What is elaborative rehearsal, what are the examples of elaborative rehearsal, and what is the difference between elaborative and maintenance rehearsal?
Elaborative rehearsal is a learning technique that makes memorizing information meaningful, as it involves thinking about the meaning of a term to be remembered.
This usually involves relating information to prior knowledge and making the information meaningful for stronger long-term memory. While maintenance rehearsal is more about repeating words and thoughts, elaborative rehearsal involves thinking about the meaning of the term for long-term memory.
Making personal connections to words and terms makes it easier to retain information for a longer period.
We will be discussing elaborative and maintenance rehearsal as well as examples of elaborative rehearsal.
Definition of Elaborative Rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal is a learning technique that makes memorizing information meaningful, as it involves thinking about the meaning of a term to be remembered.
It’s a memory and learning technique which involves building the association between new and already acquired knowledge.
Generally, information is held in short-term memory for about just 30 seconds. With the elaborative rehearsal technique, that information can be transferred to long-term memory.
While maintenance rehearsal involves repeating words and thoughts over and over again, elaborative rehearsal involves thinking about the meaning of the term for long-term memory.
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Elaborative Rehearsal vs. Maintenance Rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal and maintenance rehearsal both involve storing information. The latter which is also known as rote rehearsal involves the repetition of information in its original form.
Maintenance rehearsal involves memorizing information, saying the words or defining a term over and over again to keep it in our working memory for a period of time.
The information starts to fade once those words are no longer said repeatedly. It works better with the repetition of words and the information is in our memory temporarily.
Elaborative Rehearsal Examples
A mnemonic is a type of elaborative rehearsal and also a device used to boost and improve memory. The common types of mnemonics include acronyms and acrostics.
In these elaborative rehearsal examples, acronyms are used to form a word using the first letter of each word that is being memorized.
#1. Creating a Sentence
Elaborative rehearsal is a learning technique and a mnemonic is a type of elaborative rehearsal and also a device used to improve memory. Choosing a familiar word to each letter of the word you want to remember will help you retain information in your memory.
Let’s say you want to remember the Great Lakes of North America. You can use the acronym “HOMES” to help you remember the five lakes. “HOMES” is an acronym for the five lakes which are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.
Another example is the word “Chromatic”. Perhaps you find it difficult to spell this word, you can form a sentence with each word assigned to the first of the word.
- Chromatic-(calling, his, roommate, over, microphone, added, the, instant, connection).
#2. Peg Method
This method is one of the mnemonic memory aid, where words are linked with numbers. The peg method involves connecting a set of words and making them rhyme with numbers.
For example, you can choose from one to three as numbers to rhyme with.
- 1 = gum, 2 = shoe, 3 = tree.
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#3. Creating Analogies
With analogies, you can draw connections between new information and already acquired knowledge.
For example, a teacher meets a new class for the first time and there is a student named Collins. The teacher can compare the new student Collins, to a previous Collins he has taught.
Now, there could be a similarity or a difference that makes the new Collins and former Collins memorably linked.
- The new Collins is tall compared to the previous Collins who was a bit shorter.
#4. Music
We can change the lyric of a song and assign them to words we want to remember. This is one of the elaborative memory techniques that involve critical thinking and can improve memory.
For example, you need to remember a shopping list and you need to create a tune you are familiar with. Let’s say it’s an earthworm like.
- “I’m too sexy for the ham, too sexy for the bread, too sexy for the yoghurt, too sexy for the milk, too sexy for the cheese, too sexy for the peach jam..”
#5. Method of Loci
This method is more scientific. It involves imagining a 3-dimensional space and putting objects in places you can remember easily within that space.
For example, you can think of your middle school as the perfect space to store your memories.
Another example is taking the space in the kitchen to place your memories. When you need to remember a piece of important information, just walk into the kitchen and look at the positions you placed that memory to remember it.
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#6. Remembering Through Imagery
If you are a person who easily forgets and struggle to remember names, using the elaborative rehearsal technique will help you assign names to images.
Let’s say you meeting someone for the first time. He introduces himself as Steve, you can create an image and assign it to his name to help you remember the name when next you meet him.
Another example that will work perfectly for you is meeting someone who is named Lincoln. You can use the image of the famous American president Abraham Lincoln to remember the person’s name.
#7. Chunking
Chunking is a method that helps you memorize information, especially when you have a long list of things to remember.
For example, when you want to go on a trip and there are a lot of items to pack, so you don’t want to forget any. You can create a subcategory to ensure you don’t forget any of the items you need for the trip.
You can easily remember your toiletries by creating a sub-category. Your toiletries should not be included in a list with other travelling items like magazines, snacks, electronic gadgets, and hotel details.
#8. Rhyming
Another elaborative rehearsal technique is rhyming. Arranging information through rhyme improves long-term recall.
For example, it’s sometimes difficult to recall people’s names and retain them in our memory.
Creating a rhyme with terms you are already familiar with will improve memory retention.
For example:
- Amanda: she is not a man, duh or Dustin- Dustin threw trash in the dustbin.
Assigning a difficult word to a common experience in your own words will make it easier to for you to remember.
#9. Bad Puns
Bad puns are really fun and can be useful to improve and commit information to memory.
Let’s say you want to remember all the months to list them orderly, you can use a bad pun like;
- Can February March? Unfortunately no, but April May.
Or let’s say you want to remember the symbol of the first 20 elements on the periodic table. You could use this pun;
- He has large brain but can not offer full nine subjects, may all stupid people stop calling anti pop Christ.
#10. Remembering Relationships Between Numbers
This method is often used by many people to recall either a phone number or any important number.
The trick involves trying to remember how each number interacts with the last one.
For example, you want to recall the number 241635. It may be difficult to remember the number without misplacing one digit.
You can use this method to remember each number by saying;
- The first two digits are 2 and 4 which sum up to 6.
- The next two digits are 1 and 6 which sum up to 7.
- The last two digits are 3 and 5 which sum up to 8.
Now instead of trying to remember each number, you just need to remind yourself that there are three sets of numbers, which are 6-7-8. So, it’s 2 and 4, before 1 and 6, then 3 and 5.
Although this trick may not work for everyone, others may find it to be very useful.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Below are frequently asked questions on elaborative rehearsal examples.
What is an example of elaborative rehearsal?
Examples of elaborative rehearsal include the use of acronyms and acrostics, the method of loci or the memory palace, and the peg method.
What are maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal?
Elaborative rehearsal and maintenance rehearsal both involve storing information. The latter which is also known as rote rehearsal involves the repetition of information in its original form.
Conclusion
Elaborative rehearsal is a learning technique that makes memorizing information meaningful, as it involves thinking about the meaning of a term to be remembered.
Some of the examples may work for you and some may not. The elaborative rehearsal technique involves making personal connections to words and terms for improved memory retention.
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References
- Study.com: What is Elaborative Rehearsal?
- HelpfulProfessor: 10 Elaborative Rehearsal Examples
- Sites.psu.edu: Maintenance and Elaborative Rehearsal
- Tori Kim Norris, 1999: ELABORATIVE REHEARSAL: AN EXAMINATION OF USAGE, PERCEPTIONS OF UTILITY, AND DIFFERENCES IN METACOGNITION AND TEST PERFORMANCE
- S Chen, D Huang – Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF …, 2021: Elaborative rehearsal for zero-shot action recognition
- TK Norris – 2019: Elaborative Rehearsal: An Examination of Usage, Perceptions of Utility, and Differences in Metacognition and Test Performanc
