Memory

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Definition: Active system
that stores, organizes,
alters, and recovers
(retrieves) information

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 Brain is the hardware
Mind is the software
Brain is only 2% of body mass
But consumes 25%of the metabolic energy
consists of 100 billion neurons each is a
computer
On an average we use only 10 % of our
brain Einstein used 30 %
 functions
• Encoding: Converting
information into a useable
form
• Storage: Holding this
information in memory
• Retrieval: Taking memories
out of storage
 MEMORY ENHANCING
TECHNIQUES
• Step by step.
• Observation :5 senses
• encoding :acoustic sound ,visual,
semantic feel
• storage
• retrieval: retrieve in the mode of encoding
and storing e.g. encoded acoustically and
retrieved visually not possible
 stages

• Sensory Memory
• Short Term Memory
• Long Term Memory
 Sensory Memory
• Storing an exact copy of incoming
information for a few seconds (either
what is seen or heard); the first stage
of memory
• Icon: A fleeting mental image or visual
representation
• Echo: After a sound is heard, a brief
continuation of the activity in the
auditory system
 Short Term Memory
• Storing small amounts of information briefly (7 items)
• Working Memory: Part of STM; like a mental “scratchpad”
• Selective Attention: Focusing (voluntarily) on a selected
portion of sensory input (e.g., selective hearing)
• Phonetically: Storing information by sound; how most things
are stored in STM
• Very sensitive to interruption or interference
• Maintenance rehearsal
• Short Term Memory Tests:Digit Span: Test of attention and
short-term memory; string of numbers is recalled forward or
backward
• Typically part of intelligence tests
• Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2): STM is limited to holding
seven (plus or minus two) information bits at once
• Information Bit: Meaningful single piece of information
• Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information in STM
• Information Chunks: Bits of information that are grouped into
larger chunks
• Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information silently to
prolong its presence in STM
 Long Term Memory

• Storing information relatively

permanently
• Stored on basis of meaning and
importance
• Unlimited
• Elaborative Rehearsal and
emotionally charged
 Ebbinghaus Curve of
Forgetting
• A typical representation of the forgetting
curve.
 Von Restorff Effect
• Try to remember this list (take a few
seconds and then look away):
• Jump
• Cut
• Run
• Fly
• Duck-billed platypus
• Read
• Build
• Lay
 short term memory to long term
memory
The limbic system ships short term memory to
long term memory, its done in two ways
• The limbic system becomes excited
\stimulated emotionally during this
excitement excitatory catecholamine
neurotransmitters such as nor epinephrine
are secreted which enhance memorization,
• Secondly by repetition ;5 times repeating
the subject matter gives the power to
recollect 20 times
The optic nerves are
much larger than the
auditory, therefore
memorizing is
65%VISUAL.20%
auditory and
15%kinesthetic.
In 2000 Dr Eleanor Maguire
scanned the brains of 16
London black-cab drivers, who
had spent an average of two
years learning 'the Knowledge'
– street names and routes in
London. The taxi drivers had a
larger right hippocampus than
control subjects, and the longer
they had been on the job, the
larger their hippocampus was .
The taxi drivers had a larger right
hippocampus than control subjects and the
longer they had been on the job, the larger
their hippocampus was. These findings
seem to indicate that the right hippocampus
plays an important role in storing spatial
memories. Three years ago, researchers at
the Institute of Neurology in London
showed that cab drivers' grey matter
enlarges and adapts to help them store a
detailed mental map of the city.
 • Some useful techniques are:
Monitoring Comprehension:
You can only remember and fully use ideas that you understand. Get
into the habit of saying to yourself, "Do I understand this?" Always
check the logic behind the ideas. If you can see the logic in
something, you are much more likely to be able to reconstruct that
idea even if you cannot immediately recall it. As questions like why?
How?
Tutor another student who is having difficulty; if you teach someone else,
you reinforce your own knowledge. Curiosity is the wick in the candle
of learning
Visualisation - Because the visual memory is very strong it makes sense
to try and visualise as much as possible "People frequently forget
names very easily. The trick is to try to visualise that name and
associate it with the person," she says. Thus, the name "Sona
Alluwalia" could be visualised as a golden Sona munching potato
chips. "It sounds crazy and it can be highly cryptic, but it works."
• Generate Your Own Examples:
Go beyond examples provided in class and in the text, and
bring your general knowledge and experiences into play by
relating them to academic ideas. In biology, relate
photosynthesis to the potted plant in your garden; in geography
relate theories of climate to your day to day experience of
weather; in chemistry relate acids to home uses of vinegar; in
physics relate acceleration to riding your bike. When you can
generate your own examples, you demonstrate your
understanding, and your memory is enhanced.
• Think in Pictures, Colours, and Shapes:
Concrete images are more memorable than abstract ideas.
Practice colourful thinking! Associate your own mental pictures
to the academic content. In your class and text notes use colour
to highlight headings and other key ideas. Use shapes to help
you organise ideas; triangles, boxes, flow charts, circles. The
brain remembers well by colour so if you write everything in
blue ink that is monochrome. Monochrome is a visual
representation of monotone, from which derives monotonous,
or boring. Boredom makes the brain go to sleep."
• Use Mnemonics
Mnemonics are memory training devices or ways of
making associations to facilitate in remembering. They can
be extremely powerful; at the same time, if you overuse
mnemonics, you can spend too much time on generating
and learning the mnemonics and too little time on real
understanding of the material. The economical use of
mnemonics to study for a test can be very effective. There
are many types of mnemonics:
– Rhymes can be powerful; psychology students will
recognize Freud's personality theory in the little rhyme,
"Id is the kid!"
– Acronyms collapse the beginning letters of a set of
information into one or a few words; VIBGYOR.
BHAJSAB,DISHCUP( characteristics of gold as money-
durability, intrinsic value ,storage homogeneity
,convertibility, utility, portability)
 Acroust ic s
Acroustics The beginning letters of a set of
information can be built into a sentence;
For planets My Very Excited Mother Just
Showed Us Nine Planets,
Periodic table hi! he lies because boron
can not open fire; new nations might
always sign peace security treaty clause;
a king can. (H He Li Be B C N O F N Na
Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca) ;SinOH Cos AH
Tan OA :OLD HOUSES ALWAYS HAVE
OLD ATTICS
LOCI
STORY TELLING

