Memory Training as a Tool against Mental Decline

With these words Diana Morgan, the Green Godess of health and exercise, concluded her presentation at the ARP 050 Biennial Conference in Southport. Everyone laughted and felt somehow relieved that such a pretty girl (hard to belive that she is already 64) does suffer from the same as most of us do:memory lapses.

;How often do you experience such situations?

-staring into an open fridge and not remembering what you wanted to pick up there

-having difficulties to find where you parked your car half an hour ago or where you put household objects

-meeting someone who apparantly does know you, but you have no idea where to place him

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Shall I go on?

I can almost see you,the readers nodding unanimously.So, let´s find out why?Have you not been thinking about something else while heading towards the refridgerator?Thinking about a disagreement which you had with your husband this morning?Most likely? So why are you surprised that you suffer from memory lapses?Common inability to concentrate is resposible for many of our troubles.We are so used to confessing that we have forgotten something, but in many cases it is not true at all.We have ; only not paid attention in the first instance so the oncoming information passed along without being registered in our memory storage.

;The evolution of the human brain is accomplished by the age of 25 and since then our brain deteriorates every day.In the beginning it is not so noticable, but by the age between 50 and 60 we cannot overlook the memory lapses which are becoming more frequent.

;From the 20s on it also takes longer to learn new material, and it is harder to multitask when attention is needed. Also our reaction time slows down as we age, which does affect our daily activities.Memory experts estimate that 50 percent of all people are affected by so called „age-associated memory impairment“ upon reaching their sixties and over 70 percent by age 70 and older.

;The majority of the population considers the problems of memory as an inevitable hardship, nothing can be done about it.Like the progressive decay of the human body.Many people believe on the contrary that the existence of an miraculous tablet with an instant effect could be the solution

The truth, however, is that as far as our memory and its function is concerned we have our fate more or less in our own hands. The brain behaves in the same way as a muscle that loses its function if not being permanently in use.Anybody with a broken arm who after six weeks got rid of his plaster appendage would doubt the necessity of a long period of intensive rehabilitation to re-gain the former strenght of his arm.

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Why not accept memory training as an effective way of brain rahabilitation? A good function of a human memory is the most important preconditition for the improvement of anyone´s self-confidence and self-esteem.

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;The very basis of all our problems with memory is the fact that nature itself has not equipped us to remember too much. The capacity of our short-term memory is limited to seven items (words or digits) within one input, actually the average from 5 to 9.If I would give you a list of 10,20 or more words, you would not remember more than 7 anyway.It is as so if the short-term memory is powered by battery that has only so much power at any one moment. The battery is short enough to retain up to seven items in consciousness, but does not have anough power for more items.Fortunately it is quite easy to icrease greatly the amount of learnt material by using certain techniques called mnemonics, which can help you learn and remember almost anything.Memory aids date back to antiquity. In the ancient world, a trained memory was of vital importance. Early Greek and Roman orators delivered long speeches with unfailing accuracy because they learned the speeches by applying mnemonics.Unfortunately the techniques fell into disuse and remained in use as a source of entertainment for others-to perform „mental tricks“ onstage-but they were seldom, if ever, used for practical purposes or serious learning.

;It happened to me once while explaining LOCI technique to the public on one occasion .A man from the audience accused me that I was revealing the secret of his professional tricks.I learned later that he was a magician by profession.Since then I am always opening sessions with a declaration that I will alter the newcomers into magicans, who will with little effort manage to remember what the others will consider impossible.

; Applying LOCI technique means that we are associating each item from our list with a particular place=LOCI/locus means place in Greek/,which we are familiar with like in our own house.We are actually walking through the house and dropping items on unusual spots (if you are using a shopping list, be careful ; not to put provisions on common spots, like milk in the fridge, it must go on the chandelier).Later you are just strolling the house again and picking up those items, so you are geting them easily in given order.

; So first try to remember the folowing list without knowing the technique, of course in given order: Bag of flour, apples, 3 bottles of beer, pears, couliflower, tomatoes, container of coffee, bar of butter, 6 eggs,cucumber.So ,please,write them down without looking at them. Difficult? How many have you got?Seven? OK and what about the order? Impossible? Let´s start with LOCI.

; I am approaching the main enterance of the apartment and putting the first item from my shopping list on the doormat, it is a bag of flower. Behind the main door there is a corridor and several apples dancing in a wild pace.From the corridor we can enter ; kitchen. There is a kitchen table and three bottles of beer on it talking about the result of the hockey match from yesterday. There is also a cupboard and pears playing hide and seek on its top. There is a door into living room with a TV set and two armchairs.A very indecent film is on and couliflower is paying undivided attention to this film as well as tomatoes sitting on the other armchair. From ; living room we can enter the balcony and there is a container of coffee basking in the sun. From the balcony we can enter the bedroom as well. Sodoma and Gomora is going on in bedroom.There is a double bed where the bar of butter is having great fun with 6 eggs. From bedroom we can move on to bathroom. There is a mirror and the cucumber who is standing in front of it and shaving itself.

