Four Ways to Improve Your Memory for New VocabularyJuly 5, 2012
Sometimes how you approach a problem is as important as the work
you do to solve it. A good example of this is vocabulary
improvement you might be making the task much harder than it needs
to be only because you arent organizing your study program in the
best way. Because a very large part of vocabulary development
involves memory, you need to know two things: first, how your
memory works; and second, how you can optimize your memory skills
to support your vocabulary improvement. Heres what you need to know
in order to make your study sessions as effective as possible:1.
Learn how short-term and long-term memory work.Many people make the
mistake of trying to memorize long lists of words all at once
theyre often students who left study to the last minute,
frantically trying to cram in as much information as they can in
the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, your short-term memory
can only hold a certain amount of information at once. You need to
give your brain time to process the information in your short-term
working memory and move it to long-term memory before adding
something new. Of course, if you train your memory, youll be able
to both increase the amount youre able to process at once, and
require less time for that processing. On average, though, most
people can only take in between six and eight pieces of information
at one time.2. Help your brain form the vital connections you need
to create long-term memories.Memories are formed primarily of
connections; the brain automatically tries to create those
connections when storing information in the form of memory. You can
speed up this process by actively creating connections yourself as
you study. For example, dont just learn one word, learn one or two
of its synonyms at the same time. This grouping of information
forms a larger unit that makes a more concrete memory. You can also
incorporate visual elements into your vocabulary study, associating
a word with an image. This activates several parts of your brain
simultaneously, which makes a stronger connection.3. Use all your
senses to create the strongest possible web of information and
memory.We all learn things by many means: through our eyes, our
ears, our sense of smell, and our sense of touch. No matter which
method you usually use, if you deliberately use more than one youll
be stimulating your brain to take in the information in several
ways at once, which will create strong memories. Write out words
and say them out loud. Use the words in a quick one-act play to
practice them in context. If you can demonstrate a word with
physical movement, as in the game of Charades, its a great way to
have fun while learning as well.4. Emphasize the information by
repetition.Its important to review the information you learn
shortly after you first learn it. Think of a hammer hitting a nail
into a board: usually, it takes several strikes before the nail is
all the way in the wood. In the same way, repetition of the
half-dozen words youve just learned will hammer the information
into your long-term memory, and youll find it much easier to recall
later.Cross-posted atThe Vocabulary Builders Blog.Improve Your
Memory Skills in Fifteen MinutesJune 8, 2012 The process of getting
the ultimate memory skills you want does take training, practice,
and repetition as you teach your brain to efficiently receive,
store, and recall important information. However, there are a few
simple things that you can do regularly to make sure that youre
functioning at the level you need to be to get the most out of your
memory practice.Take five minutesto relax before you start your
studies. If youre feeling any kind of pressure, your system will
produce stress hormones and your mind and body will start to go
into fight or flight mode and thats not the state of mind you need
to be in for study! While its important to put in the time for
study, its also important to keep a balance in your life, so if
youre feeling stressed out today, its okay to postpone your memory
training until tomorrow. Youll get more out of it, and feel
healthier all around. This five-minute relaxation break is also an
excellent thing to do before giving a presentation or taking an
exam. The same stress hormones prevent quick recall of information
because they interfere with the normal signals of the brain. If
youre more relaxed, youre more likely to be able to give that
speech smoothly and fluently, or remember the detailed answers to
the questions on a test.Take five minutesto go over what youre
about to do. This mental rehearsal does two things, First, it helps
organize your thoughts so that you can approach your studies or
your presentation in an orderly fashion. In a sense, its like
packing a suitcase for a trip, and putting the things you know
youll need on arrival at the top and the clothes you wont need
until the last day of your trip at the bottom. Everything will come
out of the suitcase in the order you need it. The second benefit of
this mental rehearsal is that youll be able to see yourself
performing, completing, and succeeding at your task. This will
increase your confidence and help you relax so that you can
remember everything you need to do or say.Take five minutesto
review what you just studied and learned.Studies have shownthat
repetition of information within the first half hour does more to
secure that information in memory than waiting to review the next
day. Think about it: whats more efficient, taking five minutes to
review what you just spent an hour learning, or taking another hour
the next day to go back over everything you forgot?
Tips and Tricks from the National Memory Contest WinnerApril 3,
2012 Take two decks of cards. Shuffle them together. Now get ready
you have five minutes to memorize the order of the cards. Thats one
hundred and four cards, in random order, and youve got to remember
them in sequence. Do you think you can do it?Miami, Florida
resident Nelson Dellis can, or at least enough of them to win the
2012 National Memory Competition held last week in New York City.
He can also remember sequences of 200 random words or 300 random
numbers, and has a great memory for names and faces. Hes trained
himself to gain this ultimate memory capability over the years,
though he admits that before he started training, he never had a
good memory. After seeing the impact of Alzheimers on his
grandmother, however, he decided that getting top memory skills was
important to him, to keep his brain active and healthy.One of
Dellis favorite memory tricks is often referred to as the journey
method. Using this mnemonic device, you place the things you want
to remember in order along a mental path that you travel. Its easy
to choose familiar locations for this exercise. Think of the rooms
in your house, or a map you know well and can visualize accurately,
or the route you travel on your way to work or school each day.
When you have something to remember, especially in a certain
sequence, you can mentally set each item at a landmark and
associate the item with the landmark. Then, when you imagine
yourself traveling the path (around your house, or to work, or from
one city to another), youll see the items at each landmark as you
reach it.For example, lets say you have a to-do list for the day
that looks like this:- return books to library- buy beefsteak and
eggs at grocery- take coat to cleaners- meet Taylor for lunchFirst,
put the tasks in a logical order youll want to buy the groceries
last, and it will be more efficient to minimize the distance you
have to travel between spots. Well say the library and the
restaurant are close together, and the cleaners is farther away
from your house than the grocery.Next, pick the map that youll
visualize. Most people are familiar with the shape of the North and
South American continents, so lets place the first task (take coat
to cleaners) at the top, in Canada, where its very cold in the
winter a logical place for a coat. Right below, we have the United
States; well put your library books here, resting them on the
horizontal borders between many of the states, like shelves. You
and Taylor enjoy the spicy food of Mexico, so write down the time
and place of your meeting anywhere from Acapulco to Zamora.
Finally, put your groceries in South America. You might associate
beefsteak with the cattle grazing on thepampasof Argentina, and
perhaps the eggs are resting in the nests of the many birds in the
Amazonian jungle.This might seem like a time-consuming and
elaborate way to remember things, but keep in mind that (1) visual
images are easy to remember, the more unusual the better; and (2)
the more you do this visualization, the quicker it will get.For
more tricks from the memory champion, listen to an
interviewhere.
