Superboost Your Memory I hate it when I forget where I
put my car key, or the name of someone I worked with for ten years.., or the
title of a movie I saw last night. It’s frustrating and increasingly common as I
turned 50. Sound familiar Whether it is forgotten names,
misplaced keys, missed appointments or simply not being able to recall something
that you know, experts say we don’t have to put up with forgetfulness, and it
has nothing to do with age. We can have a great memory well into our 80s and
beyond, but only if you are willing to invest some time and energy. "Your memory
declines with age only if it’s not used," insists Tony Buzan, a leading expert
on memory, who is 61 and says his memory is better than ever. "But you have to
work at it." The bonus A better quality of life in your senior years. Research
has shown that seniors with a sharp memory and an alert mind are more socially
active and participate in a broader range of activities, which in turn helps
maintain brainpower and memory in the process. Remarkable
Human Capacity Buzan’s interest in memory was first aroused
at the University of British Columbia in 1960. On the first day of classes, his
English professor recited from memory the entire class list--plus the students’
addresses and phone numbers. (Yes, really.) Indeed, so
remarkable is the human capacity for recall that some people have trained
themselves to remember the order of playing cards in ten shuffled decks
(十副洗乱的牌), 1,000 random digits and 99 new names and faces. These are the mental
equivalents of superathletes, and many compete in the annual World Memory
Championship. Launched by Buzan in 1991, it has become so popular that the
championship has sprung up in countries everywhere. Mnemonic
Techniques While most of us won’t need to memorize the order
of ten decks of cards, having a reliable memory is important, not only in our
personal lives but professionally. So what do the memory champs know that we
forgetful people don’t Mnemonics, that’s what. Pronounced ne-MON-iks and rooted
in Greek mythology (Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory), these are proven
techniques for remembering everything, including names, lists, facts and
numbers. And you don’t have to be brilliant nor study for years to see the
results. Once you understand the basics and use them regularly, you’ll be on
your way to having a better memory and probably faster than you think.
There are dozens of mnemonic techniques, but they all boil down to two
things: imagination and association, what Buzan calls "the pillars of brain
function". Since the brain has difficulty remembering abstract symbols, like
names and numbers, the key is to make them memorable by attaching vivid images
to them. Henry Evans, a 40-year-old owner of a busy restaurant,
learned this simple lesson during a one-day memory course he took to help him
remember customers’ names. It worked. "For example, there was one
woman who kept coming in, and I could never remember ff her name was Deb or
Cathy," says Evans. "After I took the course, I started picturing a web over her
head -- a web over Deb. I never forgot her name again." So even
though one of the easiest ways to improve memory may sound obvious, it’s
important. The most common reason healthy adults forget is that they fail to
focus. Distractibility can account for memory problem no matter what your
age. Working in our favor, say the experts, is the’ fact that
the mind naturally strives to make connections between things that aren’t
naturally associated. Harnessing this natural tendency, then exaggerating the
image using your imagination so it’s unforgettable, is the key to
memory. Roman Room System One of the most
popular techniques is the Roman Room System (the Romans developed their own
mnemonic techniques based on Greek research). It’s helpful because, after names
and faces, forgetting objects is one of the biggest categories of forgetfulness.
The idea is to use the rooms in your house or sites in your neighborhood --
anything you know really well -- as links on which to mentally hang things you
want to remember. Let’s say you don’t want to forget three
things you need to pick up: flour, milk and bread. Picture walking through your
front door and there’s flour thrown all over the shoes on the rack. Proceed to
your living room and imagine milk spilled on your Persian carpet. Continue down
the hall and picture slices of bread glued on the wall. The more ridiculous the
images, the quicker the recall. Once you have done this, take a mental
walk-through of your home to help with the memorization process. Since these
elaborate pictures -- which you. create in seconds -- have sprung from your own
imagination, they are much harder to forget. The Brain
Functions in Recall Process Scientists don’t known for sure
how the process for recall occurs in the brain, but American psychologist Roger
Sperry established in 1981 that two sides of the brain deal with different
functions. The right side focuses on pattern recognition, music, emotion and
creativity, while the left deals with order, sequence, logic and language. The
study of music helps the study of math, for example, and the study of rhythm
helps the study of languages. Now scientists know that the more people use both
sides of their brain, the more each benefits the other. And a person with an
excellent memory uses both sides of the brain. The way memory
works is complex, still an emerging science. What happens in my
brain if I run into a woman in the grocery store whose name I can’t recall The
experts explain: Seeing this woman activates my hippocampus, the brain’s command
center for creating new memories. It immediately begins to form
impressions based on the woman’s characteristics, such as hair color, height,
clothing and manners. To look for any of these same impressions,
the hippocampus’s neurons (神经元) -- tiny nerve cells that act as transmitters --
start connecting and activating other teams of neurons located in my cortex
(大脑皮层),where long-term memories are stored. Together they search
for any stored pieces of information on the woman. If her name can’t be located,
other regions of cortex will be called into service. They’ll go back to my
hippocampus to brainstorm together, and hopefully come up with the woman’s name.
If they don’t, it’s time for me to work on my memory-boosting techniques a bit
more. A Few More Tips One of the most
critical factors for a good memory is first believing it’s possible. But we tend
to be psychologically self-defeating. Remembering names is the perfect example
of defeatist we can be. How many times have you heard someone say, "I’m so bad
with names" Most people give up even trying to remember names because they
figure they can’t. The following are the tricks suggested by the
memory-experts: ·Decide you actually want to remember someone’s
name. ·Get the name right. Listen to it, look at the person’s
face and say the name to yourself, creating a mental connection.
·Remember the face and look closely for distinguishing features. If a
Carol you meet has an angelic face, frame her in your mind with a halo (光环), or
think, "Christmas Carol" (圣诞颂歌). ·Picture the person in another
setting. Imagine them on a beach or swinging from a tree. ·Rhyme
the name, if possible. It also helps to make connections between
unconnected thing. Next time you park your car in a busy lot, create an image of
the surrounding environment. This will create a memorable map with your car
fixed in it. Ever since I started learning about mnemonics and
paying attention to what I want to remember, I’ve noticed a huge improvement. I
especially like to use Roman Room system, which has greatly shrunk my dependence
on reminder notes. The experts are right: It’s really not that hard to remember
things once you know how. Sure, writing a list doesn’t take long, but nowadays
-- just in seconds -- I’m giving my brain cells some essential exercise. Almost all mnemonic techniques for memorizing abstract symbols work on the principle of ______.