In this episode we explore the fascinating enigma of human memory – how memories are created and stored, why we remember certain things but not others, and how to improve your memory long term – as well as an incredible tool to “hack” your short-term memory used by national memory champions:

You will learn about:

• The weird trick that national memory champions use to memorize decks of cards, huge strings of numbers, and much more

• Why your memories aren’t accurate representations of reality

• The science behind how your memories can be manipulated

• The positive memory benefits of playing video games

• How memories are created and stored in your brain

• What you need to do to protect and preserve your memory for the long term

• And much more!

Thank you so much for listening!

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SHOW NOTES, LINKS & RESEARCH

• [Book] Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (see here)

• [Book] The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory (see here)

• Aerobic exercise increases hippocampal volume in older women with probable mild cognitive impairment: a 6-month randomised controlled trial (see here)

• The association between aerobic fitness and cognitive function in older men mediated by frontal lateralization (see here)

• Association of Crossword Puzzle Participation with Memory Decline in Persons Who Develop Dementia (see here)

• Reading and solving arithmetic problems improves cognitive functions of normal aged people: a randomized controlled study (see here)

• Reading aloud and arithmetic calculation improve frontal function of people with dementia. (see here)

• Gaming for Health: A Systematic Review of the Physical and Cognitive Effects of Interactive Computer Games in Older Adults (see here)

• Computerized and Virtual Reality Cognitive Training for Individuals at High Risk of Cognitive Decline: Systematic Review of the Literature (see here)

• Sleep deprivation and hippocampal vulnerability: changes in neuronal plasticity, neurogenesis and cognitive function (see here)

• Sleep, cognition, and normal aging: integrating a half century of multidisciplinary research. (see here)

• What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? (see here)

• Meditation’s Effects on Emotion Shown to Persist (see here)

• Regular exercise improves cognitive function and decreases oxidative damage in rat brain. (see here)

• Sleep to remember. (see here)

• Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training (see here)

• Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density (see here)

• Computerized training of working memory in a group of patients suffering from acquired brain injury (see here)

• A pilot study of an online cognitive rehabilitation program for executive function skills in children with cancer-related brain injury (see here)

• A cognitive training program based on principles of brain plasticity: results from the Improvement in Memory with Plasticity-based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) study. (see here)

• Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory (see here)

• A neuroimaging investigation of the association between aerobic fitness, hippocampal volume, and memory performance in preadolescent children (see here)

• Hippocampal Binding of Novel Information with Dominant Memory Traces Can Support Both Memory Stability and Change (see here)

• [Peak End] Patients’ memories of painful medical treatments: real-time and retrospective evaluations of two minimally invasive procedures (see here)

• [Daniel Kahneman Ted Talk] The riddle of experience vs. memory (see here)

• [Memory Palace] Improve Your Memory by Speaking Your Mind’s Language (see here)

• [Joshua Foer Ted Talk] Feats of memory anyone can do (see here)

• [Memorizing a Deck of Cards] How to Memorize a Shuffled Deck of Cards in Less Than 60 Seconds (Plus: $10,000 Challenge) (see here)

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT