This is my hobby: The science of remembering and forgetting
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This is my hobby: The science of remembering and forgetting
- Hardcover 540 rub.
You are reading an excerpt from the book “This Is My Specialty: The Science of Remembering and Forgetting.”
Alan Baddeley has been studying working memory for 40 years - the discoveries made during this time have made it possible to edit the model of how memories work about what is happening here and now. One of the latest elements added to it is the episodic buffer. It gets its name because it processes our memories and thoughts, recalls them from long-term memory and places them in consciousness.
“Imagine a television screen on which thoughts, memories, images flash. It is a passive monitor that shows a multidimensional picture created by other parts of the brain.”
Alan Baddeley
English psychologist
Behind the scenes, the brain is busy processing the content of what the monitor shows. It is in working memory that we think, solve problems, calculate - and it is also there that memories of our lives are played before our inner eyes. The working memory model helps us understand how and why some things never make it into memory at all. Forgetting in working memory is not the same as forgetting in long-term memory. Working memory is designed to store information for a very short period of time - it is a temporary storage warehouse.
It resembles office mailboxes - company employees take letters from them every day, making room for new ones. Only from these cells the mail will very quickly go into the trash bin if it is not picked up on time.
Content
- Start your day at the same time
- Increase your concentration
- Monitor your sleep quality
- Increase brain endurance
- Improve your problem solving skills
- Get your head in order every day
- Develop mindfulness
- Develop your memory
- The ability to tell
- Make your speech expressive
- What to eat to keep brain cells intact
- Get your brain checked periodically
- Improve your brain's ability to self-control
- Improve your creativity
- Train your willpower
In this article we will talk about how to increase your efficiency and use your brain correctly. Student years are one of the best times for the human brain. After university, the need to train your memory and give your brain complex tasks often disappears. In an idle state, the level of intelligence decreases. To return it to its previous norm, Japanese neuroscientist Takashi Tsukiyama recommends introducing 15 habits into your life.
Start your day at the same time
This habit should not be influenced by external circumstances (got to bed late, didn’t want to get up because of the cold, etc.). Distribute tasks (wash dishes, iron things, sort through bills or distribute files on the computer, etc.): difficult ones - 2 hours after getting up, familiar easy ones - immediately after getting up.
Working with your hands engages the frontal lobes of the brain (choice and decision making).
Talking or reading aloud also helps the brain wake up and improves the perception-processing-reproduction of information.
Since a modern person often gets into a car after quickly getting ready and drives to work, where he sits at a computer all day, his brain is in a sluggish state. It is walking that improves blood supply to all parts of the brain and increases intellectual abilities. To get the maximum benefit, look around and remember the details.
Watering flowers and feeding animals is a great way to calm down and not waste energy suppressing anger and anger.
Get enough sleep!
Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley studied the process of memory loss in older people. It was found that memory impairment is associated with poor sleep. At the same time, another study found that naps help children maintain the energy they need to study well. When you combine these two results, you get one important conclusion: you need to get enough sleep to maintain and improve your memory.
The average adult needs eight hours of sleep per night. For you, this duration may differ by two hours more or less.
Remember how we used to put a book under our pillow before an exam or test? And it makes sense! The main thing is to read this book before going to bed. The best way to remember information is to read or review it before bed. This will help store the information in your brain.
Increase your concentration
To increase productivity, the brain needs to be warmed up in the morning and “recharged” in the afternoon. Walking and simple exercise helps.
Since vague deadlines for work tasks often lead to procrastination, Tsukiyama recommends setting time limits. When a person quickly copes with a task, this effective state lasts for some time. Do you want to get as much done as possible? Please note that intensive work intervals last only 2 hours and are comparable to an exam.
You can work all day with breaks after 2 hours and end when productivity drops by 30%. When you have a time limit, there is a clear decision, a step-by-step plan and a minimum of options.
Every time you take your work home and devote all your free time to it, high productivity disappears. What does this lead to? A task that took an hour to complete ends up taking the whole day. Distribute the volume of tasks throughout the working hours of the week so that your evenings and weekends are devoted to communication with loved ones and favorite activities.
High productivity requires competition, since the desire to win is inherent in human thinking. A competitive approach helps improve the performance of a company or plant tenfold.
Enjoy nature
A walk in the fresh air is very beneficial. And especially if you want to improve your memory. Researchers at the University of Michigan tested this theory.
