Tag Archive for: memory

,

Memory: Discover the Missing Component of Recall

Memory is everything; without our memory we have nothing. We must have an ability to recall information in order to learn and develop. Today brain research has uncovered fascinating discoveries relating to memory, yet we have only just begun to understand this mystery of the mind.

 

Most researchers focus on the brain and how the different parts are related to memory. This understanding is very important if we are ever going to truly understand ourselves. I find neuroscience to be a fascinating subject that has helped shape my understanding of the human condition however I don't want to look at the brain in regards to memory.

I instead want to focus on the mind and how it utilizes information in regards to our memory. I want to share my theory on how the two different minds (conscious and subconscious) work together to provide us with the ability of recall.

Most people know about short and long-term memory; and how these two systems work together to give us the ability of recall. I believe there is a third type of memory that I call temporary memory that helps fill in the gap between short and long-term memory. I want to go over each of the three types, show you how they work, and explain how the two minds are related.

Before we can remember something we must first take in the information to be stored. Our DNA does contain some information but for this topic I will be focused on information we have obtained from outside sources; meaning our five senses.

Pivotal Resource Centre       Topic          MEMORY

Everything we experience in life is the result of information coming in through our five senses. Without these senses we would have no experience of the world or have any information to be processed into memory. This incoming information is first sent to the subconscious mind.

The reason the subconscious gets the information first is because it's the survival mind and is much faster at processing information. We need it this way to allow us to react to events that involve an immediate threat to us such as being attacked or touching a hot stove.

After the subconscious mind determines if any action is needed or not; it sends a small amount of the information to the conscious mind were it becomes what we call our conscious awareness. We are only aware of a small part of what is going on around us. This is why two people can have the same experience yet have two different views of what happened.

The thing to keep in mind is just because the information is not consciously known doesn't mean it's lost. This information is still sitting there inside your head just waiting to be used. At the same time this information is not yet a part of your long-term memory. All this incoming information is stored in what I call temporary memory and is controlled by the subconscious mind.

If information is stored in temporary memory; how do we get it to become long-term memory? My theory is the subconscious mind processes this information and converts it to long-term memory when we sleep, specifically REM sleep. To me this is one of the reasons we have dreams. Dreams are nothing more than us becoming consciously aware of temporary memory being converted to long-term memory.




One way the subconscious processes information to be converted to long-term memory is by using emotional "tags". This means if an event has caused us to feel a strong emotion it gets linked to that emotion. When this information is converted to long-term memory it is arranged in such a way as to be easy to recall. In other words the more emotion involved the more the memory will be put at the "front of the line" and information with no emotions will be move to the back. This makes it easier to recall emotional events which are important when it comes to survival. This is why the subconscious is in control of this system.

Just because the conscious mind does not have direct control over this information, it can access it through a process of requesting information from the subconscious. When the conscious mind requests information the subconscious first looks in this temporary memory because it is smaller, easier to process, and most likely to be more relevant. If it can't find it in temporary memory then it will expand the search to long-term memory which can take longer to find because of the massive size of long-term memory.

That's why you can be trying to think of something and then forget about it, but later the answer will just pop into your head for no reason. Your subconscious continues to search without any conscious awareness of what is going on.

The subconscious also uses the information in temporary memory to influence our decisions and actions. This influence is the basis of subliminal programing and can be very powerful if used correctly. Subliminal programing doesn't turn people into walking zombies but can have a real effect on a person's conscious thought process.

As you can see the subconscious mind is very involved with our memory by working with both temporary and long-term memory. The concept of using temporary memory to hold information before being converted to long-term memory is a wonderful system that allows us to utilize information as its being taken in. The problem is temporary memory is a fixed size and this causes problems.

Have you noticed how you get mentally tired if you don't get proper sleep? A lack of sleep causes the temporary memory to become full which can lead to issues with being able to recall the information we want. Sleep is so important in maintaining a strong memory.

