How good/bad is your short term memory?

[photon]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Seems fairly anecdotal...

That's why Lisa would like to sell you her rock

Originally Posted by Peanut

I feel like my short term memory is actually pretty great. My long term memory, on the other hand, is terrible. Maybe I have no room for long term memories since my brain is full of short term stuff.

This is more like me, my short term and near long term (like what happened last week, what's going on at work, etc) are great, but longer than that it's rough. I live and die by my calendar and stuff like Evernote.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Most of the evidence supporting that is skeptical at best.

Exercising your brain has to help.

[flamesfever]

I think remembering names is the first thing to go as you age (almost 80)

I recently saw an article that listed ways to improve memory. It involves remembering the word SHIELD, and using it to focus on the following items:

S = sleep
H = handle stress
I = interact with others
E = exercise
L = learn something new
D = diet

[Caged Great]

My memory is excellent, especially for facts/figures/details.

The things I tend to forget are the things I've always deemed unimportant. Mostly irrelevant stuff.

[Canehdianman]

This is going to sound stupid AND I have absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever AND it is anecdotal, but I've been eating a ketogenic diet for 4 months now and I'm finding my memory is my much better than it used to be.

I can recall deals I worked on months ago when I used to struggle to remember what I worked on earlier that week.

I'm not sure if it is simply observational bias, but I'll take it. Makes me feel younger.

[calgarywinning]

What was this thread about again?

[schooner]

So going off memory, and we have already established thats dodgy at best, there is some science to this. I like to refer it as "raw computing power." The ability of your brain to just do things, remember things, and execute. A while back I read an article about mathematicians. They tended to do their best work in their late 20s or early 30s. This often created controversy as they were doing better work than their mentors. So a little off tangent, but the science does suggest that our brains do deteriorate fairly early on in life.

[DoubleF]

I honestly think there's way more things that we don't care in general. Mental distraction due to smart phones is another huge issue. We fill our minds with junk from the smart phone to the point that seemingly important things vanish before they even have a chance to be remembered. The problem isn't memory, the problem is having a ton of information that you never really bother to dedicate effort in memorizing.

The most common example of this is probably phone numbers. People used to memorize these things by the dozens. Now, it's hard to find someone who remembers more than a handful. It's not an example of memory loss if you and 99.99% of society has deemed it's not worth the effort to memorize a phone number. Most people probably haven't even seen more than a few digits beyond the area code of more than half their contacts.

Also, most people (especially guys) are really bad at multi tasking. If you do several things at once, you might not remember any of them. You can focus enough to get through things without remembering anything. Do you remember everything that happens during a morning commute? How about a movie you thought was boring? It's not memory loss, it's a form of human auto-pilot.

The autopilot thing is easy to test. Place all your regular front left pocket items in the right pocket and vice versa. Do the same for the back pocket. I thought it was ridiculous the amount of times I reached for my phone, but also the amount of times I reached to the wrong (because of the pocket swap) pocket for my phone. The same occurs when I go to pay for something and reach for an empty back pocket.

I do find that I have difficulty in remembering things I'm supposed to remember, but I am realizing that I have messed it up somehow by training myself to believe my memory is unreliable. Why bother memorizing anything when I "might" forget something? Write it down instead? IMO that's not a memory problem, that's a situation where the mind is trained not to dedicate resources retain the information like a legitimate email being automatically sent directly to spam. You might be aware of the intent for some information to arrive, but it honestly never even made it to the "inbox".

[Anduril]

I think the matter of my memory has more to do with the increasing importance/multitude of what's on my mind as I get older.

Add in the never ending distraction from devices and pseudo attempts of "multitasking" and it's going to result in more things dropped along the way.

One thing I've had to do in the past for school/private lessons is write in an agenda or dictation book. I rarely used the agenda. Now there's a list of reminders on my phone home screen, a calendar with appointments, shopping lists, expected orders, membership numbers, and various logins...

With all that being said, it's probably still too early for me to say that the degradation is coming from age.

[flamesfever]

^
^

Most people don't realize that many scientists peak in their late 20s and early 30s...probably related to memory. I think it's people in business that tend to peak in their 60's.

Years ago when I worked downtown, I used to park in a large six story parkade. I found out very early, that if I didn't take a few seconds, before leaving the car in the morning, to clear my mind and focus only on where I had parked, then I may have difficulty remembering where I had parked at the end of the day.

I think memorizing things is useful in preserving your memory as you get older.

[Pointman]

I have been increasingly relying on techniques and tricks as I age. Whenever I recall that I have to do something, I either do it rightaway or make a memo. I noticed that doing certain things at fixed days of a week, rather than on demand, works for me. For example, I buy a new can of water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays regardless of how much water left. Although keeping your mind in shape is important, 36 years old can't compete with a raw power of young minds. Gotta grow savvy and organised to remain efficient and competitive.

[Cowperson]

In about 1975, I was a soaking wet, rat teenager, standing poolside after a swimming race and a then roughly 48 year old Peter Lougheed, Premier of Alberta, was on hand for a quick meet and greet. I was introduced to him. Just a passing, unremarkable, grip and grin that he would have done a thousand times a year.

About four years later, I was sitting in the front row of a news conference, as a photographer, and he came in. Before things started, he was chit chatting with a few of us and I mentioned I had met him a few years earlier. He thought for a second, then pulled my name right out of the back of his head.

Considering everything else a busy Premier of Alberta might have to recollect, and all the people he had to have met in the interim, I couldn't believe he'd remembered me.

He said he worked hard on memory tricks, explaining how he'd done it (some sort of image/word association thing).

A few years later, I ran into him again and he did it once more.

That helps explain why he was regarded as a remarkable, personable, politician. He did that with a lot of potential voters.

His age wasn't an impediment. He continually worked at it.

[CliffFletcher]

Lougheed had more presence and charisma than any politician - public figure of any kind - I've ever met.

[EVERLAST]

It's weird how memory comes and goes. I have been doing furnaces for 34 year's and remember makes and models #s of furnaces which helps me with repairs, ordering parts etc.

My wife can send me to the grocery store with a 3 item list.
Most times I end up going back in the store because I forgot item 3 unless it's written down or on my phone.

I have showered in the morning and gotten out of the shower only to realize I forgot to rinse Conditioning out of my hair. ....bizarre yes know.

What I wanna know is why all the hair growing in Mass in crazy places once you hit your late 40s.....I'm a miniature silverback gorilla.

[Rathji]

I don't remember.

Seriously though, I have ADD and stuff like that happens because I get distracted all the time, but since I have been medicated for a couple years now, it has gotten much better.

Originally Posted by EVERLAST

I have showered in the morning and gotten out of the shower only to realize I forgot to rinse Conditioning out of my hair. ....bizarre yes know.

The number of times I get out of the shower and have no idea if I used soap or not is astounding. Most of the time I just re-do the shower.

[calgaryblood]

Some times I check to see if I'm wearing pants while shopping.