For years it was believed that your
memory was just what it was;
either you had a good one or a bad one, and of course
it always got
worse with age. Some people even thought that
memory was like a
physical storage area, and that the reason it got worse with age is
because you were learning and therefore needing to store too many
things. You needed to purge old memories to make way for new
information.
But as scientists learned more about the brain and how memory actually
worked, they realized that there were things once could actually do to
improve not only their short-term memory, but to help recall facts that
were stored in their long-term memory as well.
These tips can be as easy as paying closer attention to details, such
as when meeting persons for the first time. Nervousness or distraction
may mean that you''re not really listening when a name is said, making
it harder for you to recall it moments later.
It''s believed that it takes about 8 seconds of attention for a memory
to travel from short-term to long-term storage, so quickly glossing
over information you''re hearing for the first time will only hinder
your ability to recall it later.
"Over-learning" is another common technique for strengthening memory.
This is what a person does when they repeat a bit of information over
and over again - they are over-learning it so that there is more of a
chance that it will be stored in long-term memory.
Other techniques can be somewhat complicated - until you learn them,
that is. Like knitting, driving, or the rules of American football,
once you learn the "whys and hows," you never really need to think much
about them after that. Memory techniques become just like memories
themselves - once they''re burned into your brain, they become a natural
process.
So armed with all this information and what should be some confidence
that you can indeed improve your memory, the only question that remains
is, Are you ready?
THE LINK
METHOD.
The link method is probably one of the easiest and simplest ways to
remember these short lists. The link method involves linking each item
on the list with a certain visual or auditory clue that starts with the
same letter, sounds the same, or in some other way will provide a clue
as to the item on your list.
For example, suppose your list of needed items from the supermarket is:
milk
butter
eggs
bread
You may link each of these to the sentence "Men bet everything big."
Now you have the initials - m, b, e, b - to help you remember. If you
try to walk out of the store without milk, you know that you didn''t get
your "m" or "men" item.
In the above example, you may run into complications when you have two
items with the same first letter, as in the case of bread and butter.
What to do then?
It may be helpful to tailor your sentence to reflect this. For example,
your sentence may be "Michelle bugs everybody''s brother." By having the
first two letters the same as the first two of your items (bugs =
butter, brother = bread), you know what they stand for, and won''t leave
the store with bleach and baskets rather than bread and butter.
Linking works also for visual clues, meaning that you attach a mental
image to each item or to the list itself. For the example above, you
might imagine a farmer milking a cow with one hand while buttering
bread with the other, with an egg cracked over his head. It''s a silly
image, but one that you won''t easily forget. Each part of the image -
the cow, the bread and butter, the egg - is a reminder of what you''re
in the store to purchase.
THE STORY METHOD.
When using the story method, instead of a simple sentence you would
instead construct a small paragraph in story form, the main characters
or happenings in some way relating to the items on your list.
For example, using our list above, your story might be:
"Michelle
went to her broker after she eloped but was busteda girl named Michelle sitting in her broker''s office with a new
wedding ring, getting the bad news of her financial bust. This brings
the story to life for you.
Again, you can use words that have the same two letters of list items
that begin with the same letter, and try to make the story as unusual
as possible. This way you won''t confuse it with real memories or
stories.
It also helps to use people you know to better help you visualize. For
example, if you know someone named Michelle, you can picture her doing
exactly what the story entails (avoiding anything that Michelle might
find offensive, of course!). This helps to keep the story fresh and
vivid in your mind.