Sharpen your memory

The only way that a normal person can effectively recall all of the words in the list, is if he applies a mnemonic technique to help him remember. You'll also find that it's easier to recall a word if it's repeated several times in the list, or if it's related to the other words in any way, or if it stands out among the other words (for example, the word "ruby" will stand out from a list of vegetables).

To take advantage of your primacy and recency, you must find a middle ground. If you are doing something that requires a lot of thinking and you do this non-stop for hours, you'll find that the dip in the recall between the primacy and recency can be quite considerable.

It is often said that your brain is probably the greediest organ in your body, and it requires a very specific type of nutrition from your diet. It shouldn't be surprising then that your diet affects how your brain performs, and it performs well with a steady supply of glucose.

Before you go out of your house in the morning, it would be great if you can give your brain the fuel it needs by eating a hearty breakfast. A salad packed full of antioxidants, including beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, should also help keep your brain in tip-top condition by helping to reduce damaging free radicals (damaging molecules).

As you grow older, your brain has lesser capacity to defend itself from daily threats like free radicals, inflammation, and oxidation. That's why aging people need more nutrition than younger ones.

Elderly people suffering from dementia were said to have better reasoning about their backgrounds and personal history when there was music playing in the clinical area than in silence, during an experiment conducted by Elizabeth Valentine, a psychologist at the University of London and co-author of new research on music and memory.

Increasingly, music is accompanying traditional medical therapies to help people heal faster. Experts say music has the power to calm and to energize the spirit.

The British researchers conducted a test on 23 people (ages 68 to 90) with mild dementia. The test was done with different sounds playing in the background.

While asking the questions, the researchers either played: a familiar tune (Winter, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons), novel music (Hook, by Fitkin), or pre-recorded cafeteria noise - or asked the questions in stillness. Over four weeks, each person was tested in all four situations.

The participants answered more questions correctly with sound in the background rather than in silence, and they scored even better when music was playing.

"Whether the music was familiar or new did not seem to matter. The music probably aroused the participants and helped them focus," the researchers said.

Research indicates that you can better remember the information you are reading if you will go to sleep right after learning it. But there are two limits:

1. The material that you intend to recall should be easy to understand, or you should already have a fair amount of knowledge or experience in the topic being discussed.

2. You must not be too tired or exhausted when reading the material.

The next time you need to learn something, try this procedure and see if it works for you. It worked for me!

As discussed earlier, emotions and feelings play a very important role in the process of learning and memory retention. Music has been said to affect learning and memory in psychologically-challenged patients. On the other hand, internal factors such as feelings and emotions should also be considered in retrieving data or in decoding stored information in your brain.

The creation of a good mood in producing better temper, positive outlooks, or even in relaxation are very popular nowadays in creating a holistic approach in wellness and mental health. The balance between mind and body and the conditioning that happens inside your brain may affect your acquisition of knowledge and information. That is why, it is very important to have a good mood in perceiving, receiving, and retrieving emotional as well as mental information.