A group of subjects were asked to take a walk in the fresh air. And then remember the list of elements. Another group was walking in the city and they were asked the same question. The results of the first group were 20% better. The researchers didn't stop there. Now the first group looked at natural landscapes, and the second - at photographs of cities. And again the first group coped with the task better.
Next time you forget something, try looking at a photo of a forest.
Monitor your sleep quality
It is at this time that the brain replenishes energy resources and processes the information received. In other words, with poor sleep, memory training will be effective by a maximum of 50%, since at night work with thinking occurs more actively than during waking hours.
Before going to bed, it is useful to familiarize yourself with the materials that you will use in your work tomorrow, or memorize a dozen foreign words. Overnight, your brain will process new information, and you will remember it better in the morning.
Preparing for sleep is no less important, since the frontal lobes rest in the evening, and the brain is ruled by emotions. If a person swears, watches horror movies, listens to aggressive music, drinks caffeinated drinks 6-7 hours before bedtime, or thinks about the negative, then he goes to bed in an excited state, which interferes with full recovery. This results in morning fatigue and sluggish work during the day.
Sleep should last at least 6 hours, otherwise, after a few days, disruptions in the nervous system, problems with concentration and confusion in everyday affairs will begin.
Every evening before going to bed, you need to create a calm atmosphere, but without obvious changes. Psychologists and osteopaths advise lying in bed to gradually relax all the muscles - from the toes to the neck.
Increase brain endurance
Good functioning of the frontal lobes is the first thing you need to achieve by training your brain. The frontal lobes act as a checkpoint: they compare new information with what is already stored in memory. As soon as power leaves this part of the brain, a person gives in to emotions, begins to be lazy, simplify and delegate. If this condition drags on, the person loses the ability to make decisions.
Technological progress makes life easier, but at the same time, ready-made meals, robotic vacuum cleaners and parking sensors deprive the brain of basic training. All boring everyday tasks are responsible for the endurance of the brain, which is now especially necessary in order not to develop a nervous breakdown, brain tumor or chronic mental disorder.
In his book, Tsukiyama gives the example of a Japanese businessman-widower from Rolls-Royce, who had the highest sales in Japan, two children and a mountain of daily chores. It was everyday tasks that increased the productivity and endurance of his brain.
If your frontal lobes are not used to giving directions, then when solving large problems you will get bored halfway through. You will not be able to perform difficult tasks and will want to return to the past, where nothing is needed. Increasing brain endurance without self-abuse makes it possible to effectively cope with problems.
Choice, decision and systematization are the work of the frontal lobes, which is possible when preparing dinner or cleaning the apartment.
Improve your problem solving skills
First you need to get rid of unnecessary things and put things in order around you. For internal order in your head, it is recommended to make a list of rules and principles - this helps to set priorities and solve problems when there is a lack of time.
When a person has a plan for the day, the brain works several times more actively, since it is not distracted by extraneous tasks. Living a month with a daily plan, it is easier to analyze mistakes and change your approach. A step-by-step plan is useful for solving any task (from cleaning up seasonal clothes to completing a project or studying a foreign language). You will need a goal, a list of actions and criteria.
A flowchart is structured information that is necessary for the frontal lobes to function properly. It should be taken into account that high regular productivity is impossible if a person solves more than seven tasks at the same time.
Why is it especially important in modern society to improve problem-solving skills? Since most of the day a person acts according to someone else’s instructions (work schedule, tasks from management, transport schedule, navigation in the car and on the Internet). As a result, you can live the whole day without particularly straining your brain and without triggering the work of the frontal lobes.
In what cases should you consult a doctor if you are forgetful?
Forgetfulness is not always an indicator of serious disorders in the body. It may be a consequence of simple fatigue or stress. If a person often forgets words in a conversation, the names of his loved ones and events that happened five minutes ago, there is a reason to consult a doctor. Episodic memory gaps are not considered a pathology. Absolutely anyone can encounter them.
You should consult a doctor in the following cases:
- with significant impairment of the functions of writing and speech;
- when false memories appear;
- if changes in memory become noticeable to the environment;
- when mental impairment is accompanied by headache;
- it becomes more difficult for a person to perform his usual tasks;
- the thread of conversation is lost, it becomes difficult to perceive the plot of films.
Several specialists deal with the problem of cognitive impairment. You may need help from a therapist, neurologist or psychiatrist. Doctors prescribe a set of diagnostic measures that will help identify the cause of memory gaps and select a course of treatment.
