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Memory Enhancement Strategies: What Works Best for Obtaining Memory Goals?

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Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in Adults

Abstract

Adults of all ages experience difficulties remembering important information at times, and these difficulties occur more often as we grow older. Fortunately, a variety of easy-to-use strategies can be used to help people improve their learning and retention of a wide array of to-be-learned materials. In this chapter, we describe (a) many of these strategies, (b) why they work, and (c) how to apply basic principles of memory to adapt strategies to effectively learn and remember in novel contexts. Given that these strategies are often best suited for a single task or context, we also briefly discuss techniques that show promise for helping adults’ memory (and cognition) function effectively across many contexts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Admittedly, numbers are just difficult to remember and are best written down if possible. However, if you have some numbers that you need to memorize or if you are a number fanatic (e.g., you want to remember batting averages of your favorite players etc.), mnemonics have been developed specifically for learning numbers (e.g., Hill, Campbell, & Lindsay, 1997).

  2. 2.

    When books and paper were scarce (or just not available), orators would need to commit lengthy texts to memory, and adaptations of the method of loci were used to achieve phenomenal feats of remembering. No doubt, however, orators would use a variety of strategies to distinctively process stories to achieve their lofty goals (Yates, 1966). In our society, we no longer need to transfer the great works (or even lesser ones) by word of mouth, so if we really want to re-live a classic, one just needs to download it from Kindle or go to a local library for a copy.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, one of the National Institutes of Health (R37 AG13148).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242-0001, USA

    John Dunlosky Ph.D.

  2. Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Heather Bailey Ph.D.

  3. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Christopher Hertzog Ph.D.

Authors
  1. John Dunlosky Ph.D.
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  2. Heather Bailey Ph.D.
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  3. Christopher Hertzog Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Dunlosky Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Healthy Aging, W. Main St. 265, Kent, 44240-2403, Ohio, USA

    Paula E. Hartman-Stein

  2. School of Medicine & Public Health, Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, University of Wisconsin, Big Sky Drive 7818, Madison, 53719, Wisconsin, USA

    Asenath LaRue

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Dunlosky, J., Bailey, H., Hertzog, C. (2011). Memory Enhancement Strategies: What Works Best for Obtaining Memory Goals?. In: Hartman-Stein, P., LaRue, A. (eds) Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in Adults. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0636-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0636-6_1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0636-6

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