Jul 26 2012
Boosting Memory
Most people wish they had a better memory. I have a pretty good memory, but still I find it frustrating that I have spent a great deal of time learning information that I no longer can easily recall. Without frequent reinforcement, the information seems to fade. Because of this there is a cottage industry of memory enhancing products, mostly worthless. Supplements, like gingko biloba or a vitamin cocktail, don’t work. Brain training games are no better than just being mentally active. Fancy devices that train or reorganize your brain waves are pure pseudoscience.
The bottom line is that, for memory function (like most biological functions), you should strive to be generally healthy (varied diet and regular exercise), and be mentally active, but don’t waste you money on fancy products with hyped claims. (This is for the healthy population. There are neurological diseases where certain medications are effective.)
There is, however, a fairly large literature on studying techniques that improve the retention of what is studied. For example, there is the so-called production effect – when studying text, reading the text aloud enhances later retention. Repetition of material is also important, with increasing delays between repetitions. There is also the keyword mnemonic method where the word that one is trying to learn is pictured with a keyword that sounds similar and is easy to visualize. The key seems to be to associate what you are trying to learn with as many things as possible, and to have repeated exposure to the information.
Another approach to improving memory is to focus on the brain itself – how and when does short term memory get encoded into long term memory? Many studies have shown that getting a good night’s sleep following a period of learning improves later recall. Sleep seems to be vital for memory consolidation into long term storage.
This brings us to the focus of this article – a new study looking at the effect of wakeful rest on later recall:
In two separate experiments, a total of thirty-three normally aging adults between the ages of 61 and 87 were told two short stories and told to remember as many details as possible. Immediately afterward, they were asked to describe what happened in the story. Then they were given a 10-minute delay that consisted either of wakeful resting or playing a spot-the-difference game on the computer.
The group that engaged in wakeful rest scored significantly better than the group given the visual task, even seven days later. The researchers conclude that, perhaps like sleep, wakeful resting allows for improved memory consolidation.
This may be true, but I don’t find this series of studies convincing. The problem is that during the 10 minute period of wakeful rest the subjects were not distracted and could think about the story they had just read. The subjects performing the visual task were distracted and likely were unable to spend their mental energy thinking about the story. So the question is – what is the contribution of these variables? Is it the rest that is important, or the repetition inherent in thinking about the story. Mentally going over the story also allows the subjects to make connections and associations, think about deeper meanings and themes, and therefore potentially provide a variety of mnemonic devices to aid in later recall.
The subjects in the wakeful rest group of these studies were not told what to think about during their 10 minutes of rest. Perhaps a useful follow up study would be to have three wakeful rest groups – one in which the group is told nothing but to wait (as with the current studies), one in which they are told specifically to think about the story they just read, and one in which they are told to think about something else specific. In all cases they will be quietly resting, but probably thinking about the story itself to different degrees. This could at least provide some information about the relative contribution of resting vs thinking about the story to be remembered.
Still, regardless of which component is more important, if after studying a set of information you sit quietly and undisturbed and think about the information you just studied, this seems to aid in consolidation and later recall (at least out to a week later).
There is no magic bullet for memory. Studying and learning new material is mental work and you have to put in the time and effort to get results. But some studying techniques are more effective than others. The science of learning continues to slowly grind forward. I wish this information would find its way to the public more than the hyped claims of dubious “brain training” gimmicks and products.
22 Responses to “Boosting Memory”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
My memory is atrocious. I can only ever remember three things at a time. So I try to make each of three things act as prompts to remembering another three things, making a total of 12 things. Adding a third level makes a total of 39 but I’m getting into real trouble at this level.
“This may be true, but I don’t find this series of studies convincing. The problem is that during the 10 minute period of wakeful rest the subjects were not distracted and could think about the story they had just read. The subjects performing the visual task were distracted and likely were unable to spend their mental energy thinking about the story.”