Tips and Tricks from the National Memory Contest WinnerApril 3,
2012 Take two decks of cards. Shuffle them together. Now get ready
you have five minutes to memorize the order of the cards. Thats one
hundred and four cards, in random order, and youve got to remember
them in sequence. Do you think you can do it?Miami, Florida
resident Nelson Dellis can, or at least enough of them to win the
2012 National Memory Competition held last week in New York City.
He can also remember sequences of 200 random words or 300 random
numbers, and has a great memory for names and faces. Hes trained
himself to gain this ultimate memory capability over the years,
though he admits that before he started training, he never had a
good memory. After seeing the impact of Alzheimers on his
grandmother, however, he decided that getting top memory skills was
important to him, to keep his brain active and healthy.One of
Dellis favorite memory tricks is often referred to as the journey
method. Using this mnemonic device, you place the things you want
to remember in order along a mental path that you travel. Its easy
to choose familiar locations for this exercise. Think of the rooms
in your house, or a map you know well and can visualize accurately,
or the route you travel on your way to work or school each day.
When you have something to remember, especially in a certain
sequence, you can mentally set each item at a landmark and
associate the item with the landmark. Then, when you imagine
yourself traveling the path (around your house, or to work, or from
one city to another), youll see the items at each landmark as you
reach it.For example, lets say you have a to-do list for the day
that looks like this:- return books to library- buy beefsteak and
eggs at grocery- take coat to cleaners- meet Taylor for lunchFirst,
put the tasks in a logical order youll want to buy the groceries
last, and it will be more efficient to minimize the distance you
have to travel between spots. Well say the library and the
restaurant are close together, and the cleaners is farther away
from your house than the grocery.Next, pick the map that youll
visualize. Most people are familiar with the shape of the North and
South American continents, so lets place the first task (take coat
to cleaners) at the top, in Canada, where its very cold in the
winter a logical place for a coat. Right below, we have the United
States; well put your library books here, resting them on the
horizontal borders between many of the states, like shelves. You
and Taylor enjoy the spicy food of Mexico, so write down the time
and place of your meeting anywhere from Acapulco to Zamora.
Finally, put your groceries in South America. You might associate
beefsteak with the cattle grazing on thepampasof Argentina, and
perhaps the eggs are resting in the nests of the many birds in the
Amazonian jungle.This might seem like a time-consuming and
elaborate way to remember things, but keep in mind that (1) visual
images are easy to remember, the more unusual the better; and (2)
the more you do this visualization, the quicker it will get.For
more tricks from the memory champion, listen to an
interviewhere.
Memory Tricks to Increase VocabularyJanuary 20, 2012 There are
many ways to learn and remember new vocabulary words. Repetition is
a common method, and writing out a word over and over and saying it
out loud several times will definitely help that word stick in your
mind. You can also increase your chances of remembering and later
recalling a new word by using a mnemonic device.Mnemonic(pronounced
neh-MAH-nik) is an adjective that means related to helping improve
memory. Its also used as a noun, with the same pronunciation, and
the meaning of something that helps in remembering. Heres how the
word is used in a sentence, first as an adjective and then as a
noun:Some memory-improvement courses focus solely on teaching
youmnemonictricks and ignore the importance of a healthy diet and
adequate sleep.ThemnemonicHOMES is frequently used to help students
remember the names of the five Great Lakes in North America (Huron,
Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).The wordmnemoniccomes from the
name of the ancient Greek goddess Mnemosyne, ruler of memory and
mother of the nine Muses. A good memory has been a vital element of
personal and professional success for thousands of years; in fact,
at one time all information had to be memorized and recalled as
part of the oral tradition that early humans had before the art of
writing was invented and widely used. Even today, many traditional
storytellers and poets keep hundreds of works in their memories to
relate to the next generation. People have been working on mnemonic
tricks such as linking, visualization, and abbreviation since at
least the 4th century BCE.So how can you use mnemonic devices to
learn new English vocabulary words? You have several methods to
choose from, but well focus on two that will help with most words:
visualization and linking.Visualizationis a good way to remember
nouns, action verbs, and most adjectives and adverbs. By involving
your imagination and your visual cortex, youll trigger activity in
more parts of your brain, which will help solidify the memory and
make it easier to recall the word later. If you draw a quick sketch
illustrating the word, that will make an even stronger connection;
using your hands brings in yet more parts of the brain and its
neural energy. To practice this technique, think about how you
might create visual images for the
wordsmemorabiliaandcommemorate.Linkingis a useful way to remember
words that cant be easily expressed in visual format. For example,
the wordremembermight be illustrated by a picture of a head with a
thought bubble over it with something inside, but how would you
know thats supposed to berememberand notvisualizeorimagineorthink,
or even the name of the object in the bubble? Instead of trying to
create a complicated picture, link the word to another word or
concept. Learning synonyms is a good way to create these linked
groups, because its easier to think of a set of three or four
related words than one alone. Linkremembertorecall, remind,
recollect, andretain. This way, youll be able to call to mind
several words, expanding your vocabulary and training your memory
at the same time.
What is the Connection Between Music and Memory?December 1, 2011
Of all the mysteries surrounding the brain, scientists are
sometimes the most puzzled by how the brain stores and retrieves
memory. Someone may not be able to remember a fact because of
momentary fatigue or stress, and there is some loss of memory due
to age-related brain changes. In extreme cases, memories are lost
because of destruction of brain tissue through accident or disease.
The termamnesiarefers to a state of memory loss, either temporary
or permanent. Trauma to the brain, such as may occur with a blow to
the head, can cause amnesia; as the brain heals, the memories often
return. In the case of a German cellist, amnesia was caused by a
virus that destroyed brain tissue beyond repair, and the man lost
all memory of his past. In addition, scientists determined that he
cant form new memories either, and so this man truly lives in the
moment, with no recollection of anything that happened five
minutes, five hours, or five years previously.What has the
scientists fascinated is that this former musician has
apparentlynot lost his ability to remember music, which suggests to
them that the way musical memories are created and stored, or
possibly the location in the brain involved in that creation and
storage (or a combination of the two), is very different from the
way normal memory is processed. If this is true, then it may be
possible to adapt the ability to remember music to help people
remember other things, by tying the musical cues to other events or
actions. This method of association is a standard one in memory
building, but for most people is not the most convenient way to
trigger memories imagine having to come up with a separate melody
for every item on your shopping list!As we mentioned ina previous
post, music is one of the ways to train and improve your memory.
