Is your memory is abysmal? Nothing stays? Do you feel the older you get the less you know? If you are studying for an exam, can you retain the information?
Here’s some help!
To understand what a memory is, know that:
- A memory must be created
- It must be stored
- It must be recalled accurately
The tips recommended here will generally work at one or more of these points.
Association
If you want to memorize something it should be memorable. That doesn’t necessarily mean the perfect date or football play – it means you need to make it mean something to you
Associate whatever it is you need to remember with whatever you think of instantly. For instance, you meet a person named Jan, you think January. Use that association to remember that person’s name.
If you take new information and tack it to an older pathway of memory in the brain, it is more easily absorbed.
Mnemonics
Another way of making something memorable is to use a mnemonic. For example,“Every good boy deserves fudge” stands for the lines of the treble cleft in music: E, G, B, D, F.
Linking is another technique that works.
Take the words/items/numbers you need to remember and make them into a story or visualize a picture of it. For instance if you need to go to the pet store and also need to pick up wine and get a passport photo, you can picture your dog wandering around with a bottle of wine and traveling the world .
Memorable Chunks
Chunking works well for long strings of numbers like bank cards.
The human mind can remember about 7 things at a time, give or take a couple, so if you are given a string of 15 numbers, it is easier for you to remember chunks of it than the whole string.
For instance:
196391125091
1963 – The year the Beatles came to America
911 is 9-1-1
250 – The price of coffee and a doughnut at the local coffee shop.
91 – The year you bought your house
Rule of Five
Finally, and probably the most “old school”, is the technique of review – or Rule of Five. How many times did you review multiplication tables in school?
Most of what we learn is forgotten within 24 hours. The pathway established deteriorates. But if you review it:
1. One hour later
2. One day later
3. One week later
4. One month later
5. One quarter later
You can firm up the pathway that is the memory in the brain. This is the basis for long term memory.
Short term memory is only about 30 seconds long, anything longer does have the potential to stay - pathways are being built. So, if you can remember something for more than 30 seconds, you are well on your way to keeping it in mind longer.
Yes, we live in a society where memory is important, but remember what Albert Schweitzer said: “Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.”
