Age is the biggest factor for memory loss. We all have memory problems of some sort by age 60, such as momentarily forgetting someone’s name, or briefly wondering why we just walked into a room. We can’t stop the effects of aging, but we can slow them down.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, Center on Aging, where I am director, we find that using very simple techniques and lifestyle changes — such as reading regularly and playing board games — can have a positive impact on memory retention. Scientific research shows that whenever we push ourselves to solve problems in a new way, we may be strengthening the connections between our brain cells.
Some people are so good at memorizing things that they test their talent in competitive matches involving knowledge of trivia or the recall of remarkably large numbers. Scientists have found that those people are no different from the rest of us. There is nothing out of the ordinary in their brain structure, nor are there any indications of unusual intelligence. They simply often tap into a memory technique used since antiquity called the Roman Room method.
This method is simple. Visualize yourself walking a familiar route, such as the rooms of your home. Mentally place images of the items to be remembered on specific points on the route. It may be helpful to place items where they may logically be — if you want to remember to buy coffee beans, perhaps they’re best mentally placed on the kitchen counter. When you want to recall them, mentally retrace your steps.
Over time, you can add more objects to the rooms. If one day you want to remember to pick up the newspaper, add it next to the coffee beans on the counter. If it’s airline tickets, visualize them taped to the fridge door. You also can extend your route or even add other familiar locations for certain kinds of memory tasks.
The Roman Room method is a very useful technique. Orators back in Ancient Rome would remember lengthy speeches this way, imagining each progression of a speech by mentally walking through rooms where they had placed objects to remind themselves of lines. But today we have much more clutter coming at us, so I also teach my patients an additional memory technique that I call Look, Snap, Connect…
Look reminds us to focus our attention. The most common explanation for memory loss is that the information never gets into our minds in the first place. Because we are distracted, we don’t take in the information or don’t allow ourselves to absorb it. Simply reminding ourselves to focus our attention will dramatically boost memory power.
Snap stands for creating a mental snapshot or visual image in your mind’s eye of the information to be remembered. For most people, visual images are much easier to remember than other forms of information.
Connect means we need to link up the visual images from snap in meaningful ways. These associations are key to recalling memories when we want them later. When linking your mental images, create a story that has action and detail.
Example: Say that you want to remember five words on your “to do” list — mail, gasoline, grandson, sweater, airline. Come up with a story linking them. For instance, I imagine a grandson knitting a sweater on a plane, then mailing it at the airport, when the plane lands to refuel.
Whatever the story ends up being, having detail, action and, for me, humor all help to imprint the information.
This linking technique works very well with everyday memory tasks, such as grocery lists or errands to run.
When trying to remember faces and names, create an image either linked to the person whose name you need to remember or a distinguishing feature of his/her face. A redhead named Lucy could be remembered by noting that the red hair reminds you of Lucille Ball. You could remember the last name of a woman named Potvin by imagining that she landscaped her yard with pots full of vines.
It’s never too late to improve your memory. Recent studies show that even people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s can be taught significant face and name retention under the guidance of a professional. For those of us looking to overcome the common forgetfulness in daily life, we can tackle much of that ourselves by doing activities that involve lateral thinking.
Lateral thinking means that we are trying to solve a problem from many angles instead of tackling it head on. Here are some mental aerobic exercises to get you started and, hopefully, suggest further how to invoke lateral thinking in your life.
A lot of memory loss is simply being too busy to absorb what people are saying. These exercises are meant to remind you to slow down, pay attention and consider what is at hand. In doing so, your memory will improve…
1. Brush your hair using your nondominant hand. You may find it awkward at first, but over a few days notice how much easier it gets. This and other exercises don’t directly help your memory (after all, how often will any of us need to remember to brush with the opposite hand?). What these mental aerobics do is challenge your mind to think differently and examine tasks that we often do without thinking and that lead to our minds getting “flabby.”
2. Say “silk” six times. Then answer the following question: What do cows drink? This exercise will help you be more thoughtful about things, which in turn is conducive to better memory.
3. See how many words you can spell from these letters:
LIGOBATE. No letter may be used twice in any given word, and each word must contain the letter L.
4. How many months have 28 days?
5. All of the vowels have been removed from the following saying. The remaining consonants are in the correct sequence, broken into groups of two to five letters. What is the saying?
STRK WHLTH RNS HT
How well did you do? Regardless, this is just a start to remembering more and living better.
Answers to Quiz
Q2: Cows drink water. If you said “milk,” you need to focus your attention.
Q3: agile, ail, aale, bagel, bail, bale, blog, boil, el, Gail, gale, gel, glib, glob, globe, goal, goalie, lab, lag, lea, leg, lib, lie, lob, lobe, log, loge, oblige.
Q4: All of them. (If you say only one month has 28 days, it’s an example of not paying attention to the matter at hand — all months have 28 days, after all.)
Q5: Strike while the iron is hot.
