This article will help you learn simple strategies to build long-term memory. What is memory? Memory is the ability to retain and recall past events or information in a person’s mind. In simple terms, memories are a reflection of the past. One can achieve great heights in their life if they have good long-term memory, hence it plays a vital role in our life. We have collated easy and simple strategies to build a long-term memory, which will help you to enhance your memory power.
Simple strategies to build long-term memory
Repetition with understanding:
Our brain will match the patterns excellently. But, how can we create this pattern? The answer is simple, repetition. When we do things repeatedly, it creates a pattern that consequently and naturally grabs our attention first and then establishes a comfort of familiarity in the brain.
Repetition increases automaticity. It takes a lot of brainpower to execute any skill when we learn it for the first time. But by default, our brain is wired for efficiency. When we practice any skill over and over, it gets moved to the subconscious brain, which means we don’t have to think twice to execute that skill every time. The more we practice or repeat it, the less we think about it- the subconscious brain takes over, and thus skill becomes automatic.
Swimming, driving a car or bike are a few examples of it. We learned these skills consciously, but through repetition, the execution became automatic for these activities.
Mental Rehearsal:
Mental rehearsal is practicing or performing a task in our mind before it takes place. When we practice any skill mentally, our brain registers those actions that we imagined, and it will try to execute the skill we practiced when we happen to face that situation in reality. Even if our brain cannot perform the skill flawlessly, it will still be better than we hadn’t imagined at all.
For example, Your manager might have given you the task of presenting the company plans in an upcoming board meeting. Before the meeting happens, you might think of presenting it in your mind, like what points you want to say, what dress you will wear, what posture you will stand, how confident and firm your handshake should be, etc. By imagining these mentally, it will boost your self-confidence level and will help you crack the presentation.
Adding to mental rehearsal, it will be great to present it in front of your friends and family members, who might also suggest some points to improvise your actions.
Elaborative rehearsal:
The memory rehearsal used for transferring information from short-term memory into long-term memory is called an elaborative rehearsal. According to research conducted by Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart in 1972, this is a proven and effective memory rehearsal. It involves thinking about the meaning of information and wiring it to other pieces of information that already exist in our memory. (Check this link if you would like to learn more about their research).
This method works well because we correlate newly learned information with the information that already exists in our long-term memory so it will not be forgotten. Mnemonics, Analogies, Similes, Metaphors, Music and Rhyme, Storytelling are the best examples of elaborative rehearsal memory.
| Mnemonic | Something such as a concise poem or a particular word is used to help a person remember something. For example, the musical notes on the lines go EGBDF – use the mnemonic “Every good boy deserves fun.” Similarly, if you find it difficult to recall the order of planets, then simply remember the name M.VEMJSUN which means Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. |
| Analogy | Comparison between two things for the purpose of explanation or clarification, for example – He is as strong as an Ox. The analogy compares the man’s strength to the strength of an animal, suggesting he is powerful. |
| Simile | Phrase or a word that compares something to something else, using the words ‘like’ or ‘as,’ for example – My dad is as tall as a giraffe. The sentence helps us visualize the person whose dad is extremely tall since we had seen and understood what a giraffe looked like from our childhood. |
| Metaphor | A word or phrase is used imaginatively to show that somebody/something has the same qualities as another thing, for example – He is a night owl. In this metaphor, we compare the person to a Night Owl, active at night, meaning he stays up late at night like a night owl. |
Good Sleep:
Sleep plays a vital role in our memory retention. It is researched and proven fact that sleep benefits in retention of memory. In a day, we see and learn many things. Learning is a process of understanding new knowledge, skills, etc., whereas seeing is our eyes capture everything around us. But, we react to only a few images that our eyes captured rest of the images that our eyes capture gets stored in our brain without our consciousness.
All these images and learning that we do in a day get accumulated in our brains. Only during the sleep phase, our brain consolidate this accumulated information into our memory which helps us recall when we need it. Good sleep is also an essential part of self-care, and I covered the importance of self-care in this post which might interest you.
Sleep deprivation results in loss of these consolidations; hence it becomes difficult for our brain to organize this information into our memory. You might have heard students saying they couldn’t recall what they studied during the exam even though they learned all night, which is the best example of the importance of sleep to retain our memory.
Regular Exercise:
You might already know that exercising increases our muscle strength and endurance. Regular exercise helps us keep our heart strong and maintain healthy body weight, which can repel chronic diseases. Adding to these benefits, exercise can also help us boost our memory power. Various studies have proven that parts of the brain that control our memory and thinking are larger among the people who exercise regularly than in people who don’t. Exercise reduces stress and anxiety. It increases our mood and helps us sleep better, which indirectly boosts our memory and thinking power.
According to Dr. Scott McGinnis, an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School, regular exercise with moderate intensity over six months or more increased the volume of selected brain regions responsible for memory and thinking. He also recommends we bring it as a habit just like taking medical prescriptions. Start with walking or jogging a few minutes a day and then gradually increase it by a few more minutes day by day or week by week.
I hope you liked the points listed about simple strategies to build long-term memory. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section 🙂
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