Tips to Help Improve Your Memory

Tips to Help Improve Your Memory
To understand how memory might be improved, it is a smart idea to learn about how memory works and fails. A small structure in the brain called the hippocampus is the nerve center for memory formation. That’s where the crucial switching from short-term to long-term memory takes place through a process called “consolidation.”

Most memory diseases involve the steady deterioration of consolidation, so it may be easier to call on ancient memories and not be able to store any new ones. Can anything be done to enhance your ability to store memories?

Five tips that generally improve memory are:
1. Deal with stress. Continuous stress produces chemical by-products which inhibit memory.
2. Get enough sleep. Dream or REM sleep gives your brain the opportunity to process new information and consolidate learning.
3. Eat for memory. Certain foods are thought to improve memory performance. They include fish such as salmon and tuna, eggs, beef, chicken and bananas.
4. Exercise. Exercise can help your whole body work more efficiently. A short exercise break every 30 to 50 minutes can help push oxygen around your body and to your brain.
5. Drink lots of water or non-caffeinated drinks. Even a small degree of dehydration can reduce alertness. Some day you may use that glass of water to take a pill designed to protect your memory.

Research into drugs being used to treat memory difficulties found that by amplifying specific recep-tors in the brain, it may be possible to give memory a boost. For example, in developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and depression, Cortex Pharmaceuticals (AMEX:COR) has pioneered and is developing a new class of pharmaceuticals called AMPAKINE® compounds. These molecules amplify signals in the brain, like a hearing aid does for the hearing impaired, making it easier to encode new information.

While the goal of these drugs is to treat Alzheimer’s, depression and a variety of memory and cognition problems associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders—not to enhance normal memory performance— a lack of side effects found in experiments on mice indicates the drugs could be used that way in the future.

Early Phase 1 clinical trials in elderly subjects suggest AMPAKINE may have memory-enhancing characteristics which could benefit patients with mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. The compounds may provide acute symptomatic relief for MCI and cognition.
Tips to Help Improve Your Memory

Herman Ebbinghaus

Herman Ebbinghaus
Herman Ebbinghaus (1850-1909), who originally trained in philosophy, suggested that: Mental states of every kind of sensations, feelings, ideas – which were at one time present in consciousness (but have now disappeared from it), have not with their disappearance absolutely ceased to exist.

In his book Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology (1885), he goes further: ....they continue to exist, stored up so to speak, in the memory.

So for Ebbinghaus , experiences never cease to exist, they just get ‘stored up’ in memory. He continues to explain in his book that there are three ways in which the memory store may be accessed.

First he describes voluntary access, in which we deliberately try to recollect images. Second, he outlines a recall that is ‘without any act of the will – images that are reproduced involuntary’. Third, he proposes that there is a type of recall that is obvious only because we are able to carry out some task or activity.

It is knowledge that is not conscious, yet produces effects that can be seen in everyday life.

One very important contribution that Ebbinghaus made to the development of memory research was the rigor in his methodology.

The experiments he conducted tested how humans learned to associate words together. He was more interested in the process of memory formation than the end result. For this reason he developed ‘nonsense syllables’, combinations of letter that had no existing associations.

His argument was that if he used words that already existed some of those worlds would be easier to recall than others because they would be well established in the memory storage.

For example, of a person was to see the word ‘cage’ and they owned a pet that was kept in a cage, they would be at a distinct advantage when it came to remembering this word. They could make a more meaningful association than someone who did not own such a pet.

This sounds like a very sensible approach to memory research - to use material that has no preconceived images attached to it.
Herman Ebbinghaus

Increase Observation Power

Increase Observation Power
To be able to observe better, you need to be attentive and focused. If you are not attentive, you can’t observant and if you are not observant you can’t have a good memory.

There are various ways to strengthen the observation. You can begin playing the memory games that are flooding the markets these days,

The games liked ‘jigsaw’ puzzles’ and ‘spot the differences’ are also very affective in increasing the power of observation.

Give yourself some simple observation tasks every day. For instance, if you are going for a party, observe the dresses worn by five people.

When you return home, try to recapitulate the details. Increase the number to ten, after a few days.

Similarly, while driving, when you halt at the traffic light you can try to observe the vehicles around you.

Note the kind of vehicle, the color and the make of the vehicle, the driver and the passengers. Try and recall these when you reach your office.

While shopping for detergents try and observe how many brands of detergents are available at the supermarkets, what is the difference on the packing, the prices etc.

These exercise will hone your observation within a few weeks.
Increase Observation Power

The Brain Size

The human brains weighs about 1400 g and is estimated to contain around 100 billion neurons, each of which connects with around 10,000 others in branching networks.

A great deal has been said about brain size and its relationship to mental capacity and intelligence.

The brain has long undergone the process of evolution. The brain has not only increased in size, but also in its level of organization, sophistication and complexity.

However, the increase size of the brain, not necessarily an indication of increased intelligence.

The absolute size of the brain has very little meaning, since an elephant’s brain is obviously very much heavier than that of any other mammal.

However, as a general rule, the bigger the animal, the bigger the brain. Its look like that the bigger the body requires a larger brain to control the larger muscles.

For comparative studies, a more meaningful ,measure has been used in which brain weight is related to body weight.

However, there is currently no general agreement about whether relative brain size can be correlated with intelligence or mental ability.

The weight of an elephant’s brain is only 0.2 per cent of its body weight. It turns out that of all the mammals, the tree shrew, a small mouse like anima of nor great distinction or intellectual or otherwise - has the biggest relative brain size, 3 per cent of body weight.

The size of the brain is independent of the stature of the individual; that the size of the brain is also independent of sex, although since the tine of Aristotle, it has been the custom to repeat that the female brain is smaller than that of the male.
The Brain Size

Constructing Memory

Constructivist approach describes memory as the combined influences of the world and the person’s own ideas and expectations.

Elaboration may take place during both encoding and retrieval. And it need not be an exact reproduction.

For example, the experience of each person while they are watching a film will be somewhat different because they are different individual. Drawing upon different personal pasts, and with different values, thoughts, goals, feeling , expectations, moods and past experiences.

Human memories are seldom precise representations or reliable replicas of past events Sometimes, they recall less than previously experienced because of some source of forgetting. At other times, however, memory may include even more information than human originally experienced when these memories first were formed.

But some times it might be associated with enhanced sensitivity for ‘false positives’, memory constructions that include new association that were not present in the original situation, as in false memories.

What ever it means, in general constructive memory is the utilization of one’s general knowledge to provide a more complete and detailed description of some remembered event or situation.
Constructing Memory

Frederick Bartlett

Frederick Bartlett (1886-1969) published a pioneering text entitled ‘Remembering’ in 1932.

It was groundbreaking because, unlike any of the aforementioned historical he suggested that recall is not just the reactivation of events from some sort of ‘storage bin’ but a whole new reprocessing in its own right.’

He argued that we use existing ‘structures of knowledge’ - concept called schemas, to help in the ‘reforming’ of the original memories. With this theory it has allowed for developing information processing theories.

Therefore our attitudes, expectations, belief and levels of motivation will highly influence the way in which we remember.
Frederick Bartlett

What is metamemory?

What is metamemory?
The term metamemory refers to knowledge of memory and memory process. It is knowing, for example, what one’s memory limits are, which memory strategies are more or less effective, and which memory tasks are more or less difficult. Memory also includes being able to plan and control memory process consciously as one in learning and remembering.

Metamemory is part of metacognition, knowledge the human mind and of the whole range of cognitive processes. The store of metacognitive knowledge might include an understanding that you are better at word problems than at math problems, that it is harder to pay attention to what are trying to learn when there is distracting noise in the background than when it is quiet, and that it is wise to check out a proposed solution to a problem before concluding it is correct.
What is metamemory?