Isn’t this exactly the point? Wakeful resting was shown to give subjects time to “think about”, aka consolidate, the story. Doing anything else — shy of reading/listening to the story again, would be a “distraction” from this process. Improved recall days later points to improved memory consolidation with wakeful resting, albiet not necessarily via the same mechanism as sleep. What additional evidence would you require to be convinced?
As I said – the question is, is wakeful resting helpful because (like sleep) is helps the brain consolidate memories into long term, or is it helpful because it allows time for repetition and association. The authors were suggesting the former, but these studies did not separate these variables.
In addition to the follow up studies I suggested above, you could also have a group that reviews the material just learned, but without resting and closing their eyes. Then we can better judge what the contribution of wakeful resting is (vs repeatition and association).
I’m surprised reading out lout improves retention. I don’t have as much comprehension of things I read out loud. And therefore not as much memory of it.
On the other hand writing something down is a way for me to remember something.
I also do the connection to visual, but I don’t understand why people use an non-related “sounds like” visual. I always use a visual of the item itself. I also try to visualize it in motion (or working) if possible.
My own method is called the TV commercial system. Have your study material in your lap while watching TV. Every time a commercial comes on study the material and try to extract one concept. Repeat several times over a 2 week period. Watching Judge Judy is called speed learning. What I need an “anti going blank on something that I know” drug. I’m curious as to what research has been done on persons solving crossword puzzles. Sometimes I get completely stuck and put it aside. A little later I can pick it up and fill it in.
“Isn’t this exactly the point? Wakeful resting was shown to give subjects time to “think about”, aka consolidate, the story.”
As Steven said, not really.
The wakeful resting done in the study is an uncontrolled variable:
“It didn’t matter what happened while their eyes were closed, only that they were undistracted by anything else and not receiving any new information.”
This is a confounding factor as Steven pointed out because you can’t determine to how much the rest vs reflection was the responsible for the retention. “Not receiving any new information” is not a requirement of resting; it is an additional factor in addition to rest.
What if we have 3 groups, and the subjects in group A spent the next 10 minutes writing down what they remember of the story &/or discussing it with someone else, while the the subjects in group B spent the next 10 minutes watching relaxing scenes with distracting activity like a fish tank, a fire in a fireplace, or an episode of How It’s Made, and group C does the wakeful resting with their eyes closed?
I suspect that group A would outperform group C, which would outperform group B.
Steve, do you consider all supposed “nootropics” in the same bunk category with ginko and vitamins? Is there a good reason why we shouldn’t expect even a small minority of the kinds of drugs investigated for dementia patients might also improve recall in regular folks, or improve learning? I like to imagine in 10 years I might be able to safely take some kind of piracetam derivative or compound shown to safely increase long term potentiation, or something. Am I bound to be disappointed? My benchmark for safely is less dangerous than getting breast implants. If cosmetic surgery is OK, why not unnecessary interventions to improve intellect?
Also, regarding the time to think about the story in the study, since the researchers gave no direction on what to think about while resting and made no inquiries of the subjects regarding what they thought about while resting, the researchers don’t even know which subjects actually reflected on the story and which ones were thinking of other, unrelated things like their next vacation.
floam – good question. It is plausible that one or more drugs will be developed that will enhance memory formation. However, we cannot extrapolate from their effects in disease states. There is some research in this direction, but nothing definitive yet. It would be nice to be able to take a pill after a session of studying that helps you retain significantly more information, just don’t hold your breath. Meanwhile there are nonpharmacological techniques that help.
I just had an idea for a new drug called Braino, it is intended to prevent brain farts. Sorry I couldn’t resist even though I should have and someone else has probably thought of it. Most of the time watching TV is not instilling much new information.
Along a similar line, I stumbled across this today:
Brain Is Biased When Learning New Information:
http://www.livescience.com/21856-brain-bias-memories.html
Interesting concept, and a golden cross- marketing opportunity. Braino for the things you wish you could remember, and Beano for the things you wish you could forget!
“Most of the time watching TV is not instilling much new information”.