Get your head in order every day
At university, there are often students who spend much less time preparing for exams. They have the ability to process information faster. This skill needs to be maintained. If you pay attention to the desk of a good manager, there is a minimum of things on it, and there are no unnecessary papers in the drawers. With order on the table, there is no need to make unnecessary movements and at the wrong moment remember where and what is.
Sleep should last at least 6 hours, otherwise, after a few days, disruptions in the nervous system, problems with concentration and confusion in everyday affairs will begin.
Neurolinguistic programming
The concept of NLP is relatively new. But it's very effective. After all, this can teach you to expand your boundaries. The basis of NLP is human limitations, which can be overcome through self-hypnosis. Spend some time alone.
Ask yourself what is causing your memory loss. Understanding the causes can help you say goodbye to memory loss and improve your mental abilities. It works almost the same as a placebo. Meditation is a great prelude to NLP. They work great together with diet and exercise.
Develop mindfulness
It is during the non-walking period that pensioners develop dementia more quickly. Since a person needs to receive maximum visual information every day to train the frontal lobes, after work he needs to spend time not with a smartphone, but with a space where there are three-dimensional objects. If you put a person in an empty room with plain walls, then very soon he will begin to go crazy: the intellect needs contact with the visual and tactile world.
TV will not save you, since a person will receive only subjective information without using all channels of perception, and the brain will not function fully. This is why it is useful to walk more often with people who have limited mobility.
Neuroscientists recommend not just looking in front of you, but also to the sides, so that other senses join your vision. Our memory thus stores information about various characteristics of an object. Tsukiyama gives an example of a dog that a person has not yet touched, but already knows how soft its fur is.
This means that the brain does not passively wait for confirmation of information, but goes to it itself.
If you sit in front of a computer all day, then on the street a person may encounter a blurry image, since his brain has become accustomed to a flat screen in 8 hours and now it is difficult for him to switch attention to three-dimensional objects.
During the work or school day, it is important to adapt to a variety of tasks so that some of the brain functions do not go into a sleepy state. A constant routine leads to the fact that a person becomes forgetful, takes a long time to choose words in a dialogue and often falls into a stupor. Such people are slow to read information about their interlocutor and fail negotiations. There is a slowdown in the audience's attention - during a conversation, a person studies the interlocutor for a long time and does not have time to grasp the meaning of the address. As a result, he forgets important dates, the topic of the meeting, assignments, etc.
Enter the habit of doing eye exercises several times a day. For exercises, choose a view from the window and focus in different directions, making sure to use long shots.
Tsukiyama advises his patients to train not only visual perception, but also hearing. Listen to audiobooks and radio programs, and before going to bed, try to remember as much information as possible.
Why do we forget our lives
Forgetting a lot of names and phone numbers is just one aspect of forgetting. The second is that all our impressions slip away like sand through our fingers. What's the point of spending a lot of money on a vacation if you don't remember anything later? But forgetting is our friend, helping us select the main events. Here we are standing and waiting for the bus, going to the store, lying on the couch after lunch - there is no point in storing all these moments in memory. But forgetting affects even the brightest pearls. Only the main elements and the foundation remain in memory - we reconstruct everything else. Our memory is flexible and can reconstruct events.
The largest process of forgetting, covering the largest number of our personal memories, occurs in childhood. Scientists call it childhood amnesia.
For most of us, between the ages of three and five, the boundary marking the beginning of life passes, and we remember it. Some record an earlier period, up to two years, others store very few memories in their memory until the age of seven. And before this line there remains emptiness. We know about the first years of our lives thanks to the stories of loved ones. But where does this forgetting come from? How does a trait appear in memory - and at a certain age? This is a mystery - a riddle that scientists have been struggling with for more than 100 years, probably since humanity began to talk about its own consciousness.
Develop your memory
Reports, notes, flowcharts - use them to analyze whether you have problems obtaining, structuring and reproducing information.
These exercises help people with the following complaints:
they often forget what they saw or heard; difficult to perceive information by ear; lost in thoughts. Information is quickly forgotten because a person most often does not consciously try to remember it. To prevent this from happening, any important information must be thought through and remembered as if it were a note for another person. Students, for example, are asked to record lectures precisely because this process requires holding the material in their heads for some time.
Interpret new information, turn it into visual images. Tsukiyama conducted a study that showed the following: to improve your speaking skills, you need to speak at least 1000 words a day. You will find more exercises and courses in the sections: memory development in children and memory development in adults.
Meditation
Meditation is very popular today. It is touted as a miracle drug. But you can actually get real benefits.
First, meditation can speed up your heart rate. This way, there will be more blood flow to the brain.
