Memory (Part 6)

Weinland does not agree with the memory improvement authorities that anyone can be trained to have a good memory. Improvement is certainly possible, but the one invariable is the person's potential. This cannot be increased.

He tells us that psychologists agree with William James that retentiveness, that is, capacity for remembering, cannot be improved by effort or training, because it is dependent on the brain structure. Within the limits of the potential, however, memory can be improved like any other skill.

Among the common and useful memory devices that many people employ without outside instruction are numbering, classifying, and visualizing. Those who have not learned to use these devices by themselves can gain in efficiency by applying themselves in this way. Motivation is important too—not just in the sense of wanting to improve one's memory—but in the more particular sense of wanting to learn specific things for specific purposes.

The more driving the need or desire, the more effective will be the memory.

Interest is important, and explains the fact that memories, even remarkable memories—are usually especially good in only one area. People with amazing memories for things in general are probably interested in everything. Weinland concludes that a person's memory can be called poor only if he forgets many things that deeply interest him after making an effort to remember them.

Sometimes forgetting is simply a matter of incomplete learning due to lack of attention or interest. An impression has never really been made on the mind.

Weinland and others think there may be evidence that nothing experienced is ever completely forgotten, unless there is a brain injury or atrophy. The explanation that forgetting is the result of fading of the trace is contradicted by the recovery of many forgotten memories in the course of psychotherapy, by association, and also in hypnotherapy, where patients have been 'regressed' and, under hypnosis, even speak and write like a child of the age desired, with emotions and experiences to match, unchanged by what happened later in the subject's life.

It has also been found that recall of meaningful materials is as much as 50% better under hypnosis. Recall is also better in other states characterized by relaxation—abstraction, free association, "twilight sleep," and simple relaxation.

Brain injuries sometimes result in loss of memory, but not always. Often there is no noticeable amnesia, or it is temporary. The location in the brain of the injury (or of surgery) makes a difference in the effect on memory. Certain diseases may result in amnesia, for instance, syphilis, epilepsy and Korsakoff's disease (a result of alcoholism). Serious lack of oxygen or blockage of blood circulation through the brain can have permanent destructive effects on the brain and therefore on aspects of memory.