Improving Your Memory: Tips and Techniques to improve memory
- Memory, like muscular strength, is a “use it or lose
it” proposition. The more you work out your brain, the
better you’ll be able to process and remember information. - Novelty and sensory stimulation are the foundation of brain
exercise. If you break your routine in a challenging way, you’re
using brain pathways you weren’t using before. This can
involve something as simple as brushing your teeth with your
nondominant hand, which activates little-used connections on
the nondominant side of your brain. Or try a “neurobic” exercise – an
aerobic exercise for your brain – (see Keep
Your Brain Alive Exercise) that forces you to use your
faculties in unusual ways, like showering and getting dressed with
your eyes closed. Take a course in a subject you don’t
know much about, learn a new game of strategy, or cook up some
recipes in an unfamiliar cuisine. That’s the most effective
way to keep your synapses firing. - Pay attention. You can’t remember
something if you never learned it, and you can’t learn
something — that is, encode it into your brain — if
you don’t pay enough attention to it. It takes about
eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information
through your hippocampus and into the appropriate memory
center. So, no multitasking when you need to concentrate!
If you distract easily, try to receive information in a quiet
place where you won’t be interrupted. - Tailor information acquisition to your learning
style. Most people are visual learners; they learn
best by reading or otherwise seeing what it is they have
to know. But some are auditory learners who learn better
by listening. They might benefit by recording information
they need and listening to it until they remember it. - Involve as many senses as possible. Even
if you’re a visual learner, read out loud what you
want to remember. If you can recite it rhythmically, even
better. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells
and tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can
help imprint it onto your brain. - Relate information to what you already know. Connect
new data to information you already remember, whether it’s
new material that builds on previous knowledge, or something
as simple as an address of someone who lives on a street
where you already know someone. - Organize information. Write things down
in address books and datebooks and on calendars; take notes
on more complex material and reorganize the notes into categories
later. Use both words and pictures in learning information. - Understand and be able to interpret complex material. For
more complex material, focus on understanding basic ideas
rather than memorizing isolated details. Be able to explain
it to someone else in your own words. - Rehearse information frequently and “over-learn”. Review
what you’ve learned the same day you learn it, and
at intervals thereafter. What researchers call “spaced
rehearsal” is more effective than “cramming.” If
you’re able to “over-learn” information
so that recalling it becomes second nature, so much the better. - Be motivated and keep a positive attitude. Tell
yourself that you want to learn what you need to
remember, and that you can learn and remember it.
Telling yourself you have a bad memory actually hampers the
ability of your brain to remember, while positive mental
feedback sets up an expectation of success. - Visual images - a microphone to remember
the name “Mike,” a rose for “Rosie.” Use
positive, pleasant images, because the brain often blocks
out unpleasant ones, and make them vivid, colorful, and three-dimensional — they’ll
be easier to remember. - Sentences in which the first letter of
each word is part of or represents the initial of what you
want to remember. Millions of musicians, for example, first
memorized the lines of the treble staff with the sentence “Every
good boy does fine” (or “deserves favor”),
representing the notes E, G, B, D, and F. Medical students
often learn groups of nerves, bones, and other anatomical
features using nonsense sentences. - Acronyms, which are initials that creates
pronounceable words. The spaces between the lines on the
treble staff, for example, are F, A, C, and E: FACE. - Rhymes and alliteration: remember learning “30
days hath September, April, June, and November”? A
hefty guy named Robert can be remembered as “Big Bob” and
a smiley co-worker as “Perky Pat” (though it
might be best to keep such names to yourself). - Jokes or even off-color associations using
facts, figures, and names you need to recall, because funny
or peculiar things are easier to remember than mundane images. - “Chunking” information; that
is, arranging a long list in smaller units or categories
that are easier to remember. If you can reel off your Social
Security number without looking at it, that’s probably
because it’s arranged in groups of 3, 2, and 4 digits,
not a string of 9. - “Method of loci”: This is
an ancient and effective way of remembering a lot of material,
such as a speech. You associate each part of what you have
to remember with a landmark in a route you know well, such
as your commute to work.
Common types of mnemonic devices include:
- Visual images - a microphone to remember
Techniques For Concentrating and Remembering--Reading Comprehension Guide--Academic Support
- Any organized attempt on your part to remember more of what you read
involves your ability to concentrate on the material you are reading.
Intense concentration increases the time you spend attending to the task,
an important element in reading. Students who are impulsive in their
actions often find it difficult to concentrate for any length of time.
Likewise, students who are passive in their approach to learning - those
who are not actively engaged and thinking about what they are reading -
often fail to get involved with the material enough to concentrate for
long periods of time. Here are some ways to improve your concentration: - Attend to the task - Concentration is a must for successful reading.