 

Pivotal Resource Centre       Topic          SLEEP

Lack of sleep is not the only thing that can cause issues with temporary memory; there is also what environment we find ourselves in.

I skipped over one of the steps in how information is processed because I felt it was too early in the flow of this article. When the subconscious first receives information it looks for any copies of that information in our long-term memory. If it finds an exact copy it will simply reinforce the long-term memory instead of sending it to temporary memory.

This is why we have better recall of something if we can look at the information from different angels or give the information more details. These things cause more copies of the information to be put into temporary memory that will then be converted to long-term memory. If all we do is look at something one way we only reinforce a single long-term memory; and memory is all about the number of links we create. So how is our environment involved in memory?

When you are in an environment you are familiar with you take in more "copy" information because you already have knowledge about what is around you; which causes less information to be stored in your temporary memory. When you are in an unfamiliar environment your temporary memory will fill more rapidly causing you to become mentally fatigued. This is why you feel mentally tired when on vacation or when trying to learn something new.

The final piece of this memory puzzle is of course short-term memory. The conscious mind uses short-term memory to process information it receives. Because of the highly analytically nature of the conscious mind it can only keep track of a very small amount of information. Short-term memory is the only form of memory that is controlled by the conscious mind.

If all of this seems confusing or overwhelming let me offer you a metaphor on how all this works that will make it easier to understand.

Your mind is like an office. Information comes in and first goes to the inbox (temporary memory). From there some of the paper work gets move from the inbox to the desk top (short-term memory).




With any desk top there is very limited space so you must work on just a couple of things at a time. You can move papers back and forth from the desk top to the inbox but can only work with a few things at a time.

Just as with temporary memory an inbox can only hold so much before it becomes a disorganized mess. To keep the inbox from getting too full papers are moved to a filing cabinet (long-term memory). From time to time we do move papers from the filing cabinet to the desk top as we need them (consciously becoming aware of something from long-term memory). However it can be hard and time-consuming in finding just what we are looking for.

I hope this metaphor helps with understanding how the three parts of memory work together to give us this amazing ability of recall. Memory is still a mystery yet we are moving in the right direction.

ARTICLE AUTHOR:  Jeremy T. Jordan is a dynamic Speaker and Personal Life Coach that specializes in the areas of Success, Happiness, and Fulfillment. He is the founder of Why U Can Life Management; a personal development system designed to empower people with the knowledge and skills of self-mastery. For more information on Jeremy T. Jordan or the Why U Can Life Management System go to his website http://www.whyucanlifemanagement.com

Silly Stories For Memorization

Pivotal Stories

 

There are in fact, many ways how you can remember important information such as numbers, events, errands and names. The challenge is how to make all the information easy to retrieve, out of the top of your head in a random situation.

Memory techniques work on anything that you like to master. There are things you may need to work on in memorizing something for the first time but all information has techniques on how they can all be memorized. It just takes a lot of interest and enthusiasm to be able to absorb all the information we want to understand and remember.

Creating an absurd and outrageous story from a list of non-related items will do well enough to stick in your head. What else is that it stays there in your memory the way the story is created, the chronological order and even the positioning of the character! The fun part about this technique is that there’s no limit to how you want to create the story and the sillier it is; the easier for you to remember it and the keywords that comprise it.

Now you’ll say what if you need to memorize an entire chapter of items and information; surely you can’t create a novel out of this. True. But in fact, what you can do to get around this problem is to break down all the information you need to remember. Try to put the related or similar items in one cluster and name it. Do the same with the rest. You can also create acronyms out of the clusters you have made and then, create a silly story using the acronyms or the cluster of words you’ve created.

Once you have this ready, you can then associate mental images with the story and each key word you’ve made. It has been proven that the imagination, especially when there’s clear images associated with it works efficiently – efficient enough to be remembered.

Following these techniques for the first time may come a bit slower and difficult but practicing them can gradually increase your expertise over any memorization tasks. Learn more important details regarding memorization improvement techniques.

