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Productivity tips 17 min read

The Science of Memory: Top 10 Proven

Techniques to Remember More and Learn
Faster
By Melanie Pinola · June 6, 2019

I've always been envious of people with exceptional memories. You know, the kind of
people who amass encyclopedic knowledge with seemingly little e!ort, while the rest of
us struggle to remember the name of the person we were introduced to seconds ago.

There's hope for all of us, though. Just as we can strengthen any other muscle in our
bodies, we can train our brains to remember more and learn anything faster. You don't
need to be born with a photographic memory (and, in fact, with a few notable
exceptions, virtually no adults actually have a photographic memory).

Whether you need to study for an exam, want to learn a new language, hope to avoid
embarrassing memory lapses (what's the name of your manager's spouse again?), or
simply want to stay mentally sharp, improving your memory is easier than it sounds. All
it takes is trying out new memorization techniques or making key adjustments in your
lifestyle. Here are 10 of the best tips and tricks to help boost your memory for both the
short and the long term.

The Science of Memory

Lifestyle Changes That Can Improve Your Memory
Mnemonics Help You Remember More
Everyday Memorization Techniques

The Science of Memory

First, let's talk about how memory works, so we can understand the science behind
these memorization techniques.

If memory--or how our brains make and recall memories--seems mysterious to you,
you're not alone. Scientists and philosophers have been trying to "gure out how human
memory works for at least 2,000 years--and they're still making new discoveries. For
example, in 2016, British scientists won the largest prize for neuroscience in the world (1
million Euros) for their work on memory--the discovery of a protein in the brain that
plays a key part in memory formation and memory loss. There's still lots to discover and
understand.

Still, we do know that there are basically three stages or steps to memory processing:
encoding, storage, and recall.
Encoding

The "rst step to creating a memory is called encoding: It's when you notice an event or
come across a piece of information and your brain consciously perceives the sounds,
images, physical feeling, or other sensory details involved.

Let's take, for example, your "rst trip to Las Vegas. Your memory of that event is formed
by your visual system (noticing extravagantly designed buildings and lush landscaping,
for example), your auditory system (the ringing of the slot machines), and perhaps smell
(the distinctive scents pumped into each casino).

Research suggests we remember things better and

retain them longer when we associate meaning to
them using semantic encoding

If you attach meaning or factual knowledge to any of this sensory input, that's called
semantic encoding. For example, if you associate the Bellagio Resort and Casino in
Vegas with its location on a map or the fact that the dancing fountain show takes place
every 30 minutes, you're encoding the Bellagio with semantic memory.

This is good to know because research suggests we remember things better and retain
them longer when we associate meaning to them using semantic encoding.

Storage

All of these little bits and pieces of information are then stored in di!erent areas of your
brain. Your neurons (the nerve cells in your brain) pass signals to each other about what
you perceived, e!ectively "talking" with each other and building either temporary or
long-lasting connections. It's that neural activity and the strength of those connections
that make a memory, neuroscientists believe.
 The network of neurons in our brains are the key to storing and retrieving memories

There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. Short-term or working
memory is like your brain's scratchpad. It's when your brain temporarily stores
information before either dismissing it or transferring it to long-term memory—for
example, remembering what you want to order for lunch before calling the takeout
place. Once your food is delivered and eaten, your brain can let go of that info. Long-
term memories are those memories you hold on to for a few days or many years--things
like how to ride a bike or the "rst dinner you had with the "rst person you fell in love
with.

Both kinds of memories can weaken with age because the brain loses cells critical to
those connections between neurons over time--but that's not inevitable. As with muscle
strength, you can exercise your brain; with memory, it's "use it or lose it."

Recall

And "nally, to retrieve a memory, your brain "replays" or revisits the nerve pathways
created when the memory was formed. Repeatedly recalling information helps Sign up
strengthen those connections and your memories, which is why techniques like
reviewing
Home your
App notes or using #ashcards help you retain information.
Picks

However, when you remember something, it's not an exact reproduction of the "rst
time you experienced an event or came across a fact, because your own awareness of
the current situation gets mixed in with the memory. As The Human Memory explains:
 Memories are not frozen in time, and new information and suggestions may become
incorporated into old memories over time. Thus, remembering can be thought of as
an act of creative reimagination.

That's also why people can have false memories, or their memories of events might
change over time.

Now that we know some of how memory works, we can use that understanding to
improve our memory. We'll start with the lifestyle changes we can make, since they can
0
improve more than just our memory, and then go over speci"c memorization
S HA R E S
techniques.

