DON’T RELY ON YOUR PHONE FOR RECALL

TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS us to carry incredible amounts of information around with us, filed away and easily accessed in computers, mobile phones, audio and visual recorders and electronic diaries, all of them acting as extensions of the brain.

But while this increase in readily available information is generally beneficial, there is also a downside.

The storage and rapid retrieval of information from a phone or an iPad also exerts a stunting effect on our brain’s memory capacities.

This is another reason for constantly working at improving our memory.

Technology has downsides in other ways, too. It distracts us, preventing us from exerting the most important facilitators of memory: concentration and focus. When we concentrate, we devote all of our mental energy to one area. Memory operates best when we eliminate distractions and focus our minds. Technology also floods us with visual memories which are not always what they seem. These days, we all have photographs and videos of people and places that are not memories in themselves but triggers to memory, and in that capacity we have to be aware that they may not always be accurate.

While a picture may be worth ‘a thousand words’, it may also result in grievous distortions. The good news is your mobile phone can be an invaluable tool for memory enhancement.

Use it to generate random numbers of any length. You can then read them, memorise them and recall them.

Take photos of interesting and complex environments for immediate memorisation. This ensures that memory includes non-verbal material.

Record short passages of a book or newspaper article and compare your recollection of it with the dictated copy.

Finally, when you are on the phone, record the conversation. Afterwards, write down everything you can remember about it.

Then listen to the recording, find out what you missed, and form a memory icon for that.