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Definition: Active system that stores, organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves) information w no k of n s ay odia w ate cust g are the s e ns ry is e S mo me

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Brain is the hardware Mind is the software Brain is only 2% of body mass But consumes 25%of the metabolic energy consists of 100 billion neurons each is a computer On an average we use only 10 % of our brain Einstein used 30 %

functions • Encoding: Converting information into a useable form • Storage: Holding this information in memory • Retrieval: Taking memories out of storage

MEMORY ENHANCING TECHNIQUES • Step by step. • Observation :5 senses • encoding :acoustic sound ,visual, semantic feel • storage • retrieval: retrieve in the mode of encoding and storing e.g. encoded acoustically and retrieved visually not possible

stages • Sensory Memory • Short Term Memory • Long Term Memory

Sensory Memory • Storing an exact copy of incoming information for a few seconds (either what is seen or heard); the first stage of memory • Icon: A fleeting mental image or visual representation • Echo: After a sound is heard, a brief continuation of the activity in the auditory system

Short Term Memory

• Storing small amounts of information briefly (7 items) • Working Memory: Part of STM; like a mental “scratchpad” • Selective Attention: Focusing (voluntarily) on a selected portion of sensory input (e.g., selective hearing) • Phonetically: Storing information by sound; how most things are stored in STM • Very sensitive to interruption or interference • Maintenance rehearsal • Short Term Memory Tests:Digit Span: Test of attention and short-term memory; string of numbers is recalled forward or backward • Typically part of intelligence tests • Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2): STM is limited to holding seven (plus or minus two) information bits at once • Information Bit: Meaningful single piece of information • Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information in STM • Information Chunks: Bits of information that are grouped into larger chunks • Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information silently to prolong its presence in STM

Long Term Memory • Storing information relatively permanently • Stored on basis of meaning and importance • Unlimited • Elaborative Rehearsal and emotionally charged

Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting • A typical representation of the forgetting curve.

Von Restorff Effect • Try to remember this list (take a few seconds and then look away): • Jump • Cut • Run • Fly • Duck-billed platypus • Read • Build • Lay

short term memory to long term memory

The limbic system ships short term memory to long term memory, its done in two ways • The limbic system becomes excited \stimulated emotionally during this excitement excitatory catecholamine neurotransmitters such as nor epinephrine are secreted which enhance memorization, • Secondly by repetition ;5 times repeating the subject matter gives the power to recollect 20 times

The optic nerves are much larger than the auditory, therefore memorizing is 65%VISUAL.20% auditory and 15%kinesthetic.

In 2000 Dr Eleanor Maguire scanned the brains of 16 London black-cab drivers, who had spent an average of two years learning 'the Knowledge' – street names and routes in London. The taxi drivers had a larger right hippocampus than control subjects, and the longer they had been on the job, the larger their hippocampus was .

The taxi drivers had a larger right hippocampus than control subjects and the longer they had been on the job, the larger their hippocampus was. These findings seem to indicate that the right hippocampus plays an important role in storing spatial memories. Three years ago, researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London showed that cab drivers' grey matter enlarges and adapts to help them store a detailed mental map of the city.

• Some useful techniques are: Monitoring Comprehension: You can only remember and fully use ideas that you understand. Get into the habit of saying to yourself, "Do I understand this?" Always check the logic behind the ideas. If you can see the logic in something, you are much more likely to be able to reconstruct that idea even if you cannot immediately recall it. As questions like why? How? Tutor another student who is having difficulty; if you teach someone else, you reinforce your own knowledge. Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning Visualisation - Because the visual memory is very strong it makes sense to try and visualise as much as possible "People frequently forget names very easily. The trick is to try to visualise that name and associate it with the person," she says. Thus, the name "Sona Alluwalia" could be visualised as a golden Sona munching potato chips. "It sounds crazy and it can be highly cryptic, but it works."

