Improving memory

To help improve your memory it is important to have some understanding of how memory works.  Fortunately, good memory is made, not born, and there are a number of techniques and strategies that you can use to improve your memory.  This chapter is designed to introduce some of the theory behind memory, how memory is stored, and some simple strategies that can be used to improve memory.

• How does memory work
• Information processing model
• Strategies for enhancing memory
• Committing something to memory

How does memory work

A popular analogy for the functions of human memory is the workings of a computer.  The input of information into a computer can occur through several sources.  Computers will accept information from visual scanning devices, keyboards, light pens, and so on.  Similarly, humans process information from their five senses.  After information is input into the computer it is held temporarily in an information buffer called random access memory (RAM).  Humans have a memory process analogous to this that we shall refer to as working memory.  The computer then must save this information onto hard disk (just like a person's long-term memory) until it needs to be accessed again.  As with humans, computers require certain processes by which information is transferred from one level to another.  Electrical power keeps information in RAM just as rehearsal is needed to maintain information in working memory.  Computer software must transform information to be saved on hard disk just as people encode information to be stored in long-term memory.

Information processing model

A model of memory that may be used is the Information Processing Model.  It describes three systems of memory including sensory information store, working memory and long-term memory.

Strategies for enhancing memory

There are a variety of strategies that people use to help improve their memory.  The primary purpose of such strategies is to impose structure onto otherwise unstructured information, the choice of which strategies work best is up to the individual.

Any strategies that you can identify in your memory repertoire are important in enhancing memory.  You have probably tailored them to suit your specific needs and they are now familiar and well practised.  It may be that to improve your memory the use of these strategies has to be maximised and generalised to fit all sorts of learning situations. 

Pick and choose from the strategies provided below that fit your preference, learning material or learning style:

• Active learning
• Review
• Notetaking
• Rehearsal
• Association
• Chunking and grouping
• Mnemonics
• Rhythm and rhyming
• Remembering written material

Committing something to memory

To commit information to memory effectively, you need to sustain concentration on the task at hand and you need to organise the information you receive so that its structure provides you with the capabilities to retrieve it from long-term memory. 

The following resources may be of further assistance:

• University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota has created the Study Guides and Strategies web site with useful memory enhancement strategies.
• Mind Tools website gives a variety of strategies to help memorise information.