I have never had teaching on memory, I have never really had any advice given to me on memory, but I think it is something we would all benefit from knowing, even at a young age. As we know how our brains make connections now, it seems a missed resource that they don't overtly teach memory methods in school to suit our anatomy and physiology.
Anyway, for those that are interested in discussing it and have sought out your own methods, I am interested to hear them!!!
Everyone has slightly different memorising techniques, I am a very visual learner and I have a very visual memory. In school I would be able to recite the poetry etc, by seeing the image in my mind. There are downsides to a visual memory, once you go beyond a few apples and oranges, it is very hard to visualise math. I can be very good at math, but for very short periods of time! Weird hey.
So I got really interested in memory at university. I was always told I had a good memory by family etc, but I assumed everyone had a bank of images they collated & simply accessed when required, all with trigger words and associations. Though I had this memory, for medical school, it simply was not refined or efficient enough. I think I developed my visual memory from reading books and having to use an imagination whilst reading. But I can't be sure.
The first thing I read about, concerning memory, was chess players. Chess players don't really actually play chess. They play chess moves they have memorised. The key is having the memory to remember the best move for the scenario you are in. Studies have been done that show they access memory in a very organised way. Rather than a scenario (a question) resulting in access to its specific chess move memory (the answer), the memory of the chess player is unboxed in stages. So several memories are involved between the question and the answer. These memories are the context of the chess game. It is easily applied to medicine, so I can give an example, I don't know chess to be able to explain it. The question could be why wre someone's hands cold? Rather than going straight to the answer of 'blood circulation' as a memory answer, the best way is in stages, as it is impossible to memorise all possible answers to all questions. So step one, heat is brought via the blood, from the heart, via vasculature, to the peripheries, so cold hands are due to poor circulation. That is how a chess player unboxes the memory also, in stages.
But this is how to access memory, how do you get it there in the first place? It is important to know, you can train your memory. There are competitions and training regimes that anyone can use. The best is called 'The Method of Loci' and this is the system the memory competitors use and I used it in medical school. Derren Brown also uses this method and explains it well, below. But basically, we know the mind makes connections in real time based on what we are seeing, smelling and hearing and feeling, then makes a memory. So this is why words, music, smells, sounds, imagery can recall memories. Likewise knowing this, we can use these mechanisms to memorise vast volumes of data. The key is to associate it with a memorable place, a location.
When I first read this, I misapplied it totally. I made notes and used colours and drew images to try to consume as much information as possible. I did well enough to pass exams and do well, but there is a far superior system to learn...'The Loci Method' has a few such as the memory palace,,or the journey.
This method, has you imagining either a journey or a place. So you could walk down a path, imagined in your memory, with grass either side etc and you could meet people along the way or pick up objects on the side of the road. The alternative to learning a jouney is to imagine a place, usually a building, I myself did this and made a house, or as some call it a memory palace. Here is an example. There are a few principles in medicine that are complex and very similair to each other, so it is easy to mix up. But in my memory palace, in the bathroom (chosen because of the topic) there is a plumber called Al throwing bananas into the toilet and two maids called Angie turning on taps until salt is thrown at them. So Al is ALDOSTERONE, which causes you to excrete potassium and the maids called Angie are Angieotensin 2 which control blood pressure through urine excretion and salt absorption. The use of a bathroom relates to it being a urology memory.
Ignore the science, the principle of the technique is there and it works very, very well. Add to this method word asociation which is VERY useful and together the memory can be hugely expanded. If you want to remember something, know that going over it 3 times within 2 days is important. Imagine it, see it, smell it, hear it. Play it forwards, play it backwards. Before long you can do these things very quickly and on the fly.
For very important things, emergency situations, medics tend to use word association. Everyone knows ABCDE airway, breathing circulation, disability, exposure...the key to basic life support.
So heart attack treatment I remember as MI MONAC B
Myocardial infarction (heart attack): morphine, oxygen, nitrates, asprin 300, clopidogrel 300, beta blockers. Just as with the chess player there is more unpacking, so morphine for pain and it helps open up arteries, nitrates give 3 puffs of spray only if the blood pressure is good, asprin and clopidogrel at 300mg, beta blockers if the heart rate is high.
or
Life threatening asthma attack I memorised as OSHITME....oxygen, salbutamol,hydrocortisone, ipratropium, theophyline, magnesium, escalate to ITU.
There are so many of these to learn, if you do them for long enough and they are just part of your memory. When I hear of a heart attack, I think MONAC-B
Just as with the chess player, memories are unpackaged in stages, like a russian doll. So if the drugs for a heart attack changed, the MONAC can easily be changed to MOAC for example. Or as Derren explains, the journey/memory palace can be rewritten daily to suit things you need to remember that day.
Instead of just trying to know by memory all the treatments for all scenarios, which is almost impossible, this system works a treat.
Anyway, I find memory a very interetintopic, anyone out there use interesting memory methods?
Snare x
P.s. apologies for the medical jargon