2 replies to this topic

[Geovicsha]

Generally, I have a very good memory. It is not uncommon to be met with accolades from my peers as to how good my memory is. But this is my episodic memory: I can recall dates of conversations to the month, anything of high emotional valence, and relating to the self. It's almost egotistical. I can recall when I had a dream to around a month, at one month and year when I first heard a song that resonated, and when I first learned new facts and jokes.

 

But, the details themselves often elude me. I can recall the emotions, the environment, and the general aspect of when I was reading something or hearing a friend tell me something (e.g. we talked about how about Bitcoins work), but for the life of me, unless I need to re-read and rehear the information until it's like a script, I don't recall the information (e.g. how Bitcoins work). At best, it remains within the working memory (a few days to a week) before it escapes me completely, and any subsequent recall from the environment or internal exploration is solely about the autobiographical component.

 

Learning new words is also a difficulty, as it requires an elaborate understanding of them. But, they develop some emotional valence as well, and I begin structuring my sentences around certain words I have learnt as opposed to letting it flow into my vernacular.

 

My memory, moreover, is fairly well with where things are in my environment.

 

I just can't fathom how people in conversation are so easily able to trigger facts, non-self anecdotes, or jokes and repeat them with ease. It is not until I re-read or rehear something that I am like, "duh, I knew that." I can read a fact or joke that I haven't thought about for years and then be like, "oh, right, I read that on Wikipedia around about June 2009."

 

Does it require a greater understanding that it is second nature to repeat the process? Perhaps my brain doesn't work too well in linear, step by step facts and figures? I've always struggled working with machinery, for example. But when it's even something as simple as a joke that I wish I can repeat, I just forget it. And when I hear new information or facts, I am able to understand it fairly effortlessly.

 

Or maybe I should utilise the House of Loci method? Would this be a good way to combine my autobiographical/episodic memory with semantics? For example, hear a fact or a joke about something and place a bizarre scene in a certain room that correlates with it?

 

And I do take the following on a regualr basis: Bacopa, Piracetam, L-Theanine, Fish oil, Vitamin B, L-Theanine, L-Tyrosine (every second day).

 

Occasionally I take: Noopet and Pramiracetam

 

Cheers!

Edited by Geovicsha, 11 January 2015 - 06:31 AM.

[Geovicsha]

Bump!

[Gerrans]

I have been doing a lot of work on my memory recently, and I am very surprised with the good results. But I think there are no short cuts--one has to savour a piece of information--turn it over in one's mind--in order for it to gain full hold. Otherwise it sinks in but is not available until something external triggers it. The things we do with instant recall, such as remembering our friend's name or being able to walk, result from constant repetition. A stimulus brings them to the surface and they just happen. A pianist learns a complex piece by constant repetition and can eventually play it without conscious thought.

 

The way I try to improve my memory is by learning new things and then trying to do them more quickly. For example, arithmetical calculations or practising a foreign language.

 

Memories do not come from one part of the brain--they are put together by different parts and collaboration between various neurons. Which is why we might remember half a name and not the other half---or we might remember just the first letter. In effect, we have to draw information out of our deep memory and use our analytical processes to manipulate it into something else, before setting it aside again. This makes it easier to remember next time. It has been said there is no such thing as remembering, only re-remembering. We remember what we have reremembered. Each act of remembering is therefore a new construct.

 

It is hard to remember mental structures, such as sums or analyses, and so I like to write things down in the form of notes, journals, lists, plans, etc. Externalising information to a place outside of the brain is a good way to control it and make it better known to oneself. People forget many of the ideas they have in the bath, because they do not have the chance to write them down. School children learn by doing written exercises; they cannot learn passively, just by being told.

 

As you say, sometimes we have to perform little tricks to help us remember things. I am learning Italian, and I keep a "one difficult word a day" list. I was having trouble with the word "scoiattolo", which means "squirrel". I told myself that lo scoiattolo means "the scatterer" (which it does not, but I pictured a squirrel scattering his nuts under a tree), and then it was fixed in my brain.  For me, at least, a good memory needs working at. Very few people enjoy doing that, though. They may have many intellectual pursuits, but they keep within their comfort zone of familiar subjects. I used to be like that, and so I was a clever, stupid person. I think I am getting smarter now, which is quite surprising at my age.

Edited by Gerrans, 14 January 2015 - 01:13 AM.