You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults With Attention Deficit Disorder (42 page)

P
ROCESS OF
M
EMORY
S
TORAGE
:
G
ETTING
I
T
B
ACK
O
UT
A
GAIN

memory access: subconscious, automatic, cued active storage layer - passive storage layer - latent storage layer

Let’s think about how the process works. When you tie your shoes, take a test, repeat your phone number, tell humorous vacation stories or follow the clerk’s directions to the boys’ department, you’re using your memory. You probably don’t have any trouble remembering how
to tie your shoes. You go through the steps on automatic pilot. Memory traces of the steps of shoe tying are sharply and clearly etched in storage areas you can quickly access. The skill has become a subconscious memory because you worked hard to learn it years before.

You learned the skill as a young child
motivated
by the
need
for independence and being “grown-up.” You
attended
to an adult
tying his shoes and
concentrated
on repeating the steps he demonstrated. You
organized
the information in some fashion to learn the skill. You might have practiced the process by repeating the steps as you fumbled with your shoelaces. Maybe you learned a rhyme or visualized the steps as you repeated the skill again and again. All the links of the memory chain were in place. Over time, the skill
was etched in your long-term memory so you didn’t have to rely on cues any longer.

Many skills are stored below the level of consciousness, similar to shoe tying. You have practiced them so much that you can perform them without conscious effort. When you walk into a darkened room, you automatically remember to turn on the light switch. If you are like us, however, you might never know which
of the three available switches is the one you want! Even though you use the switches daily, you may get the porch and hall light turned on before you finally flip the one for the overhead light.

Does that mean you have a bad memory? No, it means you never took the time to concentrate and organize your remembering for automatic recall. Your memory chain has a weak link. Remembering which switch
to flip might not be important because trial and error work just fine.

The next time you find yourself announcing that you forgot something, stop and think about the memory chain. Did you
truly forget, or were you unable to instantly recall the information? Did you forget, or did you decide that the information wasn’t something you chose to remember?

Memory lapses occur when one or more links
in the chain are weak. The specific social, emotional, learning or living circumstances in which the information was originally presented affects the individual links. The use of memory techniques can also affect individual links and the quality of the memory chain as a whole.

Memory Storage and Access

For our readers with “poor memories,” we’ll do a quick review of memory in case you can’t
remember what you learned about memory earlier in this book! Memories aren’t useful if you can’t
recall
them. When you acquire information, you put it in one of several different safe-deposit boxes, characterized by their time frames. When you talk of your great or terrible memory, you’re talking about the
duration
of your remembering.

The shortest duration is that of
instant recall
. Closely
related to instant recall storage is
immediate or working memory
. You use this storage capacity to hold in memory several different steps or combinations of data simultaneously as you work on something.

When you remember your license plate number long enough for your credit card purchase at the gas station, you’re using
short-term storage
. Short-term memory has a maximum capacity of seven items
and five seconds. Your so-called terrible memory is frequently a reference to this short-term memory.

Information that is remembered for a long time is stored in long-term memory. Many people complain of their terrible memories, yet recount in precise detail events that occurred ten years earlier.

Lapp, who has worked extensively with the memory problems of the elderly, uses another model of
storage and access. She offers
a visual representation of the brain as three layers of storage. The upper one is the active, busy layer close to consciousness; Lapp visualizes this layer in a clear, bright blue color. This layer contains the memories of information used daily: frequently used names and telephone numbers, recurring appointments, and so on. These memories are quickly and effortlessly
recalled.

The middle layer contains the rusty, seldom-used memories that are more difficult to retrieve. You remember these through cues that prompt recall. The layer is rust-colored to represent the old, worn and passive quality of the stored memories.

Remote memories from long ago are stored deep in the brain in a large, gray-colored zone. Although these memories are seldom accessed, there
are literally millions of memory traces available for recall. Memories no longer needed are stored in this layer. Memories of emotional trauma are also stored here. When someone talks about repressed memories, he’s referring to these memory traces of traumatic experiences.

Remote memory traces are recalled through involuntary memory. A mood or sensory perception typically prompts recall of the
stored memories. The smell of perfume triggers a memory of playing dress-up with a childhood friend you haven’t thought of in fifty years.

PR:
“I’m sure that readers have had the experience of suddenly remembering something they had long ago forgotten. Several years ago, I accompanied my husband to the funeral of a family friend. I completely fell apart as soon as I walked in. I couldn’t stop
crying and felt emotionally beaten up. My intense reaction wasn’t caused by my feelings about the person who had died. I had never even met him. Instead, it was an involuntary reaction to the smell of all the flowers. The scent triggered powerful, repressed memories of my brother’s funeral that I had refused to think about for twenty-eight years.”

Organization and Registration:
The Key to Memory Access

Storage is just the first step of either organization or memory. The second step is accessing the data. The problem for many of us isn’t that we can’t remember the data, it’s that we can’t find where we put what we remember! In other words, we haven’t lost the data
from
memory but
in
memory. It’s floating around in there somewhere, but where?

Erratic storage results in slow and unpredictable
retrieval. It’s as if we head to our safe-deposit boxes with thousands of keys in our hands. Which box and which key should we use? By the time we finally figure it out, the teacher’s question or the boss’s comment has passed us by.

