Memory and Attention Training

What do you associate business psychology with?

You’ll probably think about communication, stress, burnout, motivation, but what about memory training? ;)

by

Mareta Mara

In fact, in any profession, reliable memory is a treasure. Imagine a developer who keeps forgetting about the basic assumptions in writing code, or a manager who cannot remember the names of new employees. These are definitely problematic situations. Memorizing information, storing and extracting it from memory is with us at every stage of life. So, it’s always a good time to start memory training 💪.

Let’s start with what memory is

The three main forms of memory storage are:

1. Sensory Memory — here we only store information for fractions of a second — up to 0.5 seconds. Look at this article, at the text, at the letters, and close your eyes for a moment — for a split second you see the image of the text. That’s sensory memory!
2. Short-term Memory — Here we store anywhere from 5 to 9 elements for a maximum of 20 seconds. When we pay attention to something, the information goes into short-term memory.
3. Long-term Memory — As the name suggests, this is when all information is stored in long-term memory. We can also divide it into several types:

• Episodic Memory, events in this memory are ordered chronologically, located in time.
• Semantic Memory, the memory of facts, associations (e.g. knowledge that we acquire at school, knowledge about the world, etc.).
• Procedural Memory, the memory of moving, integrated procedures involved in both cognitive and motor skills, from tying shoes, to reading, to flying an airplane. Procedural memories are accessed and used without the need for conscious control or attention.

How to train your memory?

Basic rule — the effort put into various types of mnemonics and training may not always translate into results. What you need is a balanced diet, exercise, and access to fresh air. A cliché, but how important! The diet during memory training should be rich in nuts — especially walnuts. And also fish ;)

Information grouping — short-term memory capacity is about 5–9 elements. Grouping information allows you to remember more (e.g. telephone number, grouping 3x3).

Repetition — causes information to stay in short-term memory longer.

Associating — combining knowledge. Try to combine new information with the information you already have (e.g. what happened before, what happened next).

Using imagination — we remember a picture better than a word. When we look at something, we name it immediately — we remember it in two codes and we have two access paths to information.

Relating information to oneself (me) — it is easier to remember information that concerns us “the self-reference effect”. What does this mean to me? What can I get out of it?

Arousing emotions — we remember better what is associated with emotions. However, extremely positive or negative emotions can disrupt memory.

Breaks — knowledge becomes a memory trace. Sometimes we remember better after a while since we got new information. When we sleep, memory traces are consolidated, it is worth taking short naps while learning 😉

Bibliography

1. Maruszewski, T. (2017). Psychologia poznania: umysł i świat. Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne.
2. Przemysław Bąbel. Pamięć i uwaga. Trening zdolności poznawczych.Wykład SWPS — strefa psyche. 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfZIZ3Wc6Mw&t=3771s