We do it all the time: we think we’re going to buy three things and then go to the store and remember only two; we go upstairs and forget why we came up; we read information and then forget it in the blink of an eye. If only we had better memories.
Many memory methods have been tried and proven, and mnemonics such as mnemonics and associative memory have been around for decades. What new methods are scientists looking for now? Much investigation is needed before we can determine the best methods, but what can the latest research tell us about the most common memory techniques of the future?
1) Going backwards
We think of time and space as very different things and may not even realize that even when we talk, we refer to many concepts related to time and space. We “put things behind us” and “look forward” to the weekend. These expressions may vary from culture to culture, but in the Western world most of us visualize the future as something stretching out in the space in front of us and the past behind us.
Researchers at the University of Roehampton have decided to target this connection between time and space in our minds in order to enhance our memory.
They showed people a column of words, a set of diagrams or a segmented image documenting the theft of a woman’s handbag. People were told to walk 10 meters forward or backward in the room while a metronome beat. People were tested after memorizing the images, words, and pictures, and those who walked backward showed better memory in each test.
Walking backwards was like encouraging their minds to go back in time, and the result was that they could remember things more easily.
It even worked when they simply imagined themselves walking backwards and didn’t actually do so. This 2018 study coincides with some interesting 2006 research in white rats. When white rats learned to find their way around a maze, neurons called “position cells” marked each position. The researchers found that whenever the white rats paused in the maze, the neurons associated themselves with each location they had learned along the way and marked it in reverse. So their mental backtracking helped them remember the correct route.
Now, brand new research shows that when humans remember past events, they mentally reconstruct the experience of the event in reverse. When we see an object for the first time, we notice its pattern and color before we think about what it is. When we try to remember something, we use a different method: we remember the object first, and then, if we are lucky, we remember its details.
2) Drawing
How about trying to draw your shopping list instead of simply writing down the items? In a 2018 experiment, a group of young and old people memorized a list of words, half of which were told to draw a picture for each word, while the remaining half were told to write down the words as they memorized them, and later tested how many words people remembered. While words such as “isotope” are difficult to draw, the act of drawing is much more effective, allowing older people to act like younger people when recalling words. Drawing can even work in people with dementia.
When we draw, we have to think about more details, and that deeper thinking makes us more likely to remember it. Copying down words also helps slightly. You also remember more when you go to the grocery store but forget your shopping list at home than if you don’t write it down, for this very reason. Drawing goes a step further than writing.
If you think this technique will work better for you because you are good at playing “you draw, I guess”, you may be disappointed. The quality of the drawing itself doesn’t make any difference.
3) Do a little exercise, but find the right time to do it
It’s been known for a long time that aerobic exercise, such as running, helps with memory. Regular exercise doesn’t do much for overall memory, but a one-time effort over a period of time when you need to specialize in learning one thing is at least effective.
However, studies have shown that if we happen to exercise at the right time, memory may be enhanced even more drastically. After learning the set of diagrams with the locations, people who did 35 minutes of interval training four hours after learning were able to remember the diagrams better than those who did the interval exercise directly after learning.
In the future, the researchers will try to identify the time point for exercise that has the highest benefit, which may vary depending on what needs to be memorized.
4) Doing nothing
When people with traumatic amnesia try to memorize 15 words and then do another task, after 10 minutes they only remember 14% of the original words. But if they were asked to sit in a dark room after memorizing and do nothing for 15 minutes, they were able to remember 49% of the words with amazing results.
Since the publication of Herriot Watt University’s Michaela Dewar’s research, the same technique has been applied to a variety of studies. Dewar found that a healthy person who took a short break from studying could even influence how much of that memory remained after a full week. How can we know, you may wonder, that test subjects haven’t cunningly spent 10 minutes in a dark room reciting words over and over again so they don’t forget them? To prevent this, Dewar cleverly had people memorize foreign words that were difficult to pronounce, and it was almost impossible for test subjects to repeat them on their own.
These latest studies prove how fragile new memories are, so much so that a short period of rest can determine their survival.
5) Take a nap
If walking backwards, drawing, exercising or even taking a short break sounds like too much of a hassle, how about trying a nap? When we sleep, we replay or reactivate things we’ve just learned in our brains, and it’s long been believed that sleep helps to consolidate memories. And sleep doesn’t have to happen at night. Researchers in Germany found that when it came to memorizing groups of words, people who subsequently slept for 90 minutes could remember more words than those who watched a movie.
Recent studies have concluded that this technique works best when people are used to napping in the late afternoon. That got Elizabeth McDevitt and her team at the University of California Riverside thinking: is it possible to train people to snooze. So, four people who don’t normally nap began napping as much as they could during the day over a four-week period.
Unfortunately for these people, napping did not boost their memory. So, an extended training period may be needed, or all some people need is to walk backwards, draw, run or simply – do nothing.