Although some memories find their way into storage with little effort, many require a conscious decision to remember. The key to storing and accessing the items in
your home or the data in your memory is an efficient system of storage. This process involves coding and categorizing information in ways similar to the organization systems we talked about. If you can’t find the medical receipts after you’ve filed them, you won’t be able to submit a claim to your insurance company. If you’ve ever searched on every floor of a huge parking garage for your car, you
understand the importance of memory registration!

Information Input

There is an aspect of memory we haven’t mentioned yet. Although we’ve talked about the quality of memory, it’s probably more useful to think about the quality of your
Memories
. We’re not referring to pleasant or unpleasant memories but to your Auditory Memory, Visual Memory, and other senses. How well do you remember things
you’ve seen, heard, smelled, touched or tasted? Think about the quality of your memory for the varied kinds of sensory information listed below and rate yourself on a sliding scale from 1 (excellent) to 6 (terrible):

REMEMBERING
Auditory—Things You Hear:

oral multistep instructions oral one-step instructions the names of people you meet words—what you want to say in one-to-one situations words—what
you want to say in group situations

Visual—Things You See:

written one-step instructions written multistep instructions how and where to get started after an interruption the faces of people you meet words—details of things you read

Kinesthetic—Things You Do:

episodic—personal experiences how to get to various places time details space—where you put belongings

Overall Memory

(Adapted from
a list in Lapp’s
Don’t Forget!
)

All human beings are born with unique memory differences. If we use the number of available memory training books as a measure,
many
people have problems with remembering! This list might help you better understand your own memory profile.

Memory problems aren’t unique to ADDers, but they are compounded by the associated deficits. Systematic remembering requires
concentrated effort, attention to detail, organized thinking and planning strategies. These tasks are difficult for many of us.

To remember, you need to figure out why you forgot! If you can determine where your memory chain breaks, you can work on the weak link. For instance, you can’t change your attentional problems but you can take steps to minimize the distractions that interfere with focus.
Further, if you know which of your
memory types is the strongest, you can use it to develop memory tricks. Later in the chapter, we’ll look at some ideas for doing this.

Memory and Learning—You Can’t Have One
Without the Other

If we enlarge the concept of memory to one of general learning, you can better understand how the interconnections play out in your daily life. If you’ve spent a lifetime
with the label of underachiever, you may have a feeling of dread at the mere mention of the word “learning”! We hope you’re using your new knowledge to understand the learning problems you may have had.

Knowledge and learning levels are typically assessed not by the storehouse of knowledge you carry inside your brain, but by your productivity—what you
do
, or
don’t
do. When you were a child, your
teachers often misinterpreted your failing test grades as a lack of learning. Now that you’re an adult, your spouse and coworkers may attribute your inconsistent performance and slow reaction time to your lack of ability.

The difficulty for many of us is that we aren’t always able to demonstrate what we know. Our problems are often not ones of learning per se, but rather of performance. We can’t
process our knowledge fast enough, maintain our focus long enough or perform consistently enough.

Learning is often equated with listening. Many of us “learned” through one-way teaching—our instructors talked and we were expected to acquire knowledge by listening. Unfortunately, one-way teaching isn’t particularly effective for many learners, including those without specific deficits. It’s not
that learning by listening is totally ineffective. Some people remember and learn best in this mode. But it’s ineffective for those who learn best by seeing or doing. The key is to improve the effectiveness of the
learning team
by matching the mode of learning to the individual learning style.

Learning Styles

We want to expand our earlier discussion of learning styles to help you analyze your
individual mode of learning. What is your particular learning style? What skills and information do you easily acquire? How do you learn best and in what setting? Understanding your preferred mode of learning is important not only in school but in life. Learning is intertwined with memory and organization. The tips and tricks you use to tame your time and space monsters will be effective only if
you match them to your preferred learning style.

Let’s review what learning styles are. How do you figure out the one(s) that work best for you? We all learn through our five senses: by seeing (visual channel), hearing (auditory channel), touching (tactile/kinesthetic channel), tasting and smelling. Most learning takes place through visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic channels. The sense of smell
and taste do provide important information but are less important in
higher-order
thinking and processing—unless the other channels are impaired in some way.

Learning styles aren’t mutually exclusive. You may learn best through one channel or a combination of two channels. Or you may be a multisensory learner who uses all three channels—many ADDers learn best this way. In their book
Unlocking Potential
, Barbara Scheiber and Jeanne Talpers explore the mechanisms of learning styles. The following list, adapted from their book for learning-disabled adolescents and adults, offers some clues you can use to determine your preferred learning mode.

The Visual Learner…
has a strong color sense
follows written directions well
has difficulty following lectures
processes auditory input slowly
“translates” verbal input into pictures
needs to closely watch the speaker’s facial expression and
body language
is particularly distracted by noise or people talking in the
background
uses visualization to remember things
takes notes with visual representations: pictures, diagrams,
graphs, etc.
knows something by seeing it

The Auditory Learner…
effectively sorts out multiple word and sound inputs
follows verbal directions well
learns best in a lecture format
processes visual input slowly
has to vocalize written information to anchor it in memory
“translates” pictures into spoken words
is distracted by visual stimuli
ignores the speaker’s body language to focus on the spoken
words
knows something by hearing it