Even Mild Concussions Cause Memory Loss in High School Athletes

Even Mild Concussions Cause Memory Loss in High School Athletes
For teenage athletes, even mild concussions can cause memory problems lasting up to a week. The first study of its kind evaluates the effects of and recovery from mild head injuries in high school sports. The short-term effects are more serious than most people realize, scientists say.

Concussions are head injuries caused by a blow to the head and can result in brain damage. Sometimes a victim suffers varying states of consciousness, or none at all. There also may be confusion, dizziness, and memory loss.

Victims of mild concussion are typically high school athletes between ages 13 and 18 who play contact sports, suggesting greater vulnerability to severe injury in that age group, Lovell points out. Mild concussions are the most common types of concussions and are frequently overlooked or unrecognized because the player often returns to play during the same game or match.

Animal studies have shown that changes in brain chemistry persist seven days or more after mild injury. Studies have also suggested that if the brain has not had time to heal, it will be more susceptible to further, more serious damage. But current return-to-play guidelines frequently used nationwide suggest a player return to the field after mild concussions if symptoms disappear after 15 minutes.
Even Mild Concussions Cause Memory Loss in High School Athletes

5 ways to improve memory for students

5 ways to improve memory for students
1. Study with short breaksTake short breaks while studying.
Do not study continuously for more than 30 to 45 minutes. Give a break of five to ten minutes in between two sessions. Such short breaks give rest to your brain and help it to reinforce what you are learning. This will make it easy for you to understand more and remember better. Do not read any new information during these short breaks. Just relax or walk around.

2. Explain to yourselfExplain what you study to yourself.
Pretend you are both the student and the teacher, and try to explain the chapter or study topic to yourself. This kind of ‘explaining’ automatically helps you to learn the subject in detail. Hence you will remember it clearly.

3. DiscussDiscuss important study topics with a willing classmate.
Holding such discussion will jog your memory. This is like another form of revision. Also, you will become aware of important points about those study topics. This will help both you and your classmate to learn more and remember more.

4. Sleep well
Yes, sleep cosily. Good sleep is essential for good memory. Recent research has shown that lack of sufficient sleep interferes with memory function. Because during sleep and rest period, our brain processes and consolidates information which it records during the day. So do not skip sleep; especially during the exam days. Sleep for at least six hours. Eight hours is best.

5. Eat well
Now what has eating got to do with remembering more? Simple. What we eat affects our brain’s performance. Poor nutrition leads to learning and memory problems. So make sure you include nutrient-rich food items like--whole grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and milk in your diet. This will keep your brain healthy and happy.The above five remedies are easy to follow. They definitely help to strengthen your memory and achieve more success in your studies.
5 ways to improve memory for students

How Would You Like To Improve Your Memory?

How Would You Like To Improve Your Memory?
Forgetful?
Can’t remember where you put things?
Do you forget important dates like your…oops! Anniversary?
Peoples names, birthdays, places, events, what you studied, etc, all draw a blank?
If so, just relax. Don’t get so serious about it. The whole world isn’t about to stop just because you forget a few things, right?

Many people do experience memory problems, regardless of age, sex, or social standing. You didn’t think it was just you, did you? Don’t think only aging people can experience forgetfulness, because everyone can have some memory loss from time to time.

You want a sharper memory? Try these techniques:

1. You have to be interested in what you want to remember or memorize. Let’s say for instance you love to study History more than any other subject. Do you think you would remember History more than your studies in other subjects? Absolutely. By becoming more interested in what you are studying, you are also giving more attention to it. This increases your chances of recalling it again from your memory when you need it.

2. You need to be able to focus well and put your full attention on what you are learning. If you easily get distracted by things around you, it will take you longer to memorize and remember things. Find a quiet place so you can concentrate on what you are reading, learning, or observing.

3. You must use your imagination. Be creative. Learn to visualize what you are reading etc. I don’t mean just get the pictures, really experience it with all your senses. Many memory techniques require the person to think of the most outrageous and exaggerated images to help them remember certain facts or information. The funnier and more out-of-this-world the images, the better chances you will retain data in your mind. Have fun with it!

4. A healthy lifestyle can definitely help. A good diet, regular exercise and enough sleep create a mind that is alert and energetic. It is far easier to recall stuff when your mind is alert and not sleepy. There are also some vitamins that apparently help to improve memory. Check out your local health food store.

5. Visualize some pleasant experiences you had recently. Try to get get the sensations at the time, the feelings, the emotions, the smells, the sounds, the sights, the colors. This will freshen your mind and make it easier to retain information.
Let me know how it goes.

Source:articlecity.com
How Would You Like To Improve Your Memory?

The Brain

The human brain, as anyone knows, is an organ the size of a small melon located in the head.

It is protected by the skull can be a series of membranes this sheets of cells between the bone and brain matter, bathed in a liquid called the cerebrospinal fluid (SCF).

This colorless liquid, which consists mainly of water with various proteins, salts and small molecules, fills the ventricles, helps transport material, to the brain and removes debris.

The inward transport actually begins with cerebral blood flow, which carries oxygen from the lungs and nutrients from the food in the stomach to the brain and spinal cord – the central nervous system.

The skull membranes and CSF also hold the brain matter together and provide some cushioning against sudden jolts.

The brain itself is fairly soft, with the consistency of a soft boiled egg.

Since many people have seem animal brains either frozen in butcher’s shops or as anatomical specimens pickled in formaldehyde or preserved in alcohol, there is a general impression that the brain is more solid that it actually is.

The brain has a whitish color, flecked with pink, due to the blood in the small capillaries at its surface.

This external surface, as is seen in so many drawings or models, is deeply furrowed and crisscrossed by an intricate pattern of ridges and valleys, giving it the appearance of a very large walnut.

In monkeys, apes and particularly humans, these convolutions increase the surface of the outer layer of the brain.

This is one of the most important ‘improvements’ in the nervous system brought about by evolution.

The brains of mice and rats have a relatively smooth outer surface, while cats and dogs have some indentations.

But it is only monkeys, and particularly apes, that have convolutions that are almost as complex as those of humans.

The brain of a rat is about the size of an almonds and smooth, an when cortex, the outer layer, is peeled off by careful dissection and flatted, it has an are about the size of a large postage stamp.

On the other hand, why the cortex of the human brain is peeled off and flattened it covers an area about the size of a page of newsprint.

The increase in the area of the cortex or outer layer of the brain has the advantage of increasing the number of cells that can be packed into it, while retaining a sheet-like organization.

If the processing of thins such s vision or memory occurs in the cortex, as we believes it does, this gives a distinct advantage to any organism with many furrows of the surface of the brain, i.e. a relatively large number of cortical cells.
The Brain

The Ebbinghaus Tradition

The Ebbinghaus Tradition
Although personal observations and anecdotes about memory can be illuminating and entertaining, they often originate from a specific experience of a given individual.

It is therefore open to question to what degree they are
a) Objectively ‘real’
b) Can be generalized universally, to all individuals.

Systematic scientific research can offer unique insight into these issues. Some of the classic systematic research in memory and forgetting was conducted in the late 18th century by Hermann Ebbinghaus.

Ebbinghaus taught himself 169 separate lists of 13 nonsense syllables.

Each syllable comprised a ‘meaningless’ consonant-vowel-consonant trigram. Ebbinghaus relearned to 31 days. He was especially interested in the extend to which forgetting had occurred over this time period, using the ‘saving score’ (i.e. how much time it took him to relearn the list) as a measure of how much he had forgotten.

