Archive for the 'Memory Management' Category

There are four ways in which memory occurs

• Registration
• Immediate memory
• Permanent (long-term) memory
• Memory Access

Registration

The type of information you’re receiving determines which region of your brain is active. For instance, words are initially processed in the language regions of the brain, pictures initially in the visual regions. This is where your memories are “registered.”

Immediate memory

What do we use our immediate memory for? The almost insignificant use of this immediate memory is when you try to remember a phone number. Most people will notice that they have difficulty repeating more than seven digits of a phone number they have just heard. This is the limitation of your immediate memory.

When information comes into a region, it comes in as a pattern of nerve cell activity. This nerve cell activity normally endures for just a short period of time - seconds or less. This is of way what we deem “Immediate” memory

The major reason of immediate memory seems to be that it is part of a scratch pad system that we use in our minds to keep track of what we are hearing and to try to understand it. This can be shown in many ways.

Most memory training methods include exercises to improve linking objects to certain items or using numbering systems to stay on top of being forgetful. However, oftentimes the only thing that is needed to keep your mind on track is to get organized and to stay that way.

Getting organized can be the most significant information to help you boost your brainpower as a memory tool. It is so simple and obvious that many of use miss the significance that staying on top of our organization in life can be in boosting our brain power.

The following are a few good tips that will help you in memory improvement:

Use A Task List For Projects:

Overwhelmed by a complicated project? Think through the project concretely, step by step. Then, make a list for all these steps, or tasks, to help you get them done. Here’s another suggestion: Keep your task list stapled to the inside front cover of your project file. That way you can refer to the task list whenever you work on that project.

First Letter Association Technique is a memory training technique, where you take the first letter of each word in a list of words you wish to remember and make a word or phrase associating to it. Abbreviations and acronyms are popular examples of first letter association.

An Example

Take a look at the following examples:

1. Do you know the names of the five Great Lakes? Chances are you do, but it may be a bit tough to think of them. If you remember the first letter association HOMES, however, you’ll always be able to think of them: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
2. What does U.S.A. stand for? If you said United States of America, you’re correct (and you thought these techniques were hard!)
3. What does TGIF mean? “Thank God It’s Friday,” a popular refrain.

Why Is First Letter Association Technique Is So Popular?

The first letter associations are so popular because they are such a powerful ways for us to remember things. Let’s look at why:

1. First letter associations let us know when we’re done. You know that if you match an item or word with every letter on that list you’re finished, when you have a first letter association for a list. In other words, everything you need to remember is in that first letter association.

Now that you know how vital memory tools are, which ones should you be using? Schedulers are one of the best tools you can use to organize information so that you can get things done.

Scheduling aids, such as appointment books, calendars, and electronic scheduling devices, are the most essential memory tools around. They help us keep track of things we need to remember and without them, let’s face it, we’d be lost. How can you maximize your use of a scheduler?

Here are a few tried-and-true tips:

1. Use a scheduling aid that fits your lifestyle. Have you ever thought about how you keep track of your schedule? Do you buy the same appointment book year after year, without considering if it still works for you or looking to see if something better is now on the market? Perhaps you just take the book or calendar the bank sends you and use that.

Yes, it may seem to work, but are you really sure it’s what you need? Consider this: If someone sent you a pair of glasses in the mail, would you use them? Of course not. After all, they probably wouldn’t be the correct prescription and might not be your style. Well, your scheduling aid is as essential a tool for your memory as glasses are for your vision. You should devote as much attention and thought to choosing a scheduler as you would to choosing new spectacles.

You have to pay attention, if you want to remember something. This may sound simple, but the most common reason healthy adults forget is because they fail to focus. Distractibility can account for memory lapses no matter what your age.

The most sensitive aspect of intellectual functioning is attention. It is therefore quite susceptible to being disrupted. In order to acquire information so we can later remember it, we must be mindful and focus on what we are trying to learn.

In other words, the problem isn’t that we forget, but that we don’t “get” what we want to remember from the outset. Does this sound easy to you? It is. But think for a moment of all the things in your daily life that you really don’t pay attention to. Consider the following questions about information we encounter every day:

• What letters, if any, are missing from the telephone dial?
• How many light switches are in your house or apartment?
• What word appears over the image of George Washington on a quarter?
• What color is at the bottom of the stoplight?

The Habit Of Forgetting

Do you sometimes find yourself going to your refrigerator, opening the door, and then staring inside and wondering what it is you wanted? If you want this to stop then just simply make an connection the instant you think of what it is you want from the refrigerator.

If you want a glass of milk, see yourself opening the refrigerator door and gallons of milk flying out and hitting you in the face! Try this idea, and you’ll never stare into a refrigerator again. That’s all there is to it. It’s like grabbing your mind by the scruff of the neck and forcing it to think of a particular thing at a specific moment.

Force yourself to do it at first, and it will become usual before you know it. Forming these links may hit you as a waste of time. You won’t feel that way once you’ve tried using the idea. You’ll see, after a short while, that the ludicrous pictures are formed in hardly any time at all. Even more significant is the time that you’ll be saving.

Using memory tools are extremely useful. The following are the are 2 reasons for using memory tools.

Memory tools help us remember the things we need to remember but not memorize.

We deal with three kinds of information:

• Things we don’t really need to remember. Let’s face it, there are some things we really, truly don’t need to memorize. For example, if I need to call a restaurant for a reservation, I need to use that restaurant’s phone number when I call, but I don’t need to learn that phone number by heart.
• Things we need to remember but not to memorize. This is information we need to remember for a short period of time to help us function efficiently. Such information consists of appointments, errands, and phone calls we have to make. Generally, however, we do not need to commit this kind of information to long-term memory.
• Things we really need to remember. This category consists of certain things we really must remember, such as our name, address, e-mail address, phone number, PIN numbers, cell phone number, and the names of people we work with closely. Committing this kind of information to memory is necessary.

Internal memory techniques are very powerful methods to learn and remember information. Let’s look at how they work:

• They give meaning to what you are trying to learn. Because internal memory techniques give meaning to something you want to remember, they are successful. This works in two ways: In many cases, we can find meaning inherent to the information we are trying to learn. Or we can inflict meaning on material that doesn’t essentially have that meaning to make it more memorable. And something that is meaningful is more memorable.
• They force you to focus attention on what you are trying to learn. You are forced to concentrate, when you apply an internal memory technique. In fact, just using a method makes it impossible not to pay attention. And we already know that we absorb something we want to remember more effectively when we attend to it.

Few Examples To Show That Internal Memory Techniques Are Not Complex

Some of you may believe internal memory techniques are simply too complex for you. If so, think again. Chances are you already use some of these methods without even knowing it. Take a look at these examples: