How To Improve Your Memory

Memory experts suggest that people can, with practice, improve their ability to remember. One of the most important means of improving memory is the use of mental aids called mnemonic devices. Other techniques can also be used to help people improve their memory.

Mnemonic devices include rhymes, clues, mental pictures, and other methods. One of the simplest ways is to put the information into a rhyme. Many people remember the number of days in each month by using a verse that begins, “Thirty days hath September. . . .” Another method provides clues by means of an acronym, a word formed from the first letters or syllables of other words. For example, the acronym homes could help a person remember the names of the Great Lakes–Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

A mental picture can be provided by the key-word method, which is particularly useful in learning foreign words. Suppose you want to remember that the German word Gabel (pronounced GAH behl) means fork. First, you think of a key word in English that sounds like the foreign word–for example, gobble. Next, you connect the two words through a mental image, such as that of a person gobbling food with a fork. From then on, to recall the meaning of Gabel, you would remember gobble and the stored image linking it to fork.

Mental pictures can also be used to remember names. When you meet a person for the first time, pick out a physical feature of the individual and relate it to his or her name. For example, if you meet a very tall man named Mr. Shackley, imagine his bumping his head on the roof of a shack. In the future, this image will help you remember his name when you see or think of him. Mnemonic techniques work best for remembering lists of specific items, such as words or objects.

They do not work well for learning complex materials, such as stories and poems. For this reason, many psychologists favor more general strategies for improving memory.

Other ways to improve memory. A good way to help remember a piece of information is to rehearse (repeat) it a number of times. You can rehearse aloud or quietly to yourself. The more you rehearse, the more lasting the memory will be. In addition to repeating the information over and over, rehearsal also can involve elaborating upon the information. For example, suppose you want to remember the year that the telephone was invented–1876. You might elaborate upon this information by reminding yourself that the Declaration of Independence was signed 100 years earlier.

Another memory aid involves making the surroundings in which you remember material similar to those in which you learned the material. For this reason, football coaches often require players to practice under conditions similar to those of an actual game.

Exceptionally good memory. You sometimes hear of someone who has a “photographic memory,” which supposedly works like a camera taking a picture. A person with such a memory would be able to take a quick mental picture of a textbook page or a scene. Later, the person could describe the page or scene perfectly by causing the image to reappear in his or her mind.

No one actually has a photographic memory. However, some people have a similar ability called eidetic imagery. An eidetic image is a picture that remains in a person’s mind for a few seconds after a scene has disappeared. People who have eidetic imagery can look at a scene briefly and then give a thorough description of the scene based on a mental image. But the image fades quickly and may be inaccurate. Eidetic imagery is rare.

Only 5 to 10 percent of all children have this ability, and most of them lose it as they grow up. Certain people possess an exceptionally good memory. They may be able to memorize the names of all the state capitals or hundreds of names and numbers from a telephone book. When such exceptional memory occurs in people with mental handicaps, psychologists refer to this condition as savant syndrome.

Deja vu is the feeling of having already experienced a situation that is actually happening for the first time. For example, a person who goes to a restaurant in a foreign city for the first time may have the overwhelming sensation of having been there before. Episodes of deja vu occur most often in people who have epilepsy. Deja vu is a French term meaning already seen.