Transcripts

Barry Gordon, co-author of the book, Intelligent Memory...

Everybody seems to have pretty much the same kind of paper in their head to write on, but some people organize it better than others or organize it for different things. A lot of the differences in memory seem to relate to interest and training. If you remembered numbers in kindergarten better than somebody else, you had an advantage, and you probably fueled that advantage over the years. You've constantly probably tried out your memory for numbers, and given up on memory for things you didn't have as much as of an interest or ability in. The image of the absent-minded professor is very appropriate here somebody who may not remember where they put their socks or shoes may nonetheless be able to write equations that describe the entire universe.

Pretty much everybody has the ability to remember anything better if they try, because much of what we remember is incidental memory - like where we put our keys.

It's not important; you don't tell yourself consciously "I'm going to remember I put my keys down here." So, it's an incidental type of learning, and incidental learning is extremely poor. If you ask people, without telling them, to read a story and then test their memory, they'll do it dismally. But, if you tell them, "Read the story, but I'm going to ask you questions about it" and you give them the same amount of time to read the story, they'll do much, much better.

For transcripts, visit our website somethingyoushouldknow.net. I'm Mike Carruthers, and that's Something You Should Know.