How to improve memory: exercises and tips for adults and children

A good memory is a gift from birth, and a phenomenal one is the result of training! Do you forget why you went to the refrigerator, have difficulty remembering phone numbers and are constantly late for meetings because you don’t remember them at all? Don’t worry, memory is not only possible, but also necessary to be developed! After all, the one who owns the information owns the world. And for this, your brain must work as productively as possible. In this article, you will learn simple techniques that will help “awaken” your memory. Of course, we don’t promise to remember complex digital combinations, but it’s quite possible to improve your memory!

There are several classifications and types of memory. Let's highlight three popular criteria.

What is memory and why does it deteriorate?

Memory is a mental process that occurs in the brain and is aimed at perceiving, processing, storing and, if necessary, reproducing previously acquired information.

In addition to accumulation, our brain has the amazing property of erasing. This function protects the nervous system from overstrain. This is how memory gets rid of outdated or destructive information that can bring us unwanted emotions and experiences.

But not only unnecessary, but also important information is often forgotten. Scientists have found that after 30–40 years, brain volume decreases by about 2% every decade. The connection between neurons gradually weakens. It becomes more difficult to learn and absorb new information.

It’s not just age that causes deterioration in brain activity. There are other pests:

• lack of sleep;
• excess sugar in the diet;
• excess weight;
• nicotine and alcohol;
• vitamin D deficiency;
• passive lifestyle;
• non-compliance with the dosage of medications or uncontrolled taking of pills;
• information overload;
• traumatic brain injuries;
• frequent stress;
• brain diseases.

Why develop memory

A good memory is the key to a successful future, an important resource thanks to which we accumulate knowledge and experience that serve as the basis for decision-making. Neurons—the nerve cells of the brain—are responsible for memory.

For memory to work well, nerve cells need a lot of energy, which the brain does not always want to give. The brain saves energy and gets rid of everything that seems unnecessary to it, so we forget a lot of things quite quickly. This can be corrected: the brain will spend less energy on memorization if you start training your memory.

Exercises to improve brain activity

You can and should train your memory at any age. Even after 50, 60, 70 years, you can easily remember information if you constantly develop your brain.

More than 100 cool lessons, tests and exercises for brain development

Start developing

Exercise “Cellular Toking”

This is a very simple and at the same time effective exercise that will help increase the speed of thinking and make the brain neurons work at full capacity.

The point is this. You need to quickly name the objects located in the room: table, TV, chandelier, curtains, pencil, mobile phone, closet, etc. You can simply list the names, or you can describe them along with their properties. For example, a red lamp, an inconspicuous wooden box, beige checkered linoleum, etc.

Soon you will see that the pauses between words are becoming longer and longer, gestures are used, you begin to stammer and get confused. Rest assured, over time you will last longer. It will turn out better and better.

Exercise “Words in reverse”

This method will help combine the development of memory and attention. Make up words and pronounce them backwards. For example, “shop - nizagam”, “captain - natipak”, etc.

It is important not to write down and read from a piece of paper, but to imagine the words in your mind. To begin with, you can take simple words (nose, fox, whale, tom), and then move on to more complex ones.

To make it easier, divide long words into syllables, and only then mentally turn them around:

• picture: “kar-ti-na” – “an-it-rak”;
• column: “ko-lon-ka” – “ak-nol-ok”.

Exercise “Memory Warehouse”

Very good workout. You need to name the names of all the poets or writers you know.

Here you can experiment as you please. Instead of names, you can list, for example, animals of the savannah, plants, cities, rivers, books you have read, places you have visited, former classmates, your child’s lesson schedule, etc.

Exercise with cards

You will need a deck of playing cards. Mix them and draw a sequence of 6 cards (the number can be gradually increased). Look at them carefully for 30 seconds and then turn them face down. Try to remember all the cards in the order in which they lay in front of you.

I'm sure you'll be interested in learning how you can learn to remember information better. Especially for you, we have selected effective mnemonics and recommendations from psychologists for quick memorization.

Exercise “How was your day”

It is useful to do it before bed. When you are lying in bed, try to remember all the details of the past day: where you were, who you talked to and about what, what clothes your colleague wore to work, who called you on your mobile and at what time, what music was playing in the minibus, on what did you notice in the grocery store, etc.

Important! Such training should be like sorting through beads in a rosary: ​​the first event, then the second, and then the third. This is purely a process of remembering. If you start working on mistakes and involving emotional evaluation, the memory training exercise will turn into a ritual of regret and instead of benefit, you risk getting insomnia.

And if you need to remember any material, it is best to use the Feynman method.