Lifestyle Changes That Can Improve Your

Memory
In general, increasing your overall health with better sleep, regular exercise, and better
nutrition will improve your brain health--including memory--as well as your physical
health. These three things will give you the biggest bang for your buck in preventing
memory loss and improving your memory overall.

1. Sleep on It
Here's an easy way to boost your memory: Get a good night's sleep or take a power nap
after learning something new. One research study found that people who slept for 8
hours after learning new faces and names were better able to remember them
compared to those who didn't get the sleep opportunity. And in an analysis of two
research datasets, psychologist Nicolas Dumay determined that not only does sleep
protect our brains from forgetting memories, it also helps us retrieve memories better.

Why is this? It appears that sleep "resets" our brains and is critical for memory and
learning. If you're sleep-deprived, the brain's neurons become over-connected with so
much electrical activity that new memories can't be saved.

So this makes the case against late-night cramming for a test or staying up all night to
rehearse your presentation. As the New York Times explains:

Hit the hay at your regular time; don’t stay up late checking Instagram. Studies have
found that the "rst half of the night contains the richest dose of so-called deep sleep
— the knocked-out-cold variety — and this is when the brain consolidates facts and
"gures and new words. This is retention territory, and without it (if we stay up too
late), we’re foggier the next day on those basic facts.

Naps count too! Researchers found that taking a nap of about 45-60 minutes
immediately after learning something new could boost your memory 500%.

So sleep on it. If your boss or co-workers catch you napping at work, just show them
these "ndings.
2. Get Moving

Just as sleep is important for both your physical and mental health, so too is that other
pillar of health: exercise.

Our brains rely on oxygen to function properly, and to get that oxygen, we need a
healthy #ow of oxygen-rich blood to our brains. Guess what? Exercise improves blood
#ow to the brain. Researchers at the National Institute on Ageing discovered that
aerobic exercise, such as running, is linked with improved memory. Exercise such as this
triggers high levels of a protein called cathepsin B, which travels to the brain to trigger
neuron growth and new connections in the hippocampus, an area in the brain believed
to be critical for memory. The tests were done on mice, monkeys, and 43 sedentary
university students who were forced to get "t for the study. Those subjects with the
largest improvements in memory? You guessed it: those with the largest increase in
cathepsin B after physical activity.

Don't rush to get your running shoes on just yet, though. After studying or learning
something new, it might pay to wait. Exercising about 4 hours after learning might be
better for improving memory than exercising immediately after. Scientists are still
unsure why delaying exercise is more e!ective than working out immediately, but
perhaps our brains need time to soak in new information before that brain-boosting
exercise.

3. Improve Your Diet

We don't mean to sound like your mom or doctor with all this advice, but here's the last
lifestyle-based recommendation: Eat healthier.

You've probably guessed it, but saturated and trans fats--the kind you get from red meat
and butter--are linked to poorer memory. Just as cholesterol can build up in your heart's
arteries, it can build up in your brain. Harvard Health explains:

The buildup of cholesterol plaques in brain blood vessels can damage brain tissue,
either through small blockages that cause silent strokes, or a larger, more
catastrophic stroke. Either way, brain cells are deprived of the oxygen-rich blood they
need to function normally, which can compromise thinking and memory.
Diets such as the Mediterranean diet, which consists mostly of vegetables and fruit, olive
oil, seafood, and nuts—rich in healthy unsaturated fats—have been linked in numerous
studies to improvements in memory and lower rates of memory decline.

Ready to feed your brain? Here's the Mayo Clinic's guide to getting started with the
Mediterranean diet.

Mnemonics Help You Remember More

Beyond living a healthy lifestyle, speci"c memory techniques will help you better
remember details of anything you're learning. "Mnemonics" refers to any system or
device designed to aid memory--usually, patterns of letters, ideas, or associations, such
as ROYGBIV to remember the colors of the rainbow.

Here are some of the most common and helpful mnemonics:

4. Try Common Mnemonics

The most common mnemonics help you quickly remember words or phrases. For
example, to remember the order of the planets orbiting the sun, you might have learned
in grade school "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" (where the "rst
letter of each word stands for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto, respectively).

