Improving Your Memory

Improving Your Memory

Improving Your Memory

How to Remember What You’re Starting to Forget

4TH EDITION

Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern

Copyright 1988 Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern
© 1994, 2005, 2014 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

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Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fogler, Janet.

Improving your memory : how to remember what you’re starting to forget / Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern. — Fourth edition.

  pages cm

ISBN 978-1-4214-1570-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-4214-1570-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4214-1571-0 (electronic) — ISBN 1-4214-1571-2 (electronic) 1. Memory—Age factors. 2. Memory in old age. 3. Mnemonics. I. Stern, Lynn, 1949– II. Title.

BF724.85.M45F64 2014

153.1’22–dc23                    2014008681

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

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.

Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I How Memory Works

1 You Can Improve Your Memory

2 Understanding the Components of Memory

3 How We Remember

4 Why We Forget

5 Let’s Review

II How Memory Changes as We Age

6 What Changes? What Doesn’t?

7 Problems with Encoding

8 Problems with Recall

III Factors That Affect Memory

9 You and Your Memory: A Self-inventory

10 Check Your Effort and Attitude

11 Could Your Mood Be the Problem?

12 Ask Your Doctor about Health Issues

13 Let’s Review Again

IV Techniques for Improving Your Memory

14 Exploring Memory Improvement Strategies

15 Improving Your Ability to Encode

16 You Don’t Have to Keep Everything in Your Head

17 Did I or Didn’t I?

18 Remembering More Than One Thing

19 Improving Your Ability to Recall

20 General Tips for Remembering

Appendix. Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

Answers to the Exercises

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to all of our colleagues at the University of Michigan Medical Center’s Turner Geriatric Clinic. We especially thank Ruth Campbell for her early recognition of the importance of addressing age-related memory concerns and for her encouragement and support through the years. Mary Rumman has worked with us to offer memory improvement classes in the community. Tami Remington provided us with the latest information on medications that may have an impact on memory. Jennifer Howard, Barbara Betts Swartz, and Maire Ready updated the appendix on Alzheimer’s disease. We appreciate all of them for their contributions.

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation sponsored our first research in this area as well as the memory improvement programs we offered throughout the country.

Our editor, Jackie Wehmueller, and copy editor, Michele Callaghan, have given us generously of their time and talents. Their thoughtful comments have helped make this edition even better.

Scott and Neal have brainstormed memory solutions, eaten postponed meals, and as always, given us their support.

Last, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the hundreds of people who have been members of our memory improvement classes. You have provided us with questions, solutions, and humorous examples. Thanks for the inspiration and fun!

Part I How Memory Works

1
You Can Improve Your Memory

Our heads may be small, but they are as full of memories as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, of places, of little things that happened to us and which came back, unexpectedly, to remind us who we are.

—Alexander McCall Smith

Since 2005, when we wrote the previous edition of this book, technology has exploded with “fixes” for common memory lapses. There is a reason for this. People of all ages want to avoid the consequences of forgetting. Car lights, space heaters, and coffee pots can turn themselves off. Thermostats can be programmed to adjust the heat and air conditioning automatically. Smartphones and devices help us keep track of appointments, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses and alert us with alarms when it’s time to do something.

But, we are still anxious when words and names stay stuck on the tips of our tongues; we still misplace items and forget to do things; memory is still affected by illness, overwork, or mood. We are more than ever challenged by a bombardment of information and overextended schedules. More than ever we talk
with each other and in the media about failing memories, and we wonder what to do about them.

The information about memory and the memory improvement techniques in
Improving Your Memory
will help you understand how memory works, why you forget, and how memory changes with age. By combining this understanding with the basic tips and techniques described in this book, you can improve your memory.

The basics still apply:

• No one can remember everything. We have to make choices about where to put our effort.

• The first step is to pay attention to the things we want to remember.

• There are techniques for remembering the things that are most important to each of us.

• We need to keep up with mental, physical, and social activities without overwhelming ourselves. If we establish good habits—such as keeping lists, returning items to their proper place, and reducing clutter in our homes—we can relieve the clutter in our minds.

