Your Memory: Have You Forgotten How To Use It?

Your Memory: Have You Forgotten How To Use It?

What would you give to have a great memory? One where you could recall all your credit card numbers at a stroke? One where you could recall complex information? And one where you never again forgot someone's name?

Well, it's not as hard as you might think.

Here are 7 tried and trusted techniques that, once learned and practiced, will ensure that you can perform every one of these memory feats without breaking sweat.

1. Synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is the association of memory with our senses. Dr Frank Staub of Yale University demonstrated that you can easily improve your memory when you link the things you want to remember with a memorable sight, sound, feeling, taste or smell.

In one experiment, he wafted the aroma of sweet chocolate over a group of students who were preparing for an exam. On the day of the exam, he released the same aroma while the students were taking the exam. The result was that these students out-performed everyone else.

2. Landmarks. The reason why synaesthesia works is because what we want to recall is associated with a striking landmark.

Landmarks don't have to be limited to the five senses. They can be anything emotional, shocking, funny, unexpected, silly, embarrassing, or outrageous. That's why people can recall precisely what they were doing at the time of shocking news events, such as the assassination of John F.Kennedy or the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It's also why we never forget our first day at school, a beautiful romantic holiday, and our first teenage kiss.

3. The Peg System. The peg system is a great way to remember a sequence of numbers, for example the phone number 302187.

All you do is give each number a rhyming "peg" word and then make up a crazy, silly or exaggerated story about it with the words in the right order.

So, let's say 3 = knee, 0 (nought) = wart, 2 = glue, 1 = sun, 8 = gate, and 7 = heaven. We could then make up the following story: "First I wrote the phone number on my knee around a wart. I put some glue on it to keep it in place. Suddenly the sun came out, so I went out the gate and found myself in heaven."

Try it. You'll find the story is always easier to remember than the numbers.

4. Rhymes. The Peg System works because we associate a number with a rhyming word, eg 8 and "gate", 2 and "glue". The same principle holds true for much more complex pieces of information.

So rhymes help us remember that "In fourteen hundred and eighty two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" (and discovered America); that "i before e, except after c" (for spelling words like "believe" and "receipt"); and that "30 days hath September, April, June and November..." (for remembering the days of the months).

5. Mnemonics. Rhyming words like these are known as mnemonics, after the Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne. Another type of mnemonic is associating letters with names in a certain sequence.

So, "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" will instantly help you remember the sequence of the nine planets of the solar system, simply be looking at the first letters of each word. Making the sequence: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

The great thing with mnenonics is that you can make up your own sentences for things you want to remember and you can personalize them to your own situations or make them as silly as you want (remember, silly is memorable).

6. Remembering People's Names. The idea of associating something we want to remember with personal, silly, or funny associations is the key to remembering people's names.

Let's say you're introduced to a Mr Lazenby. All you need to do is picture him lazing on a summer's day on a B road and you'll remember his name. Similarly, a Mrs Pakenham could be imagined packing 'em in in a fish factory and a Mr Forsyth could be pictured as a gardener with four scythes.

The reason why these associations work is that you're using both sides of your brain. Your left brain holds the name. Your right brain remembers the silly image. Together they help you recall.

7. Repetition. One of the important keys to all these memory tricks is repetition. When we first collect a new piece of information, it goes straight into our short-term memories. This can only take 8 seconds. The trouble is, the short-term memory is a holding area for new information and unless we move stuff out, it will quickly be replaced with newer information.

Moving information out means moving it into our long-term memories where it can remain indefinitely. The problem here is, it can take anything up to 6 hours to get something firmly embedded. And that's where repetition comes to the rescue.

Repetition is one of the best ways to embed information in the long-term memory. We can do it through re-telling the information to others, writing it down, re-enacting it, re-reading it, or re-playing it in our heads. The more ways, the better.

So, there you are. 7 simple but powerful ways to improve your memory. They work and if you want to prove it, use them on these 7 steps and I guarantee you'll never forget them again!

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