Visualize yourself
teaching the
material
 STRATEGIES TO OPTIMIZE
MEMORISING
1. Information should be relayed at a slow pace.
2. It should be connected to some fact already known,
3. Construct mental hooks \key words the memory web is a
11mile web and your search beam is merely 15cm thus
developing threads and tugging on them helps to retrieve the
information .It also magnetizes the beam thereby hastening the
process. l
4. Memorize in simple language first later substitute superior
parlance
5. Memorize to teach
6. Employ memory enhancing exercises and games regularly ,opt
to remember the dress worn by significant others at a party, car
numbers ,phone numbers ,roll numbers etc.The hippocampus
of British cab drives expanded 100%in 10 yrs after they joined
as cab drivers
7. Add emotion to the fact
8. Comprehend , you can’t always remember
facts you can’t understand 9. Memorize aloud,
it improves your capacity to retain by 40%
10. Memorize from general to specific
11. Consciously make an attempt to memorize
say to yourself ‘I MUST REMEMBER THIS’
12. Always Remember, "If you don’t use it, you
will soon lose it" It's a fallacy that the memory
naturally gets worse as you get older. On
average the memory does get worse with age
but because it's treated so badly. It has a diet of
junk food such as TV and misinformation.
 13.cure constipation
14. Chew gum
15. positive self talk “I can remember all I read”.my
brain power is growing every day
16.Sound sleep
17.Meta cognition
18 physical exercise
19 calculate bio rhythmic cycle=
all days alive \33
16.5 days +ve
16.5 days -ve
 Mental workouts
• Mental workouts strengthen the
hippocampus eg ambidextrous, learn a
word daily,gaze at a point without
getting distracted .Games such as
chess, draughts, crosswords, memory
puzzles get you into a discipline of
thinking and they are not a chore
 YOGA
NAMES OF ASNS FOR MEMORY
ENHANCE MENT
PADHAST, PARVAT, SAMPARN ,VAJR
SANTULAN ,PASHIMOTTAN

ACUPRESSURE POINTS
NECK BUTTONS ,THUMBS
 Food to enhance memorizing
ability

• Anti oxidants ,Turmeric (cur cumin)

,egg yolk, dates, figs, almonds, fish,
ladyfinger, walnut, raisins, prunes,
peanuts,
blueberries, bhrami, skullcap, ginseng,
Billberry, gotukola, water, garlic,
pomegranate, raw parsley, spinach,
tomatoes,apples, curd ,ghee
,apples,cloves oranges soya products