How To Sharpen Your Memory
December 4th, 2008

Improving Short-Term Memory:

Short-term memory is the part of your brain, which holds the information in your mind for a very short duration of time. It's made for storing data that you don't have to recall at a later date like maybe the cost of some product in the supermarket etc. The amount of time for which one can hold onto the data in his short-term memory depends upon the attentiveness of that person. To keep from forgetting such data we repeat it over and over to leave an imprint onto our mind. Such repetition helps to ensure that we do not forget the data and also helps to store it in our long-term memory. At what time the eyes see and the hears hear the short-term memory starts to work, and in each word said of picture captured with the eyes a part will store in the short-term memory. It's not possible for most people to recall from the short-term memory, unless they practice strategies to deliver the information to the long-term memory.

Let us take an example of remembering a phone number. Imagine the phone no. to be 4372819. This is an average 7-digit phone number. Try remembering this number by individual numbers i.e. 4-3-7-2-8-1-9. Try recalling this number again after 5 minutes. You will hardly be able to recall this no. in another 30 seconds. Now try remembering the number as 43-72-81-9. This way we have broken up the larger number into four chunks of two digits each (except for 9). Now try recalling this number after 5 minutes. You will be surprised that you still remember the number. This is the same number and you are the same person with the same brain. Yet you get two different results. Isn't it amazing?

How to improve your short-term memory:

The key to improving your short-term memory is practicing all the time. The more you practice the longer you can keep it active and alive. Try to remember phone numbers, pin codes, and roll numbers or any other numerical data in the same fashion as discussed above.

The most common use of short-term memory is shopping lists. How to remember what all that you wrote down and what you want to buy from the market. As far as improving your short-term memory for words of concern, the following is a foolproof way. Just imagine that you have to buy ten items- hair dye, chocolate syrup, jam, milk, coke, hair gel, shoe polish, shampoo, deodorant. Try to read this list twice over and try to remember after 5 minutes the list. Probably you'll be able to recall five out of them.

How to remember each item on the list well the solution lies in weaving a story around each item on the list. For instance, visualize yourself as dying your hair with chocolate syrup. Then you wash it with milk. Then you put jam in your head instead of hair gel. Now to clean it all you shampoo your hair. Now you get so frustrated that you polish your shoes, spray some deodorant, and leave for work. Weaving such stories will help you to keep in mind what all you need in terms of associations and not as scattered data.

Thus, we can see that short-term memory helps you to do your daily chores more effectively and efficiently. It serves as a kind of temporary scratch pad. You just need to remember a phone number until you have called him up. You just need to remember the exact change that must be tendered to you only until you don't leave the cash counter. Your temporary memory helps you remember this.

Happy Memory

NOTE: Severely traumatized persons should use imagery only in the company of a qualified therapist. This is dangerous for particular disordered minds

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