, such as HOMES. |
Made at the moment of storing. A cue works best when it was part of how the thing was learned. Endel Tulving and Donald Thomson (1973) showed this: a weak hint that was present when a word was studied helped people retrieve it, while a strong hint that was not present at study often did not. So label the box as you pack it, and make the picture as you study the word.
Specific. The more things a cue points at, the less it helps with any one of them. Olga and Michael Watkins (1975) called this cue overload. A box labeled stuff could hold anything; Bike repair: tire levers, patches, pump points at three things.
There when needed. A cue works only if you meet it at the moment of search. A contents list left at the old apartment will never be read at the new one.
Another way: story
Two people pack a kitchen. One writes Kitchen on twelve boxes. The other writes Kitchen: baking pans, muffin tin on one box as she seals it. On the first night in the new place, only one of them makes cookies without opening every box.
Another way: steps
Before you put anything away or write any note, ask three questions: am I making this now, as I store it? Does it name one thing? Will I meet it when I need it?
The keyword method is for new words in another language. The Spanish pato sounds like pot; picture a duck sitting in a pot, and pato leads to the pot, which leads to the duck. Richard Atkinson and Michael Raugh (1975) taught students Russian vocabulary this way; the students given keywords learned more words and remembered more of them weeks later than students who studied without keywords. It works best for words that can be pictured.
An acronym holds the letters of a short list: HOMES for the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). That is useful, but it carries no meaning; remembering the letters does not tell you what they stand for unless the words are learned too.
A scene made while studying joins unrelated items. It is a cue of your own that nobody else could hand you, and the practice trial in this lesson asks you to make one.
A specific label finds objects. Deciding where things live is taught in Everyday memory, and writing question cards in Study strategies; here the point is only what makes the label work.
To check a cue, try it cold a day later. Read only the cue and see whether the item comes. If it does not, the failed test tells you what to fix.
Work through two fictional cases. Priya is going to Mexico City in three weeks and wants twenty Spanish words for food. For each one she says the word aloud, finds an English keyword in its sound, and makes the picture straight away: pollo (chicken) sounds like polo, so a chicken plays polo. She writes only the Spanish word on the front of each card, so the cue she will meet in the restaurant, the sound of the word, is the one she practices from.
Ben is moving across town. His first box says Kitchen. Then he stops and applies the tests: the label is made while packing, but it points at twelve boxes, and it sits on the lid, which will be hidden when boxes are stacked. He relabels on two sides: Kitchen: coffee maker, mugs, filters. On the first morning the coffee is found in one look.
Clever cues are tempting, but a cue is judged by one thing: does it bring back the right item when you meet it? A plain label that names what is inside beats a witty one you will not decode.
The second mistake is economy: one label, one folder, one list for everything. It feels tidy and it is cue overload. Splitting one label into several specific ones costs a few minutes and saves the search every time after.
The third is waiting: I'll think of a way to remember it later. Later, the moment of storing is gone, and so is the best cue.
Count what the old label points at.
'Odds and ends': 18 things
One label pointing at eighteen things is overloaded.
Sort into specific groups.
Batteries (6); Cables and chargers (7); Tape and string (5)
Each group has something in common that a label can name.
Write each label as you fill the box.
Label written on each box as it is packed
A cue made while storing is part of the storing.
Check the new search size.
Largest group: 7 things, down from 18
Fewer things behind each label means a shorter search.
Say the new word and listen for a familiar word inside it.
carta (letter) → cart
The keyword must come to mind when you hear the new word.
Make one picture joining the keyword and the meaning.
A shopping cart full of letters
The picture is the second link, from keyword to meaning.
Test the cue cold the next day.
Hear carta → cart → letters → letter
A cue is only known to work once it has worked cold.
Say the word and find a sound-alike.
pomme sounds like pom-pom
Sound first, so hearing the word brings the keyword.
Join the keyword to the meaning in one picture.
You want to find which folder holds the car insurance card later. Which cue will work?
A fictional recipe box holds 28 cards behind one tab, 'Recipes'. They are split behind four tabs: Soups (5), Mains (11), Baking (6) and Salads (6). Complete the worked count of how many cards each tab points at.
Count what the old tab pointed at.
'Recipes': 28 cards
One overloaded tab makes every search a search of the whole box.
Find the average number of cards behind each new tab.
28 ÷ 4 = a cards
Splitting divides the search by the number of tabs.
Find the tab that still points at the most cards.
Largest tab: Mains, c cards
The biggest group is the next one to split, if searches there still take long.
A kitchen drawer is labeled 'Odds and ends'. It is being split into three specific boxes: Batteries; Cables and chargers; Tape and string. Put each item under its new label.
| New label | |
|---|---|
| AA batteries | |
| Phone charger | |
| Packing tape | |
| Coin cell battery | |
| USB cable | |
| Kitchen twine |
Build the first half of a keyword cue for four Spanish words: pick the English keyword that sounds like each one. (The second half is the picture that joins the keyword to the meaning.)
| Keyword | |
|---|---|
| pato (duck) | |
| carta (letter) | |
| pera (pear) | |
| lago (lake) |
A practice trial with a cue you make yourself. While the six words are showing, make up one silly scene that joins them all. After a 30-second wait, walk through your scene and write back the words. No cue is offered on screen: the scene is yours. This is practice, not a test of your memory.
Ask someone to read you the list, then cover it and write what you remember:
A fictional garage. Omar keeps 40 tools and supplies in one big bin labeled 'Garage stuff'. He re-sorts them into 5 bins of 8 items, each labeled with what is in it. If a search looks through about half of a bin on average before finding the item, how many items does a search look through before, and after?
Before: about x items. After: about y items.
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Four cues a fictional person made this week. For each, write the first test it fails, or None if it passes all three.
| First test it fails | |
|---|---|
| 'Bathroom: first-aid kit, spare towels', written on the box while packing | |
| 'I'll name the tax folder when I next need it' | |
| 'Stuff' on the garage shelf | |
| A password hint on a note at the office, for a laptop used at home |
Without looking back: name the three tests for a cue, and make one keyword picture for a word you are learning now. Next: what to do in the moments after a miss. A trial here is practice, not a test of your memory. What is kept is the list you wrote back on this device today, and it is never set beside anyone else's. You can stop at any point: closing the page is the whole of stopping, and the lesson reopens where you left it.
11. Your turn: make a keyword cue for the French *pomme*, meaning apple., step 2
An apple wearing a pom-pom hat
The picture links keyword to meaning.