The scene is not an unfamiliar one: you end your study session Sunday night knowing everything there is to know about Napoleon Bonaparte. But Monday morning when that exam slides onto your desk, all you can recall is the llama scene from Napoleon Dynamite. Dammit, Tina! Turns out, an impossibly easy study hack that could’ve saved the day was right under your nose the whole time. Literally.
In December 2017, a study from the University of Waterloo delivered a face-palmingly simple learning technique. Hope you’re sitting down for this one: If you want to remember something, read it out loud. Mind. Blown. The researchers found that speaking what you read aloud helps to get it into your long-term memory. Easy as that.
This study hack works due to something the researchers dubbed the “production effect,” or the fact that actually producing the words you read with your voice has a big impact on memory. Reading out loud lets you visually and audibly receive the information at the same time. “This study confirms that learning and memory benefit from active involvement,” psychologist and co-author of the study Colin MacLeod said in a statement. “When we add an active measure or a production element to a word, that word becomes more distinct in long-term memory, and hence more memorable.”
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