Boost Your Memory for Better Recall

Memorization has been valued for a long time. If one listens or reads something once there is a desire to remember it. It is common not to remember pieces of information all in one review. Improving memory is a task for someone to feel as though they need to condition their long-term and short-term memory. There is a plethora of methods to better a person’s memory. Memories are filled with many experiences from learning subjects, engaging in conversations, feeling some emotions, positive or negative moments, and others.

There are different types of memories the brain has.

What is Memory and Its Importance?

Memory is the ability to absorb, process, store, and retrieve “data”. The body and brain act as a database however, if the body and brain are not managed properly it can lead to memory loss. Feeling strained or not fully awakened makes a person lose attention to what is around them or what needs to be focused on.

Memorization allows a person to recall events or information that was once experienced. In many cases what may not seem important to the individual may be easily forgotten. However, recalling information that needs to be remembered is quite impressive. Practicing for tests, presenting insights to a company or client, looking over lawsuits, or picking up children from some sports event. It is not limited to these types of events but a plethora of items. More importantly, there are always lessons to remember from what people have done and what people experienced themselves.

The Order of Memory:

Sensory Memory
Short-Term Memory
Working Memory
Long-Term Memory

Brain Regions For Memory

The hippocampus plays a crucial part as it is for long-term memory formation and retrieval. The prefrontal cortex is involved in working memory. The amygdala memorizes emotional memories and the cerebellum is for procedural memories. While procedural memory is more based on skills like riding a bike or tying a knot.

When it comes to procedural memory it seems to be beneficial to blue-collar workers as much of their work is physically demanding. However, this does not mean other brain regions are rendered useless because all forms of work require some knowledge and a method of doing it. The orders of memory come into play.

For very much of knowledge workers, it can be quite different since many have to utilize the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Complex logic is something that can be difficult to retain. Since they need to take the time to understand what they are doing or what needs to be achieved.

Neurotransmitters That Are Involved

There are chemicals involved in helping with the process of memorization. These chemicals contribute to other functions of the brain and body as well.

Glutamate: An excitatory neurotransmitter that plays a critical role in synaptic plasticity, which is essential for memory and learning.

Dopamine: Associated with the brain’s reward system and plays a role in reinforcement learning.

Acetylcholine: Important for attention and memory. It’s particularly involved in encoding new memories.

Norepinephrine: Linked to alertness and the “fight or flight” response, it also affects how it processes and remembers emotionally charged experiences.

All of these neurotransmitters keep the brain active and healthy. In which case makes learning and memorizing items much easier.

Check out this post to learn how to activate some of these neurotransmitters: 4 Chemicals In The Brain To Enhance Your Experience

Brain waves

There are different types of brain waves that support brain function. Alpha states are one of the waves that can help with memory and boost other cognitive abilities.

Other waves do contribute to the encoding process such as beta, theta, and delta waves. But they all contribute to brain function a little more differently.

A quick breakdown for each wave:

Alpha Waves: Linked with relaxation and reduced mental effort, which can be conducive to memory consolidation.

Beta Waves: Associated with active thinking and problem-solving, crucial for working memory.

Theta Waves: Often linked to the encoding of new information and creativity.

Delta Waves: Predominant during deep sleep, important for memory consolidation.

Gamma Waves: linked to peak mental performance, heightened perception, and the integration of complex information. They play a role in learning, problem-solving, and memory recall.

There are activities a person can do to activate these brain waves. Particularly, being relaxed and actively engaging in whatever situation the person is involved in. Practices that involve relaxing, problem-solving, getting enough rest, and performing visualization can help initiate these brain waves. Therefore, leading to better brain performance, stronger states of consciousness, and enhanced learning and memorization.

Sensory Memory

This type of memory is shaped by a person’s senses—whether through hearing, sight, touch, smell, or taste—and each memory has a limited duration before it fades. Primarily, visual or hearing would be the first ones to take in any form of stimuli since it can absorb objects from a distance. As mentioned it is quite brief but whatever has been seen or heard if there is attention to it, it is later transferred to short-term memory. Short-term memory for further processing. Visual sensory memory is probably the most powerful to capture “data” since there are so many different objects in the environment.

Short-term Memory

Short-term memory (STM) holds certain information for a short period of time. It could be about 20 -30 seconds. As the information enters the short-term memory portion there needs to be a way of retaining it and having it moved over to long-term memory.

George A. Miller wrote a paper on the number of items that can be handled in short-term memory. “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” discusses how the average person can hold between 5 to 9 items in STM.

To maintain it one must use methods like rehearsal to retain the information in memory. As this works in conjunction with working memory.

Rehearsal methods:

Maintenance Rehearsal: Simply repeating information to oneself to memory.
Elaborative Rehearsal: Associating existing knowledge with new information. (More details below)

Above are methods for helping a person to keep the items that would need to be memorized. Without practice what was in short-term memory will be gone quickly.

Working Memory

This is a subset of short-term memory where work is being done. Working memory is a mechanism that holds the mental representations currently being worked on, and cognitive tasks available for processing. This area of memory is delicate as well because when working or concentrating on a task it is doing much of the work for reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, and learning.

Just like short-term memory, it could only handle a number of items while working on a task.

External stimuli are based on what a person can see through their eyes or hear through their ears (That is from the sensory memory). Working memory is more based on inner auditory and mental visualization.

In order for all this to work well there is always attention bias which refers to selecting what a person is placing their attention to. Divided attention is ineffective and will not bode well for the encoding process to long-term memory.

Working Memory Drawback

Working memory and attention are closely intertwined, sharing a finite pool of cognitive resources. This relationship means that when a task demands intense focus, the resources available for working memory to hold and manipulate information are reduced. For instance, if driving in heavy traffic, the focus on the road can limit the brain’s capacity to remember directions or engage in a conversation.