Inspirational quote from Aeschylus

Read more

Heroes

Read more

Use Links For Better Memorization

Believing that you can posses good memorization skills by conducting mind exercises is a big help. It is important for you to have a positive attitude on this.

An example memory technique is called the Link method. Linking requires a lot of association because the best way you'll be able to remember one thing is when you have it connected to something else. Or when you try to think of an object, something else more familiar comes to your mind.

Try to think of something you always do everyday which requires memorization. Just like when you get up in the morning and do your daily routine, there are still some things you tend to forget, right? You can start from this and then move on gradually to more complicated things.

Think of yourself doing the usual routine one morning, only that you need to drop by your grandma's house on the way to work. Since it isn't part of your normal activity, there's a probability of you forgetting this simple task. Instead of thinking about what you need to do compulsorily after getting up in the morning, think of all you need to do and connect them together.

Eat breakfast
Feed the dog
Water the plants
Lock up the house
Take a shortcut to Grandmas
Give her a gift

First, just as you're doing your usual hygiene routine, think of your breakfast waving at you from the kitchen table. Next, your dog starts barking at your breakfast food on the table. But just as this is happening, your houseplants splashes water on your dog, making him run away. Seeing your houseplants behaving like this, you try to lock them out of the house using an enormous padlock.

But since your Grandma loves plants, she insists in letting the houseplants in again. Frustrated, your grandma takes an underground shortcut towards your basement. Then, she presents the houseplants wrapped as a gift, so you'd take them in.

The situation is a simple demonstration of how a person, animals and objects can all be interrelated to one another for memorization purposes. You can still think of the usual routine you do everyday and yet include a new one without interrupting your activities.

The example above has already given you association for the 6 items listed and you didn't even know it. This is a classic example of a link method.

Click here to learn more about memorizing using the Link method and other memory improvement techniques:  Photo by Tanner Van Dera on Unsplash

 

Practice and Mnemonics

 

Constant practice makes a big difference for memorization improvement purposes. You must assure yourself that there is going to be an improvement with your memory. But in the event of forgetting pieces of something you've already worked on, memorization tools always come in handy.

An effective memorization tool is called mnemonics. It is a way of remembering a group of information by breaking each of them down into sub-groups, rhymes, stories, or location. One of the many effective mnemonic methods is called the Link system. The link system is great for remembering a list or group of objects by associating or "linking" the items in the list to one another.

For example, pretend you need to keep in mind the list below which consists of your diet meal for the day.

Apple, broccoli sprouts, rice cake, almonds and a glass of fresh orange juice

Your link approach should go something like:

Think of a red apple bouncing on top of broccoli sprouts. The broccoli sprouts, tired of playing with the apple, runs to hide behind a giant sleeping rice cake. The rice cake, startled by the sprouts behind it, gets up irritated and hurls the scattered almonds nearby at the broccoli sprouts. A pitcher of orange juice nearby got hit by an almond and seeing the food fight happening, it then flooded the area with its juices ending the mishap.

The scenario you create doesn't have to be very complicated. Just fill it with movement, colors, and other details to help you picture out the situation further. Instead of thinking of just a bunch of items in a list, you can think of a whole scenario including all the details. Try to repeat the scenario several times in a day to complete your memorization exercise and you'll slowly develop a good memory.

Click to learn more about memorizing using the Link method and other memory improvement techniques:  Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

 

Steer Clear From Memory Problems

 

You can start maintaining your naturally good memory by learning how to use memory tools. The snapshot method can help you further since it involves a lot of imagination. Use the scenario below to practice memorization.

Although there are many factors which affect good memory, memory exercises are proven effective ways to keep your memory strong.

Imagine yourself with your friends in a fast food chain. You have been asked to place the order for all your friends at the counter.
There are four of you and each of the orders are different. The line is long and you need to get the orders fast since all four of you are already hungry. No time to jot down the orders.

