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IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY: STOP MEMORY FAILURES   Dozens of Proven Methods from Two World Experts   Douglas J. Herrmann & Michael M. Gruneberg In this E-book, two of the world's leading memory experts risk their reputations by describing their most embarrassing memory failures. Using an entirely novel approach, they show the causes of these memory failures, how they have learned to avoid them - and how you can do the same. You will learn how health and mental fitness affect your memory and how to make best use of the world about us as reminders. You will also discover fascinating techniques for improving your memory for everyday tasks, such as remembering names and faces, telephone numbers, appointments with the dentist, and facts for examinations. Finally, there is a questionnaire that will enable you to work out the causes of your own memory failures and help you to prevent these failures happening again. Douglas J. Herrmann is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology at Indiana State University in the USA. He has published several scientific books and studies of memory, as well as a number of successful books on memory improvement, including Supermemory. Michael M. Gruneberg is Honorary Visiting Professor in psychology at Indiana State University. He has published numerous scientific books and papers on the practical aspects of memory. He has also published the highly successful Linkword Language courses, which use memory aids to speed up foreign language learning. Both authors are past Presidents of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. This e-book is both PC and Mac compatible, and will be sent to you over the Internet by e-mail within 48 hours of purchase. Price: £8.99

 

Four examples of memory failures taken from the book

Forgetting the Fuel Hose

A friend visited me to discuss some work we were doing together and we talked incessantly for hours. I then remembered that I had to get fuel in order to take him to the airport the next day. I went to the fuel station while he continued our work and, putting the hose in the fuel intake, set the catch to fill it automatically.

I went into the store to buy a snack. When I came out, I could see from a distance that the meter showed the fuel pump had stopped, indicating my car was full up. I went back into the store to pay for the fuel.

After paying for the fuel, I got into the cad started the engine and began to leave the station. I was probably doing about 5-10 miles per hour (10-15 kilometres per hour) when, suddenly, there was a loud bang and the car stopped momentarily. I looked behind me, thinking that someone had run into me.

Instead I saw someone in the car behind waving wildly at me, so I got out of the car to see what I had done. The fuel hose was hanging from my car, having been ripped off the pump. I went back into the store and gave the assistant my address, yelling him to send me the bill. He was furious. He said that I was an idiot and I had to agree with him. I returned the next day and the manager said that the company would pay for the hose. He also reassured me, saying that I was not the first person to drive away with a pump!

Going to buy food meant that I no longer saw the fuel hose. Normally this would not matter too much but, when combined with the distraction of thinking about the work I was doing with my friend and my fatigue, the memory failure was inevitable. D.H.

This was a classic case of distraction and preoccupation. Being aware that this is when memory failures are likely to occur is the first step towards proper checking procedures. But mistakes like this can happen to any overworked memory expert. However, like the mistake with the zip-fastener, make this mistake once and you will not make it again! As a general rule you should not leave machinery, including fuel pumps, until the operation is finished.

When I was 17 years old, I spent 2 months on holiday in Germany. We lived in Edinburgh at the time and I travelled home by train. In London, I caught the train for Edinburgh, some 400 miles (640 kilometres) away, and was walking along the corridor when I came across a woman who looked very much like my mother. I thought that my mother was in Edinburgh, as she rarely, if ever, visited London on her own. So the situation presented me with a considerable problem. I did not believe that the person was my mother; she just looked like my mother. If I said `Hello Mother' and it was not my mother, this would have caused me serious embarrassment. If this person was my mother and I failed to acknowledge hey my mother would be hurt. Fortunately, before I could make a serious mistake, my mother said `Hello Michael.'

It is very well established that a change in context can make a huge difference to memory. Learning something in one room and being tested in another room leads to poorer performance than if learning and remembering are carried out in the same room. In the present situation, there was much conflict between context and perception, and I doubted that what I was seeing and remembering was the real thing. A change in context can interfere with our being able to remember people's names. In Edinburgh I would have immediately recognized my mother for who she was. M. G.

In this particular situation the strategy of saying nothing was undoubtedly the best one. If you cannot place someone very familiar to you, don't admit it. Instead try to gather clues and keep talking in the hope that a clue will emerge -it usually does. Ask the person what they have been doing since you last met, what they are doing that day and so on. While talking, try to think of the place where you last met the person.

One evening my wife and I went to a party. It was going very well and everyone was enjoying themselves. I had to go to the bathroom and, being in a hurry to get back to the party, unfortunately forgot to replace my manhood before I pulled up my zip-fastener. The latter caught in the former and caused excruciating pain. Also, the more I tried to undo the zip-fastener, the more it hurt. The bathroom door remained locked for about a quarter of an hour while I struggled in great pain. The other guests were banging on the bathroom door and shouting.

I was distracted by wanting to get back to the party but I have to admit that even 3-year-olds manage to perform the action that I failed to perform with greater competence. However; it was such a painful experience that I have not repeated it since. A classic case of instant learning! M.G.

Do what M.G. did just once. You will never do it again!

In July 1988 I bought .a new pair of shoes. They were beautiful, and costly for our budget at that time. In August I attended the Second International Conference on Practical Aspects of Memory in Swansea, Wales. 7 took my new shoes with me but, because I valued them so much, l also took a second, older pair of shoes to knock about in. 1, wore the mew shoes only once, on the day I gave a lecture. Otherwise I placed these shoes carefully under my bed in the room where I was staying.

On the morning of the last day of the conference, I put my suitcase on the bed and packed my clothes and souvenirs. Then I met up with the people I was travelling with and made my way to the airport. About a day later; after getting home, my wife asked where my new shoes were. Then I remembered that I had left them under the bed. She said that I should write or call to get the shoes back. I refused because I thought it was useless and that some caretaker would have picked them up. She suggested that it was because I was too embarrassed to admit to my memory-expert colleagues that I had left behind an expensive pair of shoes at an International Conference on Practical Aspects of Memory!

• I put the shoes under the bed, something I never do at home and so I did not see them when I was packing the suitcase on top of the bed. I could only have seen the shoes if I had deliberately looked under the bed.
  
  
• I was anxious to leave and go home so I did not make a thorough check of the room before I left. D.H.

Forgetting to pack everything when you leave a hotel is a very common experience, as this example shows. Make a checklist of all the places you must look at before checking out of your room, such as the bathroom, bedside table, drawers, cupboards, wardrobe, under the bed - even in the bed (for nightwear and jewellery). Give yourself time to do this. On short trips, it also helps to use as few places in the room as possible.