Use Links For Better Memorization

Believing that you can posses good memorization skills by conducting mind exercises is a big help. It is important for you to have a positive attitude on this.

An example memory technique is called the Link method. Linking requires a lot of association because the best way you'll be able to remember one thing is when you have it connected to something else. Or when you try to think of an object, something else more familiar comes to your mind.

Try to think of something you always do everyday which requires memorization. Just like when you get up in the morning and do your daily routine, there are still some things you tend to forget, right? You can start from this and then move on gradually to more complicated things.

Think of yourself doing the usual routine one morning, only that you need to drop by your grandma's house on the way to work. Since it isn't part of your normal activity, there's a probability of you forgetting this simple task. Instead of thinking about what you need to do compulsorily after getting up in the morning, think of all you need to do and connect them together.

Eat breakfast
Feed the dog
Water the plants
Lock up the house
Take a shortcut to Grandmas
Give her a gift

First, just as you're doing your usual hygiene routine, think of your breakfast waving at you from the kitchen table. Next, your dog starts barking at your breakfast food on the table. But just as this is happening, your houseplants splashes water on your dog, making him run away. Seeing your houseplants behaving like this, you try to lock them out of the house using an enormous padlock.

But since your Grandma loves plants, she insists in letting the houseplants in again. Frustrated, your grandma takes an underground shortcut towards your basement. Then, she presents the houseplants wrapped as a gift, so you'd take them in.

The situation is a simple demonstration of how a person, animals and objects can all be interrelated to one another for memorization purposes. You can still think of the usual routine you do everyday and yet include a new one without interrupting your activities.

The example above has already given you association for the 6 items listed and you didn't even know it. This is a classic example of a link method.

Click here to learn more about memorizing using the Link method and other memory improvement techniques:  Photo by Tanner Van Dera on Unsplash

 

Practice and Mnemonics

 

Constant practice makes a big difference for memorization improvement purposes. You must assure yourself that there is going to be an improvement with your memory. But in the event of forgetting pieces of something you've already worked on, memorization tools always come in handy.

An effective memorization tool is called mnemonics. It is a way of remembering a group of information by breaking each of them down into sub-groups, rhymes, stories, or location. One of the many effective mnemonic methods is called the Link system. The link system is great for remembering a list or group of objects by associating or "linking" the items in the list to one another.

For example, pretend you need to keep in mind the list below which consists of your diet meal for the day.

Apple, broccoli sprouts, rice cake, almonds and a glass of fresh orange juice

Your link approach should go something like:

Think of a red apple bouncing on top of broccoli sprouts. The broccoli sprouts, tired of playing with the apple, runs to hide behind a giant sleeping rice cake. The rice cake, startled by the sprouts behind it, gets up irritated and hurls the scattered almonds nearby at the broccoli sprouts. A pitcher of orange juice nearby got hit by an almond and seeing the food fight happening, it then flooded the area with its juices ending the mishap.

The scenario you create doesn't have to be very complicated. Just fill it with movement, colors, and other details to help you picture out the situation further. Instead of thinking of just a bunch of items in a list, you can think of a whole scenario including all the details. Try to repeat the scenario several times in a day to complete your memorization exercise and you'll slowly develop a good memory.

Click to learn more about memorizing using the Link method and other memory improvement techniques:  Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

 

Steer Clear From Memory Problems

 

You can start maintaining your naturally good memory by learning how to use memory tools. The snapshot method can help you further since it involves a lot of imagination. Use the scenario below to practice memorization.

Although there are many factors which affect good memory, memory exercises are proven effective ways to keep your memory strong.

Imagine yourself with your friends in a fast food chain. You have been asked to place the order for all your friends at the counter.
There are four of you and each of the orders are different. The line is long and you need to get the orders fast since all four of you are already hungry. No time to jot down the orders.

Bob wants large fries and a double-patty burger Cecile wants a nacho chili with lots of cheese and a large sized milkshake John wants a medium sized pizza with lots of mozzarella cheese You want a double patty chicken burger, large fries and a soda

As you approach the counter, run the food that you and your friends want to eat in your thoughts. Since your friend Bob wants large fries and a double-patty burger, think of Bob walking around wearing a double-patty burger suit and a large fries hat on his head. Next, since Cecile wants a nacho chili, think of her babysitting cheese, chili and nacho chips in her arms; each baby drinking from a bottle of milkshake. With your friend John, think of him riding a motorcycle with medium sized pizza pans as the wheels. His mozzarella cheese perfume is oozing in the wind. As for you, imagine yourself tending a Siamese twin chicken which can only be fed with fries and a soda.

The association here is determined between your friend and the food he/she desires. It's also important to hold on to the details you are able to make, since its what's going to help you more in terms of retaining and recalling the information later on.

Try to repeat the scenario several times in your head to complete your memorization exercise and you'll slowly develop a good memory.
You'll also get the ordered food right.

Click here to learn more about memorizing using the Snapshot technique and other memory improvement techniques.  Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

 

Major step forward in understanding how memory works

Our ability to remember the objects, places and people within our environment is essential for everyday life, although the importance of this is only fully appreciated when recognition memory beings to fail, as in Alzheimer’s disease.

By blocking certain mechanisms that control the way that nerve cells in the brain communicate, scientists from the University of Bristol have been able to prevent visual recognition memory in rats

A single neuron (centre) in the perirhinal cortex which is involved in memory processes. (Credit: Photo by Andy Doherty)

This demonstrates they have identified cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain that may provide a key to understanding processes of recognition memory.

Read on ...

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Brain exercises – better than Googling?

[Via the Psychology Today blog]

... Of course the big news in the brain training biz this week is that Dr. Gary Small, at UCLA, has shown that surfing the web is good for the aging brain, too. After scanning a group of seniors some of whom had been reading and others web-surfing, “The researchers found that both reading and searching the Internet increased activity in parts of the brain that control language, reading, memory and visual abilities. However, searching the Internet also boosted activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate parts of the brain and that activity was two times more pronounced in those with experience using the web.”

Whether, in the end, this will turn out to be meaningful no one can yet say. After all, maybe looking things up in the Yellow Pages stimulates the frontal lobes, too. No one has done that study yet.

Read the whole article here ... http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/can039t-remember-what-i-forgot/200810/brain-exercises-better-googling