Improve Event Memory by Replaying the Scene in Your Head
Memorizing the details of events seems easy enough. You might think that when important things happen, we just think about them enough and the memory sinks. Unfortunately, we still forget all sorts of things, but the BBC notes that playing the scene in your head right after it happens can help solidify it.
This may sound like common sense mixed with what we already know about memory , but research from the University of Sussex gives a little more “how” to approach remembering events. Using a series of YouTube clips, the researchers asked participants to mentally replay the scene and describe it to themselves after watching the video, while another group of participants simply moved on to another video. They found that replaying the scene did help memorize the video, and the brain scans seemed to reflect that as well. This was a little research, but it resonates with what we know about how storytelling helps us remember .
So, is the lesson here? If you really want to remember the event, take the time to describe it to yourself, as if you were telling the story to a friend. Highlight the brightest details and run with them. Chances are, you better remember in the future.
Consolidation of Complex Events by Reconstruction in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex | Journal of Neurology via BBC