Bob wants large fries and a double-patty burger Cecile wants a nacho chili with lots of cheese and a large sized milkshake John wants a medium sized pizza with lots of mozzarella cheese You want a double patty chicken burger, large fries and a soda

As you approach the counter, run the food that you and your friends want to eat in your thoughts. Since your friend Bob wants large fries and a double-patty burger, think of Bob walking around wearing a double-patty burger suit and a large fries hat on his head. Next, since Cecile wants a nacho chili, think of her babysitting cheese, chili and nacho chips in her arms; each baby drinking from a bottle of milkshake. With your friend John, think of him riding a motorcycle with medium sized pizza pans as the wheels. His mozzarella cheese perfume is oozing in the wind. As for you, imagine yourself tending a Siamese twin chicken which can only be fed with fries and a soda.

The association here is determined between your friend and the food he/she desires. It's also important to hold on to the details you are able to make, since its what's going to help you more in terms of retaining and recalling the information later on.

Try to repeat the scenario several times in your head to complete your memorization exercise and you'll slowly develop a good memory.
You'll also get the ordered food right.

Click here to learn more about memorizing using the Snapshot technique and other memory improvement techniques.  Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

 

Break time may improve memory

Taking a rest break—while awake—can help strengthen memories, a new   study suggests.

“Your brain is working for you when you’re resting, so rest is important for memory and cognitive function,” Lila Davachi observes.

 “This is something we don’t appreciate much, especially when today’s information technologies keep us working round-the-clock.” (Courtesy: NYU)

 The findings, which appear in the latest issue of the journal Neuron, expand our understanding of how memories are boosted. Previous studies had shown this process occurs during sleep, but not during times of awake rest.

“Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that information you just learned,” explains Lila Davachi, an assistant professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, in whose laboratory the study was conducted. “Your brain wants you to tune out other tasks so you can tune in to what you just learned.”

The study, whose lead author was Arielle Tambini, a doctoral candidate in NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, focused on memory consolidation—the period when a memory is stabilized after it is initially created, or encoded.

To determine if memory consolidation occurred during periods of awake rest, the researchers imaged the hippocampus, a brain structure known to play a significant role in memory, and cortical regions during periods of awake rest. Previous studies have demonstrated regions of the brain more active during periods of rest, but their function at these times had been unclear.

The experiment tested subjects’ associative memory by showing them pairs of images containing a human face and an object (e.g., a beach ball) or a human face and a scene (e.g., a beach) followed by periods of awake rest. Subjects were not informed their memory for these images would later be tested, but, rather, were instructed to rest and simply think about anything that they wanted, but to remain awake during the resting periods.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to gauge activity in the hippocampus and cortical regions during the task and during the ensuing rest period.

Researchers found that during rest after the study experience (after the visuals were shown), there was a significant correlation between brain activity in the subjects’ hippocampus and cortical regions that were active during the initial encoding of each stimulus pair. However, this boost in brain correlations was only seen following experiences that were later memorable suggesting these parts of the brain act in tandem for a purpose—to consolidate memories during rest.

Also, when examining each subject individually, researchers found that subjects who had greater resting correlations between the hippocampus and cortex, also exhibited better performance on a subsequent associative memory test and those whose brain correlations were weaker, had worse memory—in other words, the greater the activity in hippocampus and cortical regions, the stronger the memory.

“Your brain is working for you when you’re resting, so rest is important for memory and cognitive function,” Davachi observes. “This is something we don’t appreciate much, especially when today’s information technologies keep us working round-the-clock.”

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and Dart Neuroscience.

Written by James Devitt-NYU , and published by Futurity.  Discover the future.  News from leading research universities in the u nited States, Canada and the United Kingdom

NYU news: www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/

 

 

Memorization Problems: Solved!

 

Have you ever had problems in remembering names, numbers, grocery items needed, and other little details such as the location where you placed your car keys this morning? The truth is, we all have our moments of forgetting little bits of information that matters at the exact moment we need them.