Physiology of the memory process

The ability to retain information is not unique to humans. Animals with a developed central nervous system can also remember and reproduce data (migratory birds know routes). The volume and duration of data storage depends on the number of nerve cells involved in the process.

Information recorded in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory through a complex biochemical process. The neurons that make up the brain work like a recording device - they remember information and store it. Data is recorded not on individual neurons, but on a neural network - a stable collection of cells.

When a person remembers information, neurons become active. The data travels along the fibers and reaches the cluster. For information seen earlier, there is a ready-made accumulation in the brain. For data that a person learned for the first time, a new neural network is formed. There are connections between networks. A disruption in the functioning of at least one of them leads to the erasure of memories.

Discreet workout in everyday life

In this section, I have collected for you the simplest, but no less effective recommendations that you can easily implement at home, as they say, against the background:

1. Work more often with your left hand (if you are left-handed, then with your right). Brush your teeth, wash the dishes, write notes, button up your buttons, hold your cutlery, clean the bathroom, etc. This will help your less active right brain become better, and as a bonus, develop your creativity and lateral thinking.
2. Practicing with your eyes closed will help develop sensory skills. Walk around the apartment, take a shower, touch objects, but don’t look at them. This exercise can be performed even on public transport: go through the coins in your pocket and try to determine their value.
3. To test your brain function, make a grocery list before going to the store, but keep it in your pocket, and add the purchases to your cart from memory. At home, you can check whether the contents of the packages correspond to the original plan.
4. Everything familiar tires and depresses the brain. Try to make even the smallest changes in your life. Rearrange the furniture or move things from their usual places, cook a new dish with an unusual taste, walk around the house in different shoes (put on slippers on your right foot and high-heeled shoes on your left). It is also very useful to periodically change your usual routes. For example, take a different route to the nearest store or take the stairs instead of the elevator.
5. To train your memory and speech, try to come up with as many different answers as possible to the question of how you are doing. Then, when necessary, be sure to remember and use original answers in communication.

A little about the structure of memory

The simplest memory test: close your eyes and tell what is where in the room. Or recite a poem.

All these are different cases of reproducing this or that information, restoring, detecting previously formed temporary neural connections.

The implementation of memory involves multiple structures of the brain, which have a strict organization and patterns. Subcortical structures (basal sections, medulla oblongata and brainstem) are involved in the processes of short-term memorization or memory for current events, activity of consciousness and attention. And the cortical parts of both hemispheres of the brain take part in the processes of visual, auditory-verbal, musical, tactile, and motor memory. This is an extensive occipital and inferior parietal region, temporal and part of the frontal regions.

No less important are the mediobasal and prefrontal areas of the forehead, which are responsible for the regulation of mental activity and control over its course. They are responsible for the conscious organization of memory, its meaning-forming component, verbal-logical form and arbitrariness. The intersection of the temporal, inferior parietal and occipital areas (zone TPO) are responsible for the spatial organization of mnestic traces, the creation of connecting visual images and ideas, and the creation of semantic concepts (long-term memory).

During intentional memorization, the work begins in the frontal regions, after the organization of mnestic traces in the TPO zone (here the formation of multiple neural connections occurs) and then the frontal regions again participate in the reproduction processes. This is how horizontal organization occurs at the physiological level. It is also necessary to take into account the vertical organization: the participation of subcortical structures in connections with the cerebral cortex.

Memory Strengthening Products

Diet can help your brain function properly. The most useful foods for memory are those enriched with vitamins A, B6, B9, B12, D, E, Omega-3.

Experts recommend eating more fruits, fresh vegetables and whole grain flour products. It is also useful to add turmeric to food, because this spice helps maintain memory and prevent Alzheimer's disease, which is especially important for an elderly person.

Here are the top 10 most useful foods for improving memory:

1. Sea fish. It is one of the best sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. Regular consumption of tuna, salmon and other fatty sea fish will help maintain mental clarity into old age.
2. Eggs. Easily digestible and essential protein for brain function. In addition, egg yolk contains choline, which is very beneficial for memory.
3. Nuts and whole grains. All nuts contain vitamin E, which protects brain cells from destruction. And whole grains are an excellent source of carbohydrates and B vitamins.
4. Oatmeal. Oatmeal is healthy for both children and adults. It not only improves brain function, but also has a beneficial effect on the entire body.
5. Berries. Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and currants are especially useful. Darker colored berries have more nutrients.
6. Beans . These are sources of valuable minerals, fiber, complex carbohydrates and large amounts of protein.
7. Fish fat. It is prized for its unique ratio of omega-3 fatty acids. Researchers have found that if you regularly drink fish oil, you can significantly improve your memory.
8. Dairy food. It brings particular benefits to children due to the content of protein and B vitamins. But vitamin D, which dairy products are also rich in, is vital for people of any age. Scientists have found that a drop in the level of this vitamin below 20 nanograms per 1 ml of blood leads to more rapid memory deterioration.
9. Meat. Beef, lamb and other red meats are rich in iron and zinc. These elements keep your memory in good shape. Poultry meat without skin is also useful.
10. Foods rich in the right fats. Our entire nervous system and brain are 80% fat. Sources of good fats are young cheese, avocado, olives, melted butter, and egg yolk.

