Memory Skills

Dec 23, 2008 by Celastrus Shop

Of all the metaphoric language we attach to the process of memory, the notion of memory as a skill is probably most apt. Though memory capacity is partially innate, it is possible to improve your memory skills with techniques and practice. Technically speaking, a skill is any acquired or learned ability that enables a person to perform a task with objectively better results than if they hadn’t acquired the skill. Driving is a good example of a skill: none of us are born with the ability to pilot a moving vehicle from one place to another safely, without getting into an accident or losing our way. Memory is also a skill we can improve with regular practice.

How do you measure memory skills, or any other type of skill? One measure of skill is how much time and energy it takes you to complete a given task. If person A is able to fix a leaky pipe using less time, or using less energy than person B in the same amount of time, then person A could be considered more skillful at fixing plumbing than person B. For example, a professional plumber will almost always expend less time and energy to fix a pipe than a do-it-yourself homeowner.

Another, somewhat trickier measure of skill relates to the product of someone’s time and effort. It’s not just how much time and energy you put into a project that matters, after all: the quality of what you produce must also be taken into account. Let’s use a hypothetical art project as an example: persons A and B are both working on still-life paintings in a similar style, and they each spend the same amount of total hours working exclusively on their projects until done. If, at the end, person B’s painting demonstrates a more refined technique and greater realism than person A’s, then person B would be considered more skillful at painting.

Now for the counterargument: couldn’t person B’s flair for painting, or person A’s aptitude for plumbing, have more to do with inborn talent than trained skills? Although it’s true that some people are just naturally good at certain things, the person who develops their skills at a given task will always have the advantage over naturally talented people who do not make the effort to develop their talent. It takes work to develop and master a skill, whether you’re naturally talented or not.

The more scientists understand about memory, the closer they come to a skill-based paradigm for understanding how it works. Like any skill, memory is a task at which some people naturally excel more than others. We all know someone who seems to be a natural at remembering. On the flip side, if memory is a skill, that means it can also be learned and improved upon with hard work and proper training. Research has shown that of all the higher mental processes that fall under the category of “reason” or “thought,” memory is one of the most trainable. Since much of remembering boils down to the manner in which we organize information in our minds, we can make a conscious effort to improve our memory skills.

Developing your memory skills consists of two parts: the first element is learning to actively observe your everyday surroundings; this is also called mindfulness training. Many people who tend to have good memories have trained themselves to consciously observe the world around them and pay attention to the things they want to remember later.

The second half of boosting your memory skills lies in refining the internal system into which you input new memories. To be effective, your organizational system should have two key features: first, it should organize information in a way that is meaningful to you. In psychological parlance, this is called association: it will be much easier to retain new memories if you can associate them with a meaningful pattern or pre-existing memory. This is essentially the principle by which mnemonic devices work. Mnemonics are letter arrangements that encode groups of related information into an acronym: the word HOMES, for instance, is a mnemonic for the five Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Mnemonics essentially compress multiple items into one that is easier to remember.

Another way to improve your memory skills is the multisensory approach. Your brain processes information on several different levels: linguistic, visual, auditory and so on. If you can find a way to study something you want to learn from multiple sensory angles, you are much more likely to remember it. For instance, don’t just read the text in a chapter you’re studying— look at the diagrams and pictures; listen to any audio materials, or look up recorded lectures about the subject online. There’s a saying that we remember only 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see and hear, etc.; using multiple sensory modalities will more deeply encode new information into your brain across multiple areas of function.

There’s also the memory palace, an ancient but very effective recall technique first developed in Roman times. Basically, you create a visual walkthrough of a space that is familiar to you, such as the inside of your house. As you walk through your mental space, take note of the objects and elements of the space that catch your attention. These will be “memory pegs”: on each peg, hang an image of the item you want to remember. Make the image as shocking, hilarious, or absurd as you can— this will make it much more memorable. The memory palace is a powerfully effective technique because it combines the proven process of association with the multisensory method by encouraging you to “place” the memories in a vividly imagined space from your actual life.

Finally, just as other skills are made easier by physical preparation (stretching for a run, putting on gloves to carry blocks of ice), your memory skills will get that much better if you’re in good health. This includes adequate sleep, exercise, balanced diet, and the use of herbal supplements that have been clinically shown to improve brain functions, memory among them.