How do I improve the 3 parts of memory?

This module will cover tools known as Mnemonic Systems that you can use to improve your memory. They usually include working with information to increase: attention, meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization.

Attention

Frequently when people say they cannot remember something it is likely they weren’t paying enough attention to begin with. If you want to store something in long term memory, you must pay attention to it and concentrate on it. Failure to pay attention is another reason for absent-mindedness. The antidote is to pay close conscious attention to what you need to remember by saying it to yourself out loud.

TRY THIS:
Consciously announce your actions at home.

Some Additional Attention-Boosting Strategies

Your brain is like any other part of your body. You have to use it in order to keep it in shape. We frequently think of exercising our arms and legs but may go days without exercising our brains.

TRY THIS:
Here are some ideas for Brain Exercises:

• Daily cross-word puzzles
  
• Daily brain teasers
  
• Play chess
  
• Play video games that involve strategy
  
• Read books daily
  
• Read several newspapers daily
  

Brain Stimulators

Your brain is where all of your senses process information. Remember the last time you saw something really exciting, smelled something really good, heard something that sounded beautiful, tasted a really good meal, or felt something truly stimulating? These sensory events wake up the mind. You need to wake up your mind on a daily basis.

TRY THIS:
Try to expose yourself to stimulating sensory events (all 5 senses) on a daily basis. You might be surprised that your senses are actually more sensitive than they used to be. The long-term stress response might actually exaggerate our sensory awareness, making sensory experiences more noticeable.

Smells and Tastes:

• Cook or seek out a favorite restaurant and treat yourself to favored dishes. (Think of this as therapy not self-indulgence)
  
• Try new dishes
  
• Smell perfume just for fun
  
• Go to the store and sample the free samples

Visual:

• Watch travel films or actually do some traveling on your own
  
• Go to more movies
  
• Review your photo albums
  

Sounds:

• Listen to more music
  
• Try and spend time listening to nature each day
  

Touch:

• Consciously experience the temperature of each day on your skin
  
• More Sex
  
• Try massage
  
• Take a warm bath

Meaningfulness
The more meaning something has for you, the easier it is to remember.

• Words are easier to remember than nonsense syllables
  
• Sentences are easier to remember than words in non-grammatical order
  

Rhymes (and rhythms), can be used to add more meaning to events such as dates:
" In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue."
or
"30 days hath September, April, June and November…."

TRY THIS:
At the beginning of a day decide what three things you’d like to do. Make up a rhyme or a jingle when you’re in the shower or getting dressed that include the things you need to do. Sing it a few times before leaving the bedroom. Then try to remember them at lunch and then at dinner.

Use of Acronyms is another way to make information meaningful. For example, using ROY G. BIV to remember the colors in the spectrum.

Acronyms are also helpful because they use another tool, "chunking" which reduces the amount of information to be remembered.

• ROY G. BIV is 1 chunk.
  
• RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, VIOLET is 7 bits of information.
  

Remember, 7 chunks of information are about as much as the brain can handle without committing the information to long-term memory. Thus, acronyms are efficient ways of remembering more than 7 bits of information.

TRY THIS:
Make up an acronym for your shopping list (e.g., cereal, oranges, milk, bread) could be COMB.

Organization

Organization is what makes finding a word in a dictionary easy; the words are organized by the alphabet. If you are having difficulty relocating something at home once you’ve put it away, try developing your own kinds of organizational systems so that finding something is just a matter of routine. If you cannot develop your own method, go to a place that stores large volumes of the item you wish to store, and see what types of organizational strategies they use. For example if you are frequently losing books, go to the library and see what categories they use in their organizational scheme.

Here are some other examples of how to organize by categories:

• To organize CD’s go to a music store
  
• Use an art store for crafts
  
• Use a hardware store for nuts, bolts, and tools
  
• Use a computer store for organizing software manuals
  

Establish routine ways of doing things on a daily basis.
For example, choose to develop the routine so that every time you enter your house, you will:

• pick up the mail
  
• sort the mail
  
• throw out the junk
  
• put your coat in the closet
  
• put your keys in the key drawer
  

Only after this routine is accomplished will you respond to a request of a spouse, a ringing phone, a greeting pet, etc.

TRY THIS:
Make up two routines, one for returning home and one for leaving home.

External Aids:

• Use a calendar to keep appointments (but you must remember to look at the calendar!)
  
• Use a newspaper to check for the date.
  
• Use an alarm clock not just to wake you up but to remind you to so something later in the day.
  
• Put things by the front door (bills, etc.) so that you won’t forget them when you leave your home.
  
• Use the "old stand-by" of tying a knot in your handkerchief, tying a string around your finger, putting a rubber band around your wrist or changing the finger you usually wear your ring on, to remind you of some task.

Associations

The more associations you make between new information and objects that are familiar to you, the easier it will be to remember the new information. For example, it would probably be easier for you to draw the outline of Italy than Denmark, simply because when learning about Italy someone probably likened it to a boot.

Associations are made through analogies, metaphors, or examples using compare and contrast. For example, we learned that stalactites come from the ceiling and stalagmites come from the ground.

TRY THIS:
Make up an association for a name you frequently cannot remember.
For example: Jessie Smith is a social worker
Jodi Smith is a dentist

Visualization

Use of imagery can improve memory for verbal material. Thus, it is recommended that when trying to remember someone’s name upon being introduced, pay attention to something about his or her image as you repeat his or her name.
For example, if you were introduced to:
Rhoda who has red hair
You would repeat Red-Rhoda to yourself as you look at her red hair

TRY THIS:

Visualize physical features of a group of people you know. If you can’t think of anyone, look at the group on the left. What image would you use to remember each person’s name?
L to R: Al, Sue, Tina, Frank, Cathy
Sample:
Group Member Association
Cathy Curly-haired Cathy

You can also use visualization to remember a series of tasks or a series of seemingly unrelated objects. To do this, we will combine rhyming with visual imagery to develop a method of remembering objects or tasks in a specific order.

Now let’s practice Memory Enhancement Skills!

Reclaiming Your Memory – Skills >