EXAMPLES

Barbara works part-time in a toy store, is on the board of the library, and never misses her nephew’s soccer games. Recently, she was embarrassed when she ran into an acquaintance and could not call her by name. A week later Barbara walked out of the shopping mall and couldn’t remember where she had parked her car. The following month, she realized she was losing track of the cast of characters in a novel she was reading. Then she completely forgot a lunch date with a good friend. Barbara was extremely worried, especially when she thought of her uncle, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Carl is an engineer at a water treatment plant. Last month he couldn’t remember if he had changed the oil in his car or just thought about doing it. He missed the turn to the recreation center and didn’t realize it until several streets passed by. He couldn’t remember where in the garage he had hidden a house key. Carl wondered whether the problem was his memory or the stress he was under at work.

You and your friends may have had experiences similar to Carl’s and Barbara’s, and you, too, may have concerns about your memory. People of all ages complain about forgetting, but, as people grow older, they often worry when they cannot remember a familiar name or where they parked the car. Memory does change as people age, but almost everyone can improve memory with training and practice.

Here are some common complaints shared by friends and clients. (And we confess that we have made these statements, too!)

• I went into a room and couldn’t remember why.

• I couldn’t remember what I wanted to ask the doctor.

• I hid a birthday gift for my wife and couldn’t remember where.

• I had to pay a late fee because I didn’t pay the electric bill on time.

• I forgot to bring my camera on a trip.

• I went to the store for milk and got everything but.

• I forgot how to enter a new contact on my smartphone.

• I forgot my sister’s birthday.

• I forgot whether I took my medication.

• I heard a great joke, but I can’t remember what it was.

If you have had any of these experiences, you can benefit from this book. We will teach you how to recognize and address common memory problems by discussing how memory works; how memory changes with age; factors that affect memory; and concrete strategies for improving memory.

To make this book as useful as possible, we include many suggestions about what you can do in everyday life. Examples and pen-and-paper exercises demonstrate memory concepts and techniques.

You will find this book most helpful if you read it carefully, do all the exercises, and experiment with the strategies in your daily life. We can’t promise that you will never have memory lapses again, but we know that you can make positive changes in your memory and have fun doing it.

2
Understanding the Components of Memory

It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.

—Lewis Carroll

“I just can’t remember anymore!”

“My memory has gotten so bad!”

If you find yourself saying things like this, you may have given in to the myth that aging and memory loss go hand in hand. When people believe this myth, they may even stop
trying
to remember. But we know—and studies show—that memory can be improved with training and practice.

To improve the memory process, it helps to understand how memory works. Although the brain is not understood nearly as well as the heart or the circulatory system, memory experts have devised a way to visualize how we remember. They often describe the memory process as having three components.

1.
Sensory input,
the first component of the memory process, is the mind’s brief recognition of what we see, hear,
touch, smell, or taste. We are constantly surrounded by sights and sounds, and we immediately discard much of what we see and hear. There is no need for us to record it. When we pay attention to a sensory impression, however, the sight or sound, the touch, smell, or taste enters the second component of memory, known as “working memory.”

2.
Working memory
may be equated with conscious thought: the small amount of material that can be held in the mind at any given moment. Most experts believe that working memory can hold no more than six or seven items. This material will be discarded in five to ten seconds unless it is either continually repeated or stored in long-term memory.

An example of information that is held in working memory and generally discarded without being stored is a telephone number. Say you look up a phone number, make the call, and can’t reach the person. Once you hang up, you may realize that you have already forgotten the number you just called. This is a good demonstration of how information disappears from working memory after only a brief time.

In another example, say you hear a nutritionist state that there are eleven grams of fat in one tablespoon of butter. You are surprised at how high this number is. Later, however, you can’t recall or even recognize that number in a multiple choice question on a television quiz show.

As you read this book, keep in mind this important fact—not all information that registers in working memory gets stored in long-term memory.

3.
Long-term memory,
the memory bank, is the largest component of the memory system. Its storage space is practically limitless. A common misconception is that long-term memory refers to events that occurred a long time ago. In fact, however, long-term memory holds information that was learned as recently as a few minutes ago and as long ago as many decades. This storage space may hold items as varied as

• Your name