TIPS ON IMPROVING MEMORY
Memory is the storing of learned information and the ability to recall things.
Three processes occur in remembering: perception and registering of a stimulus; temporary maintenance of the perception, or short-term memory; and lasting storage of the perception, or long-term memory.
Most of us express dissatisfaction with our memory, especially when we want to recall some detail and we can't. A lot of people insist, “My memory is terrible,” or “I can't remember anything.” In most cases, their memory is fine. They just need to take the time to learn ways to “register” the events more clearly, so they can “recall” them more successfully, later.
Here are some tips on what we need to do to improve our memory.
1. Positive expectation: Believe that you have a good memory. If you believe you have a poor memory and you can't remember anything, your mind will do everything to prove you right. It is better to think that your memory is good. When you learn better memory techniques, you will have a better memory.
2. Interest and importance: Recall of a particular event or detail depends on the interest we take and the importance we assign to that detail or event at the time, when it is taking place. We remember so much more about people, places, and topics, which fascinate us. When you are greatly interested in a subject, you pay close attention and your brain releases chemicals to form deeper “imprints” on the cells that store memory. Those can become “long lasting impressions.”
3. Pay attention: If you want to recall something, pay close attention to it at the time. The problem may not be memory, the problem may be one of attention. People, who have a good memory, pay close attention to events as they happen. Also, you may well know, that the level of interest and importance we assign to a person or an event determines how much attention we are going to pay it at the particular time it is occurring.
4. Active attention: Memory is an active process. The more active attention you pay, the more details you observe, the more you think, reason, and comprehend, the more associations you make of what you know with what you are trying to learn, the more you will retain and be able to recall later on. Good memory is a state of the active mind.
5. Relaxed mind: A relaxed mind helps memory. Learn with a relaxed mind. Recall the learned material with a relaxed mind. Let's take as an example a situation, where you misplace your car keys. If you get too agitated with yourself in trying to recall something, as is the case in this example, you are in for frustration. But, if you relax your mind, and calmly go through the events backward, you are more likely to remember where you left them.
6. Reduce anxiety: While mild anxiety can increase interest and attention, high anxiety can impair attention and concentration, and therefore, limit the recall of learned material. That is why, if we are too anxious during a test, we forget what we earlier
knew very well. Actually, your memory is okay but anxiety is interfering with it. Management of test anxiety has helped many students in their test performance.
7. Monitor depression: Depression can impair the interest and joy in the events surrounding us. As a result, too little energy is left to recall anything. Some depressed persons become more anxious and depressed thinking: “I have lost my mind.” Once depression is treated, memory, as a general rule, returns to the normal.
8. Sensory channel: Use your favorite sensory channel. Some remember better what they see, “visual memory,” and some remember better what they hear, “auditory memory.” If you are someone who remembers better what you hear, then listen to a book on tape, rather than reading it. For other material, tape what you want to learn, and then listen to it for better recall.