Its interesting to see that it might also be the way to help you
recover from memory loss.
Quick Memory TricksOctober 14, 2011 Get your brain in gear.Your
brain is separated into a right and a left hemisphere, and much of
the information processing that you do consciously or unconsciously
every day involves communication and connection between those two
hemispheres. There are many ways to help foster this connection,
including simply walking back and forth; engaging both sides of
your body (controlled by the opposite hemisphere of the brain) in
an alternating fashion strengthens and improves the communication.
Research studies have also shown that when a person moves their
eyes from side to side, left to right, several times, it improves
their ability to remember information that is presented to them
immediately afterwards. If youre studying for a test, you might
want to try this method to improve your recall of factual
information (for example, on a spelling or vocabulary test). The
researchers believe that this technique improves your memory by
bringing both hemispheres into active processing, connecting the
language centers of the left hemisphere with the procedural
functions of the right.1Sniff out the answers. Its a well-known
fact that scent is one of the most powerful memory triggers we
have. You probably have fragrances you associate with your
childhood home, or a favorite city, or of holiday treats and
parties youve enjoyed. Because scents connect so closely to memory,
researchers are looking into whether they can actually be used to
enhance memory as well. A recent study was done in Germany where
subjects were given a memory test while being exposed to a
rose-scented perfume. The subjects were then sent to bed to sleep,
and monitored while they were sleeping. When the researchers saw
each subjects brain enter the phase that indicates information is
being processed and stored, they sprayed the subjects with the rose
perfume again. There was a 10 percent increase in the subjects
ability to perform correctly on the memory test after waking up
when they were given the scent trigger than when they were not. You
can use this technique by spritzing yourself with a perfume when
you study, and then spraying a little on your pillow before you go
to bed that night.2Take a second glance.Sometimes the simplest
tricks are the most effective. If youre trying to remember
something, such as a telephone number or location on a map, take
one last look at it before you turn away, holding in your mind that
you need to recall that information. Your eyes will help your brain
remember the image as well as the information.
How Creating a Summary Helps Memory RecallAugust 24, 2011 If
youve ever tried to learn a new skill, or a new sport, you know
that just being told how to do something correctly isnt all you
need in order to actually do it. You probably wont learn how to ace
a tennis serve by looking at a video or a diagram, and its not
likely that youll become a good golfer without practicing your grip
on the club. Using your body to build muscle memory of a skill by
practicing that physical activity is crucial to making the skill
something you can do without really thinking about it. Your body
will remember the right set of actions, and you wont have to think
of every detail of every move, every time, because you have made
that set of actions your own.When you have information you need to
learn and remember, you can do the same thing by creating a summary
of the information. By putting the details and the main points into
your own words, youre using your mental muscles to shape the ideas
like youd shape the swing of a golf club or tennis racket. By
restating the important points, youre involving other areas of your
brain and not just the ones associated with memory. This creates
and strengthens the links between the information and your ability
to recall it. If you speak your summary out loud, or write it down
or better yet, do both youre involving additional areas of the
brain, as well as your physical body, which creates even more
links.By creating a summary of the information you need to
remember, youll reinforce the memory and improve your ability to
understand as well as recall the important facts and details.
Using Visualization to MemorizeOctober 31, 2012 Heres a quick
and easy exercise that will give you some practice in the
memorization technique of visualization. In order to do this
exercise, youll need to find a short- to medium-length text passage
that contains words and phrases that will be relatively easy to see
in your mind in visual images. In other words, selecting a chapter
from a chemistry textbook probably wont be the best choice for the
purposes of the exercise. To illustrate this exercise, well use
part of a Wikipedia entry on the painter Vincent Van Gogh.Click
hereto access the article, and scroll down to the section heading
Saint-Rmy (May 1889 May 1890).Read through the text under this
heading, and use the images included in the text to help you
remember. When the words and phrases call up other images in your
mind, stop for a minute, close your eyes, and focus on those
images. Link the images to important facts in the text.Once youre
done reading the text, minimize that browser window so that you
cant see it any more, and answer these five questions:What two
types of tree were common around Arles, and later showed up in
several of Van Goghs paintings?When Van Gogh was talking about
painting interpretations of other artists works, what musician did
he refer to?What is the title of the painting Van Gogh made five
different versions of in 1890?Did Van Goghs physical health affect
his ability to paint?What was the subject of the painting Van Gogh
wanted to create for his new nephew Vincent Willem?How many of
these questions could you answer correctly? Did you have visual
images in mind when you were thinking about the questions?
Practicing an exercise like this will strengthen your ability to
visualize, and using this aspect of your brain will improve your
ability to remember and recall information.
The Importance of Skills-Based Learning on MemoryOctober 24,
2012 Researchers are focusing more and more on the science of
neuroplasticity and the brains amazing ability to learn new things,
form new connections, and create new memories. The scientific
studies done these days often center both on how memories are
created, and how theyre lost. By looking at how these connections
are made and broken, scientists and medical professionals gain the
ability to understand how to help people who have lost their memory
functions due to age, injury, or illness. One of the major areas of
a recent study (performed on rats) was to look at the difference
between task-based and skills-based learning, and how memories
created by those different sources could be affected.The
skills-based learning combines both action and thought. In the
study, rats were required to reach through a slot to pick up a food
pellet, even though they could not see the pellet on the other side
of the wall. Because the rats had to imagine that the pellet was on
the other side, that stimulated their brains in one way, and the
deliberate action of reaching through the slot stimulated them in
another way. The combination of the thought and the action created
a specific memory and a specific set of neural connections. The
scientists then experimented with ways to break those connections,
or enhance them. The chemical compounds used in this experiment may
have application in treatments for humans as well, given further
study.One important point that the researchers found is that
skills-based learning creates strong memories because of the
multiple areas of stimulation in the brain. What that means for
memory improvement is that the more ways you have to remember
something, the easier it will be to fix that information in your
long-term memory. Thats why its a good idea to write things down
and say them out loud, to draw pictures and create strong visual
images connected to information, and even to use your body to act
out concepts that you need to remember. The more ways you think
about something, the stronger the memory.You can download the full
studyhere.
3 Ways to Improve Long-Term MemoryOctober 15, 2012 Most people
decide to learn how to improve memory skills because theyve noticed
a problem with their memory, whether thats being unable to remember
telephone numbers, or the name of someone theyve just met, or even
important birthdays and anniversary dates. Some memory problems are
caused by injury or disease, others as a byproduct of the normal
aging process, and some people have poor memories all their lives
because theyve never learned how to effectively train their brain
to accurately remember either in the short term or the long term.
