14 Exercises to Improve Short and Long Term Memory

Here we propose a list of exercises to improve the memory short and long term that children, adolescents, adults and the elderly can practice. Memory can be worked by favoring stimulation and cognitive maintenance.

Our brain is not a rigid structure, but has a high potential for modifiability and adaptation to different situations. What happens when certain neurons disappear? Are the functions that depend on them irreparably impaired??.

The answer to these questions is No !: Certain neurons have the ability to perform a large number of functions, so if they lose one function, we can get them to perform another type of function, and in this way keep our neuron active..

In addition, in brain function, the most important thing is not the number of neurons that our brain contains, but the connections that they establish with other neurons, that is, their activity.

So, if one thing is clear, it is that to work memory, we will have to make our neurons work, and not do it only with one exercise, but with several, because in this way we will work on different types of activities, and improve our functioning. cognitive will be more complete.

Article index

• 1 How to keep a good memory?
• 2 Exercises to improve your memory (short and long term)
  • 2.1 How many are there?
  • 2.2 Short-term memory exercises
  • 2.3 Form pairs - working memory (short term)
  • 2.4 Grouping
  • 2.5 Find the differences
  • 2.6 Visual memory
  • 2.7 Spatial memory exercises
  • 2.8 Long-term memory exercises
  • 2.9 Exercises of sustained attention
  • 2.10 Verbal fluency exercises
  • 2.11 Reading comprehension exercises
  • 2.12 Creativity exercises
  • 2.13 Association memory exercises
  • 2.14 Fit sheep
• 3 References

How to keep a good memory?

Maintaining a good memory in adulthood involves 3 fundamental points:

• Mens healthy in healthy body: To have good cognitive functioning, we must also have good physical health (diet, exercise, etc.).
• Social and emotional functioning: The activities we do every day, the moments we have to have fun and have fun, our friendships ... All these factors are important for our cognitive functioning.
• Cognitive functioning: The amount, type and quality of cognitive work that we do throughout the day will be vital to predict the state of our memory.

In this article I will propose 10 exercises to work on this last point, that of cognitive functioning.. 

Exercises to improve your memory (short and long term)

How many there are?

This game will help you work on your short-term memory. You have to find the number of: elephants, dragonflies, giraffes, stars, hippos, parrots, butterflies, monkeys and zebras.

Short-term memory exercises

The biggest drawback of short-term memory problems is that we can forget something recent that we were going to do.

So, if you have these types of short-term memory problems, the best exercise is the one that, apart from working and improving your short-term memory, can help prevent this type of forgetfulness in the daily environment..

Therefore, the exercise that we propose to improve this area of ​​your memory function is the following:

Write down in a daily self-record the moment when you have one of the following oversights:

• Forget what was going to be said.
• Forget someone's name.
• Forgetting where an object was saved or where it is.
• Forgetting to take any prescribed medicine.
• Forget an appointment.
• Forgetting something that you should or had planned to do.
• Other types of forgetfulness you may have.

A self-registration is simply a piece of paper / sheet / sheet on which you write things down. In the self-registration you will write down at the right moment when it appears: the type of forgetfulness, the corresponding day on which the forgetfulness happened, and some type of information about how it was..

Form pairs - working memory (short term)

The game of matching pairs is a very good exercise to work on working memory, immediate memory and learning.

This famous game consists of putting papers (if you do it yourself) or figures (if you buy one of these ready-made games) in such a way that a drawing is shown at the bottom.

Each drawing contains a couple on another figure / paper, and the game consists of lifting them two by two, remembering which drawing has come out, to be able to lift two figures that contain the same.

Group

An effective technique that our brain performs to be able to more easily remember large amounts of objects and information, is to group words into different categories.

If we improve our ability to memorize by grouping, we will greatly improve our memory, we will have greater ease in storing new information and therefore have greater learning, and we will have more resources to prevent forgetting.

An exercise that we can do is the following:

1-Read this list of words carefully:

-Cookie, cat, architect, car, olives, boat, fireman, lion, crocodile, helicopter, doctor, banana, fish, dog, apple, nurse, muffin, motorcycle, teacher, bicycle-

two-Try to remember as many words as possible.

3-Now organize the above words into these four categories

-Food, Animals, Means of transport, professions.

4-Try to remember the previous words organized in the 4 categories.