Ebbinghaus noted that the rate of forgetting was roughly exponential: that is, forgetting is rapid at first (soon after the material has been learned), but the rate at which information is forgotten gradually decreases.

So the rate of forgetting is logarithmic rather than linear. This observation has stood the test of time well, and has been shown to apply across of range of different materials and learning conditions.

Another interesting feature of memory noted by Ebbinghaus is that, having ‘lost’ information such as some of your French vocabulary, you can learn this information much faster than someone which has never learned French in the first place (i.e. the concept of ‘savings’).

This finding implies that there must be a residual trace of this ‘lost; information in your brain.

This point also attests to the important uissue regarding consius verus unconscious knowledge, we are obviously not conscious of this ‘lost; French vocabulary, but the research findings regarding this preserved information indicate that there must be some retention of the memory record at an unconscious level.

A closely related point is made by the eminent psychologists B. F Skinner when he writes that ‘Education is what survives when what had been learned has been forgotten.’ We might add’.....consciously forgotten but retained in some other residual form’.
The Ebbinghaus Tradition

Memory Bank

Memory Bank
One of the enduring myths about memories is that they are kept in one place in the brain, a memory bank.

At first even scientist assumed that this was the case. But over many decades of research, they realized that this assumption was wrong.

In the 1980s, when the functional brain imaging technology – such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans – became available, scientists could see people’s brains at work for the first time.

They could obtain images of the brain as people performed a variety of tasks, including remembering things.

Researchers discovered that memories are not stored in a single location, but rather are widely distributed in networks throughout the brain, primarily in the cerebral cortex.

The cerebral cortex consists of the outer covering of the two large hemispheres of the brain and is the most highly develop part of the human nervous system.

The cortex contains function to integrate sensory information, control voluntary movements and mediate thinking processes.

Upon further study, scientist learned that different areas of the brain process different kinds of information.

Thus, for most people, language skills are concentrated in the left frontal and temporal lobes toward the front of the brain, while the registration of visual images in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain.

What these findings suggest is that a particular aspect of a memory will most likely to store in a region of the cortex that specializes in processing more or less comparable memories.
Memory Bank

Why do we forget?

Why do we forget?
Can you recall your passport number? Bet, you can’t. Simply, because it is not used everyday.

You will have to make a big effort to seek it out from the bottom of the stack of information that is stored in your brain.

To be remembered easily, information needs to be organized and meaningful, and needs to come to us at a slow pace so as to process it.

The reason for most of the annoying instances of forgetting is that you do not take the trouble to connect new information with some fact you already know.

Isolated facts drop out of the mind quickly but if you file new knowledge in relation to something already established in your mind, you will retain it and be able to refer to it whenever you need it.

It is simply a matter of making special use for your power of association, which is the beginning of all learning processes.

In mental term, the more you associate a fact with other stored information in your mind the better your memory can retain it. Each of its associates becomes a hook on which the new information hangs.

Association is making mental hook from which you may fish facts of your mind as you require them.

The mental filing system will provide the mental hooks upon which to hang, or file, anything you want to remember.

Certain selected called Key Words, are the mental hooks in your filling system. Each of these represent a vivid image.

Let us see what reasons the scientist have attributed to the habit of forgetting. The scientific theory is that people forget more as time passes. This make sense.

According to the scientists we forget things because of certain processes. These process are:
• Interference
• Motivated forgetting
• Retrieval failure
• Constructive process

Why do we forget?

Improve Memory

Improve Memory
Since Greek times, people have been fascinated by memory. Before the widespread availability of portable writing materials, a good memory was vital for many activities.

A political in ancient Athens could nor rely on the projected text, which or television newscasters and US presidents has become routine.

Carefully prepared speeches had to be memorized. The memory methods developed to help in such circumstances provide the basis for modern techniques used by entertainers and described in many books in memory.

Howevert, such methods play a relatively minor in improving memory.

Pencil and paper were not invented for nothing, and still our most valuable eternal memory aids.

In order to improve your memory, you should consider making use of both external and internal memory aids.

Internal aids are strategies for improving your mind’s ability to retain the material you want.

External aids are techniques to relive your mind of the need to remember.
Improve Memory

Memory study by Ancient Greeks

Memory study by Ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks developed a method of memory improvement that became known as mnemonics after the Greek goddess of memory.

Aristotle published an essay entitled ‘Memory”, in which he attempted to describe the features of recall.

It is proposed by many that this is the first formal attempt at understanding this subject.

Plato likened memory to wax tablet: ‘We hold the wax to perceptions of them.’

Ironically, this idea that a ‘mental impression’ is created inside the mind is strangely similar to modern explanations of memory - the difference being that current views of memory emphasize its dynamic nature, rather than seeing it as static ‘storage bin’ that collects experiences.
Memory study by Ancient Greeks

William James

William James
In 1890, William James published what is regarded by many as the first textbook of psychology.

His comprehensive coverage of the subject contained many topics, including memory.

James believed that memory served a vital function, allowing us to retain certain bits of information invaluable for our survival.

His idea was that we do no need to remember every piece of sensory information we are exposed to, as this would overload us with trivial data.

He went on to suggest that we have two memory systems, ‘primary memory’, a system that allow us to experience consciousness and ‘secondary memory’, a system that allows us to store events from the past.

Access to the primary memory required very little effort, whereas secondary memory required a deliberate effortful act.

James provided with a solid foundation within the field of memory. His notions of a primary and secondary memory system set the scene for what later became interpreted as short term memory and long term memory.

James’s idea about memory did not really start to influence experimental psychology until the 1960s – the reason being that up until this time, behaviorism was the dominant force within psychology.

James’s focus in consciousness and memory did not fit into the objective approach of the behaviorists so his earlier theories tended to be ignored.
William James

Acquisition of Information

Acquisition of Information
To remember any thong, you must first learn. When new information is learned, or acquired, it first takes the form of temporary pathways of nerve cell activity in the brain as one neuron communication with the next.

The locations of the neuronal pathways depends on the nature of the information.

For example, activities such as speaking and writing activate neurons on the left temporal lobe, which processes language for most people where as studying a map probably activates neurons in the right parietal lobe, which processes spatial information.

The neuronal activity that represents the information you’ve just learned is temporary and the new information is part of your short term memory.

The memories that endure all be those that were encoded most completely in the first place or the information that you paid the closest attention to when you learned it.

When you have trouble remember a piece of information, it’s often because you weren’t paying close attention when you initially encountered it.

One of the reason older people have more trouble remembering things is that they are more easily distracted by background noises and other interruptions which can interfere with initial learning.

Memories that affect many of the senses as well as the emotions often are more likely to be retained.
Acquisition of Memory

Process of Remembering

Process of Remembering
The first step towards improving recall system is to observe. The stronger the observation the better is the memory.

Most of us do not attach enough importance to the power of observation. As the result we often overlook details while observing.

A simple test of the observation would be to try and recall specifics after you have watched a move.

For instance, try to remember the dress worn by the heroine while singing a specific song or the locale that went in the background.

You will find that you will not be able to recall these details initially, but as you hone up your power to observation, you will be able to remember the minutest of the details.

The reason for this change is very simple. You have been able to improve your power do remembering because you have made your observation keener.

Our forefathers had a much better memory than we do. Since there were no written scriptures, much of the text was passed from generation to generation though oral communication.

For this, the learned few had to memories the entire lot of scriptures through the rote method.

It was much later that writing methods were discovered and the ancient wisdom and scriptures were put in writing.

No doubt that the observation power of the people in the ancient times was also keen since they had to remember everything without being able to put it in writing.
Process of Remembering

External and Internal memory

External and Internal memory
Since the Greek times, people have been fascinated by memory. Before the widespread availability of portable writing materials, a good memory was vital for many activity.