; And now, ask someone to repeat the story but skip the items from the shopping list. It is your task to write them down. Have you got all of them? In correct order? My congratulations!

; And what about to do something about your big shopping tomorow?Make a shopping list of 30 ordinary items, read it carefully and then try to repeat this list without looking at it.How many items have you got?

Seven?Good, it is a normal output of an untrained brain.

And now spend just a few minutes with re-organising of your shopping list.Select e.g. butter,yoghurt,milk,cottage cheese and cream and put them together in one imaginary box labeled „Dairy products“,do the same with fruits,vegetables,bread and pastry,meats and detergents.Watch out,not to include more than five items into one box or category, not to come too close to the edge of the capacity of our short-term memory.And now it starts to be easy.Without looking at your list write down all items included into each category.How many of them have you got now?Isn´t in encouraging?

;And tomorow you can immediately start to put your new skill into practice.Leave your shopping list behind and try to recall always your items from each category while doing shopping.Do not buy any more items except those which are listed.After your return home compare the list with what you got.

;People in my classes in several nursing homes in Prague can recall over 100 different items from a long shopping list with a help of this technique called categorisation despite their age, all of them are in their 80s and 90s.

;It is the combination of concentration tests and mnemonics that forms the basic programme of memory training session for seniors.Those who enter the sessions doubtful about their own skills are astonished at the quantity of information they are able to remember with the help of mnemonics.43 American presidents in chronological order or 94 Czech rulers dating from 623 A.D. or 100 digits of Pi and much more.They leave these sessions with the feeling of a great victory.One of my students expressed his feelings:“Well,and from now on I won´t call myself a fool, but Mr.Fool!“Is there any use for remembering of 100 digits of Pi?Probably not too much, except that one gets a proof that he can actually remember almost anything, unlike his peers who consider such tasks impossible.After the very first class you reach conclusion that you have been only underestimating your own skills because to REMEMBER is so easy and ; even more, it actually does not request so much energy if you know HOW.One elderly lady in my class after she managed to remember 100 digits of Pi confessed that she could not resist to „show off“ in front of her 15 year old grandson.And what was his reaction?“Granny, I always knew you were not stupid, but only now I learned that you are a genius!“And using an example from the recent intensive class given in Prague in July 2004: Ms Meiriona Davies of Ystradgynlais,Wales/ who was after a stroke and radiation and came to the class shortly after being cognitively tested by her psychologist with not too incouraging result/ burst into tears every time when she managed to remember easily things that she has had serious troubles with for a long time,e.g.40 items from the shopping list,20 digit number or items in given order.She wished to be mentioned and incourage all her peers who suffer from impaired memory to take part in the classes.Even more,she wants to become a memory trainer herself and help to the elderly in her community.

After taking an intensive memory training class you are supposed not to have any difficulties to remember telephone numbers, faces and related names, shopping lists and actually anything, because you will enhance your ability to concentrate on oncoming information.And what is absorbed gets also a chance to be processed and stored into long-term memory for future usage.

;The participants do approach any new information with positive expectation that they will remember and it obviously does influence the result.Such classes have much broader impact.Once you increase the self-confidence of the participants they are able to deal with difficulties of daily life with much higher efficiency.So in reality they have a direct impact on the entire quality of life.

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;Final advice for the readers: for succesful ageing it is important to be engaged in social life and ; maintain physical and mental activity.Active lifestyle does not only bring stimulation to your brain but also helps to keep your neurons alive and healthy and prevent their damage.Such an activity increases the viability of the brain cells and delays the onset of Alzheimer´s disease.Even more, several large, long-term studies found that people with mentally and physically challenging lives are less likely to get Alzheimer´s disease.And other studies proved that such people, if they unfortunately develop AD, are able to lead a sort of normal life much longer in comparison with those who have been mentally and physically idle.The recent scientific research proved also unexpected impact of physical and cognitive training on persons in early stage of AD which slows dramaticly the course of physical and cognitive deterioration.

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;If you know all that by now,what about to become a memory trainer for older people in your community?.EURAG memory training center in Prague has the mission to share the long-term professional experience of European memory trainers with other countries for the benefit of their elderly with intension to promote cognitive and physical training as an indispensable ; and vital part of daily life of ageing population.This center is organising intensive memory training classes in English for individuals as well as seminars for future memory trainers in very low cost in order to make them accessible to all and introduce memory training to ageing population.The next seminar for memory trainers takes place in Prague in February 2005,the intensive memory training classes for individuals are available in Prague in April 2005 and in The High Tatras in Slovakia ; in June 2005.The dead line for all the applications is December 31,2004.

It is never late to change your lifestyle, not only yours, but also of the others around you!

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Dana Steinová

Head of EURAG memory training center

Dana_stein@volny.cz

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Postal address:

LECKOVA 1520

149 00 PRAHA 4

Czech Republic

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Prague, July 12,2004