Secondly, meditation helps you relax and focus on yourself. And this has amazing long-term benefits for brain nutrition. It is also good for overall health.
Most meditation techniques and exercises involve deep breathing. And deep breathing is a great way to improve memory and relieve stress. By practicing these exercises for a couple of minutes a day, you can improve your posture, mood, and feel more energetic. And all this is free!
The ability to tell
Since in the modern world, children and adults transfer most of their communication to instant messengers, the ability to speak beautifully without filler words is given to few people. In order for a child to have clear and rich speech, you need to have daily conversations with him, so that he learns to build a story, and not just answer “yes/no” in monosyllables.
When communicating with friends and family, do not use the topic of work, as people there speak in stereotyped language, using hackneyed phrases.
A useful exercise for memory training: write mini-stories that contain visual images. That is, write to a friend not only the name of the restaurant, but also describe its interior, what color the waiter’s eyes were and what the dish looked like.
Is it possible to forget on purpose
Mnemonist Solomon Shereshevsky memorized meaningless—in fact, endless—series of numbers and words. But even he had one memory-related problem: he was afraid that what he did not forget would interfere with his performance on stage. That is, he was simply afraid of remembering the wrong list of words! The board for recording the words of the spectators was wiped clean each time, but the words were firmly ingrained into the board located in Solomon’s head. He tried many ways to forget them, but the harder he tried, the tighter they clung to his memory.
In the end, he found a solution - he imagined himself folding up a piece of paper with the words he had learned and throwing it in the trash.
It is not known for sure whether this action led to forgetting, but in any case, the list had a special feature that helped distinguish it from the new one when Solomon stood on the stage and the entire auditorium was looking at him. Ironically, he managed to create a guide to forgetting!
Make your speech expressive
Use comparisons and weave details into oral stories. It has been proven that frequent use of comparisons protects against a decrease in the level of intelligence, because complex processes are activated in the brain. Why is this happening? To establish parallels between different phenomena and objects, you need to collect information and consciously process it. Metaphorical speech is observed in people with good memory.
If after a story you often encounter misunderstandings and blame others for this, analyze your story from the outside. This kind of self-reflection is considered an excellent exercise for the frontal lobes.
What to eat to keep brain cells intact
Physical activity coupled with healthy food (without overeating) is important not only for the stomach and heart, but also for the brain. Brain diseases are often associated with regular consumption of junk food and excess weight. It leads to a decrease in physical activity and a deterioration in metabolism. Unprocessed fats and sugar slow down brain function because blood pressure rises and the brain does not receive enough energy. The result: blockage of blood vessels, poor capillary circulation, cell death and brain destruction.
To prevent this from happening, you need to include fish, nuts, a large amount of greens and vegetables in your food, and also maintain a food-movement balance. If you don’t want to monitor your calorie intake and expenditure, then follow a simple rule: remain a little hungry after eating.
Improve your brain's ability to self-control
Analyze your mistakes to understand what brain capabilities you are using inappropriately or not to their full potential. Psychologists recommend keeping a diary of successes and gratitude, and Tsukiyama recommends adding a diary of failures to them.
Most often, minor failures are repeated regularly (for example, constantly spilling water, dropping dishes, crashing into door frames, forgetting things). To avoid major mistakes, you need to analyze why this is happening to you, to understand where the problems with coordination or other functions come from. Tsukiyama notes that small everyday mistakes happen at the same time. This is due to the biorhythms of the brain.
Train your willpower
Will slows down and accelerates a person. It is important that the desired goal is strong, otherwise the person will be blown away at the first difficulties. When learning and in your personal development, it is recommended to give feedback in the form of praise or constructive criticism. A great way to improve brain function is to look for things to praise the other person for, which will help you become more attentive.
At the beginning of the article, we already mentioned that live communication is necessary for the balance of brain functions. If we talk about dating, they have a positive effect on the functioning of the brain. A change of environment, new people - everything makes the brain work a little more actively.
15 habits from neuroscientist Tasaki Tsukiyama are challenging self-work that you can do this year and change your life for the better.
Use mnemonics
The computer uses binary code to store data. And then presents this data in a user-friendly form. Just like a computer, the human brain records data in a specific pattern. And later returns this data in a specific form.
It is this feature that mnemonics uses. It helps store information in the form of a specific code, allowing you to call up the information you need in a form convenient for you. Sounds a little complicated, right? But it's actually simple. When using mnemonics to remember information, you will use simple rhymes or abbreviations.
