Try these mental "tricks" for improving your short-term memory
Where did I leave my car keys? Memory is a fickle friend, and seems to leave us farther behind every year. Remember when you could learn new things and spit back "important dates in history" effortlessly? You probably knew the names of at least half the kids in your graduating class. Now you sometimes mix-up your co-workers' first names. It's true: the older we get the more difficult it becomes to safely store short-term memories.
The good news is, with a bit of effort and some time-tested "tricks" you can force your memory to do your bidding. Take a minute, before you continue reading, and try to remember these five words: car, dog, banana, aspirin, napkin. Got it? Okay, let's dig in...
First, let's admit that there can be important physical reasons for declining short-term memory. Poor nutrition affects brain agility, as do many age-related ailments. In addition, certain medications, as well as alcohol and tobacco, can impair memory. Inadequate sleep can be a factor, too; and it now appears that dreaming plays a major role in the brain's attempt to "sort out" new memories (this is called "consolidation"). Compare your own experience with that of your contemporaries. If you sense that your ability to recall recent events and details isn't up to par, please do seek medical help.
If you are otherwise healthy, you certainly can teach your old brain some new tricks.
When you were young and cramming for finals, your mind had enormous capacity for recollection. Now - with a family, career, hobbies, a home computer, video games, and a thousand cable channels - your brain struggles each day to find room to store the new stuff. We live in a world of infinite distractions. Short term memory relies on distinctive events. If you really want to remember something that matters, you have to create that distinction.
How?
You have to work at it. So far there is no magic pill, though some may claim otherwise. In order to retain a lasting impression you have to physically create a home in your synapses for that new memory. Before we talk about that, let's dispel a common misconception. Some have theorized that your brain somehow manages to "record" everything you experience during your waking hours. They claim that, with the right tools (hypnosis, for instance), you can retrieve even the most minute details from this amazing stockpile of knowledge.
That's poppycock. Don't believe everything you see on CSI: Miami. No one can "put you under" and allow you to zoom in on the bumper of the car you passed yesterday and cough up the license plate number. However, you CAN train yourself to recall some pretty intricate information if you want to - you bank account number, for instance, or the first dozen integers after 3.14 for pi. All you have to do is try.
That's the amazing secret of impressive recall: effort.
The various memory tricks people use all revolve around methods for focusing that effort on creating lasting memories. Most of these use one type of imagery or another. Music works, too. Ever notice how easily you can retrieve the lyrics to songs you like? Remember how you learned your ABC's, way back when? Anyway, back to imagery.
One popular method for organizing and storing something you want to remember is to populate a cul-de-sac. What? Picture a street shaped like a lollipop; add some houses along the stick and around the loop. Don't try to envision more than eight or nine houses. Take whatever it is you're trying to memorize, and store one discrete part of the total in each house. Those parts could be colors of the rainbow, a series of numbers, a group of related names, even a set of simple instructions. Doesn't matter - the simple act of visualizing the physical street and coupling information to each house is just enough effort to secure the memory.
You've probably heard or read several different tricks for name recollection. Most involve some sort of image matching, often using overly-convenient associations. That's easy for people with pictorial names like Belle Star, not so simple for Julianna Margulies, for instance. For more difficult names, rhyming sometimes works: "Julianna, red bandanna, Margulies, if you please." Once again, it's the simple work involved in creating the rhyme that forces the memory.
One of the most effective memory tricks takes advantage of man's innate love of stories.
It's difficult to remember seemingly unrelated words. When you string those same words together to form a simple story, you might be surprised how easy it can be to store that information. This method actually takes short term memories and "transfers" them to your more powerful long-term memory bank. Your crafted story can be as silly as you like. Can you recall the five words listed in the second paragraph? (No peeking!) See if this "story" clarifies them:
"I took my dog for a ride in my car. He ate a banana, so I needed a napkin. Got an aspirin?"
By examining the words you're trying to learn and then arranging them in SOME sort of logical progression, you strengthen the resulting memory dramatically. Here's a real-world example.
One of the roads I travel frequently is long and straight, with many side roads. Eventually I decided I'd like to at least TRY to remember the names of those intersecting roads. Call it a personal challenge. Using the story method, I've since memorized about half of them - the ones closest to home. This is the "story" I composed, with the road names capitalized:
"With the Blume of a rose on the hilt of his Wilkinson sword, on the banks of Spring Creek near Falcon Point, with faithful horse Keck by his side, Sir Woodbrooke met Sir Richardson in a duel for the safety of Valentown." Pretty silly, huh? Check the map, though - it worked!
Another way to bolster your memory is to "notice new stuff." This little game serves as a fine memory-booster and also helps disprove that "recorded memory" baloney. Here's how it works: go to a plaza near your home or work, one that's familiar to you. You probably know the names of at least three of the stores there, if you've been there often enough. Now challenge yourself to notice - and remember - at least two other store names there, ones you've never paid attention to before.
There are several different ways to apply this principle. This exercise works, like the others, because the act of focusing on specific details solidifies those memories. Try it.
Simply by making a point of trying to learn things you will find yourself capable of impressive feats of memory. Experts call this "exercising the brain" and recommend it for adults of any age. These tricks aren't really tricks at all, just methods of applying the same principle. Try different approaches for various situations to see what works best for you. Impress your friends. "Dog, car, napkin, banana, aspirin" - I didn't peek, I swear! Notice the order is off, just a bit?
Where are my car keys? On the peg by the door, where I ALWAYS put them, of course. If I placed them anywhere else, I'd never find them!