Memory Retention Strategies

According to Scott Small, a neurologist at Columbia University, our memories begin to deteriorate once we pass the age of 25. Crucial brain structures tend to shrink as we age, making the route by which the brain recovers stored memories more convoluted. This may leave us struggling to recall names, numbers, appointments, facts, or what we meant to do next. Happily, there are a variety of simple strategies to improve retention and boost our memories.

Read Through

• Before reading a passage of important information, quickly glance through it, noting down three or four key words, or some questions that you feel the text might answer. Then read the material. This preparation makes you more attentive to significant information. Several hours later, return to your notes and use them as prompts to recall what you have read. These actions should help to settle the information more securely in your memory.

Doodle

• A strong visual stimulus may enhance our power to concentrate and recall information (see Resources 1). Try doodling a picture of something you wish to remember, for example a train you plan to catch with a clock showing the time of departure. Add bright colors to make important details stand out. Later, instead of actively trying to recall the train time, think of your doodle instead.

Loci Method

• Competitors in the World Memory Championships can accurately recall the order of a deck of cards by using the "loci method" according to "Discover Magazine." The trick is to take the cards in batches of three, visualizing them as a person, an action and an object. A club-waving caveman burying nine jelly donuts in three holes, for instance, might represent the ace of clubs, nine of hearts and three of spades. This mental scene is then pictured as occurring at a specific point on a familiar route, from home to the office, perhaps. Scenes from other groups of cards are added to the route. To remember the deck of cards, the competitor recalls the route and the fantasy of what occurred along the way.

Rhymes

• Rhyme greatly helps us recall information. The rhyme "Thirty days hath September" for example, provides a means of committing the duration of each calendar month to memory. Try making up a piece of doggerel to memorize a piece of information you find hard to recollect. The chemical formula for chloroform might be remembered with a jingle such as: "Chloroform is poisonous, toxic to you and me. And the formula for chloroform is CHCl3." This approach works well when studying for tests.

Sleep On It

• Write down what you wish to remember and read your notes immediately before you go to bed. Reading the notes aloud may aid the memorizing process. "Scientific American" magazine reports research from Harvard Medical School indicating sleep is highly beneficial to the process of remembering and may "orchestrate the strengthening of memories."

Distraction

• Sometimes, a fact you know well simply won't come to mind when you want it. Later, it pops into your mind unprompted. The stress of trying to remember that fact has prevented you from doing so. At times like this, stop actively trying to recall the missing fact and deliberately distract yourself by doing something else. Once the stress has been relieved, the memory will be much easier to access.

Chunking

• Divide up information you need to remember into "chunks" or smaller units. Instead of trying to memorize an entire telephone number, for instance, break it up into groups of three numbers. This approach works well for learning longer numbers, the spelling of tricky words and items on a list.