robinbloke: (Default)
[personal profile] robinbloke
"Ah I remember when I was <age> it seems like only yesterday."
"But that was ages ago."
"I have a really, really bad memory."

And lo, this was my Thing for the day™ my utterly terrible memory.
Particularly irksome this morning as I had several fantastical dreams of extremely weird nature that I would have liked to retained here - or somewhere at least - so I could further work out the twisted meanderings of my brain in it's unguarded state of delusion.
Obviously, this isn't happening. My memory has been, of late, reduced to post it notes. I have trained myself to ensure that if I want something memorised I write it down and stick it somewhere (wall, door, pocket) and then hope I remember or check it's there when I need to. Training my memory by rote.
But can you improve my memory, I fully admit that mine is absolutely terrible and I would like to assist it in retaining something useful other than the critical result for 100 on the plasma table for Rolemaster1 but how?

Electroshock therapy?
Brain press-ups? (Up and down, uppppp and down)
Feeding it random bits of information and then trying to surprise it by querying my database brain at random times?
Mnemonics?




1 Foe is reduced to a gelatinous pulp, fetch a spatula.

Date: 2004-09-15 09:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] belak-krin.livejournal.com
Back when I was younger than I am now, my mothers friend was doing an OU psychology course and lent her some books. They were to do with increasing memory. One technique I used for sometime was this.

Create a mental room (thats one in your head, not neccessarily one where the walls are padded, unless you want that.) An imaginary space filled with whatever you want; decor, funiture, sculptures.. anything at all. The important thing is that you can close your eyes and know everything that is in there. In your head you can walk around it, pick things up, examine objects if you want.

The idea is that this space becomes like a physical space, so that when you go back to the room, everything is how you left it. If you pick up a book from a shelf and throw it into the middle of the floor, it will still be there when you get back.

Once you have this room, you can remember things by putting them in there, in preferably (and this is my favourite bit) surreal, visual ways. For example, if you have to remember to pick up eggs and cheese from the supermarket, you might put a 6 foot high marble sculpture of a man bowing to an egg in your mental room, and have melted cheese pouring all over it. Then, when you know you're supposed to remember something, checking your mental room will give you the visual trigger for the memory.

Things like facts or Birthdays are a bit more complex, but as long as there is a memorable visual trigger, your room should act like a holding cell for ideas or an easily accessible visual notebook.

Alternatively, behold the internet:
http://www.thememorypage.net/

Date: 2004-09-15 09:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Mucho gracias, thank you sir!

Date: 2004-09-15 03:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-mendicant.livejournal.com
Eggs and melted cheese...

...So that was what Dali was up to eh?

Date: 2004-09-15 09:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wechsler.livejournal.com
Bizarrely enough my memory issues turned out to be related to a digestive disorder... :/

Date: 2004-09-15 09:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
That is strange... was it anything in particular foodwise?

It better not be sugar effecting mine, or I'm doomed!

Date: 2004-09-15 10:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wechsler.livejournal.com
IBS actually - very few medics or websites will recognise it as anything other than a chronic intestinal disorder, but it can also occur in a form with fewer intestinal symptoms that reduces concentration and memory due to an inability to extract the full range of energy and nutrients from food.

Date: 2004-09-15 10:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Ick :( As if it wasn't nasty enough as was.

Date: 2004-09-15 10:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.com
What kind of memory are you trying to make better?

Date: 2004-09-15 10:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Generally all of it!
But being able to hold onto dreams and remember things without having to write them down would be good, I've dabbled with Mnemonics but I'm not too good with them.

Date: 2004-09-15 10:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.com
Mnemonics smelly of wee. Soh-cah-toe-ah? I dunno. "'OATS, ACH' said Hamish as he poured out the porridge with a whoOSH" is how I remembered that.

The best way I've found is to make the things you have to remember into a story, which are far easier to remember than a list.

I find I remember dreams better if I run through them consciously before I sit up or do anything. Otherwise within five seconds of sitting vertically they're all gone. It's like the memory is a bowl of water in the back of my head.

Date: 2004-09-15 10:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Thanks, I'll try lounging more in bed if I have a dream, sounds a good excuse if nothing else ;)

Date: 2004-09-15 12:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com
I had a dream about Star Trek the other day. :(

Date: 2004-09-15 12:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Shhhh tribbles are listening!

Here's a thought...

Date: 2004-09-15 02:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Your memory is bad.
My memory is bad.

Do you think that our memories may be being leached from us by a certain person we have in common? Perhaps [profile] the_mendicant is not the love-goddess she seems, perhaps she is some evil memory-eating alien?

I'll forget that I said this by this evening!

Re: Here's a thought...

Date: 2004-09-15 02:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Maybe, but I can't remember.

My memory has been cruddy for aaaaages now.
I think.

Re: Here's a thought...

Date: 2004-09-15 02:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Well as my pharmaceutical input has declind I'm now able to remember how bad my memory is!

Re: Here's a thought...

Date: 2004-09-15 02:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Unless you've just forgotten you're taking them!

Re: Here's a thought...

Date: 2004-09-15 03:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Erm... I'm not sure... who am I again?

Re: Here's a thought...

Date: 2004-09-15 03:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
#### re-boot universe from start ####

Profile

robinbloke: (Default)
robinbloke

January 2016

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24 252627282930
31      

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Mar. 20th, 2026 10:34 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios