For memories to form,
three functions have to take place.
Acquiring - learning or experiencing something new.
Consolidating - this is where the memories become stable.
And finally, recall -
the ability to recall that information in the future.
Can juggling really increase brain activity?
German researchers divided 24 non-jugglers into two groups
and asked one group to practise juggling for three months.
They found that those who didn’t juggle showed no difference
in brain activity over the test period.
But those who juggled, had an increase in grey matter in two areas
of the hippocampus and neocortex,
parts of the brain involved in memory, visual and motor activity.
The brain is like a muscle and needs exercise.
To exercise your memory
you don’t necessarily have to learn a new physical skill like juggling.
(Speaking Spanish)
A memory palace is where you imagine a place
where you can store information.
Memory experts use this trick a lot to remember number sequences
or even a whole deck of cards.
Let's say you have a simple list of things you want to buy.
Step one:
Start at your door and go anticlockwise around your room,
labelling each item
one to seven in order.
Step two:
In my room, my bed is the first object.
So I would place the first item I want to remember -
buying an apple, for example -
on my bed.
Step three:
Create a visual image and exaggerate it in some way
to make it more memorable. If the first item is an apple,
picture a big purple apple crushing your bed.
Repeat the process until every piece of information
is associated to an item in your memory palace.
During sleep, your body rests, although your brain is busily
processing information from the day to form memories.
People who recall their dreams improve their memory
and are more creative.
Try keeping a dream diary of some sort.
Just a notebook and pen, so you can write down or sketch
as much as you can remember as soon as you wake up.
So there you have it. Acquiring, consolidating, and finally recall.
Simple tips to improve your memory.