It has always been said that “the more we read, the more we learn, and the more we learn, the further we can go”. This is what Dr. Seuss, an American writer and cartoonist, told us. The real problem is that we tend to forget more than half of what we read in the books we swallow.

We spend hours and hours in front of academic textbooks when facing an exam, whether it is an oral or a written test. Those endless moments in the library studying for an exam are evidence that memorizing is not easy. The key is the method of study. How many times do we go into our heads and repeat aloud what we have learned ? This is a very effective way of reinforcing what has been studied, but… is it more useful than reading in silence?.

Related article: “10 Tips to Study Better and More Efficiently”

Study out loud or quietly?

In order to rigorously answer the headline question, University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) researchers Colin McLeod and Noah Farrin published their study in the journal Memory entitled “The Benefits of Listening to Yourself”. The results reveal surprising methods that improve the study techniques . The study aims to compare the silent technique with that which uses one’s own voice.

Farrin and McLeod decided to randomly select 100 students and bring them to their experimental lab. They had them all play 80 words out loud. As per research guidelines, they were not told when they would have to return to the facility to finish the work. Most of the participants wrote down on a piece of paper all the words they could remember so that they could take it to the next level.

Once called to resume the research tests, each individual used different learning methods before entering the laboratory. In view of the impending test, they were given one of four methods: reading silently the words to be recited, listening to audiotapes recorded by someone else, listening to tapes recorded in their own voice, or pronouncing them aloud.

The results

The memory test gave surprising results. Based on a recognition test, it checked the degree to which the students remembered the 80 words they memorized on the spot and the 80 they had reproduced two weeks earlier. It was clear that the second set of words would be forgotten, at least many of them. The participants had to indicate whether that word belonged to the one they had memorized at that time or whether it was from the past.

Thus, it was confirmed that the most effective method was that of pronouncing the words studied aloud. In the great majority of cases, it was found that reading aloud helped one to remember better. In terms of effectiveness, this method is followed by listening to the tapes recorded individually. In third place we find the tapes recorded by someone else and, lastly, and perhaps most relevant, we have the method of silent reading as the most deficient when it comes to memorizing concepts or words.

Likewise, the power of reading should not be ignored. Obviously, the more we read, the more we memorize. The question lies in the capacity of storage, of memory. It should be noted, for example, that the difference between saying things aloud and listening to oneself on a tape was minimal: only 3%. It seems that the fact of listening to one’s own voice is an added value .

The production effect

Having discussed these results, the authors of the research coined the term “production effect,” which refers to the process one experiences by reading aloud rather than in silence. This effect is the result of three factors that are combined and dependent on each other. First, reading aloud activates your brain’s ability to store information . Secondly, reading increases the visual memory capacity and, thirdly, the effect of self-reference makes the information more personal and, consequently, easier to remember.

When students resort exclusively to reading information from others, they do not receive that personal experience that makes the difference when it comes to memorizing, they do not audit themselves so that they do not awaken other cognitive abilities mentioned above. Recent studies reinforce the thesis of the insufficiency that all students of any academic grade have when it comes to studying, arguing that reading as a unique method is inappropriate.