• Question: why is it the people have different memories, like why do some people have better memories than others?

    Asked by to Ben, James, Jen, Michael, Susanna on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Jen Todd Jones

      Jen Todd Jones answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Memory is a tricky thing to measure scientifically! People tend to think they have good or bad memory but when it comes down to testing they may find a completely different answer to what they think! There are even different kinds of memory, there’s a memory we normally think of as remembering things that happened in our life – but there’s also another kind, working memory, which is what we use when we’re ‘working’ with lots of information at once and trying to decide what needs to be remembered, like a telephone number we have to remember until we write it down.

      Having a good or bad memory can be something built-in, something that the shape of our brain decides, but sometimes it can be influenced by the way we learn. You can help develop your memory by practising remembering different lengths of numbers or words – like those brain training games you can get for Nintendo.

    • Photo: Michael Craig

      Michael Craig answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Couple of examples of the different types of memories for you.

      Episodic memory lets you remember detailed events from your past such as…can you remember the last time you went to a restaurant…and remember where this was….when this was….and who you were with/what you ate whilst there!

      Working memory is different. Working memory helps us store information for short periods of time. Some people’s working memory is a lot better than others! We usually test working memory by asking people to remember things over a short period of time such as….how many numbers you can remember at once? Try it! start at the top line. Red the numbers, close your eyes and see if you can remember them all in the right order. If you can remember those three numbers, try the line with 4 numbers in…then 5…then 6 etc. Most people can remember between 5 and 9 numbers at once.

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    • Photo: Susanna Martin

      Susanna Martin answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Just to add to Michael’s example you can improve your ability to remember lists by ‘chunking things’ for instance if you think of your phone number you probably remember it in groups. so to take Michael’s hardest number 4628205849 try splitting it up into 462 820 58 49 and then you might be able to recall it better, you can also create associations to help you remember things eg My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets – this can help you remember the order of the planets from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto)

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