Study Arata!
Imagine how your life would be like if you were able to memorize everything you wanted.
When your boss asked you for any information, you would know how to answer immediately.
When you had to take a test, you would pull up memories and know all the answers.
You would never again forget your passwords, where you left your keys, or the name of that
person you met at a party many years ago.
Imagine the impact that possessing that kind of memory would have on your career, your
productivity and your relationships.
For you to have such an incredible ability of memorization, we’re seeing in detail
how memory works.
In the last three episodes of the series Study Arata, we got to know the three kinds of memory
that exist and we discovered the processes by which new memories are formed.
Basically, you have three kinds of memory that work as if they were a funnel.
At the longest part of the funnel, there’s the sensory memory.
This sensory memory receives, for some seconds at most, all the information your senses are
able to capture.
Among the millions of pieces of information that reach you at every second, only some
of them arrive at the second part of the funnel.
This second part of your memory is the short-term memory, or working memory.
Short-term memory is able to keep about seven bits of information at a time.
Only what is really important reaches the end of the funnel, the long-term memory.
Here stays the data you’re able to remember days or even years after having received that
information.
In the previous episode [source: https://arata.se/study20], we saw that the information transition from
the short-term to the long-term memory is called encoding.
After encoding, information stays stored in your brain until you need to retrieve it at
some point.
When your boss asks you for it or when you’re taking a test, for example.
Today we’re going to see in detail how storage works.
We’re going to understand how storage happens and what practical attitudes you can take
to enhance your brain’s ability to retain information.
Storage is the ability to retain information in memory over time.
If we were to define the three memory processes in a very basic way, we would say the following.
Encoding is the initial learning of information.
Storage concerns the maintenance of the information that has been learnt over time.
And retrieval is the ability to access that learnt information whenever you want.
Most studies about memory focus on improving the encoding process and on techniques that
grant an effective retrieval.
Of the three processes, storage is the one that seems to have received less attention
from psychologists and specialists in learning.
But this doesn’t mean that storage is less important.
Every act through which any information is well memorized demands that all three processes
should work perfectly.
When you’re unable to remember something, it means that at least one of those processes
failed.
In these cases, there can be two kinds of mistakes.
First mistake: you can simply forget information.
For example, when your boss asks you something about work and you forgot the answer.
Second mistake: You may have a false memory.
For example, confuse someone’s name or give wrong details about a certain event.
For these mistakes not to happen, you need to increase your brain’s ability to store
information the right way.
Every new experience you have changes your brain.
You store traces of memories.
Every experience you have throughout the day changes your brain.
When you see, hear, read or feel something, that experience affects your nervous system’s
structure.
Those experiences leave what psychologists call memory engrams or memory traces.
Do you know when you write something down on a piece of paper?
Your brain does something similar when it registers a memory trace.
When this happens, the very physical structure of the brain is modified.
A memory trace is, then, a physical change in the nervous system that represents an experience
you had.
These memory traces are important.
Memory traces help you rebuild those experiences in the future, when you try to remember what
happened.
This period between the memory itself and the moment in which you try to remember it
is called retention interval.
Everything that happens within this retention interval affects your brain’s ability to
store information.
New experiences can affect the way you remember previous memories.
The same way, lack of sleep, a poor diet or health problems can affect your brain’s
storage capacity.
Actually, you will only know whether your storage of information was well accomplished
at the moment you try to retrieve information.
Retrieval is the third and last of the memory formation processes and we’ll be talking
about it in the next episode of the Study Arata series.
For the time being, let’s see some practical strategies to enhance your brain’s ability
to store information.
You can improve your storage capacity.
The secret is to keep your brain fit.
Storing information properly depends on the physical formation of memory traces in your
nervous system.
It’s a biological process.
That’s why, the better your biology is, the healthier your body is, the higher will
be your brain’s ability to store information.
There are three pillars that help you keep your brain healthy.
And they’re the same three pillars that help you maintain your general health: nutrition,
exercise and rest.
A balanced diet based on minimally processed food should provide you with the vital nutrients
your brain needs to keep a good performance.
On the other hand, exercise can be divided in two groups.
First group: physical exercise, that allows the oxygen and nutrients flow travel to the
brain.
Second group: mental exercise that challenges your brain to make it stay fit.
For example, someone who’s constantly learning new things is challenging their brain more
than someone who spends their time watching television.
Learning new languages.
Meditating.
Handcrafting.
Playing chess, doing sudokus, or even using mental games like Peak or Lumosity help you
keep your brain fit.
I’ve prepared a page with links to some apps you can visit at https://arata.se/mentalgames.
It doesn’t matter what activity you do.
The important thing is that your brain is challenged.
Finally, you need to rest.
There are many studies that show the impact that a regular sleep routine has on our learning
ability.
Sleep deprivation severely affects your memory and many other cognitive functions.
That’s why routinely having a good night’s sleep is essential for having a good memory.
Retrieval of information depends on good storage.
There is nothing you can neglect.
Think about the three processes by which memories are formed as if they were a table with three
legs.
If any of the three legs -encoding, storage or retrieval- breaks, the whole table will
break as well.
It is true that there are many other practical and occasional techniques to improve the encoding
and retrieval of memories.
But your brain’s ability to store information also depends on the attitudes you can take.
And those attitudes will improve your physical ability in general.
If you have memory problems, check your overall health.
Do you consume processed food, with lots of sugar, trans fat and chemical additives?
Do you do physical exercise?
Do you sleep well at night so that both your body and mind can take a rest?
A weakened health also means a weakened brain.
Your brain is a part of your body.
When you neglect one part, you also hurt the other.
So, as a basis for strengthening your memory, pay more attention to your health.
Adjust your eating habits, your routine of physical and mental exercise, and your sleep
as well.
If you do that, you’ll notice great improvements in your brain’s ability to store information.
Storage is the brain's ability to retain memories from the time when the information is received
to the moment you need to remember something.
A good storage depends on a physical and biological process by which traces of memories are formed
in your nervous system.
Even if you can’t improve your storage promptly, you can increase your brain’s ability to
store information.
In order to do that, you need to improve your general health, focusing on a balanced diet,
physical and mental exercise, and comfortable nights of sleep.
If you’re interested in enhancing other of your brain’s abilities, I invite you
to visit https://arata.se/intelligence