How to Memorize Anything (7 page)

Some natural factors important for converting any information into a memory may be summarized as:

• Attention
  
• Interest
  
• Emotions
  

ATTENTION

Scientists have discovered that in order for the brain to record new information, one of the primary ingredients required is
‘Attention’.
Attention is my ability to focus on my chosen task so that the brain processes only that task and ‘ignores’ the rest of the stimuli.

Attention is like a spotlight—we prevent distraction in our attention through focusing.
For example,
if we are in a room that is noisy, we find it hard to make sense of what a person is saying to us. However, when we focus and become selective in our perception, we find that it becomes easier to catch the voice of the person who is talking to us. This requires focalizing on one sound and ignoring all other sounds as useless.

B
RAIN
F
ACT

Any new information that we ‘learn’ is recorded inside the brain in the form of ‘connections’ between different neurons called ‘neural circuits’ and to form a neural circuit, attention is indispensable.

William James, the father of Psychology, said,
‘It (attention) is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects of trains of thoughts.’

It has been observed in a series of experiments that by merely repeating a task without paying attention to it does not create any new neural circuits inside the brain, i.e.,
mere repetition for the sake of repetition will not get any benefits to you
. Studies by memory researchers also show that for
long-term memories to form, close attention has to be paid to information.

Attention works like a gate, to open and let more neural information in. Without attention, information that our senses take in—what we see and hear, feel, smell, and taste—literally does not register in the mind. It may not be stored even briefly in the memory. Our faculty of attention affects us in countless ways. Our very perception of reality is tied closely to where we focus our attention. Only what we pay attention to seems real to us, whereas whatever we ignore—no matter how important it may be—seems to fade into insignificance.

So we must always pay attention to relevant things so that these stay in our memory for a long time.

INTEREST

When you want to learn and remember something for a longer time, your interest in that particular information plays an equally important role in shaping what you pay attention to.

Rahul is all set to go out to play with his friends when his mom tells him that some friends of his father are coming for dinner. She then tells him a list of things she wants from the market. Rahul listens to it half-heartedly and just as he reaches the shop, he is not able to recall even half of the things he was told to get.

Well, the reason for this is that Rahul was not interested in the list of things his mother was telling him. That is why it did not register strongly in his memory.

This is what happens with most of us in our day-to-day life.

Students don’t remember everything they were taught in the lectures they attended in a day. Husbands don’t remember what their wives said and kids don’t remember even half of the instruction their parents and teachers give them. This is all because of a lack of interest.

On the other hand,
you can easily hold on your attention to things you are interested in.
For example:
when was the last time you were distracted by thoughts of your homework or forthcoming exams while watching your favourite movie/game/TV serial? Most of you will say
never.
The reason why you were able to concentrate and pay full attention to 3 hours of your favourite movie is because you were interested in watching the movie; hence your attention was uncompromised. Similarly, when you pick a book or attend a class or a lecture, check yourself whether you are interested in it or not. If you think it is boring, you won’t be able to focus or pay attention to it. Even while you are being introduced to someone and if you don’t pay attention to his name, you won’t be able to recall it 5 minutes later, even if it is a simple name. So attention is very important—whether information to be memorized is simple or difficult.

If we are interested in something, we can pay attention to it even if there is so much going around. Nowadays we see people chatting on their smartphones all the time on apps like WhatsApp, Hike etc. While doing so, their complete attention is on that chat. It does not matter if they are in a busy market or travelling in a metro or a local train. Nothing distracts them from their communication with their friend.

Information that interests us is automatically stored as short- or long-term memory
, depending on the level of our interest and emotions attached to the information or event. A seven-year-old child can tell you the models of 10 different cars parked in a parking lot but ask him about the spellings he learnt that day in school and he will not remember it. The thought of the cars invoke emotions of pleasure and joy whereas spellings are boring for him. In our daily life we come across people with interest in different things. Some people remember stories of all the novels they read in the last two years or some may remember names of movies of a popular film star. But ask them about the latest Nobel Prize winner and they will not be able to answer because their interest lies elsewhere. But for somebody who is interested in knowing current affairs, it can be just the opposite.