Here are the foods that can harm brain health and memory:

• alcohol;
• sugar;
• refined carbohydrates - noodles, rice, fast food, sugary cereals.

When talking about proper nutrition, one cannot fail to mention excess weight. Researchers have found that obesity has a detrimental effect on memory and overall health.

Fighting Forgetting

Not everything that we once remember (intentionally or not) is retained in our memory forever. We forget a lot, which is why we often become unsuccessful, especially in our profession.

Forgetting is a long-term process that develops gradually.

And to successfully combat it, it is necessary to take into account the following provisions:

• The main means of struggle is repetition of the material being studied. Any knowledge that is not reinforced by repetition is gradually forgotten.
• You need to repeat what you have learned not when it has already been forgotten, but at the moment before forgetting has yet begun.
• When moving from memorizing material to memorizing another, you should always take a short break (5-10 minutes), giving yourself a complete rest from all mental work at this time.
• Systematicity is necessary, you need to organize your classes so that the materials you remember are on less similar subjects. A distinction is necessary so that similar themes do not overlap each other, so that difficulties do not arise in recalling specific images.
• It is useful to recall especially important, responsible and difficult material in your memory immediately before going to bed: it is sleep that provides the most favorable conditions for consolidating the results of memorization.

What else can help keep your brain young?

We have learned the exercises and taken note of useful products, and now we will move on to studying additional methods and recommendations that will help you improve your memory and preserve it for many years.

Get enough sleep

Experts in the field of sleep research have long established its direct relationship with memory. Our brain is designed in such a way that in order to remember new information, it needs to go through a certain phase of sleep.

You've probably noticed that a verse memorized for a school lesson is best remembered the next morning. Yesterday you tried to remember it, and at night in your sleep your brain got the opportunity to process and sort new data.

By the way, I recommend reading the article on how to get enough sleep. Advice from psychologists will help you properly organize your sleep.

Train your brain

There are many ways to train memory and brain activity:

• memorizing poems, phone numbers;
• learning foreign languages;
• collecting puzzles;
• needlework;
• solving crosswords, scanwords and sudoku;
• playing chess, checkers, etc.

You can download various puzzle apps to your smartphone and practice on the bus on the way to work or in line at the supermarket.

If you want to learn more about how to train your brain, I recommend taking a look at our publication. The blog also has a selection of the best online trainers for brain development.

Stay physically active

American research has helped establish that during movement, new cells in a region of the brain called the hippocampus grow. It is responsible for filtering incoming data and sorting what needs to be sent to long-term memory and what needs to be recorded in short-term memory. Thanks to motor activity, not only new cells grow, but also old ones are protected from destruction.

Just imagine: a light half-hour jog or workout can increase mental abilities and concentration by 2-3 times, and facilitate the process of memorization.

Practice mindfulness

Being here and now is very difficult. Most often, we are in our thoughts: we chew on unpleasant situations, conduct internal dialogues, plan future events, and worry about them. Being in our head, we perform habitual actions on autopilot, and then we cannot remember the details. We put the glasses in the wrong place, closed the front door and forgot, we can’t remember if the iron was turned off.

Mindfulness will help improve concentration and memory. Return from your head to your body, perform all actions, being aware of them, feel how you come into contact with objects, listen to sounds.

Meditation will help improve your short-term memory. Those who regularly engage in meditative practices have significantly better memory.

The blog iklife.ru has a selection of the best courses on meditation. Take a look - it will be interesting!

Peculiarities

According to psychology, memory is a dynamic neuropsychological system that can be improved or destroyed. Its development can go in two directions:

1. Phylogenetic, natural development in accordance with age as life experience accumulates under the influence of everyday factors.
2. Ontogenetic, artificial development in each individual person, pre-organized and thought out, carried out through various experiments.

