2. Improving Your Retention Apply the principles we’ve discussed to increase your ability to remember content.

•• The next time you meet someone, repeat his or her name to yourself three times in a row after you are introduced. Do you remember the name better when you do this?

•• After your next interpersonal communication class, take 15 minutes to review your notes. Try reading them aloud so that you hear as well as see the main ideas. Does this increase your retention of material covered in class?

•• Invent mnemonics to help you remember basic information in communication.

•• Organize complex ideas by grouping them into categories. Try this first in relation to material presented in classes. To remember the main ideas of this chapter, you might use major subheadings to form categories: the listening process, obstacles to listening, forms of nonlistening, listening goals, and guidelines. The mnemonic PONGG (process, obstacles, nonlistening, goals, guidelines) could help you remember those categories.