Boosting your recall is simpler than you think.
Instead of relying on complicated techniques or intense concentration, these five easy memory hacks can help you recall information more effectively.
From reading things out loud to linking them with quirky memories, and even not writing things down, these methods might seem unconventional, but they work.
1. Read it out loud
Simply reading something out loud is the easiest way to boost your memory.
The action of speaking something out loud and hearing yourself say it helps boost long-term memory.
Psychologists call this ‘the production effect’: we remember things better when we read them out loud than when we read silently to ourselves.
2. Link it to other weird memories
Memories that last a lifetime need to be linked to lots of other memories, plus they need to be a bit weird.
Professor Per Sederberg, an expert on memory, thinks the idea of peculiarity is vital to understanding memory:
“You have to build a memory on the scaffolding of what you already know, but then you have to violate the expectations somewhat.
It has to be a little bit weird.”
This ‘scaffolding’ means connections to other memories, and weird memories stand out more.
3. Recall related things together
Clustered recall is the key to remembering what really happened, eyewitness research finds.
This means remembering things from one category at a time.
So, if you were trying to remember what you did last Thursday, start with the location and concentrate on that.
Next, remember everything you can about what you were doing, next what people said, and so on.
The study used the same technique to test people’s memory for a video of a woman being mugged.
4. Don’t write it down
Making notes can actually reduce what you remember.
In a reverse of what many people expect, writing down information causes it to be flushed from memory.
We seem to intentionally forget what we write down.
So, be careful what you make a note of, especially if you think you might lose the notes!
5. Tell someone else
Telling someone else a piece of information helps you to remember more.
People in the study who immediately told others a piece of information could remember more later and they remembered it for longer.
Trying to explain the information to someone else can be tiring, but the effort is worth it.
