Improving Memory Using Memory Exercises

Improving Memory Using Memory Exercises

If you are a student struggling to study for a big test, you may soon learn that you will need the help of certain tricks to make your study life easier. Many students of all ages benefit from learning memory exercises. Teachers usually try to help their students by suggesting certain exercises that they themselves have used or that they have learned since beginning to teach.

Of course, each person must use whatever appeals to them. What works for one won't necessarily work for another. This lesson has been demonstrated in the simple act of teaching a child to tie a shoe. His concentration may be thrown askew and result in frustration when asked to try a new way to learn. Maybe one parent teaches a different method, or the grandparents disagree on what is best.

Children with learning disabilities must learn constructive methods for improving their memories that are tailored to their own distinct capabilities. A child who struggles may need to associate certain things with the same colors daily to remember. Maybe they have certain shapes that help them remember, or smells. A child who has sight impairment may learn to associate by touch or scent. Grandma may wear the same perfume every day or Grandpa may wear the same cologne or after shave.

There are times when the teachers have a learning method that is different from the parents'. When the child asks the parent for help with homework, an argument may develop because the parent will use a different method to get the same result. Sometimes if the child is taught not to argue with the parent, this could result in a bad mark on the work that is turned in. This is where consistency and cooperation is successful in the parent/teacher relationship.

Have you ever made up a silly, but rude song about someone who offended you? This was a great memory exercise, even though it could be construed as mean. Music is a helpful tool, especially for teaching small children to improve their memories, although it is usually not used in a derogatory way. Comedians make jokes with rude songs, which often results in the audience remembering the comedian simply because the music acted as a tool to cement the person into memory. Maybe you don't even recall the words, but simply the tune, the results are the same.

Rhyming games are a very helpful memory tool. An endless number of people have grown up enjoying the antics of the characters in Dr. Seuss stories! Many of the words don't even make sense and mean nothing in reality. But they served to help a person remember the story because of the rhyming effect.

The key to memory exercises is repetition. You must teach yourself to perform the actions over and over. Like always putting your car keys in your purse so you won't lose them. If you have trouble getting your children to school on time because they spend too much time finding their backpack or shoes, have them learn to place the items in the same place each evening. These little memory tricks are sure to make your boss happy if they get you to work on time each day!

BONUS : Improving Memory Using Mnemonic Tools

For those of you who may have never heard of the word, mnemonic means memory aid. It's an adjective related to things that help memory improvement. Teaching tools, if you will.

If you are a movie buff, you may have heard of the one called 'Johnny Mnemonic', a 1995 feature involving a data courier. Keanu Reeves is the star of the film. He carries a large data package, 320 gigabytes in size, in his mind. If he doesn't deliver it from Beijing to Newark, it will kill him. I suppose you could call this forced memory. It wasn't his brain that developed this computer chip, this memory tool. It contains a cure for a nerve syndrome of the future and puts his life in danger.

Some mnemonics would seem to be horrible techniques for the person who would prefer not to remember. However, this may be their only solution to overcoming a tragedy, in order to heal them. So, once more, forced memory is put into effect. The person must relive the mentally or emotionally damaging event to be able to move on with their lives and put the worst of the trauma behind them.

A coach, psychiatrist, hypnotist, counselor, pastor, trusted family member, teacher, or close friend may be needed to help give you moral support for the courage to use mnemonic tools.

Hypnosis has long been used as a mnemonic tool. Memory is a process of reconstruction rather than retrieval. Often the mind must be forced through hypnosis to reconstruct events that caused the person to suffer and attempt to protect themselves by choosing subconsciously to forget. Therefore, hypnosis may at times be a dangerous, however necessary, mnemonic tool.

Hypnosis is also a lucrative field. It is often used to help people stop an unhealthy habit, such as chronic nail-biting, smoking, overeating. It can also be used as a form of pain control. No matter how it is used, it involves the subconscious memory.

Mnemonic tools can be a positive way to overcome small annoyances. Suppose your short-term memory loss is disrupting your life in such a way that you are in a constant state of frustration. Small annoyances can add up to one big problem.
You may have subconsciously used mnemonic tools to learn to avoid certain disturbing memories. Like associating an object with someone who used that object to cause you pain. You decide to avoid use of that object to force yourself to leave the memory in the past. Maybe a dreaded uncle always wore purple, so to avoid having to constantly be reminded of the uncle, you decide to never buy an object the color purple. It may become a habit that you do without really thinking about it.
People have used flash cards, music, games, and repetition as mnemonics. Remember the old saying about tying a string around your finger to recall something important? Or placing a rubber band on your wrist, to pop whenever you are faced with a temptation you are trying to overcome?

Whatever the case may be, mnemonics can be very productive in memory improvement.