Weve covered many of the mnemonic tricks you can learn to boost
your short-term memory, whether thats for a shopping list for a
quick run to the store or a last-minute review of test material
before an examination. But in order to truly commit something to
memory, it needs to be established in long-term memory, and that
takes a different set of skills. Here are three ways to develop
good patterns for achieving long-term memory storage:Relate new
information to something meaningful.Our long-term memory is full of
details of events and sights from childhood onward. Because these
memories are so firmly established, theyre a good way to help
connect new information and store it in long-term memory. When
youre learning something new, take a minute to go through your
memories and try to find some similar fact, feature, or face to
link the new information to the old.Use the multimedia approach.If
youre like most people, youre aware of upcoming new Hollywood
releases, even if youre not interested in the movies themselves.
Thats because movie companies spend millions of dollars in
advertisements well before the release date, whether thats ads in a
newspaper, trailers on other movies, commercials on television, or
posters on the side of a bus. Use this technique to advertise new
information to yourself by creating pop-up reminders on your
computer and by pasting notes on your mirror, your desktop, and
even your kitchen table. The more times you see something, even if
youre only noticing it subconsciously, the more deeply that
information is rooted in your brain and memory.Work on it in
waves.While its important to be able to focus on something in order
to commit it to memory, your brain also needs time to process the
information, a vital part of creating long-term memories. We
recommend that you work for 10 or 15 minutes on your memorization
study project, and then take a break for an equal amount of time.
Youll be able to maintain your focus without getting stressed or
bored.
3 Ways to Improve Long-Term MemoryOctober 15, 2012 Most people
decide to learn how to improve memory skills because theyve noticed
a problem with their memory, whether thats being unable to remember
telephone numbers, or the name of someone theyve just met, or even
important birthdays and anniversary dates. Some memory problems are
caused by injury or disease, others as a byproduct of the normal
aging process, and some people have poor memories all their lives
because theyve never learned how to effectively train their brain
to accurately remember either in the short term or the long term.
Weve covered many of the mnemonic tricks you can learn to boost
your short-term memory, whether thats for a shopping list for a
quick run to the store or a last-minute review of test material
before an examination. But in order to truly commit something to
memory, it needs to be established in long-term memory, and that
takes a different set of skills. Here are three ways to develop
good patterns for achieving long-term memory storage:Relate new
information to something meaningful.Our long-term memory is full of
details of events and sights from childhood onward. Because these
memories are so firmly established, theyre a good way to help
connect new information and store it in long-term memory. When
youre learning something new, take a minute to go through your
memories and try to find some similar fact, feature, or face to
link the new information to the old.Use the multimedia approach.If
youre like most people, youre aware of upcoming new Hollywood
releases, even if youre not interested in the movies themselves.
Thats because movie companies spend millions of dollars in
advertisements well before the release date, whether thats ads in a
newspaper, trailers on other movies, commercials on television, or
posters on the side of a bus. Use this technique to advertise new
information to yourself by creating pop-up reminders on your
computer and by pasting notes on your mirror, your desktop, and
even your kitchen table. The more times you see something, even if
youre only noticing it subconsciously, the more deeply that
information is rooted in your brain and memory.Work on it in
waves.While its important to be able to focus on something in order
to commit it to memory, your brain also needs time to process the
information, a vital part of creating long-term memories. We
recommend that you work for 10 or 15 minutes on your memorization
study project, and then take a break for an equal amount of time.
Youll be able to maintain your focus without getting stressed or
bored.
5 Steps to Sleep Your Way to a Good MemoryOctober 9, 2012 There
are many things that prevent you from having the best memory skills
possible, including stress, a poor diet, and an unfamiliarity with
memory-boosting strategies like those youll learn when using the
Ultimate Memory system. Fortunately, you can help keep your brain
and memory in top shape by learninghow to relaxto keep the
memory-blocking stress chemicals out of your system. You can add
food to your daily diet thats long been associated withgood memory
and brain health. You can practice memory tricks like mnemonics
andlinkingto train your brain in retention and recall. And some
memory improvement techniques are so easy you can do them in your
sleep because the technique is sleep itself!Researchers are
increasingly aware of thenegative effects of sleep deprivationon
brain function and memory. Make sure you get enough sleep every
night, and youll reduce the risk of early dementia. Youll also
improve your memory by giving your brain time to process
information and move it into long-term memory storage, and to firm
up the neural connections that ensure accurate recall later. Here
are five tips to help you get the best and the most
memory-efficient nights sleep:Dont try to go for all eight hours at
once.If youre used to only getting three hours of sleep a night
because you go to bed so late, dont force yourself to go to bed
five hours early just to end up fretting that you cant sleep. Go to
bed 15 minutes earlier the next night instead. Youre more likely to
wake up at the same time, but youll add 15 minutes to your sleep.
Add another 15 minutes in a few days, then more again, until youre
up to the optimal 7-8 hours of sleep per night.Dont turn your bed
into your home office.If you work at home, dont work in bed, no
matter how comfortable it is. Youll start unconsciously associating
your bed with your projects, and instead of falling asleep youll
continue mentally working on them.Move your clocks out of sight.One
of the worst things you can do when you wake up in the middle of
the night is worry about the time. Knowing that youre awake at
3:00am just puts more pressure on you to go back to sleep. Keep
your alarm set, but turn the clock away so you cant read it.Take
advantage of the sun.Your bodys natural rhythm is tied to the cycle
of day and night, so try to match that as much as you can. Stay
outside until it gets dark, rather than depending on artificial
light inside; at the least, try to take a short walk in the
evening.Stay relaxed.If you cant fall asleep within a half an hour
or so, get up and do something relaxing. You might try to drink a
small cup of hot soothing herb tea, or take a quick warm bath, or
simply listen to soft music and meditate for 15 minutes. When youre
relaxed and not thinking, Oh, Imustgo to sleep right away! then
youre ready to get back in bed and try again.