There is one very important thing about
interest
: it
can be generated
. If a person is preparing for the IAS exam, he should develop interest in political and current affairs by reminding himself the benefits of knowing and learning this kind of information for his exams. Interest can be cultivated by reading the newspaper or watching news on TV for it. This will help him in storing the information which can be useful at the time of his exam. Furthermore, the memory techniques discussed in this book offer very unique ways of making any information very interesting through the use of creative visualization and imagination.

EMOTIONS

Emotions play a very important role in maintaining interest in any task.
For example, let’s say you are a cricket fan and love watching cricket matches. Won’t you agree with me that you watch that match with more interest when India is playing against any other country as compared to any two other countries playing a match?

This is because you are emotionally attached to your country India and thus with the Indian cricket team. Similarly, if you are Sachin Tendulkar’s fan, you will watch his innings with greater interest as compared to when other players are batting. So emotions play an important role in maintaining our interest in a particular task, event, or situation. In the example given earlier in this chapter, Rahul will be able to memorize the list of things better if his own friends were visiting instead of his father’s.

As discussed earlier, you are able to remember some significant days in your life like when you bought your first vehicle, or won a medal in school, or picked a fight with a neighbour, or had some accident in your life, etc. The reason is that some of
your emotions are also attached with these events,
whether positive or negative. In fact emotions act as a
glue
for memory.

For example, you may not remember anything special about getting off your bed the previous morning but if, let’s say, 15 days back you stepped on a squeaky toy while getting down from bed, you will not just clearly remember the incident but also the way you were startled by it.

Movies
are a big example to clearly explain the impact of emotions in our memory. We remember the story of a few movies we watched years ago because there are so many emotions attached to every scene. We connect ourselves to the characters and feel their emotions of joy or pain so deeply that it gets etched in our memory. All this makes us realize the importance of emotions in memorizing any information.

While remembering emotional (positive or negative) events, we don’t just recall whatever happened but also how we felt
. Some memories can be triggered by something we heard, saw, or even smelt at that time
. For example, you visit any famous restaurant and have a good experience there. So the next time you think about that place, you will also remember the aroma of the dish that you liked.

Various researchers and our own experiences suggest that the mood of a person affects what we notice and remember. That is why when we are depressed or sad, we tend to remember all negative events whereas one good memory leads to another. When you go to a wedding, you will find many people discussing things that happened at their own wedding. This is due to their emotional state of celebration.

Our emotional state of mind has a direct impact on our attention
. When we are feeling depressed or very excited about something, our mind is occupied with various thoughts. In such a case, our attention drifts off very easily into the thoughts that are occupying our mind.

Without paying attention, as already discussed in detail above, the information won’t ‘register’ inside your brain.
Attention is like a Mental Muscle
. It can be trained to become stronger and sharper. But you should
want
to work on it.

HOW TO IMPROVE ATTENTION

Attention can be improved through
meditation
. Meditation is a form of
‘Attention Training’
. It has been proven by scientists that meditation helps in improving attention. It requires practice though. Meditation, by actively engaging your mind on things that are relevant and empowering to you, helps improve concentration by keeping away any
extraneous
thoughts that have the capability to distract you.

Few minutes of daily meditation, in as little as 8 weeks, has been shown to improve people’s attention capabilities. You can refer to
Chapter 16, ‘
How to Improve Concentration
’
to understand the technique and importance of meditation in detail.

So if you want to utilize all the techniques listed in this book in order to improve your memory, remember your
AIM—Attention, Interest, and Meditation
. Without AIM, your memory won’t improve, however much time you may spend in front of your books.

What we pay attention to, and how we pay attention, determines the content and quality of life.

3

TRAIN YOUR MEMORY