In fact, watching most so called information programs often leaves you considerably worse off.
Just think of the last time you watched coverage of a subject you know a lot about and consider how disadvantaged someone who has no knowledge of that subject would be as a result of watching that program’s erroneous presentation.
About those memory drugs being a potentially good idea…
Has anyone else seen the episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer takes memory drugs while preparing for his astronavigation exam and only ends up memorizing the conversation he had with Lister while trying to study?
I can think of decent a plot for a Twilight Zone/ Outer Limits type episode where people develop obsessions/ compulsions about the details of everything they did and experienced while under the influence of memory drugs because they can’t stop remembering it all.
In general (not being too well-versed in neurology), complex machines which are broken can often be repaired by replacing a single broken part, but there is rarely a single part in a working machine which can be enhanced to produce any impressive increase in overall performance.
Is there any reason to expect a single miracle substance to ever do that for memory? Perhaps a particular process which is suspected of being a sort of bottleneck, or maybe one chemical which is involved in multiple parts of the overall system?
I find that if I am reading about something I am intensely curious about I can learn much faster and retain much better than if I just read by schedule.
I’m thinking the time to repeat the story in an environment that isn’t overly distracting would be the major factor in the retention as well.
ConspicuousCarl,
I can think of numerous instances where a complex machine’s performance can be dramatically improved with the replacement or addition of a single component, but it often results in the premature failure of the machine.
You can add a nitrous oxide system to a car engine for a dramatic performance boost, but if you don’t upgrade the rest of the vehicle’s components to handle it, something (like the transmission) is going to fail fairly quickly.
Likewise, for certain machines, you can often add a stronger spring, larger gear, higher voltage batteries, etc to improve performance, at least in the short run, but those machines will typically wear out faster or compromise some other aspect of function.
I suspect the analogy might apply fairly well to organic systems.
In 1920 F.C, Bartlett studied the changes subjects made in repeating stories from memory. Of interest was not so much the accuracy of reproduction but the manner of change. It seems that the culture of the participants had a large influence on the retelling. This would suggest that taking the stories presented by Dewar et al and isolating them from the background of each listener – by de-contextualising them, so to speak – would have an effect on the results. If one asked English Literature students to remember a mathematical formula, I would suggest the accuracy of their recall would not be as great as if one asked the same of Mathematics students – no matter how much rest they had. It would take a lot of statistical manipulation to take account of the variance.
I have a degree in theatre arts, so I studied alongside actors. The main component of them learning their lines was to act them out (I assume this is what the term ‘Production Effect’ is referring to) which helped them to retain vast quantities of (sometimes foreign) texts. Obviously repetition (rehearsal) was also a major factor. This is a technique I keep meaning to employ, but I’m always forgetting…
Actually, perhaps more interesting than a pharmacological cognition boost, I wonder if we’ll ever figure out a way to accomplish this with some kind of brain stimulation. They’re starting to do some fun stuff with transcranial magnetic stimulation — maybe someday I’ll just be able to put on a thinking cap!
Although as much as I’d want one, hopefully such a device will be prohibitively expensive or otherwise not be too easy to get ahold of in your home. Imagine all the kinds of things folks might do to themselves on accident should they “jailbreak” their iCap and target arbitrary points. Imagine what happens when you accidentally inhibit the make-the-heart-beat circuit.
“hopefully such a device will be prohibitively expensive or otherwise not be too easy to get ahold of in your home.”
It would be awesome if you could jailbreak it and download different programs that take you through some intense experiences. It could be like tripping on LSD but with less side effects.
Lots of my interactions with people and especially my girlfriend involves trying to explain feelings or emotional states which difficult but if I could simple transfer the program to their stimulator to mimic this emotion – that would be sweet!
I’ve had limited success with mnemonic techniques as I spend a long time memorising the text without writing down abbreviated notes of what I’m learning, thus having no record of what I’ve cleverly stored in my head!
Personally, I’m waiting for brain machine interfaces to rescue me from my early dementia!