• Generate Your Own Examples: Go beyond examples provided in class and in the text, and bring your general knowledge and experiences into play by relating them to academic ideas. In biology, relate photosynthesis to the potted plant in your garden; in geography relate theories of climate to your day to day experience of weather; in chemistry relate acids to home uses of vinegar; in physics relate acceleration to riding your bike. When you can generate your own examples, you demonstrate your understanding, and your memory is enhanced. • Think in Pictures, Colours, and Shapes: Concrete images are more memorable than abstract ideas. Practice colourful thinking! Associate your own mental pictures to the academic content. In your class and text notes use colour to highlight headings and other key ideas. Use shapes to help you organise ideas; triangles, boxes, flow charts, circles. The brain remembers well by colour so if you write everything in blue ink that is monochrome. Monochrome is a visual representation of monotone, from which derives monotonous, or boring. Boredom makes the brain go to sleep."

• Use Mnemonics

Mnemonics are memory training devices or ways of making associations to facilitate in remembering. They can be extremely powerful; at the same time, if you overuse mnemonics, you can spend too much time on generating and learning the mnemonics and too little time on real understanding of the material. The economical use of mnemonics to study for a test can be very effective. There are many types of mnemonics: – Rhymes can be powerful; psychology students will recognize Freud's personality theory in the little rhyme, "Id is the kid!" – Acronyms collapse the beginning letters of a set of information into one or a few words; VIBGYOR. BHAJSAB,DISHCUP( characteristics of gold as moneydurability, intrinsic value ,storage homogeneity ,convertibility, utility, portability)

Acroust ic s

Acroustics The beginning letters of a set of information can be built into a sentence; For planets My Very Excited Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets, Periodic table hi! he lies because boron can not open fire; new nations might always sign peace security treaty clause; a king can. (H He Li Be B C N O F N Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca) ;SinOH Cos AH Tan OA :OLD HOUSES ALWAYS HAVE OLD ATTICS

LOCI STORY TELLING Visualize yourself teaching the material

STRATEGIES TO OPTIMIZE MEMORISING 1. Information should be relayed at a slow pace. 2. It should be connected to some fact already known, 3. Construct mental hooks \key words the memory web is a 11mile web and your search beam is merely 15cm thus developing threads and tugging on them helps to retrieve the information .It also magnetizes the beam thereby hastening the process. l 4. Memorize in simple language first later substitute superior parlance 5. Memorize to teach 6. Employ memory enhancing exercises and games regularly ,opt to remember the dress worn by significant others at a party, car numbers ,phone numbers ,roll numbers etc.The hippocampus of British cab drives expanded 100%in 10 yrs after they joined as cab drivers

7. Add emotion to the fact 8. Comprehend , you can’t always remember facts you can’t understand 9. Memorize aloud, it improves your capacity to retain by 40% 10. Memorize from general to specific 11. Consciously make an attempt to memorize say to yourself ‘I MUST REMEMBER THIS’ 12. Always Remember, "If you don’t use it, you will soon lose it" It's a fallacy that the memory naturally gets worse as you get older. On average the memory does get worse with age but because it's treated so badly. It has a diet of junk food such as TV and misinformation.

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14. Chew gum 15. positive self talk “I can remember all I read”.my brain power is growing every day 16.Sound sleep 17.Meta cognition 18 physical exercise 19 calculate bio rhythmic cycle= all days alive \33 16.5 days +ve 16.5 days -ve

Mental workouts • Mental workouts strengthen the

hippocampus eg ambidextrous, learn a word daily,gaze at a point without getting distracted .Games such as chess, draughts, crosswords, memory puzzles get you into a discipline of thinking and they are not a chore

YOGA NAMES OF ASNS FOR MEMORY ENHANCE MENT PADHAST, PARVAT, SAMPARN ,VAJR SANTULAN ,PASHIMOTTAN

ACUPRESSURE POINTS NECK BUTTONS ,THUMBS

Food to enhance memorizing ability • Anti oxidants ,Turmeric (cur cumin) ,egg yolk, dates, figs, almonds, fish, ladyfinger, walnut, raisins, prunes, peanuts, blueberries, bhrami, skullcap, ginseng, Billberry, gotukola, water, garlic, pomegranate, raw parsley, spinach, tomatoes,apples, curd ,ghee ,apples,cloves oranges soya products