Similarly, when a task heavily engages working memory, it can detract the ability to maintain attention on other tasks.

This shared-resource model highlights why multitasking often leads to errors or decreased performance both working memory and attention are being stretched thin, competing for the same cognitive resources. Understanding this relationship can help manage cognitive load more effectively, improving both productivity and accuracy in everyday tasks.

Long-term Memory

Long-term memory stores information indefinitely, making it possible to recall past experiences, learn new things, and retain knowledge over long periods.

For many items to be committed to long-term memory the items need to be processed. In other words, encoded, for this to be effective one must place their attention to what they would like to store in memory.

There are 2 types of long-term memories:

Explicit Memory

Episodic Memory

This form of memory has episodic and semantic memory tied to this. Episodic memories are stored and recalled based on some event that occurred in one’s life. For example, a person went on a fantastic vacation and they remember the activities they experienced.

Semantic Memory

The purpose of this memory is to recall knowledge or information that has no relation to the individual’s life experience. Primarily learning a subject of some matter. For example, a person recalls mathematical equations for solving problems.

Implicit Memory

Procedural memory

As mentioned this is for recalling how to do some physical tasks. After consistent practice of some sort, the practice itself becomes second nature. Which does not require too much effort to recall details to perform. For instance, practicing a musical instrument.

Priming

Priming is a bit complex since it is based on stimuli being committed to memory. The person themselves may not be consciously aware of what they have seen or heard. Particularly giving attention to what is in front of the person without thinking about it. Examples could be viewing advertisements or learning a concept from a teacher. Priming could be positive or negative so it is important to expose oneself to positive scenarios.

Priming can come in any form as long it is seen or heard. It could be with words, repetition of some practice, associative, social, or in learning. Priming can influence how a person feels or responds to events.

For example, If a person were to read a story about a character who is intelligent and kind. The reader may take inspiration and do something similar to what the character does like study or volunteer to help people.

As for advertisements, there could be a commercial where it is well-presented and it shows a product that could solve problems. It could also associate a person who is satisfied with the product which then can influence a person to purchase it.

Keep in mind priming occurs unconsciously. So when trying to learn a subject, find materials where it is similar to that subject and do a warm-up.

Strong Methods For Encoding

Encoding is a crucial stage where inputs are taken and committed to long-term memory. When taking in details there are times when much of it is not properly stored. Encoding is needed to make this happen. There are practices to incorporate for better long-term memory commitment.

Elaborative Rehearsal

This practice involves trying to have an understanding of what needs to be remembered. More so taking information and using a reference for better understanding and remembrance.

For example, in math, there is a graph which is comprised of the x-axis and y-axis with numbers on them to define coordinates. X-axis is horizontal and y-axis is vertical. To easily recall one of them one might use some reference. Since y axis is vertical one could say “y to the sky” for recollection purposes.

Chunking

The purpose of chunking is to view materials that are large or long and divide them evenly. Taking in each portion of what was once large will be easier for the encoding process.

“Chunking is the process whereby the brain perceives several items of information as a single item.”

-Oram & Wilson

For example, if going out for grocery shopping one could categorize meats, veggies, and fruits. With that one could see what items are needed from each category.

Or another example.

If a person is trying to learn a chapter from a business law textbook then one must highlight the topics.

It could look like this.

Topics

Contact and tort laws – Spend 15 minutes to study.
- Take a break.
Immigration law – spend 25 minutes to study.
- Take a break
Cyberlaw – spend 20 minutes to study.
- Take a break

This is an example but for each topic take a break to let the brain absorb what was taken.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics is a concept where a person can use an acronym to remember certain details. For example, PEMDAS in math is parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. This is for the orders of operations a common statement for this is “Please excuse my dear aunt Sally”.

Visualization

Visualization can be used to represent mental imagery. Using visuals is quite effective when trying to recall a piece of information. For instance, the shape and color of a stop is red and an octagon.

Active Engagement

A person who is immersing themselves in the process fully will have better memorization of what is in front of them. Active engagement can be comprised of taking notes, asking questions to get a better understanding of a material, or even teaching it.

Fasting

Fasting is known to have many benefits moreover it has a plethora of perks for cognitive health. Fasting enhances brain function so this means full-on mental clarity and calmness. This sort of practice is famous for the act of neurogenesis which means new neurons are produced in the brain. It also increases the production of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). This is essential for learning and memorization. While exercise is an activity that initiates the production of BDNF, fasting contributes to this as well. Training fasted could offer a person an effective approach to supercharging the brain.

Avoid overeating carbohydrates and sugars since they can spike insulin levels which can cause stress and inflammation. A person would have imbalances in the body leading to a decrease in brain power.

If you want to learn more about carbohydrates check out this: Do Carbohydrates Make You Dumber?

Overall, fasting helps with brain and bodily function.

Conclusion

Overall, it is quite impressive to have strong recall abilities. However, one needs to condition themselves to have this feat. When trying to encode certain details there are approaches to be considered. The most optimal state to be in is being calm and alert. With this in mind, a conscious person is aware and actively engaging will surely help store items in the long-term memory. Rehearsal methods whether it would be elaborate or maintenance there is an effort that is placed to retain details. The initial stages of memory are quite brief and can disappear in less than a minute.

There is so much a person can retain during that time. There are a number of items a person can retain which could be between 5 to 9 items in short-term memory. As of much of the brain is involved in recording, storing, and retrieving memory. Cognitive health is crucial since neural activity like brain waves, neurotransmitters, and grey and white matter contribute to memory formation. Ultimately, being well-rested, managing stress, and avoiding consuming foods leading to fatigue have a greater effect on energy and attention.

Sources

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