Has it ever occurred to you that you wanted to say something – but were held up or distracted momentarily – and when you resumed speaking, you just couldn’t remember what it was you wanted to say? At this moment, you try to go back to that line of thought all to no avail.
Well, there may be a really simple way to cement your memories. According to research by Chris Bird at the University of Sussex, all it requires is a few seconds of your time and a bit of imagination.
It turned out simply describing an event to oneself, massively improves the chances of remembering something accurately a week or so later. On average, the students used in this research were able to remember twice as many details.
By simply describing the event to themselves, they were able to remember twice as many details a week or two later
Bird also found that his brain scans appeared to reflect the strength of the memory: when the activity of the task performed closely mirrors what has been seen, it enabled the students build particularly strong foundations for later recall.
That may perhaps be a sign of just how much effort and detail were put into imagining the scene they described. It could also be that it allowed the students to peg the events to other memories; one student compared something he had seen to James Bond, for instance – instantly making it more memorable.
In other words, if you want to make sure something sticks in your mind, just take a minute or so to describe it to yourself, consciously and deliberately picking the most vivid details.
These findings have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical. Memory for the event will be significantly improved if the person rehearses the sequence of events as soon as possible afterwards. But it could be equally helpful for anyone hoping to cling to something worth remembering, like the definition of Ohm’s Law or Economics.
See Also: This is the Reason You Easily Forget Names. And It’s Not Because You are Proud!
