Most people, when you ask, will say their memory is poor to fair. But why is that? Why don’t we trust our memory anymore? And why do we simply accept that we have ,a not so good memory,. This should be something to address! But how?
- To remind
- Training your (working) memory: retaining information
- Retrieving stored information
- Do you remember this one…?
- Install collection structures
- Overarching points of interest
To remind
Remembering something you have ‘stored’ in your brain involves two aspects: remembering and retrieving information. You consciously put your memory(s) to work. Smartphones and the internet have reduced the need to remember things, but to add something new to the world you have to really master something. And you do that by knowing a lot about something. Even when it comes to the memories you build, it is important to pay attention to them and consciously focus on them. Time flies, tempus fugit, but by making memories, we build our own lives. And then we don’t know time. The smell of grandpa’s coat, the texture of the couch at home, your mother’s voice in your ear. Everything lives on within you, if you focus on it.
Training your (working) memory: retaining information
Before you can retrieve information, you must first make sure it is remembered. A clear step-by-step plan for the various components can help here. With a story problem you first do …, then …, and so on. When telling time, you first look…, then…, and so on. By remembering and internalizing these steps, you consciously bring these items into long-term memory so that they do not compete for attention in short-term memory. A child then already knows what he or she has to do. So that is no longer new information. It is important that the other circumstances that may require attention/concentration are also as equal as possible and therefore do not cause distraction or cause as little distraction as possible.
Retrieving stored information
You shouldn’t just memorize information. You must also be able to retrieve this information by remembering it.
When is it a question of remembering something or retrieving stored information:
- Free recall: being able to remember something without a hint.
- Cued recall: remembering something on assignment with a hint or tip from outside.
- Recognition: Recognition of something you have learned is also a form of recalling information.
When retrieving information that you have previously remembered, the context effect plays a role: if you learn something in a certain environment or under certain circumstances, you can retrieve this information more easily when you try to remember this information in the same or under similar circumstances. .
Do you remember this one…?
Three properties are important for good memory performance:
- meaningful coding of information in order to better absorb it or linking new information to existing knowledge. For example, your frame of reference helps you to add new knowledge to existing knowledge. You can expand this frame of reference to base knowledge on. This also means that your memory is related to experiences. You can also, for example, group certain information into meaningful units so that you have to remember less.
- conscious, reflective practice (deliberate practice)
- retrieval structures
Install collection structures
Your brain automatically helps you by coming up with retrieval structures yourself. For example, by distinguishing different phases or time units in your life, which makes it easier to retrieve memories. You can also think of them yourself.
Reading strategy
If you have to read a book for your studies, it helps to first study the table of contents carefully. Then look at the subheadings and illustrations and only then read the entire text. In short: you organize the information in such a way that it is easier to retrieve, because with a hook.
Route method
Another recommended method is the route method. You assign information that you need to remember to a specific route that you walk in your mind. This allows you to make maximum use of the semantic memory, the memory in which (word) meanings are stored. Suppose you have to remember the sentence I am walking through Moscow. Then you start at the traffic light in front of your house and add the word I to it, you cross the street, and at the bakery you continue left until you reach school in Moscow. You then walk the same route when you want to retrieve this information again. By adding even more images or sensory experiences, you facilitate the learning process even more. At the traffic light you see the light flashing, at the bakery you smell the bread, and so on. When devising a route, be inspired by a holiday destination, a favorite movie or a race course or play environment from a game.
Cartoon Images
, sounds, smells can all help you with your memory, but images in particular give you the opportunity to vary a lot. Image means a representation in the head. You create a story from the images, as it were. This in itself is also a proven method for remembering facts, especially when you use your senses and emotions (episodic memory) to represent the story (in your semantic memory). By combining different memory systems you ensure that information is stored better and is easier to retrieve. Make sure you think about your senses and emotions when you want to remember an event or knowledge. In the latter case, you can turn it into a story, using your senses and giving it an emotional charge, so that it becomes even better anchored in your brain.
Keyword method
Yet another method, for example, to remember numbers is by connecting them with images. Use fixed images for this, so that you immediately know what it is about. This is called the keyword method. For example, consider a representation such as: 1 is candle, 2 is swan, 3 is trident, 4 is car, 5 is hand, 6 is dice, 7 is scythe, 8 is snowman, 9 is flower, 0 is wheel. You can of course also apply this principle to other information that you need to remember, as long as you have a fixed image of something.
Now you can use these images to create a story or route method, for example to remember a PIN code, a certain number or year.
By repeating the routes and images you fix them in your head and you can remember and recall them better. Thinking about it regularly helps. For example, do this every hour in the beginning. After a week every day and after another week, repeat the route, the story and/or the images once a week. Then the information is best preserved. So test yourself by regularly walking along the route and checking which image you have associated with different points on the route. Practice with a few points and slowly expand the route or the number of points on it. Or link two images to a waypoint. Through repetition you also become better at coming up with images and remembering stories and routes.
Forget something?
And what if you think you’ve forgotten something? Don’t frantically repeat the question to yourself, but try to think of the context in which you heard or knew the answer before (remember the context effect mentioned earlier ?). This will help your memory the most in retrieving this information.
Overarching points of interest
If you want to train your memory, you can deduce, based on the tips mentioned, that it is important to:
- Teach yourself that you can control your own motivation and concentration.
- Use your enthusiasm to remember something better.
- Make sure you do something mindfully when you want to remember it and then think about it regularly, especially in the beginning, to make sure it gets into your long-term memory.
- Repetition ensures that the connections in the brain become stronger, so that information is remembered better.
Here too, the following applies: everything you pay attention to grows, and by repeating your knowledge and experiences you remember them better. This way you can create your own memories and influence what you want to remember.