A politician in ancient Athens could not rely on the projected text, which for television newscasters and US president has become routine.

Carefully prepared speeches had to be memorized. The memory methods developed to help in such circumstances provide the basis for modern techniques used by the entertainers and described in many books on memory.

However, such methods play a relatively minor role in improving memory.

Pencil and paper were not invented for nothing and are still our most valuable external memory.
In order to improve memory, both external and internal memory should be considered.

Internal aids are strategies for improving mind’s ability to retain the material needed.
External and Internal memory

Theory of Use and Disuse

Theory of Use and Disuse
An average human being loses up to 1,000,000 brain cells every day due to disuse.

Unlike the other cells of our body, the brain cells do not multiply. Any cells that are damaged or not used, simply degenerate.

By the age of 35 a human being losses over 1,000 nerve cells a day.

The lesser a person uses his brain, the worse his memory becomes. People get mentally out of shape when they stop challenging their minds; this happens when they opt for habitual solutions rather than purposely thought, or if they confine their thinking to a small range of interests.

Remember that mental fitness – your ability to concentrate, to reason, to visualize, to imagine, to make decisions, to solve problems and to think creatively - depends greatly on how well and how often you exercise your mind.

You need to exercise all of your mental muscles in order to keep your self mentally fit. Just like several body muscle work together to create physical movement, several mental muscles work together to create clear purposely thinking.
Theory of Use and Disuse

Human Memory

Human Memory
Memory of even the simplest, multicellular creature is not a matter of chance or skill, but is a well organized and extremely complicated system, determined fundamentally by genes and by experience.

Human memory is a highly developed and extremely efficient system. Memory means not only ‘the act of remembering’, but also ‘the person, thing, happening or act remembered’.

Other definitions include the use of the words ‘from memory’ to mean that something is remembered without the aid of notes, and the expression ‘in memory of’, meaning in honor of a certain person after their death.

An important feature of memory, or of the –process of remembering, is recall or recollecting at will.

‘At will’ is an interesting point, since learning is not usually automatic but involves attention, concentration and effort.

A good or a bad memory, in a singular, is an important part of everyone’s life.

Memories of pleasant or unpleasant things are often called ‘good’ or ‘bad’ memories.

What we called a ‘good’ memory varies from individual to individual. It has, in fact, become one of the main preoccupations of students and the major concern of people growing old.

People who complain about having poor or bad memory usually mean their fading ability to recall things.


The opposite of remembering is usually called forgetting. An important still open question is psychology is ‘learn to forget’, and if not, why not?

The common definitions of the word ‘forget; include ‘to put out of one’s mind’ meaning the active or intentional overlooking of an object, an insult and so on.

Finally, there is the odd phrase ‘to forget oneself’, meaning to lose control or behave without suitable dignity.
Human Memory

Memory in Everyday Life

Memory in Everyday Life
Memory is far more than supply bringing to mind information encountered at some previous time. However the experiencing of some past event influences someone at a later time, the influence of the previous experience is a reflection of memory for that past event.

Systematic studies were conducted into this very topic in the 1970s and 1980s. Researchers found that, in fact, most people have very poor memories for familiar things – like coins.

This represents a types of memory which we tend to take for granted (but which - in sense – doesn’t really exist).

We tend remember the information that is most salient and useful for us. For instant, we may be much better at recalling the typical size, dimensions or color of coins than the direction of the head or the text on the coin, because the size dimensions or color may well be more relevant for us when we are using money.

And when remembering people, we will typically recall their faces and other distinguishing features that remain relatively invariant (and are, therefore, most useful in identifying them), rather than items which may change (such as individuals’ clothing).

Instead of thinking of coins and clothing, it is perhaps more straightforward for most people to consider the role of memory in the case of a student who attends a lecture and later brings to mind successfully what was taught in the lecture in the examination hall.

This is the type of ‘memory’ that we are all familiar with from our own school days.
Memory in Everyday Life

Procedural Memory

Procedural Memory
Procedural memory, also known as implicit memory refers to the memory of skills and routines.

You draw on procedural memories automatically to perform actions like getting dressed or driving your car.

How to ride a bicycle, write in cursive, operate a video recorder – each of these skills required effort and practice at one time but once you mastered it, you were able to perform it without remembering how you learned it or the separate steps involved.

The very fact that you are able to perform the skill demonstrates that learning and memory have taken place. When you take out your bike for a ride, you don’t say to yourself, “Okay first I straddle the seat, then I put my left foot on the left pedal and then I push off the ground with my right foot...” You just get on and go. It’s as though you body does your thinking for you.

In contrast to declarative memory, procedural memory is more resistant to aging and illness.

Individuals with Alzheimer’s can perform many routine tasks until well into the disease process.

Scientists aren’t sure why this happens, but it may be because this type of memory is more widely distributed throughout the brain.

Doctors learned how resilient procedural memory is in 1953, after operating on a young man in Connecticut (now famous in the medical literature as patient “H.M”) who sought relief from epileptic seizure.

Taking desperate measures to stop the seizure doctors removed his hippocampus, a structure deep within the brain that is often the focus of epilepsy and is a vital component of the brain’s memory system.

Although the surgery controlled H.M’s epilepsy, it left him with amnesia, a devastating impairment of memory.

Although H.M was utterly unable to learn new factual information and create new episodic memories, his procedural memory was largely unaffected.

Similarly, studies in which patients with amnesia depend time each day practicing new activities, such as playing computing games, suggest that they can learn new skills.

Although the amnesic patients often can’t recall ever having played or even seen the computer games, their performance improves over time and with practice indicating that they are capable of acquiring new procedural memories.
Procedural Memory

Remember the Positive and Forget the Negative

Remember the Positive and Forget the Negative
The mind has an amazing capacity. In fact, there are no limits to its power.

The power of mind can be extended to a limitless extent.

It is said that Lucius Scipio could remember the names of all the people who lived in Rome during his time.

There are teachers who know the names of all the children in the class and even those not in their class.

Imagine remembering the names of a few hundred children studying in various classes.

Remembering the relevant bits of information is necessary but it is neither advisable nor possible to retain each and every piece of information that our brain receives during our lifetime.

We simply remove the ones that are not relevant and retain the ones that are useful.

We know that we cannot possible remember nor want to remember everything.

To make our memories serve us intelligently, we have to be able to choose the things we want to remember and concentrate on developing selective type of memory.

It is worth remembering two fundamentals rules –

#Everyone has greater power of memory that he imagines

#Although intensive training produces great improvement in memory, training does not develop the general faculty of memory but simply increases the particular kind of memory job that is practiced.

The mind is like an endless shelf. We are constantly heaping information on it, just like we stack clothes in the cupboard.

What happens when we need a specific dress that we want to wear for the special party in the evening?

We spend a whole lot of time, searching for the specific dress amidst the chaotic clutter.

Similarly, the mind, which is heaped with a whole lot of irrelevant and useless information, takes time to dredge up the necessary information.

Sometimes it even fails to retrieve the useful stuff.
Remember the Positive and Forget the Negative

Children Need Strong Memory Skills

Children Need Strong Memory Skills
One important thing to know about memorizing is that your child needs to be good at it if they want to succeed in school.

And the sooner they begin learning how to memorize, the better.

Besides the fact they are developing a skill that is used in every class every day, they are separating themselves from other students that aren't aware of the importance of memory skills.

Most kids just wing it when it's time to study for tests or prepare presentations. If they remember some of the information they studied the night before, they're happy.

But your child doesn't need to settle for that approach. Here are some reasons why you need to help them develop strong memory skills. Skills that can make a dramatic difference in their learning almost immediately.

