Engage
Your brain remembers things by their meaning. If you spend a little effort extra up front to create meaning, you’ll need less effort later to recall it. When you read or hear a word you don’t already know — for example, “phocine” — your brain has to work harder. First, you have to remember how to spell it long enough to look it up in a dictionary. There, you’ll see it means “seal-like” and it’s pronounced “fo-sine.” Now picture a seal in your mind and repeat the word aloud. Even say “Fo! Fo! Fo!” aloud like a seal barking. The sound of the word, its spelling, the image of a seal, and the barking all work together to form memory links. The more links the better to help you trigger the word later on, when you want to use it to describe, say, a sunbather in a black one-piece.
Strategy:
Say you’re on vacation in Maui, staying at a beachfront hotel in room #386. How do you remember that? Method number one: Pause for a minute to take a mental snapshot of your room door viewed from an outside vantage point. Then, when you return to that same vantage point, you’ll know which door is yours. Method number two: Stop and think for a minute. You’re on the third floor, which is the top floor of the hotel, so the number 3 is easy. Now for the 8 and the 6. The expression “to eighty-six” comes to mind — as in to get rid of, do away with, or throw out. As in what your boss will do to you if you decide to spend an extra week in Maui. Done.
You will find more related information on how to improve short-term memory by checking out these resources:
- Collection of brain teasers and games: attention, memory, problem-solving, visual, and more.
- Does brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
- What are cognitive abilities?
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Great information and strategies! Thank you for submitting to the Carnival of Healing.
Glad you enjoyed it Hueina! For those of you who want to read Carnival of Healing #60, click here.
hi,
my name is haris.I am from pakistan,lahore .The mathod of link mathod is so easy and his writer is harry lurine.example
we remember= tree,aeroplane,letters,tops how to remember it.It so easy first link with aero plane and tree link rediclous and illogically you see in your mind in the tree lots of planes is
Hello Haris: yes, visualizing funny associations is another technique to remember things. Thanks!
How can i improve my short term memory and concentrations, effective thinking and clarity.please i want advice
Hello John, on top of the advice above, I’d suggest you take a look at our Brain Fitness Topics section. You will find great information there.
It was a wonderful lecture i enjoyed it very much.Please keep up the good work.
I disagree with the statement “(If someone tells you they can do their homework better with the TV or radio on, don’t believe it. Any speech or speech-like sounds automatically use up part of your brain’s attention capacity, whether you are aware of it or not.)”. For me, listening to very soft music helps me focus. If I don’t have music on, my attention span drops dramatically. It has been this way for many years.
Hello. Thanks so much for this website, it is very helpful!
I’m actually doing a science project on short term/long term memory and how you can improve it. I’m testing to see if Brain Age (the video game) excersizes can help.
This website has been great so far, and if you have any other info, I’d love to hear it! Thanks!
Committment with concentration is the key to short,medium or long term memeory. Some of our Kids age events are memorable even today because we did them with committed concentraion whether playing or angrying or naughting. But at this adult age we think some thing , tel out someother thing and do entirely different thing whcih disables us to recollect our thoughts, words and deeds after moments.
So, what is most needed, is the instill in your “awareness”…of what the heck is “wrong”. By knowing what is wrong…then you can learn how to compensate for it. Neuropsych.testing…plus cognitive remediation classes…for as long as they are needed. Look into that…and if you get that assistance…you may become aware of symptoms you may have never thought of having…that may sound scary…BUT…THERE IS COMFORT OF AWARENESS…which will be a gift…a tremendous gift…Ninuccio
I appreciate every thing about the short/long brain term. When i was younger, i could assimilate and remember very fast. But now the situation is different. I will try and employ d strategies and see if i will improve