How Our Memory Works

It can be super frustrating not to remember things.  And in fact, having trouble with short term memory is one of the main struggles that comes with having ADHD.  The term “short-term memory” is now being called by scientists, “working memory.” This is because the issues involved in ADHD and the remembering of information goes somewhat further than what we think of as short-term.  Working memory essentially involves holding sets of information with short-term memory storage and the ability to recall that information after some time has passed. While most can remember about 6 things at any given time through their working memory, those who have ADHD can only reliably remember 1-2 things at any given time without having an alternative way of remembering them such as a planner or reminders.

Remembering things is essential to everyday life.  We are constantly being asked to remember to do things, remember information about people in our lives, remember information for work or school, etc.  However, this does not have to be something that is dreaded, even for those with ADHD.  Through neuroscience research, there has been much insight into what people can do in order to improve their mental abilities and be able to remember much more information than we may think possible.

How to Optimize Memory

A large amount of research has gone into the idea of what are called “mental models” and how they can help with one’s memory, regardless of whether or not they have ADHD.  Mental models are a helpful way for one to remember complicated concepts.  This is essentially a visual representation that someone creates, which represents the things that they are trying to memorize, and how they relate to one another.

There have been cases of people such as Joshua Foer that have spent much time working on their ability to quickly and effectively make mental models in their heads and remember extremely long sets of information, such as memorizing an entire shuffled deck of cards.  These people link new information with things that they already know extremely well.  For example, some use the tactic that was created long ago by the Greeks called the “mental palace.”  This is where people remember things such as their house, their room, or anywhere they think they can pinpoint exactly where everything is, and link the new information that they are trying to memorize to this already memorized “palace.”  Therefore the ability for people to memorize like this is not out of our abilities, it is just a matter of taking the time to work on how to make mental models in that quick, effective way.

Mind Mapping Tools 

So how can someone who is, for example, a student in high school or college that struggles with ADHD apply this idea of mental models to help them in their own life?  They can too, try to boil down the ideas of what they are trying to learn into important component parts, to forms of visual representations, such as a chart.  For example, you can take your notes and then start to put concepts into boxes, and start to map out these concepts with boxes and arrows.  Even while possibly struggling to create a model like this, it forces you to learn the material more than you otherwise would, as you are linking all of the topics together through these boxes and are also forced to really know the topic in order to effectively boil down the material in the boxes into smaller descriptions.  You can, in the end, draw on that visual representation that you have memorized when entering something such as a test.   I have attached my own example of a mental model for one of my courses through a helpful website called Sketchboard. Other helpful apps and tools for creating your own mental models include Mind Node 2 and MindMeister. Essentially these programs are Mind Mapping software applications.

Many people think that they are stuck with whatever capacities they are born with.  In some ways, this may be true, as some people naturally learn things faster and understand things quicker.  However, regardless of the speed, our brains are constantly growing and changing as we age.  Therefore, yes it does make a difference if someone was starting to learn something like piano at a very young age when their brain was soaking in information quicker and better when they are compared to someone who is older but has been playing for the same amount of time.  However, because one’s brain is still able to develop and grow no matter what age, one can still improve in almost any field with study and memory techniques.  Academic achievement, motivation, effort, and other problems that those with ADHD usually face can immensely improve by doing study and memory exercises, such as these memory models.

References

Ericsson, K. A. (2016). Peak: secrets from the new science of expertise. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Brown, P. C. (2014). Make it stick: the science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Foer, J. (2011). Moonwalking with Einstein: the art and science of remembering everything. New York: Penguin Press.