As we know that our memory cannot be sharpened overnight. It is achieved only through periods of practice. Regular practice makes you feel the change in your memory status. Even in the history, we find that many great kings have practiced simple techniques to sharpen their memory. The term that is commonly used for techniques for memory improvement is known as mnemonics. It is scientifically proved to be efficient in training the individuals with poor memory. Mnemonics are widely practiced throughout the world. It changes memories into a different form which can be stored in the brain very quickly and easily. Our senses such as sound, light, feelings and sight are utilized for mnemonics.

Using your imagination is one of the very important factors related to mnemonics. The trainers will teach you to use your imagination related to a situation or a study material that will be converted into a stable memory form in your brain. Use of imagination to sharpen the memory is a very widely preferred method.

Another technique for improving memory is called the association. It also has found to be very effective in improving one’s memory power. This technique connects different memory data altogether so that you have very less chance to forget the information.

Chunking is another memory improvement technique. In this, the data are divided into many groups. It is very useful for unordered piece of information. The bits of information are numbered and are memorized.

Another method for improving memory is memorizing images. You will have a complete idea of the information that is being conveyed if you see it. For instance, a medical student will be able to memorize the different parts of a heart in his mind very quickly and in a very productive way if he sees the diagram and learn, rather than by reading it for himself. Colorful images are very effective to remember than the dull ones. Even you can make funny images of your choices, but you should not forget the goal being focused on the main idea of the information conveyed.

Most of the people find it’s very effective to use rhyming way to improve their memory skills. For example, we all are familiar with the popular rhyme thirty days has September, many children learn the days of a month by rhyming it. A rude rhyme can be more helpful and easier than a better one.  Bridging between two ideas is a very good method for improving the memory. In this technique, two distance ideas should be connected using meditation.

These techniques will surely improve your memory. Hence, until you see signs of improvement, keep on practicing.

Mnemonics is considered as the most common technique for memory enhancement. Mnemonics helps the individuals to improve the memory power and to recollect data easily. Location, association and imagination are the three factors that affect mnemonics. Those who having powerful imagination skills, it is quite easier to envision the situations. A clear imagination often results in memories. Such memories are recollected easily by the brain. Association plays a vital role in the memory improvement. Here a new data is connected with previously stored information in your brain. This connection will help to recall the data easily without much mental strain. The connection of information depends on a number of factors like sight, smell, sound and taste. Location is another factor and it puts two diverse sets of data together according to their context.

Chunking is another process for technique for memory improvement.  It is the process of dividing information into different groups.  You can number these groups and it is quite simple to recollect them. In order to store information in your memory images are the easiest tool. If you relate information to images it would be easily retained in your brain. Colorful and pleasant images will provide more effective impact than dull ones. Strange and humorous images also retain data easily. Rhyming and acronyms also helps in improving the memory. Exercise improves the transmission of the oxygen to the brain and thus enhances the memory. Several factors such as hormonal imbalances, stress, lack of sleep, depression and anxiety often badly affects our physical and mental health. These factors lead to poor learning power and poor concentration and which in turn leads to poor memory.

Sharp memory games also improve the memory. Such games will improve not only your memory but also attention, concentration and much more. The brain games will improve your IQ to a great extent. Poor sleep will badly affect the memory. It is proven that sound sleep will enhance your memory. Exercise plays an important role in the memory improvement. Strictly following the proper nutritional diet will enhance the memory. Different types of vitamins and minerals help in the memory improvement are vitamin A, B1, B12, B3, C, E, folic acids, selenium, zinc etc. Recent research shows that acetylcholine which is a chemical found in fish and fish oils improves the concentration power to a great extent.

The very first thing is to begin the memory training program by being more and more visual. You will use eyes the entire time; but if you are focusing more on an object or any items, then you will get immense benefit. Concentrate more on the thing which you are seeing and then try to absorb it. Before carrying out any task, it is always better to visualize them in deep earlier itself; either in an order on in any other means. In this way, you will be able to get strong visual images and this in turn will serve as the guide, which is straight off from the improved memory.

Some of the tips for memory improvement are being mentioned in this article. The most vital thing which has to be remembered is that, you should not hold back on sleep or exercise. Similar to that of an athlete who relies on either nutritious diet plan or good sleep for performing better, your ability for remembering things could be well improved while you are nurturing your brain with healthy habits along with proper diet plan. The next important factor is that, while exercising your body, you will be providing enough exercise to your brain. Thus your brain will be able to enhance its ability for processing as well as recalling information.

