Improving Your Memory

Can you remember your first ever memory? For most people it is usually a childhood one like sitting on your father’s lap as he read you a book. Psychologists say that our first memories are formed after the age of four. They also say that our memories improve well into middle childhood. Developmental psychologists say that children do better at recognition than recall memory. Memory works by 1) encoding, 2) storing, and 3) retrieving information that we collect through our lifetime. Memory only fails when we fail to do any of the three.

Here are some ways that people of all ages can improve their memories or keep it working well into old age:

Proper nutrition is important. Getting the proper nutrients in your diet is important in memory improvement. Vitamin and mineral supplements may be required to ensure proper nutrition.

Getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep can interfere with memory.

Watch your drug and alcohol intake. Over medication can lead to memory problems as we get older. As well, any more than two drinks a day can impair our memory.

Keeping our minds active will help. Doing activities such as walking helps improve the flow of oxygen to the brain.

Other activities such as playing an instrument, learning a new language, and doing math without a calculator have shown to keep the brain stimulated and improve memory.

Other techniques include image associations (i.e. visual aids) and verbal associations (i.e. a mnemonic). ROY G BIV is an example of verbal associations that help us remember the colour spectrum.

Rehearsal is another common technique for memory improvement. We have all used this at one point in our lifetime. The basic principle behind rehearsal is to repeat something over and over again until we know it.

Practicing these memory techniques everyday will lead you on the road to a better memory.