Michael Moshan stands out as co-executive producer and co-songwriter of Rock the SAT, a learning kit that uses high-energy songs to help students remember SAT vocabulary. In 2015, Michael Moshan and colleague David Mendelsohn released the collection's second volume.
Music helps students to memorize rote information in a way that few other things can. Experts attribute the effect partially to repetition, as a catchy song inspires a listener to play it multiple times. The brain then naturally remembers the lyrics and, in turn, the information that the lyrics contain.
The lyrics themselves may also contain repetitive material that aids in memorization. Lyrics tend to feature poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, and rhyme, the latter of which is particularly effective in helping the human brain to remember lines of text.
Meanwhile, the pairing of music and lyrics helps the brain to form multiple connections related to the same piece of information. Just as a driver can reach a destination by multiple roads, so a learner can find his or her way to the definition of a word by remembering the associated lyrical or musical pattern. These multiple contexts also improve longevity of the memory, so that it stays accessible to the learner for a longer period.
