Help With Memory

Do you need help with your memory? Being able to retain and recall information is essential. Remembering a phone number, answers to a test---it's all part of our memory's daily functions. Here are some tips to help you with memory.

How Does Memory Work?

• According to Human eSources, memory has three stages: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. The sensory register lasts less than a second and records your sensory experience at the initial moment of perception---what you see, do, hear, touch or taste. Basically, this type of memory reacts as a snapshot to the information your senses are picking out.

Types of Memory

• Short-term memory is transitory and limited. This stage of memory lasts for about half a minute. It also records what our five senses perceive. But it requires recitation or repetition to be stored, otherwise it will be lost quickly---kind of like when you repeat someone's phone number to memorize it.

  Long-term memory, meanwhile, has the ability to store information permanently. Like your anniversary or your mother-in-law's birthday. With long-term memory, keeping information stored is not the problem; rather, accessing this information is.

How Does Forgetting Work?

• Though our sensory register and short-term memory stages are quick to forget, our long-term memory does not forget information---it just may be difficult to access it. This is very similar to when you save an unnamed file on your computer. The file is there, but you can't find it.

Other Causes of Memory Loss

• The main cause of memory loss is time, followed by stress, ADHD, depression, alcoholism, vitamin B-12 deficiency, drugs and metabolic diseases.

How to Help Your Memory

• To remember things better, it is important to have a meaningful organization. So when you are learning new material, you should cluster it into categories that are meaningful to you.

  One method is visualization. Though the left side of your brain specializes in verbal functions, the right side cares for visual pictures. This is why commercials on TV use plenty of visual aid to help you remember their products. So try to visualize what it is you are trying to remember.

  You can also try recitation. A few seconds of repetition could take material from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. Also develop an interest for what you are trying to remember or learn. Your attitude will be significant to your memory. If you see what you are trying to remember as vital to you, then you will be more likely to remember it.

  It is also effective to memorize small amounts of material and then review it frequently, instead of trying to memorize big chucks of knowledge.