Increase Your Short Term Memory

Do you have trouble remembering someone’s name ten seconds after being introduced? Do you sometimes forget why you walked into a room? While frequent occurrences like these could be a sign of a medical issue, it is far more likely that you could simply benefit from training and techniques to increase your short term memory. If so, remember that this article is a good place to start!

Steps

Exercising Your Brain

1. Understand how short term memory works. Your short term memory can be thought of as the “holding tank” your brain uses to temporarily hold information while determining whether to filter it out (and forget it) or move it along into your long-term memory.
   • It is often said that your short term memory can hold about seven items of information at one time, for a period of time of typically 10-15 seconds (but even up to a minute).
   • People sometimes associate the concept of short term memory problems with the kind of amnesia you might see on a daytime soap opera, but it is more an issue with taking in new information and effectively determining its need for long-term storage.
2. Know the limitations of compensating for poor short term memory. Jotting down notes, keeping a voice recorder handy, or tying strings on your fingers might help you make it through your daily routines, but they won’t facilitate any improvement of your short term memory.
   • The only route to increasing your short term memory is through brain exercise and techniques to improve your focus and association skills.
3. Keep your brain active. Like any other part of the body, brain inactivity can lead to weakness and decline. A more active brain is a more healthy brain, and a healthy brain is better with short term memory.
   • Interact with people. The simple act of having a conversation with someone can help keep the brain more active. Even better would be to play chess, do puzzles together, or anything that challenges your brain to work harder.
   • Stimulate your mind when alone as well. Don’t just sit in front of the TV. Read a book; even better, write a book.
4. Seek out brain exercises. There are many games and tests, some of which you can set up with items in your junk drawer, that can give your brain a good (and enjoyable) workout. Sitting down to do a few puzzles or other brain exercises twice a day can be enough to keep your memory powers from stagnating.
   • Use flash cards. They worked in elementary school, and they can work now. Specialized memory card games are great, but even trying to remember a series of playing cards can work.
   • Do test games such as laying everyday items out on a tray, then covering the tray and trying to remember everything on it. Add items as your recall improves.
   • There are a wide range of books and games with brain exercises available for purchase, as well as convenient online resources. Try out different options and see what works for you.

Focusing and Associating

1. Focus on what you want to remember. Often people who assume they have a short term memory problem actually have a focus problem. Do you always forget your waiter’s name because you never actually pay attention when he gives it?
   • Some theorize that because 8 seconds is roughly the minimum time it takes to transfer a short term memory to long term memory, you should narrowly concentrate on an item you want to remember for at least that period of time.
   • Block out distractions. If you want to remember that waiter’s name, put down the menu, ignore the restaurant’s mood music and your kids’ complaints, and look at and listen to him when he gives it.
2. Use all your senses. We’ve all experienced a scent or sound that triggers a memory from long ago. Utilizing your senses when adding to your short term memory enhances focus and builds associations that serve as markers for future recall.
   • When you meet someone new and want to remember his name, engage as many of your senses as you can. Listen carefully and look directly at him as he states his name; repeat it immediately afterward; shake his hand and take notice of his grip; and even take notice of his cologne if possible. The more sensory associations you build, the more firmly the memory is encoded.
   • Repeating a name, or anything else you want to remember, out loud is always a good way to help strengthen a particular short term memory. Listen to yourself saying the word or phrase, and keep doing so with regularity.
3. Utilize mnemonics. Do you remember learning “Roy G. Biv” in school to keep track of the order of colors in a rainbow? This acronym is one type of mnemonic device, a visual or verbal memory technique that allows you to build associations among pieces of information.
   • Construct colorful, even silly visualizations to help encode a short-term memory. For instance, picture a pile of trash falling onto your head when the clock strikes six to remind you to take out the trash each evening.
   • Singing the “ABC Song” to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is a familiar childhood mnemonic that uses an auditory cue. For more examples of mnemonics using number, color, and other associations, see How to Improve Your Memory.
4. Try “chunking.” Chunking is process related to mnemonics that involves breaking up a string of data into more digestible pieces. Perhaps the most common example is using hyphens to break up the string of digits in a phone number, because three groups of 3, 3, and 4 numbers is easier to remember than a string of 10.
   • Remembering a grocery list might be a challenge, but can be made more manageable by grouping the items by category -- dairy, produce, meat, etc. Six smaller shopping lists is easier to recall than one larger one.
5. Lay out “memory bait.” When you have too much information to process into short term memory, try focusing on particular parts of the whole to create a foundation in your mind for creating additional memories on the topic.
   • For instance, if you need to memorize a list of major U.S. Civil War battles in order, pick out a handful of key ones and commit them to memory. With those firmly established, the additional information will be more likely to “stick” to the existing memories -- or to follow the bait into your memory banks, so to speak.

Making Lifestyle Changes

1. Eat a brain-healthy diet. By and large, the healthy, balanced diet you should strive to achieve for overall health is also what is needed for a healthy brain that is better primed to encode memories. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, add in lean proteins and whole grains, and cut back on saturated fats, sodium, and sugars.
   • Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, tuna, soybeans, and walnuts, seem to be particularly beneficial to the brain and thus memory-building.
   • There are omega-3 and other nutritional supplements marketed as good for the brain and memory. These are an option, but it is usually considered better to get your vitamins and nutrients through food.
   • Drink plenty of water as well. Dehydration negatively impacts the brain along with the rest of the body.
2. Address existing health conditions. In the same way that a healthy body fosters a healthy mind and therefore healthy memory abilities, unhealthiness and illness can hamper your short term memory.
   • Any circulatory problem that affects blood flow to the brain -- high blood pressure, for instance -- can have a negative effect on short term memory. But other conditions like diabetes, thyroid problems, cancers, and so on can likewise have an impact.
   • Depression can also negatively impact memory abilities, particularly because it can impede your ability to focus.
   • Some medications are known to have short term memory problems as part of their side-effects. If a person finds out that their medication is a factor in memory issues, they can always talk to their doctor about it.
   • Practically anyone who thinks they may have short term memory problems worries about Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. Short term memory loss is indeed one of the first signs of Alzheimer's, but the significant majority of people with short term memory problems do not have that condition.
   • Even if you do have the misfortune of finding out you have some form of dementia, nourishing and exercising your brain and body, and working with your medical team to develop the best regimen of medications for your specific case, offers the best chance to delay onset of the disease.
3. Get adequate sleep. A nightly pattern of 7-9 hours of sleep each night will allow your brain and body to adequately rest and recharge.
   • There is some thought that “sleeping on a memory” -- focusing on something you want to remember before falling asleep -- can help firmly establish it in your mind. The brain continues to work even while you sleep.
4. Keep blood flowing to your brain with exercise. Regular exercise, even as simple as walking, increases blood flow to the brain, thereby supplying it with more of the oxygen and nutrients it needs to be healthy, strong, and more capable of increase in short term memory.
   • Walking in particular is a good activity for establishing a memory because it gives you time to focus on the memory while also benefiting from the increased blood flow.

Related Articles

• Overcome Short Term Memory Loss
• Cope with Short Term Memory Problems
• Achieve Short Term Goals

Sources and Citations

See also

• Concentrate
• Trigger a Memory
• Study So You Can Remember Everything
• Memorize a Bible Verse
• Find Things You Lost
• Improve Your Memory
• Remember the Order of the Planets in Our Solar System
• Remember Something That You Forgot
• Remember All 50 States of USA
• Memorize

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