Reason #1 - Helps to eliminate learning deficiencies. According to expert, many learning problems can be traced to an inability to memorize.

For example, math problems occur because a child can't remember the steps to a formula. English problems crop up when a child can't remember important points to make in an essay. Science problems arise when a child can remember the procedures to an experiment.

Strengthening memory skills is one of the solutions Dr. Levine and others propose.

Reason #2 - Develops self confidence. If your child is able to memorize more easily than others, they feel like a million bucks. They aren't afraid to study and they look forward to showing what they remember in class.

When they have an effective system for remembering information, they feel less stress at test time and get better grades. They're calm and relaxed...the perfect mental state to do well in big moments.

Reason #3 - Allows time to build critical thinking skills. It is never too early to begin thinking about the material you're studying. In fact, it's clear that the earlier any habit is formed the stronger it gets over time.

When your child is able to remember, retain and recall information easily, they have more time to think about what they're studying.

While others are fighting to remember important points to include on a test, your child has the points memorized. All that's left is to put them down on paper in a logical fashion.

In summary, don't take memory training lightly. It is not as difficult as it sounds. And once your child learns just a few techniques, they'll begin developing a powerful memory that will make a dramatic difference in their education.
Children Need Strong Memory Skills

Struggling to hear impact word memory

Struggling to hear impact word memory
Many researchers have observed that our ability to remember new information declines with age. A new study examines the degree to which the effort to hear a word drains mental resources needed to remember the word.

The researchers compared the ability to recall a list of words in two groups of older adults, one with good hearing and the other with hearing deficiencies. Participants heard 15-word lists, which were stopped at random points. Their task: To recall the last three words they'd heard.

Both groups showed excellent recall of the final word, the researchers wrote. However, recall of the two words that preceded it was poorer for the hearing-loss group than for the others, although all words were delivered with equal volume.

Since both groups could correctly report the last word heard, the researchers reasoned that the hearing-loss group's failure to recall the previous two words was not because they hadn't heard them. They concluded that "the extra effort the adults with hearing loss had to expend" just to hear the words consumed mental "resources that would otherwise have been available" for memorization.

Researchers suggest that people who speak with older adults who have some hearing loss modify their speech patterns by enunciating and pausing after clauses to give listeners time to perceptually catch up.
Struggling to hear impact word memory

Children and Metamemory

Children and Metamemory
When do the children show evidence if metamemory? Studies show that 3 year olds could use simple memory strategy such as looking at or touching a cup that hid a toy dog, but the children used such strategies only when explicitly told to remember where the dog was. Children told only to walk with the dig until experimenter return did not use memory strategies as often.

Indeed, young children learn a good deal about memory during their preschool year. Still they have much left to learn. For instance e, they do not always know their own memory limitations. In one study preschools, third grades and adults were asked to estimate whether they would be able to recall sets of pictures ranging from small numbers to large numbers of items. Preschooler’s estimates were highly unrealistic, as if to say, “I can remember anything!” Third grades made more realistic estimates after being told of a peer’s average performance on the items, but preschoolers were unfazed by such information, continuing to overestimates their memory capacities.

Much growth in metamemory occurs during school years. For instance, up to about age 7, most children do not seem to realize that related items or those that can be organized into categories are easier to recall than unrelated items. Young elementary schoolchildren are also less aware if which memory strategies are superior.

Are increased in metamemory a major contributor to improved memory performance e over the childhood years? Actually the evidence is mixed. There was only a weak relationship between metamemory and memory performance. Good metamemory apparently is not required for good recall. Moreover, children who know what to do do not always do it, so good memory metamemory is no guarantee of good recall. Still, there seems to at least some link between metamemory and performance, enough to suggest the merits of teaching children more about how memory works and how to make it work more effectively for them.
Children and Metamemory

Understanding Memory

Understanding Memory
It needs very little argument to convince the average thinking person of the great magnitude of memory, although even then very few begin to realize just how important is the function of the mind that has to do with the retention of mental impressions. The first thought of the average person when he is asked to consider the importance of memory, is its use in the affairs of every-day life, along developed and cultivated lines, as contrasted with the lesser degrees of its development. In short, one generally thinks of memory in its phase of “a good memory'' as contrasted with the opposite phase of " a poor memory.'' But there is a much broader and fuller meaning of the term than that of even this important phase.

It is true that the success of the individual in his every-day business, profession, trade or other occupation depends very materially upon the possession of a good memory. His value in any walk in life depends to a great extent upon the degree of memory he may have developed. His memory of faces, names, facts, events, circumstances and other things concerning his every-day work is the measure of his ability to accomplish his task. And in the social intercourse of men and women, the possession of a retentive memory, well stocked with available facts, renders its possessor a desirable member of society. And in the higher activities of thought, the memory comes as an invaluable aid to the individual in marshalling the bits and sections of knowledge he may have acquired, and passing them in review before his cognitive faculties —thus does the soul review its mental possessions.

As Alexander Smith has said: "A man's real possession is his memory; in nothing else is he rich; in nothing else is he poor." Richter has said: "Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be driven away. Grant but memory to us, and we can lose nothing by death.'' Lactantius says: '' Memory tempers prosperity, mitigates adversity, controls youth, and delights old age."

But even the above phases of memory represent but a small segment of its complete circle. Memory is more than "a good memory"—it is the means whereby we perform the largest share of our mental work.
Understanding Memory
By Paul Hegarty
Source: ezinearticles.com

Long term and short term memory

Short term and Long term memory
Adequate operation of short-term memory is crucial when performing such everyday activities as reading or conversing. However, the capacity of short-term memory is quite limited. Studies have shown consistently that there is room in short-term memory for an average of seven items, plus or minus two (known as magic number seven). In experiments in which subjects are asked to recall a series of unrelated numbers or words, for example, some are able to recall nine and others only five, but most will recall seven words. As the list of things to be remembered increases, new items can displace previous items in the current list. Memory uses a process called "chunking" to increase the capacity of short-term memory. While most people still can use only seven "slots" of memory, facts or information can be grouped in meaningful ways to form a chunk of memory. These chunks of related items then act as one item within short-term memory.

Long-term memory contains information that has been stored for longer periods of time, ranging from a few minutes to a lifetime. When translating information for long-term memory, the brain uses meaning as a primary method for encoding. When attempting to recall a list of unrelated words, for instance, subjects often try to link the words in a sentence. The more the meaning of the information is elaborated, the more it will be recalled. Voices, odors, and tastes also are stored in long-term memory, which indicates that other means of encoding besides meaning, are also used. Items are regularly transferred back and forth from short-term to long-term memory. For example, rehearsing facts can transfer short-term memory into long-term. The chunking process in long-term memory can increase the capacity of short-term memory when various chunks of information are called upon to be used.
Short term and Long term memory

Habituation: Basic Learning Process

Habituation: Basic Learning Process
Learning
Learning is typically defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavior potential) that results from one’s experiences. It is change – in thoughts, perceptions, or reactions to the environment – that is neither programmed by the genes nor due to maturation. The capacity to learn is present at birth and strongly affects development and adaptation throughout the life span. There are four fundamentals and relatively simple types of learning and one of it is habituation.

