Your Memory – A Bio Computer

Your memory is the retention of information over a period of time. For something to be considered a memory, you have to take it in, remember it and then use the information in the future. Your memory is very complex and it can let you down sometimes, especially when you’re trying to remember something important.

Our brain is fantastic, and more powerful than a computer, but it does generally have its limits. It can’t pay attention consciously to everything all at once. Divided attention also has an impact on memory, which means that people try to pay attention to too many different things at once. When researchers measure divided attention they have participants to try and remember a list of materials, but they are then asked to perform an additional task at the same time. Participants that focus their attention on one single event as opposed to trying and remembering numerous tasks simultaneously, perform a lot better. However simply paying attention to something does not guarantee success with remembering it.

To make memories extremely powerful it is important to use mental imagery. An example of using mental imagery is remembering where you placed your remote control once you finished watching television last night. Some psychologists believed that using mental imagery is so powerful, because people will tend to remember images more than words. It has been proven that images can help individuals learn a foreign language. Storing that information and remembering it, depends on how well we ‘encoded’ it.

Storage refers to the ways that information stays in storage for a long period of time. We remember some information for years, and some we forget within a minute or possibly less. Sensory memory is a type of memory that holds information in a sensory form for an instant. It is extremely high in detail but the information is quickly lost. Think of the sounds you hear when you’re getting out of the car, or the sound of a bird singing. These are some common examples of sensory memory.

Next, short term memory is information that is usually contained in storage for 30 seconds, or less there are some other strategies used to keep it in storage longer. Some ways that you can improve short term memory is by chunking and rehearsal. We have all probably experienced rehearsal, which is the repetition of something. As children we did things over and over again, as if we were ‘rehearsing.’

If we have to remember a telephone number then an easy way to do this is to keep repeating the number. Likewise you can try and remember long numbers by chunking them. For example, look at this number and turn away and try to repeat it. The number is 7835677876. How did you do? Some people have no problem while others struggle.

If you chunked or grouped the numbers, for example like this, 783-567-7876 it is similar to a phone number. This is an example of how chunking can be used in helping individuals improve their memory.