How Repetition Helps You Remember And ForgetSeptember 9, 2012 A
trained memory is an important asset, one that can give you the
edge in any competition. If youre hoping to advance in your career,
a good memory can make the difference. When youre the one person in
the department who can be counted on to remember details and facts
that others forget, youll be the one that the managerial committee
remembers when it comes time for promotions. One of the best ways
to train your memory is by repetition. Its easy to remember
something like a number or name if you focus on that information
and repeat it to yourself several times while concentrating on
storing that data in your mind. There are many other memory
improvement tools, like memory palaces and linking, that help you
improve your memory so that you can call up memories when you need
them.But what about memories that you dont want to be able to call
up any more? Is there any way to deliberately forget things that
you have already stored in your memory? Some researchers believe
that there is a way to do that, and it also depends on the use of
repetition. Dr. Michael Anderson is one of those who have proven
that repeated and deliberate rejection of specific memories makes
the details of the memory more vague, less tied to emotional
reactions, and harder to recall later. Anderson and his colleagues
at the Memory Control Lab have been working on the links between
memories, and how trying to remember one fact may be made more
difficult by other related facts stored in memory. Theyre also
looking at ways to use the repetition method to help people
deliberately get rid of difficult and troubling memories. In
essence, their studies show that deliberately blanking out your
mind when presented with the stimulus for a memory you dont want
will eventually make it hard to remember. Unlike positive memory
development, its not a technique thats easily adapted to individual
skills development, since the process is somewhat involved, but
there may be ways to adapt these memory-suppression methods in the
future.For now, focus on training your memory to develop your
ability to accurately recall and remember the information you need,
and use repetition to firmly fix facts in your brain.Learn more
about the Memory Control Labhere.
Spellings Easy With This Simple Memory TrickNovember 30, 2012
There are many ways to learn to spell English words correctly, and
youve probably used all of them by now!Repetition and pattern
practiceare great ways to learn, because the more times you see,
say, and write out a word (or a set of similarly-spelled words) the
easier it is to remember. Theres a quick trick you might have also
practiced if youre working on improving your memory skills overall,
and thats mnemonics. Many people dont think of mnemonics when it
comes to spelling, however, because its often used as a way of
creating nonsense words or acronyms to remember things, rather than
correctly-spelled words. For example, the mnemonic DOC is a way to
remember the phases of the moon in the Northern hemisphere because
the shapes of the letters match the shape of the waxing, full, and
waning moon in the sky but that wont help you remember how to spell
the wordphases!For spelling mnemonics, its often most useful to
come up with clever ways to remind yourself about how a word is
spelled, using the word itself. This trick is especially handy for
words that are often confused. Heres an example:When you get
acompliment(spelled with an I) it means that someone is saying a
nice thing to or about you. You can remember this spelling by
thinking Igot a nice compliment today.Tocomplement(spelled with an
E) something means to add to it in such a way as to make it whole,
or better. For example, you might say that sour cream is the
perfect complement to a baked potato. If you associate the
wordcompletewith the wordcomplement, youll remember that both words
are spelled with an E (try adding the mental image of a complete
baked potato and its topping for even better recall).It only takes
a minute to come up with these quick mnemonic tricks for learning
spelling, but youll find that youll remember how to spell the words
easily from then on.What mnemonic spelling tricks work for you?
Share them in the comments.Cross-posted at theUltimate Spelling
blog.
How To Use Vocabulary In Memory PracticeMay 29, 2013 A
well-known top memory technique is to associate information with
mental markers that help recall. For example, you could build an
image in your head of a herd of cows wearing party hats and
carrying candles to remind yourself that you need to pick up ice
cream and a birthday cake for your childs party this Saturday.
Linking a memorable image to information activates your brain in
several areas involved in visual processing and memory storage. The
more information you can link to one image, the more efficient this
memory storage and recall process is.If you think about it, words
are really images in this sense. When you read a word, youre really
visualizing all of the information that this word represents,
including any memories you have associated with the word. Reading
the wordtelephoneprompts your brain to produce an image of a
telephone, or to think about where your cell phone is at the
moment, or the last time you talked to your mother, or the fact
that you have to call the dentist before the end of the week. All
of this information is packed into the single wordtelephone.What
this means is that when you learn more vocabulary words, youre also
learning more chunks of information that those words have attached
to them. Its an efficient way to store things in your memory, as
well. Just like reading the wordtelephonecalled up a variety of
related thoughts and concepts out of your long-term memory, using
vocabulary allows you to remember more things by using fewer
markers. By attaching information to words, youll be able to use
those words to easily remember the associated information.Its
important to learn as much as you can about each new vocabulary
word so that youre better able to remember and use the word
correctly. However, you can combine vocabulary building and memory
practice by also adding related information with each new word. If
the wordpasteurizationis on your vocabulary list, why not take a
few minutes to learn about the inventor of the process,Louis
Pasteur? This 19th-century French scientist made many important
discoveries related to microorganisms and bacteria, and invented
the pasteurization process for milk, as well as new methods related
to sanitation, immunization, and vaccination. Reading a brief
summary of important people, inventions, places, or ideas related
to one vocabulary word will give you a wide range of information
that youll find useful to know in the future. Youll be improving
your vocabulary and getting a better memory for facts at the same
time.
Traditional Spices Improve Brain HealthJuly 4, 2013 Health food
isnt a modern invention. For thousands of years, people have
believed in and used the effects of certain foods on the body. The
ancient Greeks and Egyptians were particularly fond of garlic, for
its strengthening qualities, and in China garlic was a popular
medical treatment for depression. In 14th-century Persia people
were encouraged to purify their blood with lettuce. Turmeric,
cinnamon, nutmeg, and peppercorns have all been used in the past to
improve the bodys function and since the brain is part of the body,
you can use herbs and spices to boost your mental health as well as
your physical health.You can benefit from usingcinnamonin two ways:
by smelling it, and by tasting it. Research on how different odors
affect mental function has shown that the smell of cinnamon helps
improve memory formation. In addition, cinnamon has
anti-inflammatory compounds that improve blood circulation, which
helps get more oxygen to your brain.The traditional Middle Eastern
seasoning calledzaataris a blend of nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices
that varies according to region and taste, but most blends include
sesame seeds andoregano. Oregano is a powerful antioxidant that
improves cell health. Since one of the main culprits in age-related
memory disorders is deterioration of the brain cells and neurons,
keeping antioxidants in your diet will help prevent further
decline.Another good brain-cell herb isthyme, which is known to
help the action of omega-3 fatty acids to strengthen and reinforce
cell walls, making them harder to destroy. Since certain fish like
salmon, mackerel, and sardines are full of omega-3 compounds, why
not try spicing them up with an herb sauce containing thyme?The
Latin word for the herbsagecomes from the same root as the verb to
save and modern scientific research into this ancient herb prove
that it can save brain cells and enhance memory functions. Building
onearlier studies, a group of researchers at Oregon Health and
Science University have recently concluded a study tracking people
withAlzheimers disease, and what effect sage has on their symptoms
and outcomes, although the results have not yet been published.
3 Things About Memory That Will Surprise YouJuly 11, 2013
Memorization has always been a part of learning, but the way people
look at how to memorize things is changing over the years.