Habituation
Student of infant development have attached much significant to a simple, often overlooked form of learning called habituation, or learning not to response a stimulus that is repeated over and over. Habituation might be thought of as learning to be bored by the familiar (for example, the continual ticking of a clock or the flickering of a fluorescent light). We might soon be overloaded if we reacted to everything that came along in life despite having seed it countless times before. It seems adaptive to reserve attention for novel experiences. From birth, human habituate to repeatedly presented lights, sounds, or smell; such stimuli are somehow recognized as “old hat”. Habituation: Basic Learning Process

Common Reasons of Memory Loss

Common Reasons of Memory Loss
Memory loss may begin innocently by forgetting your house keys or being unable to remember someone's name. Fortunately, memory loss is not inevitable and can be circumvented by taking preventive measures. The first step is in identifying the possible causes of memory loss. Some common causes of memory loss include old age, trauma, smoking, alcohol abuse and medical conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

Stress
It is more difficult to recall or learn something when you are feeling stressed, tired, anxious or angry - symptoms of overworking your mind. The human body is built to protect itself, and this could be a possible cause of memory loss as your mind is handling more than enough already. In order to deal with this, make an effort to give yourself a break. You will find that you are able to remember more easily when your mind is alert and well-rested. This allows you to pay greater attention and commit more to memory. Healthy stress will provide you with a challenge, whilst unhealthy stress can make learning more difficult. Working under stress is a cause of memory loss as your mind has too many things to cope with, and may not be a symptom of dementia. For pregnant women experiencing stress, the child may face learning difficulties and shrink part of the mind that is related to memory.

Amnesia
Amnesia occurs when one's memory is affected, due to either organic or functional causes. Brain damage through physical trauma or diseases is a common organic cause, whilst functional causes include psychological elements such as the body's defense mechanisms. Traumatic amnesia occurs due to head injuries, and the period of memory loss is related to the degree of injury. Psychogenic amnesia, an example of a functional cause of amnesia, is an adaptive response that enables children to survive by repressing memories, thus maintaining an attachment to someone that has abused them.

Dementia
Dementia is a cause of memory loss due to old age. Depending on the extent of dementia, it may be reversible if it has not reached an advanced stage. Common identifiers of dementia include a change in the character of the person suffering from it, and some experience delirium as well. Dementia can be detected and cured through regular blood tests which identify cues which can be corrected to doctors, through the prescription of folic acid, calcium, vitamin B12 etc. Money will be spent and forgotten, but memories do live on. Above are some of the causes of memory loss, and by pursuing a healthy lifestyle you can circumvent memory loss. Take steps to ensure that your memories are preserved! Common Reasons of Memory Loss
By Greg Frost
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Easy Ways to Boost Your Brain and Improve Your Memory

Easy Ways to Boost Your Brain and Improve Your Memory
Studies have discovered that the two sides of our brain work together to process every single bit of data that goes into the brain. The brain is a mighty muscle and needs to be trained for strength just like any other muscle in your body. Your brain is one of the mightiest storage devices known to man; capable of storing a vast amount of data for future use. Even with all this storage capacity, however, we still sometimes forget where we set our keys down, or the name of our good friend's new fiancé.

Like any muscle, if your brain is allowed to be untrained, it will function at a lower level of efficiency than if it were trained to operate at its full capacity. You need to learn to get both halves of your brain working together better in order to have it working at its best.

The left side of your brain is responsible for handling things like words, logic problems, analyzing numbers and sequences, linear relations and analysis.

The right side of the brain deals more with rhythm, spatial awareness, imagination, daydreaming, and analyzing colors, dimensions and patterns.

It's still possible for you to train and expand your brain power no matter how smart or dumb you think you are. It doesn't always involve training hard or sticking your face in dozens of books. Near the peak of middle age, many people begin to notice gradual changes in their memory skills. This is normal and is a part of aging. There are many tricks and techniques that can help you to strengthen your memory, including changes to your lifestyle and developing different mental habits.

The brain has a very specific dietary requirement in order to allow it to function at its peak. The foods that you eat almost always directly affect how your brain works and handles data input into it. Eating a good and balanced breakfast is one of the best things you can do to help jumpstart your brain in the morning. The glucose found in a normal breakfast helps the brain to get going and keep you moving easily. Conversely, eating a lot of junk food can cause your brain to slow to the point where healthy teenage brains start to function at the level of a seventy year old brain, with all the cognitive problems associated with old age and mental functioning. High protein foods are the best things to keep the brain muscle fit during the day. Eating foods with Vitamin B in them can also help with memory and other cognitive functions you need to deal with.

It's important to get a good night's rest. You've always known this and your body and mind will remind you of this fact at every chance. Not getting the proper amount of sleep will affect the way your mind deals with concentration and memory and will make your mind about as alert as a slug. The effects of staying up too late or not getting enough sleep can also be reversed of course, by simply allowing your brain to get the rest it needs before putting it through your daily paces. When the body isn't rested properly, the circulatory system doesn't work well and so your brain must work with fewer nutrients than normal while performing the same tasks. Sleep allows the mind to rejuvenate and learn better.
Easy Ways to Boost Your Brain and Improve Your Memory
By Boone Swann
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Memory and aphasia

Memory and aphasia
No memory is possible outside frameworks used by people living in society to determine and retrieve their collections. This is the certain conclusion shown by the study of dreams and of aphasia – those states where the field of memory is most characteristically narrowed. In these two cases, the frameworks become deformed, changed and partially destroyed, albeit in two very distinct ways. Indeed, the comparison of dreams and aphasia allow us to highlight two aspects of social frameworks, or two kinds of elements of which they are composed.

There are many different forms of aphasia, many degrees of reduction of memories that are its effects. But it is rare than an aphasiac forgets that he is a member of society. He knows well that the people who surround him and who speak to him are as human as he is himself. He pays intense attention to what they say: he manifests, in regard to them, sentiments of timidity and anxiety. He feel diminished and humiliated, is distressed and sometimes irritated because he cannot manage to keep or to recover his place in social group.

More over, he can recall the principal events of his own past. He can to some extent relive this past, even when he does not succeed in conveying to others a sufficiently detailed idea of it. Hence a whole part of his memory – the part which retains events and remembers persons – keeps contact with the collective memory and is under its control. He tries to be understood by others and to understand them- like a man in foreign country who does not speak the language but knows the history of this country and has not forgotten his own history. But he lacks a large number of current notions. A word heard or read by him is not accompanied by the feeling that he understands it sense; images of objects pass before his eyes without his being able to attach a name to them-to recognize their nature and role, Under certain circumstances he can no longer identify his thought with that of others or attain that form of social representation which is exemplified by a notion, a scheme or a symbols of a gesture or of a thing. Contact between his thought and the collection memory becomes interrupted at a certain number of detailed points.
Memory and aphasia

Learning and Memory Continue to Improve during Adolescent Years

Learning and Memory Continue to Improve during Adolescent Years
Parents who feel they have to nag their adolescents continually to do their chores may wonder whether teenagers process any information at all. Actually learning, memory and problem solving continue to improve during the adolescent years.

First, new learning and memory strategies emerge; it is only during adolescence that memory strategy of elaboration is mastered. Adolescent also develop and refine advanced learning – for example, note taking and underlining. In one study, researchers looked at the performance of students from the fifth grade age to eleventh and twelfth grade who were asked to recall story. Some learners were asked to recall story immediately; while others were given an additional five minutes to study it before they were tested.

Amazingly, fifth graders gained almost nothing from the extra study period, except for those few who used the time to underline or take notes. Junior high school benefited to an extent, but only in senior high school did most students use underlining and note tasking effectively to improve recall.

When students were told to underline or take notes if they wished, fifth graders still did not improve, largely because they did not use these strategies to highlight the most important points. Many underlined almost everything. Thus strategies for studying readings and then identifying important points improve considerably between elementary school and high school.
Learning and Memory Continue to Improve during Adolescent Years

5 Easy Memory Techniques To Improve Your Memory

5 Easy Memory Techniques To Improve Your Memory
by: KathyBarnikel
People assume that memory deteriorates as you grow older, but this is not necessarily true for everyone. It depends on how you exercise and use your memory during your lifetime. Although there are some people who have a hard time remembering facts and figures, appointments, peoples names, sequences etc. This need not be the case for you.

