Improving Your Memory: Some Useful Steps

According to Baron (1992) there are six steps to improve our memory, which are really think about what you want to remember, pay attention about what you want to remember, use visual imagery, give yourself extra retrieval cues, develop your own shorthand codes, and develop cognitive scaffolds. First step is really think about what you want to remember. It is important to think about it, ask question about it, consider its meaning, and examine its relationship to information you already know if you want to enter information into long-term memory (Baron,1992:241). Second is pay attention to what you want to remember. Think how difficult it is to memorize other information to which you direct little attention, if you can’t remember such as this to which you’ve been exposed on countless occasions (Baron,1992:241). Third is use visual imagery. Baron (1992), states that ” A picture is worth a thousand words” (p.241). Research indicates that it is often easier to memorize information associated with vivid mental images (Baron,1992: 241; Gehring & Togila,1989; Pavio, 1969). The next step is give yourself extra retrieval cues. Remember the situation or surroundings in which you first entered information; often, memorizing the context will help you to retrieve the information you seek (Baron,1992: 241). The fifth step is develop your own shorthand codes. You can readily come up with your own custom-made sentences to represent a lists of items, if you want remembering it (Baron,1992:241). Then the last step is develop cognitive scaffolds. If you want to retain a large array of facts, dates or terms, an overall organization provides a mental scaffold or framework to which recent information can be attached(Baron,1992:241). In short, although these some useful steps for improving our memory seem simple, but for making them work requires some effort.