Facts about our memory

THERE are times when one has problems in remembering something. In fact, even great minds have memory lapses. One was Thomas Edison who once stood in line with other people to pay his taxes and could not recall his name when it’s his turn to hand over his papers. The other was Winston Churchill who often forgot his eyeglasses.

Experts believe there’s no such thing as bad memory, only people who use their memory abilities poorly.

Roger Meyer, an American writer, mentions facts about memory and identifies ways how to develop our mental capabilities.

Here are the following facts about memory:
1. Memory is a process and it is not always exact. A memory from actions you take to store, remember and use information. Just like in a computer, information must be entered through your senses and then acted upon to store it.
Once it has been stored, you must take some actions to retrieve it.

2. It takes concentration to retain facts. We usually forgot something because of lack of concentration. Names, faces and facts enter short-term memory to stay there for less than a minute. To transfer the information into long term memory, focus on it for a minimum of eight seconds.

3. Forgetting happens so fast. Facts are most likely to fade from our memories soon after we learn them. You forget about sixty-percent of what you have learned with three years, but in the next 50 years, you forget only about another five percent.

4. Different people have different abilities to remember just as we have various level of intelligence. Some people are good in remembering numbers. Others will forget their own address yet easily recall the name of every person they.

5. Women’s memories are better that men’s majority of the test conducted showed women performing better than men. One possible explanation is that the female hormone-estrogen helps keep brain processes intact. Another theory says that women have more experience juggling the details of daily living thus keeping their minds supple.

6. Memory skills deteriorate with time. An individuals reach their 70’s it may take the brain longer to retrieve stored information form part of the long-term memory. However, when they are not rushed to think, older people can still remember things.

Lydia M. Sabino
P-1 of Dela Paz and San Pedro Saug Elem. School
Lubao West District