HOW TO IMPROVE MEMORY - POWER

HOW TO IMPROVE MEMORY-POWER

Chunking                                  

Don't swallow it whole!

When someone gives you a phone number to remember, use 'chunking' as a way of remembering it. Short-term memory is limited so chunking helps us process long bits of information in more easily digestible chunks.

Most people can remember seven things, plus or minus two, which means that you'll usually be able to remember between five and nine things at most. So when given a string of numbers to remember such as 123957001066, break it down! 12 39 57 00 10 66 or even 1239 5700 1066 (chunks of numbers).

You may find it easier to chunk numbers according to something you find meaningful, like the age of someone you know, an address or a famous date (1066 Battle of Hastings). These attached meanings can then form a story to help remember a really long sequence.

Cramming

Cramming doesn't work!

Repetition and rehearsal can be useful as 'practice makes perfect'. But psychologists have learned that it's better to space out your learning than to mass it all in one lump.

When practicing a word in a foreign language, don't repeat it over and over. Repeat it to yourself once or twice, then try something else (learn something else, or just have a break). Then come back to it. And don't cram for exams, things just won't sink in.

Cues

Give us a cue

If there's something you have to do every day at a specific time and often forget, then this technique, called implementation intentions, should help and it's very simple.

Give yourself a cue to help your intention to do something. Doctors use it to help people's health behaviour. For example, say to yourself 'whenever I have my first cup of tea in the morning, I will also take my pills'. Or 'when The Archers finishes I'll do my exercises'.

External aids

Write it down!

Most people use one or more external aids to help remember

·         entering appointments in a diary or on a calendar

·         writing on the back of your hand/knotted handkerchief

·         writing lists

·         using alarm clocks on your watch or mobile phone

·         putting objects in a conspicuous place (e.g. by the front door)

·         asking someone else to remind you

Imagery

See it, feel it, remember it

One type of mnemonic - or memory aid - relies on imagery rather than words.

A classic way of remembering a person's name is to try and imagine it (or something associated to it) on the person's face. This is easy if you meet John Bridge: just imagine a bridge on his face. For less obvious examples, you'll have to get more creative. Psychologists have found that the more bizarre and vivid the image the better it works.

Make it meaningful

The human mind is massively devoted to meaning.

The digits 5019114421945 are fairly difficult to remember, because they are essentially meaningless. That is, until you realize that each set of three digits can be assigned meaning.

Try Levi jeans, Porsche sports car, favorite football formation, end of the World War II. This string of facts may not be easy to remember - but not nearly so hard as the digits in their raw form.

Look for meaning in everything - especially if you can refer it back to yourself.

 

Make no mistakes

The technique of error-free learning

Make a mistake whilst learning something for first time and you're more likely to make the same mistake again. But get it right from the start and it'll stick. This is called error-free learning.

For instance, if you drive to your friend's house for the first time, and you make a mistake on that occasion, it is quite common that you will repeat that mistake. This is because, when you repeat the journey, you recognise the route and the landmarks, and your brain will carry on misguiding you until you realise that you are just remembering the things you did wrong last time! It's not that your memory is poor but that it's misleading you!

So if you're learning a new thing, cut out all distractions, which will help you learn it right first time.

Do you have any examples of memory mistakes you keep making? Let us know and tell us what you think

Me! Me! Me!

 

Remember - it's all about me.

Called the self-reference technique, this is really one of the best and simplest methods of all, so much so that we tend not to even think about it. Simply refer any information to yourself and it makes it easier to remember.

It can work on a mundane level - meeting someone called Peter and associating him with other Peters you know. On a deeper level, making personal associations with important facts or ideas - political, moral, social, etc. will help you remember them.

Place it!

Location, location, location

One kind of visualisation technique is also called the 'method of loci' or the 'Roman Room' method. It's a very good way of remembering a sequence of related information such as a list of names.

Use a mental image of a place you know well - such as your home - and take a mental walk through the rooms in a set order. Then, put the names from your list one by one into the rooms.

Suppose you want to remember the names of your friend's children in order of age. Visualise Harry the eldest in your front room, then Sally the second in the back room. Molly the third is in the kitchen ... and so on.

To recall the names later you repeat the mental walk. Loci seems a strange way of remembering but with practice it is very successful.

Need convincing? Try this: ask someone to read out a list of ten random words slowly but steadily and only once. About one word per second should be fine. Now, don't use any specific method - just try to recall the words in order a few minutes later.

Try it again using the loci method. Visualise your home and all the rooms. Move between the rooms and find a starting point. Now when your friend reads the list of words again, try to create visual images of the words associated with one of the locations. It'll take a bit of practice but keep trying and you should improve each time.

Rehearse it!

Practice makes perfect

It's good to replay facts, images, words and intentions over and over to yourself. But psychologists have shown it's better to 'distribute' practice rather than to have it 'massed' into one session. So, for example, when practising a name you've just learned, don't repeat it over and over in sequence. Repeat it to yourself once or twice, then try something else. Then come back to it.

Ideally, use expanding intervals and repeat it to yourself over longer and longer time periods. And don't cram for exams!

If you're trying to remember words in a new language try using flash cards around the house with the words written on them - that will keep reinforcing the memory.

Routine

Give your memory a holiday

Routine is memory's best friend. Make the mundane events in your life routine and forget about them.

Always put your keys in the same place when you come through the front door. We're inclined to pay little or no attention to mundane events and actions and this is why we can never remember where we put things that we use all the time if we don't have a routine.

Test it!

Put yourself to the test to learn better

It is often better to test yourself on something you've learned than to keep re-learning it. This is because in testing yourself, you can reflect on your progress, check how well you have learnt things, and fill in the gaps rather than re-learn everything again.

After learning something, come back to it after a few minutes and test yourself on it. Try learning capital cities or lines from a play.

Wordplay

30 days hath September...

The more vivid the phrase, the better it will help you remember. Exaggerate, use all the senses, vivid colours and humour will help too. Rude rhymes are easy to remember - just don't say them out too loudly.

Wordplay includes the rhymes and abbreviations you learn at school. It's particularly good for linking information that's quite hard or complex. Popular ones:
'Thirty Days Hath September, April June and November'. 
Richard of Yorke Gave Battle in Vain (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)

You can use mnemonics to help you remember the spelling of tricky words, the names of people at a dinner party or your children's friends names. Rhyming mnemonics are especially good because the sound and structure helps keep the words in the right order.

Do you have a favourite phrase that helps you remember something? Why not try to create a mnemonic for something you often forget and let us know how you get on.

Source – BBC UK