But did you know that memorization techniques boil down to two basic things? These are ways on how you focus your attention and create a meaning in correspondence to the information or object you store in your memory. With memory techniques, you encourage your mind to be creative while utilizing your innate memory skills.

One of the proven memory techniques known today is called the Link Method. As mentioned above, enhancing your memory skills require you to become creative and imaginative which are considered very strong memory boosters when exercised correctly.

Using the Link approach, it has been proven that an object associated to the next on the list is less confusing to do, not to mention the order of the information included are also memorized easier. The list of items to be memorized can easily be remembered no matter how irrelevant they are from one another. With continuous practice and diligence, Link Method allows you to remember things from the top of your head without getting stuck in frustration in the middle of urgency. Now isn’t that a good thing? Of course it is.

Let me give you an example. Say you need to remember five items. We can take the items as the following; a cat, rice, hat, pigeon and fence. They are entirely different and have no relevance from one another but remembering these bits of information is a piece of cake with pure Link Method. What you need to do is have your imagination working by starting on the cat. Imagine it as a Siamese cat that eats rice since he’s from Siam. The rice is served in a hat but then, a pigeon comes along and starts to eat the rice. Seeing this, the cat chases the pigeon away and ends up landing in the fence.

What you can do in addition to the scene above is to create details for each character. Try to imagine the colors, location and other important details as you construct the scene. Experts found out that the memory skills of a person work very well with colors. However, it is not so good when it comes to shapes.

Going back to the scene we’ve created, plus points would go for funnier imagination. Humans respond and capture vivid images that are unique and funny. It may sound crazy but it’s proven to work. Imagination and memory is a good pair that works excellent together. Using it takes less of an effort but requires enthusiasm and willingness.

These are just basic factors you can learn out of the entire section of memory techniques. Find out more 

Public Speaking and Adult Learning Principles

 

If you haven't already--as a public speaker, you should dedicate yourself to a lifetime study of adult learning principles. It will pay you colossal dividends.

And there's a lifetime of "adult learning stuff" to learn. Today we'll look at one such principle; Elaborative Rehearsal.

It's more than practice. It's a proactive approach of making the most out of past learning in order to maximize new learning.

For your audiences to make the most out of this proven learning and memory technique, you will have to teach them. Most adult learners just aren't aware of these methods. Here are five tips you can pass along to all of your audiences.

1. Proper Note Taking. For a learner's notes to enhance one's memory, it is important that a learner is able to record the speaker's ideas in their own words. And, as a presenter you need to tell them so.

2. Paraphrasing. This is like the above note taking, except that care is given to the actual words the note-taker uses. Ideally, the words the learner replaces the speaker's with has equal or added meaning to the learner.

3. Predicting. It will help a listener to project a speakers message into the future. This "projection" allows a person to simulate the material they are learning in the theater of their mind.

4. Questioning. A good Q and A will help your audience learn your principles better. Challenge your audience to come up with creative and meaningful questions, and then dig into them together.

5. Summarizing. There much talked about the concept but it is seldom used in most learning environments. Plan a specific, "Now what did we learn here today?"

There's a lot more to the idea of Elaborative Rehearsal than these five tips, and we'll discuss them in future articles.
The "take-away" today is the need for the public speaker to "train" their audiences how to use elaborative rehearsal to their greatest learning benefit.

One thing that will help your audiences to be able to "practice" your message is a strong visual representation of your message. The presentation world calls these graphics by many things, Process Models, Method Maps, Matrix's, and Hierarchy Models, etc.

Wayne Kronz

Wayne Kronz is the host of http://MethodMap.blogspot.com. Visit it today for the best free, online information about the design and use of visual aids in public speaking. You'll discover many actual models you can use in your next presentation plus a host of videos showing you how the top pros are using visual aids in their public speaking. And a lot more!  Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash