Will memorizing lists and speeches improve my memory?
No. If it’s rote repetition, this does nothing, because memory is not a muscle. If you’re using a memory strategy, then practice will improve your strategy skill. If you spend an hour every day on memorizing using mnemonic (method of loci, or pegword strategy), you will indeed become better. In fact, it takes practice before you can effectively use these strategies.
What practice does, is make you better at the memory strategy you practice.
References
Herrmann, D.J. & Searleman, A. 1990. The new multimodal approach to memory improvement. In G. Bower (ed.) Advances in Learning and Motivation, New York: Academic Press.
1. Higbee, Kenneth L. Your memory. How it works and how to improve it. NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1988.
I’ve read that people only use 10% of their brain. Is this true?
This is repeated in many popular books about the brain and memory. It is not clear what evidence exists for such a statement.
Brain activity comes from connections between those billions of neurons. Memory and thought are contained in patterns of activation, not in single neurons. The essence of how the brain works is that the neurons are all connected. The brain is a network. How can a network function if significant portions of it are in disuse?
I have more trouble remembering words and names. Is this Alzheimer’s?
As we get older, it is normal to experience more memory blocks for names of objects and people.Not, interestingly enough, for abstract words.
When you were in your twenties, you had many memory blocks — occasions when something is ‘on the tip of my tongue’. But this is not because you had Alzheimer’s. It is because memory blocks occur for everyone. They become more noticeable in old age because you worry about them more.
Why do I have trouble remembering people’s names?
The principal reason for the common tendency to forget people’s names is simple – we don’t pay enough attention when we hear them. But why are names so much harder than other things to remember? It’s because we feel so bad when we forget a name?
The main tenet of memory is that well-connected information is easy to remember. The more connections a piece of information has, the more likely you are to recall it. But what connections does a name have with a person? Names are arbitrary. You have to make a special effort to create a meaningful connection for it.
Does playing tapes while you’re asleep help you learn?
Not really.
There are circumstances in which learning can occur while you’re asleep. Here are some fact:
- The information to be learned cannot require understanding – it is thus useful for memorizing rather than true learning.
- You must be in the right stage of sleep – a light, drowsy state.
- The ‘sleep learning’ must augment ordinary learning, it can’t take the place of it.
References
Baddeley, Alan.Your memory: A user’s guide. (2nd ed.) London: Penguin Books, 1994.
Higbee, Kenneth L. Your memory. How it works and how to improve it. NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1988.
Do mnemonic strategies really work?
Certainly. Mnemonic strategies work. However, for the most part they are strategies that require practice to master. For example, to use the method of loci requires at least half an hour of pratice. If you have a specific need to remember lots of names, mastering the face-name association strategy is probably worth it.
Is everything we ever experienced recorded somewhere in our brain?
No.The origin of this belief seems to lie in the work done by a Canadian surgeon, Wilder Penfield, in the 1950s. The brain itself has no sensors for pain, Penfield (with the patients’ consent) used operations on the brain to investigate the storage of memory. While the brain was exposed, and the patients fully conscious, Penfield stimulated different parts of the cortex electrically. In most cases, the patients had no sensation or experience to report, but occasionally they would claim to re-experience very vivid scenes from their past.
This was taken by many at the time to demonstrate that memory works like a camera – that every detail is experienced, and is recorded in the brain, and nothing is truly lost. However, it now seems clear that the interpretation of these results was over simplistic.
References
Greenfield, Susan. The human brain: A guided tour. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997.
Schacter, Daniel L. Searching for memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. NY: Basic Books, 1996.
Why do we forget?
Forgetting, it can be argued, is adaptive. The ability to abstract general rules from specific instances is far more useful than the ability to remember every specific detail, and the one seems to preclude the other1.
There is no evidence that information stored in memory can actually disappear (except of course when the brain is physically damaged). However, when information is reaches long-term memory store, it passes through “working memory”. Information can be lost in working memory. If the information doesn’t make it through the encoding process (when it is “in” working memory), then it will not enter exist in long-term memory. You may have a vague feeling that such information exists but you won’t be able to recall details.
Forgetting occurs because:
- information was never properly encoded in the first place, or
- you can’t find it
1. Schacter, Daniel L. Searching for memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. NY: Basic Books, 1996.
Am I too old to learn?
No.
It is true that memory performance begins to decline after the mid-forties, but the effects of age on memory are complex, as memory itself is complex. It is not true that a particular seventy-year-old necessarily has a ‘worse’ memory than his thirty-year-old grandson. It is probably true that the grandson remembers most information with less effort than his grandfather. It is not true that the grandfather can’t match his grandson’s performance with more effort – or more cunning. If one is skilled at specific memory strategies, and the other isn’t, this can be more important than any age differences.
Older adults have a big advantage to offset the slowness that comes with increasing age. Experience. A good memory is an organized memory, is a richly connected memory. With a wealth of experience, an older person has the potential for many connections. With the right strategies, such rich connectivity can make remembering very efficient.
References
Baddeley, Alan.Your memory: A user’s guide. (2nd ed.) London: Penguin Books, 1994.
Physical activity keeps both your body and your mind in shape.
Nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts are essential for keepking your brain healthy.