How many times have you found yourself struggling to recall someone’s name or the title of a book and have been so sure it starts with a specific alphabetic letter.  When you finally recover the name, how often has that name not actually started with the letter you spent so much time working with? Have you ever put something away in a ‘good place, a safe place’ and  you search and search, and go back and search places you already searched just in case but you still can’t find it, getting more and more frustrated. I get it!

 I just found (thank you Guides!) an object I bought months ago and tucked away. I spent a lot of time looking for it. I couldn’t remember exactly the size & shape of the packaging but thought I had a pretty good idea/memory of what to look for. 

 Nope, not even close.  I finally spotted it right up front & centre at my eye-level on a shelf I’d looked at many times without seeing because I was looking for the wrong thing!   That was a good lesson for me not to rely solely on my visual memory.

 Memory can be fallible and easily influenced by our perceptions, preconceptions and expectations.  x It’s interesting to discover how our indistinct memories, preconceived notions & expectations can fool us and can actually blind us to what’s right there in front of us to see.

 This example of my mis-remembering is a good example of Misattribution, a type of memory error, when you may remember something  in part, or think you do, but misattribute some detail. Another kind of misattribution occurs when you believe a thought you had was totally original when, in fact, it came from something you had previously read or heard but had forgotten about.

Our memories are not static entities but are subject to reconstruction each time we recall them. Each retrieval opens the door to potential distortions and alterations, influenced by factors such as emotions, biases, and environmental cues. This phenomenon, known as memory reconsolidation, highlights the dynamic nature of memory and its susceptibility to change over time.

In addition to false memories and memory reconstruction, another aspect is confabulation. Confabulation occurs when individuals unknowingly fabricate or misinterpret information to fill gaps in their memory. 

Funny enough, many times, my sister and I may be trying to put together our recollections of something that happened and we get to a point where one of us will say “are we making this up or is this what really happened?”  Confabulation can manifest in various forms, from embellishing stories with what we think could have happened,  in order to make some sense to us, to outright fabrications, often from a sincere but inaccurate attempt to make sense of fragmented memories.

Despite these limitations, memory is a fundamental aspect of our everyday lives, shaping our perceptions, behaviors, and sense of self. From recalling past experiences to learning new skills, memory plays a crucial role in our cognitive functioning and adaptation to the world around us.

To help our memory to be more accurate and reliable, we need to develop and use strategies that promote effective encoding of the information, it’s storage and retrieval.  Memory pegs, a mnemonic peg system, invented by Henry Herdson, is a memory aid that works by creating mental associations between two concrete objects in a one-to-one fashion. Acronyms and visualization techniques also help create associations and connections between new information and existing knowledge. 

 It’s important to develop mindfulness and awareness to help sharpen our focus and reduce distractions, helping facilitate long-term storage .We all have so much gong on in our lives now and have been trained into multi-tasking, that we often are not focused on what we are actually doing.  While we’re doing something we are often thinking about the next thing.  When we are distracted, our conscious mind (short-term memory) isn’t holding the memory or encoding it to the subconscious (long-term) memory.  

 Recognize that memory is also connected to our other senses hearing, touch, vision, smell and taste. They are stored only for as long as the sense is being stimulated. They are then reprocessed and associated with a memory that may store in your short-term memory. 

 Most of us have learned that brain engaging exercises help our memories.  They include everything from computer-based puzzle games and reading to playing sports and talking to people. The key with brain exercises is that to really be effective, they have to require you to actively participate in them. Things that are more passive, such as watching TV, give you some visual stimulation, but there’s no back-and-forth engagement.

 Keeping a practice of regular physical exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle has a positive impact on memory by promoting neuroplasticity.  Aerobic exercise enhances  cognitive function  and memory retention by increasing blood flow to the brain and stimulating the release of neurotrophic factors that support  neuronal growth and survival.