by Gail Metcalf
For years it was believed that your memory was just what it was; either you had a good one or a bad one, and of course it always got worse with age. Some people even thought that memory was like a physical storage area, and that the reason it got worse with age is because you were learning and therefore needing to store too many things. You needed to purge old memories to make way for new information.

But as scientists learned more about the brain and how memory actually worked, they realized that there were things once could actually do to improve not only their short-term memory, but to help recall facts that were stored in their long-term memory as well.

These tips can be as easy as paying closer attention to details, such as when meeting persons for the first time. Nervousness or distraction may mean that you’re not really listening when a name is said, making it harder for you to recall it moments later.

It’s believed that it takes about 8 seconds of attention for a memory to travel from short-term to long-term storage, so quickly glossing over information you’re hearing for the first time will only hinder your ability to recall it later.

“Over-learning” is another common technique for strengthening memory. This is what a person does when they repeat a bit of information over and over again — they are over-learning it so that there is more of a chance that it will be stored in long-term memory.

Other techniques can be somewhat complicated — until you learn them, that is. Like knitting, driving, or the rules of American football, once you learn the “whys and hows,” you never really need to think much about them after that. Memory techniques become just like memories themselves — once they’re burned into your brain, they become a natural process.

So armed with all this information and what should be some confidence that you can indeed improve your memory, the only question that remains is, Are you ready?

THE LINK METHOD.

The link method is probably one of the easiest and simplest ways to remember these short lists. The link method involves linking each item on the list with a certain visual or auditory clue that starts with the same letter, sounds the same, or in some other way will provide a clue as to the item on your list.

For example, suppose your list of needed items from the supermarket is:

milk
butter
eggs
bread

You may link each of these to the sentence “Men bet everything big.” Now you have the initials — m, b, e, b — to help you remember. If you try to walk out of the store without milk, you know that you didn’t get your “m” or “men” item.

In the above example, you may run into complications when you have two items with the same first letter, as in the case of bread and butter. What to do then?

It may be helpful to tailor your sentence to reflect this. For example, your sentence may be “Michelle bugs everybody’s brother.” By having the first two letters the same as the first two of your items (bugs = butter, brother = bread), you know what they stand for, and won’t leave the store with bleach and baskets rather than bread and butter.

Linking works also for visual clues, meaning that you attach a mental image to each item or to the list itself. For the example above, you might imagine a farmer milking a cow with one hand while buttering bread with the other, with an egg cracked over his head. It’s a silly image, but one that you won’t easily forget. Each part of the image — the cow, the bread and butter, the egg — is a reminder of what you’re in the store to purchase.

THE STORY METHOD.

When using the story method, instead of a simple sentence you would instead construct a small paragraph in story form, the main characters or happenings in some way relating to the items on your list.

For example, using our list above, your story might be:

“Michelle [milk] went to her broker [bread] after she eloped [eggs] but was busted [butter].”

Picture a girl named Michelle sitting in her broker’s office with a new wedding ring, getting the bad news of her financial bust. This brings the story to life for you.

Again, you can use words that have the same two letters of list items that begin with the same letter, and try to make the story as unusual as possible. This way you won’t confuse it with real memories or stories.

It also helps to use people you know to better help you visualize. For example, if you know someone named Michelle, you can picture her doing exactly what the story entails (avoiding anything that Michelle might find offensive, of course!). This helps to keep the story fresh and vivid in your mind.

Turn your dead time into learning time! Learn more about your memory with audio books online. 

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