Developing a powerful memory

2007

Introduction

• Memory works like a bank. You can get to it, only if you put it there. If you didn't deposit it, you can't collect it when you need it.  

• Memory improvement requires practice, patience, and progressive improvement.

• It also requires that you pay full attention in the first place – you need to listen and be aware in order to put it in the bank!

Be Positive

• Positive expectation: Believe that you have a good memory. If you believe you have a poor memory and you can't remember anything, your mind will do everything to prove you right. It is better to think that your memory is basically good.

• When you learn better memory techniques, you will have a better memory. The reason that someone you know has a better memory is that he or she, knowingly or automatically, is using better memory techniques.

Be Interested

• Interest and importance: Recall of a particular event or detail depends on the interest we take and the importance we assign to that detail or event, at the time when it is taking place.

• We remember so much more about people, places, and topics which fascinate us. When you are greatly interested in a subject, you pay close attention and your brain releases chemicals to form deeper "imprints" on the cells that store memory. Those can literally become "long lasting impressions. "

Be Attentive

• Pay attention: If you want to recall something, pay close attention to it at the time. The problem may not be memory, the problem may be one of attention. People who have a good memory, pay close attention to events as they happen.

• Also, you may well know that the level of interest and importance we assign to a person or an event, determines how much attention we are going to pay it at the particular time it is occurring.

Be Active

• Memory is an active process: The more active attention you pay, the more details you observe, the more you think, reason, and comprehend, the more associations you make of what you know with what you are trying to learn, the more you will retain and be able to recall, later on.

• Good memory is a state of the active mind.

Be Relaxed

• A relaxed mind helps memory: Learn with a relaxed mind. Recall the learned material with a relaxed mind.

• Let's take as an example a situation where you misplace your car keys. If you get too agitated with yourself in trying to recall something, as is the case in this example, you are in for frustration.

• But, if you relax your mind, and calmly go through the events backward, you are more likely to remember where you left them.

Be less anxious

• Reduce anxiety: While mild anxiety can increase interest and attention, high anxiety can impair attention and concentration, and therefore, limit the recall of learned material. That is why, if we are too anxious during a test, we forget what we earlier knew very well.

• Actually, your memory is okay but anxiety is interfering with it. Management of test anxiety has helped many students in their test performance.

Be Happy

• Monitor depression: Depression can impair the interest and joy in the events surroundings us. As a result, too little energy is left to recall anything. Some depressed persons become more anxious and depressed thinking, "I have lost my mind“.

• Once depression is treated, memory as a general rule, returns to the normal.

Be Yourself

• Use your favourite sensory channel: Some remember better what they see, "visual memory" and some remember better what they hear, "auditory memory”.

• If you are someone who remembers better what you hear, then listen to a book on tape, rather than reading it. For other material, tape what you want to learn, and then listen to it for better recall.

Mnemonic

• 'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. Mnemonics are techniques for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall: A very simple example is the '30 days hath September' rhyme for remembering the number of days in each calendar month. 

• The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember information in a way that is much easier to remember. 

Mnemonic

• Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli such as images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language. We use these to make sophisticated models of the world we live in. Our memories store all of these very effectively. 

• Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in modern life is presented differently - as words printed on a page. While writing is a rich and sophisticated medium for conveying complex arguments, our brains do not easily encode written information, making it difficult to remember.

Mnemonic

• The key idea is that by coding information using vivid mental images, you can reliably code both information and the structure of information. And because the images are vivid, they are easy to recall when you need them.

• The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are imagination, association and location. Working together, you can use these principles to generate powerful mnemonic systems. 

Imagination

• Imagination: is what you use to create and strengthen the associations needed to create effective mnemonics. Your imagination is what you use to create mnemonics that are potent for you.

• The more strongly you imagine and visualize a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. The imagery you use in your mnemonics can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember. 

Association

• Association: this is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a way of remembering it. You can create associations by:– Placing things on top of each other – Crashing things together – Merging images together – Wrapping them around each other – Rotating them around each other or having them dancing

together – Linking them using the same color, smell, shape, or feeling

• As an example, you might link the number 1 with a goldfish by visualizing a 1-shaped spear being used to spear it. 

Location

• Location: gives you two things: a coherent context into which you can place information so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another.

• By setting one mnemonic in a particular town, I can separate it from a similar mnemonic set in a city. For example, by setting one in Yanakie another similar mnemonic with images of Melbourne, we can separate them with no danger of confusion. You can build the flavors and atmosphere of these places into your mnemonics to strengthen the feeling of location

Making it memorable

• You can do the following things to make your mnemonics more memorable:– Use positive, pleasant images. Your brain often

blocks out unpleasant ones – Use vivid, colorful, sense-laden images - these are

easier to remember than drab ones – Use all your senses to code information or dress up

an image. Remember that your mnemonic can contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as pictures.

Making it memorable

– Give your image three dimensions, movement and space to make it more vivid. You can use movement either to maintain the flow of association, or to help you to remember actions.

– Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image – Use humor! Funny or peculiar things are easier to

remember than normal ones. – Similarly, rude rhymes are very difficult to forget!– Symbols (red traffic lights, pointing fingers, road

signs, etc.) can code quite complex messages quickly and effectively

Names & Faces

• Face associationExamine a person's face discretely when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, hairline, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, complexion, etc. Create an association between that characteristic, the face, and the name in your mind.

• The association may be to link the person with someone else you know with the same name. Alternatively it may be to associate a rhyme or image of the name with the person's face or defining feature. 

Names & Faces

• RepetitionWhen you are introduced, ask for the person to repeat their name. Use the name yourself as often as possible (without overdoing it!). If it is unusual, ask how it is spelled or where it is comes from, and if appropriate, exchange cards.

• Keep in mind that the more often you hear and see the name, the more likely it is to sink in.

• Also, after you have left that person's company, review the name in your mind several times. If you are particularly keen you might decide to write it down and make notes.

SALT the name

• SALT – Say it out loud, Ask them a question using their name, at Least once use it in conversation, Terminate the conversation using the name– Nice to meet you Fred– What do you think Fred– I understand what you mean Fred– Thanks for meeting with me Fred

Other name and face tips

• Clarify the name

• Associate the name

• Comment on the name – unusual etc.

• Give the face a place – associate the place you met them with the face

• Link the name with a physical characteristic or a personal quality

Activities

• Let’s see improvement!