Playing Games with Memory

Memory is a topic that I am very familiar. It is also something that is in constant debate between my wife and I. The norm in society seems to dictate that men or more forgetful than women. Within the past couple of weeks, a new study has come out that supports that, stating that men are just as forgetful at 30 as they are at 60. This tends to be the exact opposite within my home.

Before this week’s readings, I had already studied and currently use different memory strategies. During the first exercise, I was about to memorize everything within 30 seconds (Exploratorium, n.d.). I was able to get all of them right. Depending on what I am trying to remember, I implore different strategies. If it is a list of random items, I use the story method (Brown, 2007). The very first list I memorized using the story method, I still remember to this day. I do not believe a story in and of itself is very memorable for long term memory. There has to be a few elements to the story that make it memorable.

Part of what makes the story method easy to remember for me is that I make the stories vivid. I make sure I have a clear picture in my head of what I’m trying to remember. I also let myself emotionally engage with it. Secondly, I let the images interact. If I am trying to remember a list that includes a sausage and a telephone, putting them by each other will not do the trick. They have to do something together. Lastly, the picture should be unusual. The more ridiculous a story is, the more memorable it will be (Coon & Mitterer, 2013).

Though this way of linking things together to remember something is good, it is only good for things that are in sequential order. In addition, if you get stuck on one word, the whole system breaks down (Brown, 2007). I also do not feel that this is a good long term strategy for remembering things. This is where the loci system or taking a mental walk comes in. I find this to be a bit better at remembering individual items rather than lists. One way to take advantage of this way of remembering things is to place pictures of objects on things. For instance, if I want to remember to get some milk, I would associate a picture of a milk bottle to a sign on the way to work. Much like the previous strategy, it’s main benefit is for short term memory.

There is one system that I use that has been brought into popularity via different television shows such as Sherlock, The Mentalist, and of course literature such as Harris’ novel, Hanibal. This is the loci system taken to a bit of an extreme (Brown, 2007). I find it very useful for remembering things long term. A memory palace is taking a place that is familiar to you and attaching things, much like the loci system, to different items within a house or a building. It’s a method that I use on a regular basis if I want to remember something for more than a day or a week at a time. I place objects in my memory palace and reference them, as I need them.

The strategies are good places to start for people who are trying to improve their ability to remember things. Utilizing a strategy is better than using no strategy at all (Wiseman, 2010). Everyone isn’t blessed with having a great memory. My wife is a perfect example. Though she tends to forget the simplest of things, I tend to remember everything. There is a caveat to that. I only remember things that I want to remember. However, some memory is better than none.

References

Brown, D. (2007). Tricks of the Mind. Transworld Publishers. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3
Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2013). Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior (13th Edition ed.). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ↩
Exploratorium. (n.d.). Don’t forget! Playing games with memory. Retrieved from http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/dont_forget/index.html ↩
Wiseman, R. (2010). 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute. ↩