Researchers and scientists study memory from several perspectives,
including the physical processes that take place in the brain and
the techniques people can use to learn to remember facts, figures,
and faces. Some of the results of these studies are leading to
changes in the way we learn, and its important to be aware of how
traditional study methods might actually get in the way of memory
formation and recall. Here are three ways that you can change how
you learn, and how you remember.Stay focused, but for shorter time
periods.Its exhausting spending five hours reading through a
textbook on one topic, trying to learn all you can about the
history of the French Revolution, for example, before a test.
Instead of concentrating on that book alone, take a break and study
something else for a while, then go back to the first text. If you
can study a second topic thats related to the first one, this will
work even better. In this example, perhaps youve got a French
language test to study for as well, or even Charles Dickens Tale of
Two Cities to read for a literature class. Make sure the break isnt
too long, though just enough to make your brain work at picking up
your train of thought when you return to the history book.Force
yourself to remember.Youre probably used to taking notes during
classes or meetings, so that youll remember whats being discussed.
However, if you concentrate on the discussions and lectures and
presentations, and then write up your notes after the session is
over, youll strengthen your memory of the information, and also
give yourself good practice in real-time memorization as well as
later recall.Keep reviewing information.Many people think that if
they just work hard enough at memorizing information, once they can
repeat it back accurately thats all they need to do. However,
scientists and researchers have long known that just as theres a
learning curve, theres also aforgetting curve.In order to really
lock away those details in your memory, you need to review them
regularly. A good example of this isusing flash cardsto study
vocabulary words. You can set aside cards with words you think
youve got memorized, and then test yourself a few weeks or months
later to make sure that they really are firmly in your long-term
memory.Reference: Bjork, R. A., Dunlosky, J., & Kornell, N.
(2013). Self-regulated learning: Beliefs, techniques, and
illusions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 417-444.
The Secret To A Better Memory? Champagne!July 18, 2013 Lets
raise a glass and toast all of the researchers and their happy
clinical trial participants who get to drink champagne to test its
effects on the brain! And lets celebrate a second time, because the
results of the latest study on alcohol and brain function is making
people absolutely effervescent with joy. At the University of
Reading, Great Britain, a team led by Dr. Giulia Corona discovered
that moderate intake of champagne (slightly less than two glasses
per week) produced a significant increase in the rate of
communication between brain cells. Since this cross-brain
communication is essential in memory function, especially in the
areas of spatial memory and long-term memory consolidation, these
findings are opening the way for important research in the
future.The initial results of the study, according to the research
team, show that the phenolic compounds in champagne, which are
different from the chemical compounds in other types of alcohol,
increase blood flow and help prevent the formation of free
radicals. This means that more oxygen and glucose is transmitted to
the brain cells, and those cells are protected from degeneration.
Healthy, well-nourished cells are key to a healthy,
well-functioning memory.Red wine has been promoted as helping brain
function, but the results from the champagne study indicate that
the structure of its phenolic compounds make it a better candidate
for this role; the smaller size of the molecules in champagne allow
more to be absorbed by the cells. The study included testing on
laboratory rats and their ability to navigate a maze. As the
researchers report, [c]hampagne wine intervention significantly
increased spatial working memory in aged animals.Like all other
studies that indicate a benefit, either physical or mental, from
drinking alcohol, this one emphasizes that moderation is key. One
to two glasses of champagne a week is beneficial, but make sure
that you arent exceeding the limits for your age, body type, and
state of health. If you have questions about whether you should be
drinking champagne, you should consult your doctor.If youre
comfortable with terms like endothelial independent vasodilatation
and matrix metalloproteinase activity you might find the published
study interesting the full text is at theUniversity of Reading
Central Archive.
How to Use Rhymes and Songs to Memorize InformationAugust 20,
2013 If youve ever gotten a catchy song stuck in your head, you
know how easy it is to remember clever lyrics, and those lyrics are
usually ones that rhyme. You can use this principle to help you
remember things by creating your own memorable rhymes, and even set
them to music if you like. People who grew up in the 1970s in the
United States probably remember the Schoolhouse Rock videos that
used melodies and rhymes to help kids learn and memorize facts
about history, math, vocabulary, and science. If you watch this
short video about thepreamble to the U.S. Constitution, youll see
that even non-rhyming phrases can be made memorable by using music.
Another example,Tom Lehrers Element Song,shows that this
memorization tool can be useful for complicated or advanced
information, and isnt simply something that kids can use. Practice
making lyrics using the facts you need to learn, and find a tune
you can sing that fits the words. If it worked to help you learn
your ABCs, you know it will work to help you learn your anatomy,
biology, or chemistry lesson!Theres another way that you can use
rhyme to help you remember things like lists of words in order, and
thats to associate each item on the list with a number in sequence.
Because the words you need to remember probably dont rhyme with the
numbers, youll pick a word that does rhyme, and then use
visualization to link the target word with the rhyming word. For
example, lets say you need to memorize the names of the ten longest
rivers in the world, starting with the one in the number one
position. Here are the river names to memorize: Nile, Amazon,
Yangtze, Mississippi, Yenisey, Yellow, Ob, Parana, Congo, Amur.
(Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)Now find words that rhyme with the
numbers 1 through 10 that link to the rivers, like this:one sun the
Egyptian sun god Ra floats down the Niletwo through the Amazon runs
through Peruthree C the Yangtze is in China, which starts with the
letter Cfour four use the letter S four times to spell
Mississippifive drive it would take a long time to drive to Russia
to fish in the Yeniseysix licks eating a cone of lemon-flavored ice
cream while floating down the Yellow Riverseven Kevin my friend
Kevin crossed Siberia following the Ob Rivereight ate we ate steak
in Argentina where the Parana meets the oceannine mine there are
many gold and diamond mines along the Congoten fence the Amur River
separates Russia and ChinaCreate clear images in your head, or make
sketches to illustrate the numbers and the linking words, to
reinforce your memory of the connections. The more you practice
this technique, the easier it will be, and youll also find that the
work you do to come up with the rhyming words is already helping
you remember the target list, even before youve finished making the
connections.
TWO TECHNIQUES TO HELP IMPROVE MEMORYJULY 8, 20094 COMMENTSThese
two techniques are very easy to learn and apply. Anybody can use
them to help them to improve their memory. These methods are not
only useful for students studying for tests and exams, but for
business people trying learn new material. They are even great for
the homemaker trying to remember a shopping list or someone who
just wants to build-up the power of their memory.In this exercise
you are going to try to remember ten different things you might
need to buy at the grocery store. The list of things that you might
need would look similar to this:1 eggs2 milk3 bread4 lettuce5
shampoo6 dog food7 dish soap8 toilet paper9 mustard10 butterThe
Room MethodIn this exercise you need to have a good imagination.