Memory can always be improved by proper memory techniques and practice. Everyone can benefit from using memory techniques, and the younger you are when you start the better your memory will be as you get older. To give you an idea of how you can this might actually work in practice with your memory, here are five steps to follow:

1. If this is the first time you have come across the data, it is important that you concentrate. Attention is the key first step in learning anything new. If you don't pay attention in the first place how can you expect to remember anything? Attempt to take in all the facts and figures as much as you can. Try not to process the information too superficially.

2. Association is a very powerful memory technique. Associate the information with to something you know and already remember. It does not have to be related to what you are trying to remember, connect the data to anything you can identify with easily have an emotional connection to. Your main goal here is to easily recall the data every time you are reminded of that something. You are just trying to create a hook that you can use to later fish out the data you want to recall.

3. Test yourself, after reviewing the data and associating each individual item to something, start recalling them one by one in the right order in your mind. Repeat this until you get everything correct.

4. Go back to your data and try to recall all of it once more, and check how well you can recall the key facts. Then rest your mind for a few minutes before trying to recall the data again.. If you are successful, repeat this step three times over the course of the day. If you can now recall the data accurately then this means the data is now transferred to your long term memory and has a better chance of staying there and being available for recall.

5. Review the data the following day. Go over the memory technique steps again until you can recite the data on your own. If you fail to recall all the data given to you after the five-minute lull time, go back to step one. Repeat the steps until you can accurately remember every single piece of data fed to you.

Then, observe yourself. After several tries, you will notice that it is taking you less time to recall the things given to you as you go along. You'll be amazed at how you can become a memory genius in no time

These are relatively easy meory techniques that will stimulate your mind and improve your memory. It is okay to fail the first few times. Just regularly apply this simple guide whenever you need to memorize something.
About the Author
Kathy is a psychologist and writes articles and courses for Personal Development, Accelerated Learning and Self Help Issues. Learn more about Memory Techniques at Memory Techniques

Memory Improvement

Memory Improvement
To improve your memory there are some general principles that are required if you want to train your self to remember more effectively. The following eleven principles will help understand factors that are essential to memory improvement.
Memory can be improved through:

• Interest – will help you store and process information that will remember for a long time.

• Selection – only select what you want to remember

• Attention – Pay attention what you want to remember. Attending to one thing at a time will help to clarify the task or event.

• Understanding

• Intention to remember

• Confidence – Confidence plays a critical part in overcoming self-defeating thoughts. The next time you want to be more confident in a situation where you need to give an oral report you should: expect to remember and believe to deliver your speech with dynamic confidence.

• Ego involvement

• Association – By thinking over experiences and systemically y relating and communicating them to something makes it easier to remember new information.

• Background of experience – One way to improve your memory about a subject is to learn more about the background of the subject.

• Organization /Classification - When you visualize what you want to remember by classifying and organizing items, you are helping prepare the information for you long term memory.

• Practice Newly Learned Memory Devices – The more sill practiced, the more improvement will occur.

Memory Improvement

What is Memory?

What is Memory?
Memory is many things, but to scientist, memory is all that you remember as wells as your capacity for remembering. Not all memories are created equal. Some memories are meant to be remembered for a short periods and then discarded.

But memories that are more important are stored in the brain and can be retrieved at will: the names of close friends and relatives, the multiplication tables, phone number, and any other information use regularly. Certain kind of information can be memorized only if concentrated, whereas other kinds of memories, such as the faces of people seeing regularly and the steps of simple everyday routines like brushing teeth, are absorbed without conscious effort. The process of learning new information, storing it, and recalling it involves a complex interplay of brain functions.

Researchers and neuroscientists have devised several classification systems to capture the various forms of memory. One major system relies in time, making distinction between short-term memories, which are fleeting and long term memories, which persists for most of our life. Another scheme breaks memories down according to the type of information they contain, such as whether they are straight facts or the procedures for doing something.
What is Memory?

How Many Types of Memory Do We Have?

How Many Types of Memory Do We Have?

• Immediate memory: That memory which helps to recall something in a fraction of a second after perceiving the object or receiving the impulse from a stimulus. The time of retention is very short by a fraction to a few seconds. Old sense impressions disappear in a few seconds. Past impressions are erased and replaced by new ones. Such type of memory is needed very often. A good example is the remembering of the ticket number and a casual phone number.

• Short term memory: This is also temporary but a little more than the immediate memory in time factor. The time for such type of memory is up to 30 seconds. By rehearsal and regular practice, the time of memory can be extended to a few more seconds.

• Long term memory: A special capacity is required to store the experiences. No rehearsal is needed and there is no decay of memory. Coding arrangement is done in mind by the brain for permanent memory. Bringing back for use is at ease.

• Rote memory: The case of memorizing a matter without understanding is called rote memory. Memorizing a rhyme or some slogans without understanding is an example for rote memory.

How Many Types of Memory Do We Have?

What is short term memory?

What is short term memory?
This is information that the mind stores temporarily, encompassing what you need to remember in the next few seconds or minutes. Short term memories include, for example, the name of the person who just spoke at a dinner party, and the date and time of the appointment you just made – and must remember only until you write it in your date book.

Working memory is a form of short term memory that involves actively holding information and manipulating it. For example, working memory comes into play when you remember prices at the supermarket while at the same time performing a computation with them so you can compare the costs.

Short term memories are supposed to be fleeting. They turn over at a high rate because they’re continually being replaced by new ones, and there are only so many short term memories you can keep in mind. Research shows that the average person can hold only about seven unrelated “bits” of information in mind at one time. That’s why it’s easier to remember seven digit phone umber than a longer number such as the identification number on your driver’s license.
What is short term memory?

How the Brain Handle the Traffic Information

How the Brain Handle the Traffic Information
The amount of information that floods in the brain is staggering. The brain has an unenviable job of sifting out the unimportant bits and selecting the important matters that need to be stored.

Memory is just one of the facets of the multifarious of the brain. The human brain is a complex and highly develop organ. It consists of billions of cells that are constantly analyzing, storing and retrieving information. No computer can match the efficient and organized functioning of a healthy brain.

An interesting fact about the brain is that although it is just 2 percent of the total body weight, it uses up about 20 percent of the oxygen used by the entire body, when it is at rest. The brain cannot go without oxygen for more than 3 – 5 minutes without causing serious damage to it.

The most striking feature of the brain is the backup system. It stores each memory in a different slot. The memory system works in an amazing manner. Sometimes we will find that a certain odor will bring back memories of our childhood or a visit to a hill station triggers memory of a childhood vacation in another hill station.
How the Brain Handle the Traffic Information

Long Term Memory

Long Term Memory
Although the brain quickly purges most unimportant short term memory, it stores the important ones – those that are emotionally compelling or personally meaningful. That stored information is long term memory. It is the total of what you know: a compendium of data ranging from name, address, and phone number and the names of friends and relatives to more complex information, such as the sounds and images of events that happened decades ago.

It also includes the routines information you use every day, like how to make coffee, operate your computer and carry out all the intricate behavioral sequences involves in performing your job or running your household.

Your long-term memory and short-term memory are not distinguished merely by how long the memories last. Another difference is the amount of information the brain can handle. Although the brain can juggle only a relatively small number of short term memories at a time, it can store a virtually unlimited number of long term memories.
Barring disease or injury, you can always learn and retain something new.

Further more, long term memories are less fragile that short term memories, which means they’re not lost when something interrupts your train of thought. Previously learned long term memories even tend to remain intact in the early stages of dementia, when patients have trouble learning new information.
Long Term Memory

Memory Power

Memory Power
Memory is the power of the brain to recall any information that has been stored in it. It is the power to remember something that has been learnt or experienced. Memory is important because if there was no memory, there would be no learning. We will forget things soon after learning them. We will not be able to recall any experience either.

