Elaborative Rehearsal

Elaborative rehearsal is a memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered, as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over. For example, you need to remember the term "neuron." In order to permanently commit the term to your memory, you look up what it means (it is a nerve cell), find out its purpose (transmit information from or to the central nervous system), look at a diagram and study its parts, and think about how it relates to things that you already know (like how different it its from other kinds of cells, assuming you are familiar with other cells). If you do this several times (rehearsal), then you will be more likely to remember the term.