The physical exercise which you are doing will help in enhancing the oxygen supply to your brain. This in turn will help in reducing the risk for the occurrence for various disorders which will cause memory loss. Exercising along with proper and healthy diet plan will help to improve the effects of certain useful brain chemicals along with protecting the brain cells. Sleeping is yet another important factor which affects you memory capacity. When you are having poor sleep, your brain will not be able to operate at its full capacity. Thus your abilities of problem-solving, creativity, thinking skills etc. will be compromised.

Having the right amount of sleep is said to be the most essential factor for leading a healthy life style. Also, another important factor is that, from your hectic work life, make enough time for spending with your friends, family and for fun. Healthy relationships are said to be the best booster for your memory. Laughter is yet another good exercise for your brain. Recent reports have proved that, meaningful relationships along with a strong and supportive system are found to be vital for improving your brain health plus emotional health.

“In folks with relatively minor changes in their memory and thinking, there
was some improvement with nicotine skin patches in the areas of attention
and their general perception of their own memory,” lead author Heidi White,
MD, from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, says in a
news release. “We hope that will translate into treatments that allow people
to actually function better in their daily lives.”

Previous studies suggest that chronic transdermal nicotine may improve
attentional performance in Alzheimer’s disease. In this crossover-design
study, 11 subjects older than 60 years diagnosed with AAMI each wore a
nicotine patch for four weeks and a placebo patch for four weeks separated
by a two-week washout period. The nicotine patch was worn for 16 hours daily
and delivered 5 mg/day during week 1, 10 mg/day during week 2 and week 3,
and 5 mg/day during week 4. Mild adverse effects reported during nicotine
patching were skin irritation and nausea.

On eight occasions during the 10-week study, subjects rated their own
perception of memory improvement or decline on the Clinical Global
Impression (CGI) scale, and clinicians evaluated their medical condition and
performance on the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics battery
and the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (CPT).

Compared with the placebo patch, more subjects using the nicotine patch
reported a minimal improvement on the CGI. The average CGI score was
unchanged during use of the placebo patch. Decision times decreased from
approximately 200 milliseconds to less than 100 milliseconds during nicotine
treatment, and the consistency of performance on tests of reaction time also
improved significantly, suggesting that nicotine heightened attention in
individuals with AAMI.

Nicotine did not significantly affect delayed matching to sample and
Sternberg memory tests, errors on the CPT, Stroop task performance, and
mental rotation processing speed, nor was any dose-effect relationship
noted.

The authors warned that these findings should not in any way justify
smoking, and that nicotine patches had not been approved for long-term use
because of associated health risks, including nausea, dizziness, and
increases in blood pressure and heart rate.

“While the results are encouraging, seniors should not try nicotine skin
patches until larger studies testing the efficacy and safety of their use
have been conducted,” says coauthor Edward Levin, PhD, also from Duke. “The
results of this study suggest that when used appropriately and under the
right conditions, nicotine may alleviate the symptoms of mild forms of
memory loss. In addition, such treatment may even attenuate the decline in
memory function as people age.”

Pharmacia, Inc., donated the nicotine and placebo patches used in this
study. The National Institute on Aging is funding additional research on the
efficacy and safety of nicotine patches for the treatment of mild cognitive
impairment.

I find it hard to believe that scholars are in agreement about this!
Oral-formulaic composition still involves a lot of memory (some folk singers still use it), but AngloSaxon & Viking poetry is quite complex – note e.g. the heavy and consistent alliteration.

As for these long Greek epics, the Greeks seem to have memorised them
using a combination of rhythm and personal involvement. Early Greek
“plays” were little more than long poems recited while chords were
strummed on a lyre to the same rhythm. Afterwards people would go home
and talk about the poem, reconstructing large parts of it from their
collective memory.

Somewhere on the Web there’s a “Pi” page – sorry I’ve lost the reference
- but it has links to various homepages of people who have memorised pi
to large numbers of decimal places. They too seem to prefer the “rhythm
method” of memorising.

Nowadays there are still traditions that are handed down orally – huge
poems are taught to children over a period of years – the more
successful memorisers amongst the children are given intensive training
so that they can pass on the tribe’s collection of literature to the
next generation.

On a smaller scale, many lowland Scots (including myself) can recite the
whole of Burns’s poem “Tam O’Shanter” (over 200 lines) without ever
having consciously learned it. My mother used to recite it to me, and
I’ve read it many times (because it’s very good), and one day someone
challenged me to recite it and  - well, I decided to see how far I could
get, and I got right to the end!