You start by visualising a room that you are very familiar with.
This room might be your kitchen, your office or bedroom it really
does not matter. Now you are going to slowly look around the room
and carefully place each item on the list somewhere in the
room.Lets say you were planning to use your kitchen. You might
picture the eggs in the fridge. The milk might be sitting beside
the eggs. the bread you can see on the counter. Place the dog food
on the floor next to the door because you want to take it
downstairs. Place each item into the room. The more you practice
this method the better you will become at it. What you are trying
to do is associate the new items with things that are
permanent.Long Term Memory TechniqueThe next technique is better
suited to trying to remember things that basically have to be
memorised, and kept for a much longer period of time. This method
is especially good for people who are a taking a course or trying
to learn a new skill.Many students try to cram all the information
given in a course into their heads the night before their final
exam. But by using this technique you are going to work at learning
and creating long term memories that will remain with you by only
studying a few minutes each day.First gather and organise the facts
that you need to know after going to a couple of classes. Write
them down in point form. Review the list. Reading the list over
should not take more than 3 or 4 minutes, tops. Then in about five
or ten minutes review them again. Repeat this step three more times
on the first day. Do this twice on the second day and twice on the
third day. By the fourth day when you read them you should have
created a long-term memory of the information.If you look at the
total time you spent reading the list over the four days it should
not be more than an hour. And you only have to do this for a couple
of minutes each day. By gathering together even the information
given in a course over a week you can greatly increase your memory
and understanding of the subject, and keep it for the long term.
Finally, no more cramming or last minute anxiety.- See more at:
http://easymemoryimprovement101.com/#sthash.fVmCB0di.dpuf
TEN MEMORY IMPROVEMENT TIPSJULY 7, 20094 COMMENTSMemory is one
of our most important brain functions. Not only does it store short
term information but we depend on it to help us function every
minute of everyday. Unfortunately many people do not realise that
there are ways that they can improve their memory. This skill is
not only useful for students, it is for everybody.Sadly, most of us
are given information everyday but only a small portion of this
information is actually turned into long term memories. If you
really want to improve your memory you might consider trying some
or all of these easy tips.1. Concentrate: If you really want to
remember something the first thing to do is to concentrate on the
information you are trying to learn. This is especially true if you
are trying to learn a new skill or subject. Give it your undivided
attention.2. Play Games: Games are a great way to exercise and
stimulate your brain. The brain is like every other muscle in the
body; the more you exercise it the better it will function.3. Get
Your Blood Circulating: If you find yourself losing your focus take
a moment and get up and move around the room. Try some deep knee
bends or stretches.4. Eat Brain Foods: In order for your brain to
operate at its peak it needs to have the proper nutrients each day.
Eating food rich in omega 3 will help as will increasing the amount
of antitoxins that you consume.5. Use as Many Senses as Possible:
People do not realise that memories are based on all of our senses.
When trying to remember information the more senses you can
incorporate the better. This could be doing something as simple as
reading out loud so that you hear as well as see the information.6.
Drink Water: Many people do not realise that when their body gets
dehydrated you actually lessen your ability to focus. Stay away
from coffee and sugar filled drinks. Water is the best way to
hydrate your body.7. Use Acronyms: This is handy simple way of
remembering things. You use the first letter of the things you have
to remember to either make a word or a sentence. A great example of
this is the acronym HOMES as a method to remember the great lakes.
They are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.8. Reread and
Review: If you are planning to learn a lot of information at one
time. Highlight the information into point form and read and reread
this information over a number of days. This will help to create
long term memories.9. Room System: This system is based on using a
familiar room to help you to remember a list of items. You begin by
mentally picturing the room and then slowly adding the items on
your list into the room. The idea is to associate the new items
with stable old memories.10. Deep Breathing: If you are working for
long periods of time take a moment and practice some deep breathing
methods. Not only will this help you to relax it will help to get
more oxygen to your brain.- See more at:
http://easymemoryimprovement101.com/#sthash.fVmCB0di.dpuf
GAMES FOR MEMORY IMPROVEMENTJULY 8, 2009LEAVE A COMMENTThe brain
is just like a muscle. The more work it does the stronger it gets.
And of course the reverse is also true. The less you use and work
it, the more out of shape it will get. If you find that you are
having trouble remembering things maybe you need to spend some time
exercising your brain.One of the easiest and funniest way to
exercise, stimulate and build your memory functions is to play
simple mind games.TriviaThe great thing about this game is that you
can select not only the number of people to play, where you play,
but how long and what topics you want to work with. You can even
play the game by yourself. Simply read the questions and answers
and check in an hour to see how many of them you do
recall.Memory/ConcentrationOne classic version of this game is
played by taking a deck of cards and placing them face down on the
table. The first person turns up two cards. If they match you take
them off the playing surface. That same player gets to go again. If
the two cards do not match, return them face down to the game area,
and the next person takes his turn. Play continues until all the
cards are gone. The player with the most pairs wins.The PicnicThere
are countless variations of this game. You have to play with two or
more people. The first person puts an imaginary object into the
basket. He starts by saying I am going on a picnic and I am taking
a pie. The second person would then repeat the phrase I am going on
a picnic then adds their own item and the first persons item. Play
goes back and forth with each person adding an item to the basket
and repeating in order the other objects already stated. The game
ends when one person is unable to remember an item or gets the
order incorrect.The ListWhen you first get up in the morning write
down on a piece of paper ten things. Then throughout the day when
you get a moment try to recall in order exactly what was on the
list. You can try increasing the number of things on the list each
day or play using a specific room or topic. The variations are
endless. At the end of the day write down what you do remember and
compare it to the morning list.The game that you select is not
important. What is important is that you choose a game that not
only helps you to focus but forces you to use your memory skills.
These games do not have to take a lot of time, only five or ten
minutes a day. However, like any exercise the more you work at it
the better you will get.- See more at:
http://easymemoryimprovement101.com/#sthash.fVmCB0di.dpuf
MEMORY BUILDING TECHNIQUESJULY 9, 200910 COMMENTSThe fact is
that once you are given a piece of information, much of it will
actually be lost after just five minutes. And after one hour, two
thirds of that will have been forgotten, and it only gets worse
because after 24 hours chances are that 90% of the information will
be completely gone.This is a basic forgetting pattern. It will
obviously vary between people, with the amount of information being
given and the value that person puts on that piece of
information.There are a variety of simple techniques that you can
use to help stem the forgetting process. If you find yourself in a
social situation where you are trying to remember peoples names you
should try using one or all of these techniques.FocusingPay close
attention to the introduction, give it your undivided attention. Do
not allow yourself to be distracted by things around you. Do not
have half an ear on the music or be listening to the conversation
behind you. Pay Attention.Using the Persons NameIf you a meet a Mr.
