Remembering everything: 4 unexpected ways to improve memory

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Sex, social media, and a couple of other not-so-obvious things, it turns out, help us remember information.

1. Share new knowledge with someone

One psychological study M. J. Sekeres, K. Bonasia, M. St-Laurent, et al. Recovering and preventing loss of detailed memory: differential rates of forgetting for detail types in episodic memory / Learning & Memory showed that people who told others at least some of the information they just received remembered it better. Why? The fact is that we do not forget anything at all - we simply cannot immediately get access to the necessary knowledge. And this trick is a kind of key to memories.

Researchers argue that this method is much more effective during training than re-reading a textbook or re-examining notes. They even advise you to simply write out questions on a new topic and answer them out loud to yourself: they say, there will be a tangible result in this case.

2. Have more sex

Scientists have found that women who have sex more often have stronger short-term memory. This conclusion was made thanks to the research of L. Maunder, D. Schoemaker, J. C. Pruessner. Frequency of Penile – Vaginal Intercourse is Associated with Verbal Recognition Performance in Adult Women / Archives of Sexual Behavior, during which girls took, among other things, a word memorization test. Those with more vaginal contacts performed better than others.

The authors believe that this is due to the increase in the level of neurotransmitters that occurs due to sex. It stimulates the growth of new cells in the hippocampus, and this area of the brain is also responsible for memory.

There is good news for the rest of humanity as well. Another study by H. Wright, R. A. Jenks. Sex on the brain! Associations between sexual activity and cognitive function in older age / Age and Aging has established a direct link between sexual activity and good memory in men.

3. Post

People are better at remembering those incidents from their lives that they tell about on social networks. This is the conclusion reached by scientists from the United States and China. For their research, Q. Wang, D. Lee, Y. Hou. Externalizing the autobiographical self: sharing personal memories online facilitated memory retention / Memory, they asked the subjects to keep a diary for a week and record the events of each day in it, as well as separately note which of them they shared on social networks.

It turned out that the participants remembered more often about the moments posted on the Internet. Moreover, the real importance of the event did not play any role.

Researchers believe that by sharing a life episode in a public space, we automatically distinguish it from the rest. Therefore, it is easier to remember it.

So watch what you post on your personal page: this creates your inner picture of your own life.

4. Listen to pink noise

Another study by H.-V. V. Ngo, T. Martinetz, J. Born, M. Mölle. Auditory Closed-Loop Stimulation of the Sleep Slow Oscillation Enhances Memory / Neuron has shown that people who hear pink noise in their sleep (a hiss that resembles the sound of the sea) end up sleeping better and remembering information. True, this technique works only if the noise is synchronized with brain waves. At home, this is problematic.

However, pink noise also helps you fall asleep. So you still have a reason to listen to it tonight. Who knows, maybe memory will improve at the same time.