Friday, April 19, 2013

Visual Memory- The Memory Masters

Visual memory is just one type of memory we experience. Our senses can send different information to our brain to remember. There is visual memory, auditory memory. We have short term memory and we have long term memory. Scientists are still discovering more information about how our brain remembers.

I recently learned about "memory masters". These are people who spend their time practicing and developing memory skills. They try to memorize amazing amounts of information. For instance they may try to memorize several decks of cards at one time. These people meet annually and compete against each other to see who can memorize the most in the most proficient way. I had never heard of anything like this and I found what they were doing to be amazing.

The question is do these people have different brains then the average person? A few of the memory champions agreed to have their brains scanned while they were performing their memory feats. The scientists performing the test wanted to know if these memory experts had something different in their brains that made it easy for them to remember. What they found was that their brains looked normal and average, however the areas of the brain responsible for spacial memory and navigation were lit up on their scans. Clearly they had developed a part of the brain that most people have not.

Memory skills were very important in ancient times. Much care and attention was given to developing the memory. These memories were how information was passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps we do not need the same kind of memory skills today due to our reliance on electronic devices to store information.

The Greeks had developed a way to remember that was very effective. They used images that related to the ideas they wanted to communicate. When they saw the image in their mind it gave them the clue to what they wanted to say next. They did not memorize line by line but by image to image.

Increasing our memory and the ways we remember can take a lot of effort. Are these skills that are being lost today because it is so easy to use something outside of our brains to keep information? There can be a lot of value to developing our memory. The "memory masters" have shown us that we are just as capable today of remembering the way they did in the past. How many of us are willing to put the effort into learning it?

We can learn to have great memories. In general, we remember what we pay attention to. We remember what is meaningful to us. When we learn how to take a piece of information that may not be significant to us and we can transform it and identify a visual image with it so that it stands out in the midst all of the information that flows in and through us every day. Our brains are wired to remember through visual images. By attaching an image to what we want to remember our visual memory can serve to help us remember who we are and how we grow.


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For more information about visual memory, check out this site, http://visualmemory.moneysites.com/. Another article that I'm sure you'll like is this http://visualmemory.moneysites.com/2013/03/17/good-grades-guide-review-what-you-need-to-know/.


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