Here are some other examples:

Acronyms or Expression Mnemonics: Similar to the planetary example above,

thinking "Every Good Boy Does Fine" can help you remember the lines of the treble
clef in music (EGBDF).
Music Mnemonics: Music is a powerful mnemonic because it provides a structure
for information and encourages repetition. It's a lot easier to remember a catchy song
than it is to remember a long string of words or letters, such as your bank account
 password. (It's also why advertisers often use jingles to make their messages stick in
your head. Don't get me started with that Kars4Kids jingle.) You probably learned the
alphabet through the ABC song, and if you're studying a popular subject, chances are
there's a song for that, like learning the 50 states in the USA with the Fifty Nifty United
States song or learning all the elements with the periodic table song.
Rhyming Mnemonics: Perhaps you're familiar with the rhyme that starts with "30
days hath September, April, June, and November"? Rhymes are similar to music
mnemonics. When the end of every line rhymes, it creates a song-like pattern that's
easy to remember. One expression I learned from watching a cooking show: "Looks
the same, cooks the same"—a reminder to chop and dice ingredients uniformly for
even cooking.
The Rhyming Peg System: You can use number rhymes to memorize a list of items
using the "peg system" (also known as the "hook system"). In this system, for each
number, you memorize an image of a word that rhymes with it. That image provides
a "hook" or "peg" for things you want to remember, especially in order.

So, for example, let's say you had a grocery list of items to buy: milk, cookies, bananas,
and bacon. With the peg system, you'd:

1. First learn or create the rhyming peg. One = bun. Two = zoo. Three = tree. Four =
Door. And so on.
2. Form a vivid mental image of the rhyming object for each number. (What does that
bread bun look like? What kind of shoe is it? What color are the leaves on the tree?
What kind of hardware does the door have?)
3. For each item on your grocery list, picture the rhyming object with your list item. For
example, if the "rst item on your list is "milk," "one" = "bun", so envision a container
of milk being squeezed between a giant bun of bread. Then see a box of cookies
falling into a lion's cage at the zoo, a maple tree inside the store with bananas
hanging o! of a branch, and slices of bacon stu!ed in the mailbox slot of a black
door.
The rhyming peg system helps you remember a list of items

It takes some work and creativity to memorize a list this way, but you'll retain that
information much longer than if you just tried to memorize the words in order. And
once you've got the basic rhyming peg down, you can reuse this for any future lists.

Resources: Peglist.com can generate a visual list for you using this number rhyme. And check
out hundreds of mnemonic devices you can use in everyday life or to learn a new subject.

5. Create a Memory Palace

The number one technique that we top memory

athletes use is still and will always be the memory
palace. If someone were to learn one thing, it
should be that.
Nelson Dellis, four-time USA Memory Champion

The memory palace is a mnemonic device that's as tried-and-true as it gets—and

deserves a section of its own. Invented by orators in ancient Roman and Greek times,
the memory palace (or mind palace or "method of loci") technique is both e!ective and
enjoyable to use, whether you're trying to remember a speech you have to give, details
of a case you're working on (a la Sherlock Holmes), or your grocery list. In fact, four-time
USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis—who claims to have an average memory—says
that "The number one technique that we top memory athletes use is still and will always
be the memory palace. If someone were to learn one thing, it should be that."

With the memory palace technique, you associate a location you're familiar with—such
as your apartment, the block you grew up on, or the route you take to work or school—
with the items you're trying to remember. It works because you're visually pegging (or
"placing") representations of what you want to remember in places you already have
strong memories of.

To use the memory palace technique:

1. Imagine yourself standing your memory palace. Your home is a great one to
start with, even if it's not a palace.
2. Mentally walk through this palace noticing distinctive features you can use
to store things you want to remember. Each stop on that path is a "loci" you can
peg the idea or object to. For example, your front door might be one loci, the table in
your foyer a second loci, a lamp in your living room another. Commit those features
to memory so when you think of your palace, the route and objects in it will be
imprinted in your mind.
3. Associate what you need to remember with the loci in your palace. If you had
a grocery list, for example, at the front door you could picture milk #ooding over the
door from the inside, like a waterfall of milk. Then you get to the foyer and the table is
buckling under the weight of all the chocolate chip cookies stacked on it to the ceiling.
And instead of a lightbulb in your living room lamp, you see #uorescent yellow
bananas.

It sounds pretty absurd, but as we'll discuss in more detail later, the more visual,
animated, and outrageous you can make your memories, the better.

Here's a video from 2016 World Memory Championship winner Alex Mullen describing
in great detail how to "attach" words to objects and locations in with the memory palace
technique. You'll "nd yourself remembering these 20 words long after you watch the
video.

