Good Question: Why are people forgetful and how can we improve our memory?
MINNEAPOLIS -- Whether it's a parent misplacing their car keys or a child forgetting their homework, we all have trouble remembering things at times.
It had us wondering: Why are people forgetful? And how can we improve our memory? Good Question.
They're simple tasks that are simply forgotten. "Maybe paying a bill on time," said Anne.
"Forgetting things is just a part of us. It's not an excuse, but the truth. Our system, our brain is built to forget," said Bridget Robinson-Riegler, and professor who specializes in memory at Augsburg University. "That just helps us generalize information. If we get too bogged down in details of things then it's hard for us to generalize." It can be problematic, however.
One way people easily forget things is because they never paid attention from the start.
"We live in a multi-tasking world. So it's not really an issue that we're forgetting. It's an issue that we never actually encoded it [in our brain]," said Robinson-Riegler.
One example is putting your car keys down in the house and forgetting where you left them.
That's called retrospective memory, or something from our past. Prospective memory is something we need to do in the future, which Robinson-Riegler said is the more difficult of the two to remember.
"It's hard because forgetting to do things in the future is self-initiated. So we have to remember to remember," she said.
Is it easier to remember certain things than others? "Things that are emotionally arousing tend to be remembered," she said. Your wedding day or a fun vacation might be unforgettable, but so too are painful memories like losing a loved one or a traumatic experience. "We wouldn't have PTSD if those things were easily forgotten. They're not," she said.
Can someone have better short-term memory than long-term memory, or the opposite? Robinson-Riegler said the two are actually more similar than people realize. "The processes to help with short-term memory are the same processes that help with long-term. And especially because if you don't get things into short-term memory, they don't get into long-term memory," she said.
How can we improve memory retention? The first step is being present and paying attention. Distractions prevent memories from being encoded. That means multi-tasking while having a conversation with someone will make it difficult to remember what they're saying.
Lowering stress is also important. "Stress is the worst thing for memory. It really disrupts our ability to remember," said Robinson-Riegler, citing how some of her students have struggled during an exam to remember the answer to a question, yet they remember the answer not long after turning in the exam. She suggests deep breathing, exercise, and social interaction as ways to reduce stress. "Personal contact (with people) increases intimacy and intimacy decreases stress," she said.
Getting enough sleep at night can improve memory retention. Sleep clears the mind from the clutter of the day. If someone goes several days without getting enough sleep, their ability to make room for memories to encode is inhibited.
Lastly, lean on external memory cues. Writing down a to-do list, leaving notes for yourself, and adding tasks to a calendar and help job your memory. Those tricks don't technically give you a better memory, however, they're great at preventing you from forgetting things.
"It's really not the issue of making our memory better but finding better ways to retrieve it," said Robinson-Riegler. "Technically, we have the ability to remember everything that we've experienced. But the ability is being able to retrieve it."