Brooks, you might for example say, Mr, Brooks what do you do for a
living? Or try Mr Brooks where are you currently working? The
important thing here is to work the persons name back into the
conversation. Repeating the persons name back will help build
associations with both the conversation and the name.RepeatingOnce
you have heard the persons name repeat it to yourself three times
over. And do this again in five minutes. Look around the room and
see how many names you can remember. If you are having trouble go
and subtly ask someone to tell you the persons name before you
leave the event. Dont be shy, it happens to people all the time who
are meeting large numbers of people at one time. It is important to
get the name before you leave rather than trying figure out who the
person was at a later date.Association/VisualisationWhen you hear
the persons name try to create a mental picture at the same time.
This is especially useful when you can combine it with another
piece of information about the person. For example if you meet a
Mr. and Mrs. Collins and they are from Mexico you might picture
them sitting on a beach. Not only will this help you to remember
their name but you will probably be able to recall where they are
from the next time you see them. The more information in the mental
picture the better.Incorporate as Many Senses as PossibleOne way of
doing this is to say their name out loud a number of times as soon
as you can. When you shake hands deliberately take a mental note of
whether they had a strong firm grip or was it soft? Are they
wearing perfume or cologne? The more senses you use when you are
introduced the more you will remember.- See more at:
http://easymemoryimprovement101.com/#sthash.fVmCB0di.dpuf
IMPROVING MEMORY AND CONCENTRATIONJULY 9, 20091 COMMENTMemory
and concentration are virtually inseparable. Part of creating
memories is the body and minds ability to absorb and process
information. The faster and more efficiently you can do this the
better. The more your brain absorbs, the better chance you have of
not only retaining information for short term periods of time but
of being able to convert the information into long term
memories.These tips are geared towards helping you to focus and
concentrate at a higher level, which in turn will increase your
memory.1) Focus your attention, on what you are trying to learn or
remember. For example; when someone is giving you a message, turn
your head and look at them and concentrate on what they are saying
rather than having half an ear on the TV.2) Gear your surroundings
towards being able to concentrate. If you are trying to read a
technical document get in a comfortable chair, get as far away from
all other distractions as possible. Turn off the TV, turn off the
phone, and make certain that the lighting is good. Focus yourself
towards thegoaland nothing else.3) Do not try to read for long,
straight periods of time. If you need to, try using a timer. Set
the timer for 10 to 15 minutes. When the time is up sit back and
mentally go over exactly what you have read and what it all means.
Give your brain a chance to process the information. Think out
loud, often saying and hearing it will help to build memories.4)
Drink water, not pop or coffee. When our body gets dehydrated it
loses some of its ability to focus.5) Increase the amount of oxygen
going to your brain by standing up and moving around. Try doing
some stretches or take a moment and practice deep breathing
methods.6) Eat and drinks foods that will feed your brain. Try
snacking on fruits and vegetables that are high in vitamins and
antioxidants. Do not try to boost your levels by eating and
drinking sugars.7) Try chewing gum. As strange as this sound
studies have shown that gum chewing actually helps people to
focus.If you really want to increase and improve your memory you
have to increase your level of concentration. How can you really
expect to remember things that you were only paying half attention
to in the first place. If you give something your undivided
attention you will greatly increase your ability to recall the
information at later date and time.- See more at:
http://easymemoryimprovement101.com/#sthash.fVmCB0di.dpuf
3 UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORYAUGUST 7, 20132
COMMENTSVisualization, Focusing and Practice, Practice,
Practice!
The human brain can be compared to a library, with the only
difference that the brain is responsible for storing long term and
short term memories rather than books. Your hippocampus is the area
of the brain responsible for storing memories think of it as the
master librarian and a few strategies can allow you to considerably
improve your memory skills by integrating the action of the
hippocampus with the rest of the brain. Whether you are a high
school student or a retired person, these three unconventional ways
can allow you to store and retrieve memories easily. Youll always
have access to the mental shelves where your virtual books full of
memories are stored.VisualizationAssociating words with images can
allow you to remember details more easily. For example, if you are
one of those people who usually forgets where youve put your
glasses, than it is best to visualize an image just before putting
your glasses down. If youre putting your glasses on the kitchen
table you can imagine your glasses eating a variety of foods. A
unique image is likely to help you remember better, one that is odd
or interesting, opposed to an ordinary image. This particular
technique can be used for memorizing entire lists and can prove to
be particularly helpful for students during their exams, since
visualization helps create stronger memories no matter what is
being recalled.FocusFocusing on a particular piece of information
for eighty seconds can allow you to accurately transfer the memory
from short term memory storage to long term storage. It is useless
to visualize and associate images with words if you do not pay
sufficient attention to the process. Most often, memories that are
forgotten tend to be related to information processed while you are
absent-minded or not paying attention. For example, students who
take notes without really listening to the speaker or concentrating
on the information are generally unable to remember the underlying
concepts, as their attention was not on the lecture even though the
words were noted down.Focusing on the task can allow you to absorb
new information with ease and store it in your memory for later
recall. Ideally, there should be a minimum of distraction during
the time that you are memorizing lists or items. Moreover, saying
the words out loud will allow you to remember the details far more
easily.Practice Remembering ItemsThe key to improving memory lies
in practicing several different memory skills and enhancing your
ability to absorb information in a variety of ways. Techniques such
as visualization and repeating out loud will not be the most
effective without practice. Rather, the brain needs to be trained
in memorizing lists and items. Over a period of time it becomes
easier to absorb information. A study conducted by theWellcome
Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College Londonin 2011
revealed that memorizing extensive lists over a period of time can
result in the hippocampus increasing in size. This is largely due
to the growth of new nerve cells as a result of extensive
memorization.Memory training skills can start from the simplest
items such as memorizing the grocery list, the advertisements that
you pass by, the names of the employees in your favorite
restaurant, and so on. You can use a variety of techniques for
memorizing these lists including chunking, creating mnemonics, and
immediately repeating new information.Chunking involves remembering
information in blocks while mnemonics refers to remembering a list
by creating a word of the initials of the list items. Repeating new
information immediately, such as name of the person that you just
met, can allow you to improve the probability of remembering this
information by 30% or more.- See more at:
http://easymemoryimprovement101.com/#sthash.fVmCB0di.dpuf