6. Remember More with Chunking

Chunking is another mnemonic device that can make large amounts of information
more memorable. You probably use it already. To remember or share a phone number,
chances are you chunk the numbers so they're easier to remember: "888" "555" "0000"--
rather than the more memory-intensive "8 8 8 5 5 5 0 0 0 0." Research suggests that on
average the human brain can hold 4 di!erent items in its working (short-term) memory.
But by grouping information into smaller sets, we can "hack the limits of our working
memory," as The Atlantic puts it, to remember more.

The chunking technique involves grouping items, "nding patterns in them, and
organizing the items. You might group items on your grocery list by aisle, for example,
or look for connections between events in a historical period to create chunks of them,
such as moments in the 1920s that involved the US Constitution.

Chunking works because our brains are primed to look for patterns and make
connections. Brain Pickings explains:

Our memory system becomes far more e$cient, e!ective—and intelligent—than it

could ever be without such re"ned methods [as chunking] to extract useful structure
from raw data.

To put this into practice yourself, you could group vocabulary words for a new language
you're learning by topic, organize items in a list by the "rst letter or by the number of
letters they have, or associate items with the larger whole they might be involved in
(e.g., apples, pie crust, brown sugar, butter = apple pie).

Everyday Memorization Techniques

In addition to memory aids or tricks like the ones above, there are also broader
strategies that will help you better remember what you come across everyday—
techniques that work no matter what you're trying to memorize.

7. Make New Connections That Are Visual (and Perhaps Outrageous)

Shattered glass. Stinky socks. Screaming, swaddled babies. When Dellis gave me a crash
course on memorization techniques in preparation for the 2012 USA Memory
Championship, the one thing that stood out to me across all of the methods he shared
was how vivid--and often absurd--the images you create need to be to become "xed in
your memory.

Visualization is a key skill when it comes to memory. Names and numbers are hard to
remember because they're abstract and our brains can't easily latch onto them. But our
brains store and recall images much more easily.

Here are some visual tricks that work well:

Turn the sound of names into images: As soon as a stranger says, "Hi, I'm Mike," and
you say, "Hi Mike"--poof! You forget this person's name, because you haven't really
associated that word with anything about that person (maybe it's been stored in your
short-term memory, but probably not). You need to connect "Mike" to something more.

With the memory palace technique and other memorization techniques that deal with
symbols (such as letters and numbers), the best strategy is to turn something abstract
into a sound and visual representation. Use the sounds in the word to turn it into an
image. In the case of "Mike," you can think of a picture of a microphone. For multi-
syllable names, create an image for each syllable. For "Melanie," you might think of a
melon and a knee crushing it.

Then, the second step is to peg (or anchor) that image onto the place you will remember
it. If your new friend Mike has unusually big eyes, you might imagine microphones
bulging out of each of his eyes.

It's similar to the memory palace technique, but instead of anchoring new visual
information to a location, you anchor it to a physical feature of whatever you're trying to
remember.

Animate the images: The more animated and vivid you can make these images, the
better. Doing this creates stronger, novel connections in your brain between that word
or number and an image.

Engage as many of your senses as possible: Remember how the brain begins the
encoding process through your senses? You'll remember abstract things like names and
numbers more if you tap into your sense of hearing, taste, and smell. In the Mike
example, perhaps you'll hear audio feedback from the microphones. In the Melanie
example, perhaps some of the fruit is gushing out of the melon and you can actually
smell it.

When it comes to numbers, similar techniques apply. You can associate numbers 0-9
with images, which will help you better remember long strings of numbers. 0, for
example, might be a donut; 1 could be a #agpole; 2 might be a swan. To remember the
number 210, then, picture a swan swimming past a #agpole to pick at a donut. (Memory
champions such as Dellis encode double- or triple-digit numbers with images so they
can memorize hundreds of digits in "ve minutes. For example, 00 equals Ozzy
Osbourne, 07 is James Bond.)

Practice and learn more: This name game can help you train yourself to remember names
and faces better. And Litemind explains how the major memory system for numbers works.
8. Write It Down, Don't Type It Out

Put away your laptop. You're more likely to remember notes you write by hand than
those you type.

There are a few reasons why handwriting is preferable to using your laptop when it
comes to memory. First, the physical act of writing stimulates cells at the base of your
brain, called the reticular activating system (RAS). When the RAS is triggered, your brain
pays more attention to what you're doing at the moment. When you're writing by hand,
your brain is more active in forming each letter, compared to typing on a keyboard
where each letter is represented by identical keys.

