MIWA (Memory Improves With Age)

Can you believe it? The title statement is not based on any scientific research; it's based on my personal observations, and a kind of optimism that I inherited from my mother's side of the family. This conclusion seems in opposition with the ubiquitous research in the field, so where am I coming from?

When I was a child, I felt like adults around me were somewhere between being a little slow to just downright hopeless at remembering the details of an event: where, when, how, etc. Any numbers involved were especially elusive, it seemed. In contrast, I had memorized all my friends' phone numbers (at least 8 or 9.) Later, though, I remember being unable to recite some friends' phone numbers, although I could still dial them very quickly, based on visual memory of the pattern of numbers on the telephone. So is my memory in fact deteriorating?

Consider this: I remember at least 20 birthdays, even more significant historical dates, and lots of faces and music albums (including where I bought the album and often even how much I paid.) Then there're all the mental maps of cities I've visited, areas in Tokyo, even layouts of stores or supermarkets I've frequented. The bottom line is, when we're young, our heads are pretty empty. We can access things quickly, rather like searching for your favourite CD in your collection of 23 CD's. We get older, acquire more CD's, and they're harder to manage. So really, I might say my memory is much better than any child's, because I have so many more memories than a child. It's just a matter of locating that memory that may take time. Or maybe not. These days our iPod's and computers index all our music alphabetically for us, expediting the process.

Technology can be used as a tool to support our memory, and extend it beyond its 'normal' capacity, whatever that is. But, in fact, we've been using mnemonic devices as memory tools since time immemorial. When we're children, our mnemonic techniques are limited because we haven't learned much. One of the first ones I learned was the acronym 'Roy G. Biv' which represents the colours of the rainbow. For the rest of this article, I'd like to explain some other useful mnemonic devices to help your memory.

An Acrostic is a short phrase in which the first letter of every word is a cue to some idea you want to remember. Eg. 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge' ~ E, G, B, D, F represent the notes on the lines of the treble clef when reading music.

The Loci Method involves imagining placing the items you want to remember in specific locations in a familiar room. You can make your own example and see how it works for you...it doesn't work for me so well.

Creating a story about the items or details you need to remember is said to be one of the best ways of remembering those items. Imagine writing a story about some vegetables you need to buy! Let's try: Mr. Eggplant had a long day of work, and sought out his friend, Old Onion Head, to go to the izakaya. When he found him at the Park, Old Onion Head said 'Let's invite Carrot-Top too!' They went by his apartment (here imagine a tall eggplant with legs, and onion strutting down the street,) and found Carrot-Top hanging with his girl, Juicy Tomato, and so on. This way's fun!

Imagine-Name technique involves imagining a relationship between a person's name, and their physical characteristics. For example, Sandy is like a beach: relaxing and fresh, like a cool Caribbean breeze;) Heheh. Thank you for reading, and hope some of these techniques help you improve your memory as you age.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Sandy先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Mind Mapping】2009.06.10 (Wed)