The efficiency of the recall system is what makes your memory good or bad. As such, there is nothing like good memory and bad memory. It is just the matter of training your brain to recall efficiently.

Remembering is a process that must be learned, just like walking, talking, eating, differentiating colors, distinguishing sounds and telling time. You learned these things when you were a child and now you can perform them without effort, without even being conscious of the mental processes involved.

You can learn the process of using your memory just as thoroughly and when you do, you will have hundred times more power of knowledge and experience than what you have now.

Anyone can hone up the memory by training it. In order to make decisions and solve problems, one needs to refer to previous experiences.

To refer to previous experiences, we must remember them. No one really likes to waste time on re-learning. Therefore, it is imperative to improve our memory.

Ever since the time of Cicero, men have been developing techniques to improve memory. The fundamentals remain the same; only the modifications keep pace with the changing times.
Memory Power

Adult Learning Memory

Adult Learning Memory
Young adult still have some mental skills to learn. Comparisons of people who are new to their chosen fields study with those who are more experienced make this clear.

At Piaget’s highest stage of cognitive development formal operations, adults often perform better in their areas of specialization than in unfamiliar areas. Similarly, adults often learn, remember, and solve problems best in their areas of expertise.

Experts process information differently than novices do; that is, knowledge base influences both the nature and effectiveness of information processing.

Consider the effects of knowledge base in memory. How might adults who are baseball experts and adults who care little for baseball perceive and remember the same game? Researcher George Spilich and his associates (1979) had college students who knew a great deal or very little about baseball listen to the tape of half an inning of play.

Experts recalled more of the information central to the game – the important plays and the fate of each batter in proper order – whereas novices were caught up by less central facts such as the threatening weather conditioning and the number of people attending the game.

Experts also recalled more central details – for example, noting that a double was in line drive down the left-field rather than just a double.

Now consider the impact of increased expertise in one’s career on the ability to solve problems. Researchers observed how radiologists at different stages of career development interpret X-rays and make diagnoses based in them. Researcher emphasizes that these physicians were developing and using schemata, or organized networks of knowledge stored in long term memory, to guide their perception of X-rays and their ultimate decisions.

Resident radiologists out of medical school seemed to rely on general, relatively simple schemes and principals of diagnosis (for example, noting all the abnormalities one can and then looking for a disease that fits). These novices did not consider additional information such as the patient’s medical condition or the exact location of a dark spot on the film, factors that could mean the difference between seeing as collapsed lung and seeing a tumor.

Experienced physicians did consider these sorts of complexities. They had more complete schemes and could quickly, surely and almost automatically call up just the specific knowledge they needed to make an accurate diagnosis.

In short experts know more, and they use specific stored knowledge to solve problems, quickly detecting how new problems stack up against old problems.

In effect, experts do not need to think so much – like experienced drivers who can put themselves on “autopilot,” free to use their minds for more than driving unless some new situation occurs. Organized knowledge allows them to use well learned routines quickly and accurately.

Although adults continue to use general learning and memory strategies to deal with problem outside their expertise, they also develop highly effective, specific and automatized information-processing routines that help them learn, remember and think very effectively in their areas of specialization.
Adult Learning Memory

Declarative Memory

Declarative Memory
In addition to the short term/long term distinction. Memory researchers make a distinction according to the type of information stored in memory.

Also known as explicit memory, declarative memory is information that requires a conscious effort to recall.

There are two types of declarative memory:
Semantic memory
Episode memory.

Semantic memory is factual knowledge, such as the names of your family members, the color of your spouse’s eyes, or what winter is.

Much of the basic information you acquired during your school days falls into this category.

In addition to being factual, semantic memory has other key characteristics: It is not bounds to a specific point in time.

You can’t point to the moment in time when you learned your mother’s name, for example. And even if you can remember when you learned the multiplication tables or other facts in school, the timing isn’t important to your knowledge of them.

By contrast, episode memory contains the images and details of experiences you have had. Episodic memories are personal memories tied to specific times and places.

The party you attended last weekend , the vacation you took last summer, your children’s birthday celebrations (and their births), and your wedding day are all episodic memories.

Episodic memory is the types of memory that people have trouble with as they age because it is processed through the hippocampus; a brain structure that changes as the years pass and that is particularly vulnerable to degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Although patients with Alzheimer’s are frequently able to recall episodes from many years ago, they have profound difficulty acquired new episodic memories.
Declarative Memory

Classification of Memory

Classification of Memory
Expertises have classified the stages of memory process into three main categories. They call them:

• Sensory Memory

• Short Term Memory

• Long Term Memory

Sensory memory is a very fleeting type of memory, which works only as long as the experience is present.

For instance if you were looking at a bird, you would remember it only as long as it is in front of you. The moment it flies away, you would not be able to remember what it looked like unless you have filed the information away into your short-term memory.

In effect, sensory memory holds as long as your senses are experience a thing. Whether it is the feel of an object, smell or the sensation of anything, it is all there in the sensory memory for a very brief period while your sense is active.

Short term memory, on the other hand, can help you recall for a little longer; in fact, as long as you keep thinking about it.

Whether it is the telephone number that you have been repeating constantly till you write it down, or image of the bird, it will remain available as long as you actively think about it. Otherwise, it will be erased within a span of about 20 seconds.

How does the long term memory work? It is the mainstay of the memory system and can hold unlimited amount of information, which can range from a few minutes old to life-time period.

Long term memory is like a huge hard disk of a giant computer where unlimited information can be stored for a lifetime. It is this memory that we have to hone, polish and activate.
Classification of Memory

Memory Lose in Old Age

Memory Lose in Old Age
Many people worry that aging means losing your memory.

Indeed, many older adult feel that they are becoming forgetful.

In one study, young and elderly adults kept diaries of their problems with memory in everyday life.

The older adults reported more such problems, especially when it came to remembering names, routines like filling the car with gas, and object such as the book that they would need later.

Older adults were also more upset by their memory lapses, perhaps because they viewed them as a signs of aging.

Most of there research is based on cross-sectional studies comparing age groups, which suggests that:

• The age differences detected could be related to factors other than age.

• Declines, when observed, do not occur until the late 60s and the 70s and are slight.

• Only some older people have memory problems.

• Old people do poorly on some tasks but well on others.

Memory Lose in Old Age

Selective Memory

Selective Memory
Have you noticed how you can recall certain events and things in lucid details, while some of the more important happenings may simply escape your memory?

For instance you may be able to remember the face and name of your kindergarten friend but the name and face of a business client, introduced just a couple of days back, eludes you.

You need to check the visiting card to remember his name.

You may distinctly recall one particular holiday of your childhood, while a more recent one doesn’t pop up so easily in your mind.

Another example is the fact that most of us can remember even the words used by a person during a quarrel, years, after the incident.

We can remember specific instances when someone rebuked us, insulated us or hurt us. We can usually remember these incidents because we want to remember them. We feel emotionally connected to those incidents.

We love remembering the tragic times because we want to wallow in self-pity. We love recalling each and every moment of the special incident when we are given a special honor.

These are just some of the examples of super memory and super recall.

Now the question remains that of we can do it for some incidents and events why can’t we do it for all events and incidents.

What is the reason for such lapses? Why do we recall selectively? The reason is quit simple really.

We tend to forget a person or an event just because we don’t make enough effort to remember them.

This should convince you that if you can recall one incident you could recall many others.

This should also make you realize that we are all capable of remembering things if we make adequate efforts to remember them.
Selective Memory