Yet many distractions may be encountered which lessen your ability to stick to the
task and concentrate for long periods of time. A good idea is to keep a
"distraction list" of times you were interrupted from concentrating on your reading.
The list may include items such as: a) type of book being read; b) number of minutes
reading before distraction; c) type of distraction; d) amount of time taken by the
distraction; and e) a goal to improve. Concentration is improved if you study when
you are the most alert, least tired and in good physical condition. During your
scheduled breaks, get up from your desk and walk around or do something physical
for about 10 minutes. - Attend to the task - Concentration is a must for successful reading.
Yet many distractions may be encountered which lessen your ability to stick to the
task and concentrate for long periods of time. A good idea is to keep a
"distraction list" of times you were interrupted from concentrating on your reading.
The list may include items such as: a) type of book being read; b) number of minutes
reading before distraction; c) type of distraction; d) amount of time taken by the
distraction; and e) a goal to improve. Concentration is improved if you study when
you are the most alert, least tired and in good physical condition. During your
scheduled breaks, get up from your desk and walk around or do something physical
for about 10 minutes. - Establish a purpose - If you first determine a purpose for reading,
you then have a reason for thinking as well as for completing the reading assignment.
Purpose helps focus your attention and improve your concentration. Write out some
questions that pertain to the subject matter you are about to read. For instance,
what specifically do you want to know or need to know about this subject?
By pre-selecting questions to answer, you become an active participant in the
learning/reading process. - Eliminate emotional stress - Rid yourself of impulsive and avoidance
behavior due to overwhelming daily stress by keeping a "blame list." This is a list
of all the people, situations, circumstances, etc., that you blame for your avoidance
behavior. Your blame list can be a benefit in getting you to face your problems
squarely. Today's world is highly complex, technocratic, and impersonal. It is no
wonder you feel emotionally stressed and drained at times. If you find yourself in
the middle of a brief depression or emotional upheaval, do something physical or any
activity that is not mind taxing. - remember to maintain a positive attitude, avoid negative people and influences,
stay active in the learning process without being hyperactive about it, keep a list of distractions
to help eliminate some impulsive behavior, choose carefully your place and time to study,
and try physical activity to burn off stress and to maintain an alert mind. - A push from short-term to long-term memory -
To transfer information from short- term to long- term, permanent memory, the brain has to
perform several functions. The brain by nature is a selective organ, committing to permanent
memory only those items it deems are absolutely necessary to retain. You must determine
what is important and what is just fluff. If the information is important and needs to be stored,
you must perform an essential operation to insure transfer into permanent memory.
This process is called recitation or verbalization.
You help to transfer the information through the recitation process by repeating the
information over and over again, or by summarizing the information in your own words.
This process of reciting important information enables the brain to permanently store
the information. Recitation is the best way to commit large amounts of information to
long-term memory. - Sorting Information - Sorting large amounts of information into categories
can help you remember information more accurately and retrieve information faster.
For instance, suppose you had to learn the following concepts for a business class:
tools, labor, trees, wildlife, human resources, minerals, machinery, capital resources,
factories, tractors, water, power plants, manpower, natural resource, typewriters.
These concepts would be difficult to learn and remember if you were merely trying to
memorize the individual terms. If you sort these terms into major categories, you will
place a value on the terms and give them meaning. These individual terms could be held
in short-term memory long enough for you to push them into long-term memory by using
the recitation process. For example:
Natural Resources
Capital Resources
Human Resources
minerals
tools
labor
water
machinery
manpower
trees
power plants
wildlife
factories
tractors
typewriters
If you stop your reading often to review and categorize, it will be easier
to verbalize the information at the end of the reading, thereby,
improving your long-term memory.- Sorting Information - Sorting large amounts of information into categories
- Mnemonic Devices -
- rhymes;
- Acronyms;
- catch phrases;
- association by image;
- peg words
Mnemonic aids (from the Greek word meaning 'to bring to mind')
are specific memory enhancing techniques which can be useful in
learning enormous amounts of seemingly unrelated information.
Mnemonic devices are best suited for remembering facts and least helpful
in the interpretation of facts or in relating learned material to your
life situations. Some mnemonic examples are:
- Although it can be
easiest to remember those things that you understand well, sometimes you must
rely on rote memory. The following techniques can be used to facilitate such
memorization. - 1. ACRONYMS. You form acronyms by using each first letter from a group
of words to form a new word. This is particularly useful when remembering words
in a specified order. - The memory
techniques in this section, for example, can be rearranged to form the acronym
"SCRAM" (Sentences/acrostics, Chunking, Rhymes & songs, Acronyms,
and Method of loci).
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