Find the differences

Find the differences games help to work on short-term memory.

Visual memory

Improving visual memory is very important, since many times what we remember are things that we have seen before.

To improve this aspect of our memory, we can perform a very simple exercise that consists of observing a geometric figure, and then try to reproduce it as accurately as possible without looking at it..

Spatial memory exercises

Spatial memory is a very important type of memory, since it is what allows us to mentally reconstruct shapes, spaces and silhouettes.

To work on this type of memory, an exercise that I recommend is the following:

Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a “bird's eye view” of your neighborhood or the place you remember best in the city or town where you live, noting the name of the streets you remember, the place where you live, the place where your friends and family live and the places you usually go or know well.

Long-term memory exercises

Long-term memory is the one that contains information about past events, and that has been part of our knowledge for a long time, that information has been stored in our brain for a long time.

Stimulating these memories allows them to be strengthened, and therefore the chances of forgetting that information are reduced. In the same way, stimulating memories enhances our neural networks where we have this information stored, and improves our long-term memory.

To work on this aspect of memory, a suitable exercise would be the following:

Remember and explain as accurately as possible, providing all the information you remember about:

• A relevant event of the 1940s.
• A relevant event of the 50s.
• A relevant event of the 60s.
• A relevant event of the 70s.
• A relevant event of the 80s.
• A relevant event of the 90s.
• The most relevant event in his personal life.

Sustained attention exercises

Being able to maintain attention is practically more important than knowing how to memorize to have a good memory. If we are not able to maintain attention, recording and storing new information becomes very difficult, and therefore learning too.

So if we want to work on memory, we must also train attention, since attention is what allows us to record information and store it properly so that it can be remembered later..

-To work on sustained attention, we can perform the following exercise:

Look carefully at this list of words and identify those that are repeated.

Verbal fluency exercises

One of the main functions of memory is language: when we have a memory impairment, sometimes it is difficult for us to access the information necessary to find the word we want to say at a certain moment.

So that this does not happen, we must work the language directly. In this way, our verbal fluency will increase and our long-term memory will also benefit..

-To work on verbal fluency, you can perform a very simple exercise, but at the same time very useful. It is as follows:

Write words in the singular and chained by the last previous syllable. For example:

-Persona, nayoura, rascar, letter, taburetea, tealéfonot, notche ... -

Reading comprehension exercises

We all know what reading comprehension consists of, and perhaps now you think that this does not have much to do with memory.

But this is not so! Understanding what we read is a cognitive function, related to language, of vital importance for our memory, because if we do not have a bad understanding of what we read, storing that information will be impossible, and therefore that information will never be formed.
part of our memory.

-The exercise that I recommend the most to work on this function is:

Take a book, read it, and at the end make a summary about what has been read, and what are the key ideas that the book contains.

Creativity exercises

Finally, to complete the memory training, I would recommend an exercise in creativity. Demanding our mind to carry out activities that require our own ideas and original thoughts, is perfect to stimulate our memory globally.

-One exercise that I especially like is the following:

Write a two-page story that continues the following story:

Last Tuesday I woke up very happy because it was a special day. I got up and went quickly to the bathroom, when suddenly ...

Association memory exercises

Association exercises help us to properly store the new information that is presented to us, so that learning is greater, and the probability that we forget it decreases.

Association exercises consist of joining information already stored in our brain and that we remember easily, with new information.

In this way, by associating new information with well-established information in our neurons, it will be easier for it to also be well stored..

One type of exercise that we can do to improve this function is the following:

Write under the numbers some fact, event or situation with which you can associate it. For example:

• 17: My anniversary day.
• 39: End of the Spanish Civil War.
• 45: End of WWII.
• 65: Retirement age in Spain.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100.

After about 5 minutes of carrying out the previous action, where you will have recorded a minimum of 15 facts or events related to different numbers, you will take the list of numbers again (without what you have previously recorded) and you will write below each number what remember.

Fit sheep

In the next game you will be able to work on short-term memory. You have to fit each type of sheep with each silhouette.

References

1. Frieri, L (2010). Critical Review: Effectiveness of cognitive stimulation therapy groups for individuals with dementia. University of Western Ontario: School of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
2. Maroto, M, A. Memory, stimulation program and congitive maintenance. Institute of Public Health. Madrid.