In psychology, the following developmental features in phylogenesis are distinguished:

• invention and improvement of mnemonics;
• creating and improving methods for recording, storing and reproducing information;
• exchange of information, exchange of experiences between generations and countries in order to develop collective memory;
• language learning;
• creation of didactics and educational methods;
• transition from mechanical memory to semantic memory, from direct to indirect, from involuntary to conscious.

As for ontogenesis, here each individual individual independently thinks about how he will develop his abilities. Psychologists identify several directions in this issue that can be followed:

• complete control over one’s own mental functions (including mnemonic abilities), volitional regulation of them;
• transition from external methods of their development to internal ones;
• inclusion of intelligence in the processes of recording, storing and reproducing information;
• purposeful mastery of mnemonics.

V. Ya. Lyaudis (Doctor of Psychological Sciences) identified 4 levels of memory development in ontogenesis:

• The lowest level is immediate, involuntary.
• Level I - externally mediated, arbitrary.
• Level II - internally mediated, voluntary.
• The highest level is phenomenal.

You can study in more detail the question of how memory develops in phylogenesis and ontogenesis by reading the works of psychologists such as A. N. Leontiev, P. I. Zinchenko, P. P. Blonsky, Z. M. Istomina, A. A. Smirnov , L. S. Vygotsky.

How to develop memory and attention in a child

Cognitive functions in adulthood largely depend on how developed and trained a person’s brain is in childhood. For the proper development of a child’s memory, experts recommend the following:

1. Choose educational and intellectual games that will be interesting to your baby. Nowadays, children's stores do not have a shortage of assortment, so finding suitable development toys will not be difficult.
2. Avoid multitasking. The child must learn to focus on one object. Make sure that the study of the poem is not combined with listening to TV in the background.
3. Practice visualization. You can voice a fictitious situation to your child so that he describes its details. For example, say: “A cyclist is riding along a forest road.” Let the child imagine and tell what color the bike is, what the person sees along the way, what he is wearing, how wide the road is, etc. You can also ask him to draw this situation.
4. Invite your child to tell in detail various events from his life: how his day at school went, what the story he read was about, what rules should be used to play his game on the computer, etc.
5. Make sure your child's sleep is complete and healthy. Don't let yourself fall asleep watching TV or your phone, because the blue light from the screen makes sleep shallow and restless, which doesn't allow your brain to rest properly.
6. Another couple of important components for brain health are physical activity and good nutrition. Correct intake of vitamins and walks in the fresh air contribute to the development of attention and facilitate the assimilation of new information.

Differences between short-term and long-term memory

Short-term and long-term types of memory represent two stages of one development. Long-term memory functions perfectly only with good short-term memory, which is a kind of buffer for the advancement of selected information.

Short-term memory allows you to remember what you hear and see without a special purpose or special effort. It is of great importance for the formation of life experience and the organization of thinking.

Long-term memory is the most complex and important of all types. Everything that is held in the field of attention for more than a few minutes is stored in its system for a long time. Only recycled and conscious materials go there. All this is reminiscent of the work of a modern computer, but more advanced, with huge amounts of various data.

The brain is like a computer

The main difference between short-term and long-term memory is the volume of memorized material. The limits of the human brain remain unknown. But even what is known is amazing - so much information is not contained in the largest libraries. In ordinary life, a person does not use all the functions and capabilities of his perfect brain structure. Due to the huge amount of information, there are serious problems with finding it.

Useful books for memory training

Below you will find popular publications for adults and children on improving memory:

• Idriz Zogay “Minne, or Memory in Swedish. Methodology of the famous trainer for memory development” (LitRes);
• Ryuta Kawashima “Train your memory. Japanese system for preserving brain health” (LitRes);
• Ryuta Kawashima “Train your brain. Japanese system for the development of intelligence and memory. Advanced version” (Labyrinth);
• Anton Moguchiy “Brain trainer. Methods of intelligence agents - development of intelligence, memory and attention” (Labyrinth);
• Jonathan Hancock “How to train your memory. Don’t think about memory - better use it to the fullest!” (LitRes);
• Arthur Dumchev “Remember everything. Practical Guide to Memory Development” (LitRes);
• Wenger Wien, Poe Richard “The Einstein Factor, or How to Develop Phenomenal Memory and Reading Speed” (Labyrinth);
• Anastasia Kruglova “Training memory, attention, logical thinking. For children from 4 to 7 years old” (Labyrinth);
• Shamil Akhmadullin “Book on how to train memory in children 7–10 years old” (Labyrinth).

You can read more about the contents of these and many other books on ways to improve memory on our blog. I also recommend taking interesting trainings and courses on developing memory and attention.