Also, research has shown that when people take notes on their laptops, they tend to
transcribe lectures verbatim. Conversely, when taking notes by hand, we tend to
reframe the information in our own words--a more active kind of learning.

Perhaps even better: Create mind maps for topics you're learning. It combines the visual
element--remember, our brains latch onto images--with handwritten words.
 Make a note of it: Learn how to take e!ective notes and combine paper notebooks with digital
tools for productivity.

9. Use Spaced Repetition

You know how you can study for a test or learn something new, like interesting facts
from a book, and then immediately forget what you learned? Unless we actively work to
retain that information, chances are we'll lose it--in a matter of days or weeks. That's the
natural exponential nature of forgetting, as depicted by the forgetting curve:

If you want to remember something for the long term, such as vocabulary in a foreign
language or facts you need for your profession, the most e$cient way to learn that
material is spaced repetition. As Gabriel Wyner explains in his excellent book on
learning languages, Fluent Forever, "At its most basic level, a Spaced Repetition System
(SRS) is a to-do list that changes according to your performance."

You'll begin with short intervals (two to four days) between practice sessions. Every
 time you successfully remember, you'll increase the interval (e.g., nine days, three
weeks, two months, six months, etc.), quickly reaching intervals of years. This keeps
your sessions challenging enough to continuously drive facts into your long-term
memory. If you forget a word, you'll start again with short intervals and work your
way back to long ones until that word sticks, too. This pattern keeps you working on
your weakest memories while maintaining and deepening your strongest memories.
Because well-remembered words eventually disappear into the far o! future, regular
practice creates an equilibrium between old and new.

The way to defeat forgetting is to use a spaced repetition system, with your own physical
#ashcards or with an app such as the Anki or Pauker. Digital apps are more convenient,
naturally, but the act of creating your own cards--including "nding images to tie to what
you're learning--is a powerful learning experience. For both methods, daily reviews are
ideal, but any type of regular routine will help you learn and remember faster.

Pro tip: Wyner shares these tips with us, particularly for learning a new language: Make your
memories personal (don't just copy someone else's mnemonics) and make sure you can actually
hear the sounds you're trying to remember. Here's his advice on how to create better
#ashcards.

10. Share What You're Learning

Finally, there's the old adage that "the best way to learn something is to teach it to
someone else." When I asked the Zapier team what their favorite memorization and
learning technique was, most people mentioned teaching, explaining, or even just
mentioning something they learned to someone else.

This is the The Protégé E!ect. As demonstrated in one study:

As [students] prepare to teach, they organize their knowledge, improving their own
understanding and recall. And as they explain the information to [a computerized
character that learns from the students called Betty's Brain], they identify knots and
gaps in their own thinking. A 2009 study of Betty’s Brain published in the Journal of
Science Education and Technology found that students engaged in instructing her
 spent more time going over the material and learned it more thoroughly.

Bonus Tip: O!oad the Stu" You Don't Need to

Memorize
The human brain is incredible. Because our neurons can store many memories at a
time, our mental storage capacity is somewhere around the 2.5 petabytes (million
gigabytes) range--enough to hold three hundred years' worth of nonstop TV shows.

That said, while we don't run the risk of our brains getting full, there's tons of
information we come across that we can simply o%oad to our digital tools. Memorizing
information takes e!ort, so we should focus on the information that we really need to
commit to memory. Evernote can stand in for your second brain to help you remember
just about anything, or you could use one of the plethora of other note-taking apps to
do the same.

Related: Use a book note-taking system to remember more of what you read

Memory might still be a mystery to us, but studies have shown that the techniques
above will help you retain more of what you learn. I don't have a photographic memory
and sometimes still struggle to remember where I left my keys, but when I try to commit
something to memory using at least one of the techniques above, it tends to stick in my
brain. At least, I've had fewer "What's your name again?" moments.

Keep Reading:

How to Better Remember and Make Use of What You Read

Learn a New Image Faster with Google Images
How to Fix Your Broken Perception of Time

Forgetting curve image via Cambridge University Press. Brain network image by Bob
Holzer. Sleep photo by planetchopstick. Exercise photo by Fit Approach. Food photo by
Moyan_Brenn. Name tag photo by quinn.anya. Notebook with pen photo by Neil
Conway.

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Melanie Pinola
Melanie Pinola is a NY-based writer. Besides trying out new productivity systems, she enjoys
cooking, playing video games with her family, and traveling. Follow her at @melaniepinola.

TAGS Personal productivity Professional development

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