Your memory: how it works and how to improve it

Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It
Higbee, Kenneth L. Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It. 2nd ed. Marlowe and Company. New York, 2001.

➢ Ten memory myths and what to expect from your memory
← Memory myths
◆ Discussing them helps you form realistic expectations from your memory
◆ Some may have a grain of truth, but are false enough tobe misleading
◆ 10 common myths
• Memory is a thing
• It does not exist in the sense of some thing (object, organ, gland, etc.)
• The word memory is an abstraction that refers to a process (or a number of different processes) rather than a tangible structure
• There is a secret to a good memory
• There is no single“secret” to good memory; techniques and systems serve as “tools”, but no tool does the job by itself
• Circumstances determine what method is best to use
• Who is doing the learning?
• What is to be learned?
• How will remembering be measured?
• What kind of remembering is required?
•How long will remembering be required?
• There is an easy way to memorize
• You can´t take the work out of memorizing; remembering is hard work, memory techniques make it more effective, not necessarily easier
• Some people are stuck with bad memories
• If there are innate differences in memory, these are not as important as the differencesin learned skills
• Memory consists of different activities, there is no single standard by which to judge memory. Many people have good memory for some tasks and bad for others
• Some people are blessed with photographic memories
• Photographic memory does not exist, is just the skillful application of memory techniques
• Eideticimagery does exist and is similar to this notion
• Some people are too old/young to improve their memories
• Many elderly adults remember less than young adults, but that doesn't mean that they can't improve their memory abilities
• Children as young as seven or eight, with the help of adults, can use several techniques effectively. Even preschoolers canuse some of them
• Memory, like muscle, benefits from exercise
• Practice alone doesn't makes a significant difference in improving memory. It's true that practicing memorization can help, but what you do during practice is more important than the amount of practice
• A trained memory never forgets
• A well-trained memory remembers what itwants to remember, not everything
• Even a trained memory is likely to forget some things that wants to remember
• Remembering too much can clutter your mind
• The ability to remember depends less on how much material you have stored in your memory than it does on how you learned it
• The more you learn about something the more it mayactually help memory
• The storage capacity of your memory is virtually unlimited
• People use 10 percent of their mental potential
• There is no evidence to support this
• It's improbable to find evidence for this claim. “Mental potential” is something that can't be defined, can't be measured, and can't be defined what “using” it means➢ What memory is
← Stages of memory
◆ 3 stages
• Acquisition/encoding (recording/fixating)
• Learning the material
• Storage (retaining/filing)
• Keeping the material until needed
• Retrieval (finding)
• Finding the material and getting it back out when needed
◆ 3 “R's” of...