In fact, Dr. H. J. Roberts, diabetic specialist, has just written a book
on his 30 years of research on Alzheimers disease.  It’s called DAAD;
DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMERS DISEASE.  In fact, he is having a seminar July
29 at the Doubletree Hotel here in Atlanta on this.  He says when
NutraSweet was approved he saw a big difference in his diabetic patients
- they were confused and had memory loss and vision loss.  He says the
single amino acids in aspartame without the other amino acids in protein
can pass the blood brain barrier and deteriorate neurons of the brain.
He says this has accelerated Alzheimers Disease which in this country is
the 4th leading cause of death and 50% of all patients in nursing homes
have this disease.  You can get the book at the same place you register
for the seminar  1 800-814-9800.

If you’re on NutraSweet this may be your problem.  We say take the “no
aspartame” test and see if your problems are not due from daily dosing of
a poison.  I’ll forward you instructions to the auto-responder and you
can read up on this problem.  Usually depression disappears when you
eliminate NutraSweet and with it the memory loss.

As far as memory usage goes, we learned that Java apps just use a lot of memory. We turned on verbose garbage collection and we found that just bytyping into a JTextField that an average of 40K was being used and then discarded PER CHARACTER! Since we have to use Swing, there’s nothing we can do about that. However, for code we wrote ourselves, we found that there are two main options for reducing memory usage:

1) Create fewer objects.

2) Use the Microsoft VM.

If you are manipulating a lot of Strings, you might want to use
StringBuffers instead, since they are more efficient in terms of speed and
memory usage. Creating Swing GUI components is especially expensive, so you
might want to create as few as possible and “multiplex” them a la the JList
renderer mechanism.

I know a lot of people hate Microsoft, but we ran the application under both
VMs and the memory usage under Microsoft was less than half of that under
the Sun VM. Of course, some people here speculate that the Microsoft VM is
hiding some (or most) of its memory in system processes or zones, but who
knows? The program also ran faster under Microsoft. BTW, there were
compatibility differences between the two VMs and we had to do some
significant work to run properly under Microsoft, but the speed and memory
improvements were worth it.

That’s the bad news.  The good news is that if you can teach your
daughter to utilize compensatory memory techniques such as keeping a daily journal, entering appointments in a small appointment book, or
following lists posted in some appropriate place, studies have shown that your daughter can learn to use this type of memory aid.

Thank you for your suggestions they have already been implemented several
years ago, inlcuding sticky notes near her computer or bathroom mirror, a
Casio Databank wrist watch with telephone numbers, five alarms programmed
to ring for important events such as when to take her medicines, when,
what, & where to go to a college class, when &where to go to physical
therapy, swimming, etc.
We are now looking al PDPs (Palmtop C omputers) for scheduling, notes,
addresses & phone numbers, etc. I am looking at Light & Sound Machines as
well for possible memory improvement. The world is vast with a lot of very
smart professionals, lay people, academics, scientists, etc. who have had
some experience in this area. I just have to tap into it. Any ideas,
thoughts, leads, Internet addresses, newsgroups, mailing lists,
listservers, etc. would be greatly appreciated. God bless you!

Apollo’s Domain/OS had an interesting way of allowing programs some control over paging, though it was never documented for end users, as far as I know.

Memeory was divided into pages of 1K or 4K depending on the processor, and segments of length 64K or 256K.  The address space was still linear, but a
segment was the smallest boundary on which an object could be mapped into
the address space.  All file system I/O was essentially done through the
paging system, even across the network, since demand paging of objects
across the network was one of the low level capabilities of the operating
system.

Associated with each segment was a value called the “touch-ahead count”.
When a page fault occurred, not only was the nonresident page fetched, but
touch-ahead-count additional pages were requested as well if they were
nonresident, up until the end of the current segment.  For sequential file
I/O, the touch ahead count was usually set to the maximum.  In the
Domain/CommonLisp port I did for the Apollo, I separately controlled the
touch-ahead-count for the various types of code and data objects the system
would contain, and this led to a substantial performance improvement,
especially on machines with insufficient memory.

Another optimization that can be useful in certain cases is to have an
efficient way of “invalidating memory”.  When a region of virtual memory is
invalidated, any physical pages were freed without writing them to backing
store, and then freshly zeroed pages were allocated when the process next
touched that portion of memory.  With a two-space stop-and-copy garbage
collector, this optimization sped up large Lisp compiles by 40%.  Anyone
know if using mmap with /dev/zero is capable of doing this on Linux?