Some things seem to stick in our memories of their own accord. But most information, even material we really would like to retain, seems to slip away. By thinking about what we do remember, we can learn how to remember the things we usually forget.
What makes certain facts or events stay in memory? Why, for example, might you clearly recall the time your date failed to show up when you were 17 or the finishing order of the 100-meter final two Olympics ago? Both examples illustrate a simple principle on which much of our remembering is based – many of the things we recall effortlessly have some emotional ‘ hook.’ In the first example, the hook might be feelings of hurt or embarrassment; in the second, a strong interest in athletics.
By contrast, the material we forget is generally unfamiliar and uninteresting to us. We do not remember it because we hardly engaged with it initially. To improve memory performance, we need first to address the boredom factor and then use strategies that anchor the material in mind.
Simple strategies
Paying attention is the starting point. Develop the habit of engaging with your current activities – for example, the conversation you are having or the book you are reading – rather than focusing inwards on your thoughts. Then, cultivate your curiosity. If the material you have to remember is fundamentally uninteresting to you, ask yourself or others questions about it or try to relate it to something that you do find interesting.
If you need to remember some important facts or details, select a plan for organizing the material in a meaningful way. Give the material a structure or framework to guide your later retrieval of the facts. One of the most effective strategies to fix the material in memory is to keep coming back to it. Start by recalling it very soon after you first learned or experienced it, then recall it again regularly but with longer and longer intervals in between. By frequently reviewing your progress in memorising the material, you also give yourself feedback on how you are doing and where you need to improve.
Avoiding absent-mindedness
Our frustrating everyday memory problems often have to do with absent mindedness. You may be familiar with the rising irritation that accompanies hunting for something that you had in your hand a minute ago or finding yourself in the kitchen without quite knowing why you went there. Such cases of absent-mindedness are often seen as poor memory, but they have more to do with attention than memory.
The solution to absent- nu nd e ness is ‘present-mindedness’ – paying attention to things as you do them well – and harnessing the mnemonic power of images. If the phone rings as you enter the house, don’t put down your keys and run to answer it. Take the split second required to form a mental image of your hand, placing the keys next to the fruit bowl – and the image will lodge in your memory. Similarly, if you make it a habit to pause and look at the place you are leaving – your train seat, the office desk – you will be less likely to forget something. Before you leave for work in the morning, visualize yourself at work the previous day to re-establish the context and help you recall anything you planned to do or take today.
Pick Your Moment
People tend to think of their memory performance as being fairly constant, but research shows that our ability to remember fluctuates throughout the day. For most people, the best time for memory is about an hour before lunch, probably because people become fully involved with their activities as the day progresses.
Tasks that place a heavy demand on memory should be scheduled for mid to late morning. Your memory is likely to be at its worst immediately after lunch, particularly if you eat a heavy meal. Memory then functions better from an hour after lunch until late afternoon. Later in the evening, most people lose their sharpness as general fatigue sets in. However, memory performance varies from person to person. Early risers will find that their memory peak occurs earlier in the day – late risers may peak in the afternoon.
