Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

If memory separates your brain from the sheep's brain to the right in this photograph ... then it seems important to use more memory capacity than we tend to use. Science and brain based studies are helping us to understand what prevents memory and how to optimise what we know.

Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, for instance,  have uncovered new clues about memory through an amnesia-inducing drug that sheds light on how you create new memories.

See the details in the journal Psychological Science, to read how researchers asked participants to remember identified facts in two experimental sessions -- once after a saline placebo and once after amidazolam, a drug used to relieve anxiety during surgical procedures. BTW… this drug also causes short-term amnesia … which hampers your ability to form new memories but at the same time leaves old memories untouched.

The study revealed that the drug prevented people from linking a test item to a related context. This research further proved that when you want to recall a fact… it is helpful to link that fact to something already familiar. For example:

1. Want to locate keys – hook them onto a purse or belt
2. If names escape you – link them to one trait you see in that person
3. Forget appointments – carry a small calendar that you pull out whenever you accept new dates
4. When people tell you directions – jot down specifics on a small paper that goes with you

Can you think of other links that help you to remember in a more brain friendly manner?