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STUFF THE BALLOT BOXES — IT’S ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE “Which Court Justice did I

(For fast hints: skip below to PRACTICAL APPLICATION.)

A whole ‘lotta’ folks, including yours truly are finding an occasional slip of the ‘ol word recall when it comes to word retrieval or trying to find a name, etc. It’s called “dysnomia.” When I got to the mid-term voting polls I was stumped because I hadn’t written down some of the Court Judges names for election.

(According to Ballotopedia “There 1535 judges of the California Superior Courts compete in nonpartisan races in even numbered years. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the June primary election, he or she is declared the winner; if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff between the top two candidates is held during the November general election…” I didn’t remember a single one.)

There are a variety of reasons this happens. It begins with how you originally store the information. It has to do with what was happening before, during and after you acquired the information? If you got stressed before/during/after, or if the data is associated with stress it can detour your working memory. Research suggests strong emotional association with data can help but it depends what kind of emotion. Stress can be an event driven memory strengthener; not so much when it interrupts the learning moment or follows it. It also frequently happens when you are overloaded with too much information. Helllllllllllllllooooo internet.

Let’s explore how you originally stored the information…

Take the word BOWL.  Did you see it as a word (just plain text e.g., “b-o-w-l”) or did you visualize it as a picture (picture and word label)? Did you associate it or put it in context: someone eating cereal at a table?  Did you categorize it: if the word is ‘bowl’ did you see the things that go with it (category)-spoon, plate, fork, knife? Our brains are hard-wired, typically, to do just this. However, as we age or if there is a learning difference at play, this isn’t necessarily developed.

The best memory storage device is one that uses multi-modality: see it, hear it, visualize it, associate with something, add humor or a goofy story to it, visualize something extraordinarily silly from the story (remember me standing on my head in the cleaners in the previous blog?)  What about writing it in the air with your finger? How about gesturing – think Charades: pantomime the usage of the object? Could you draw it on a piece of paper quickly? Or sketch it on your car window?

Word Retrieval is not just in the language center of the brain. When I first started out as a speech and language pathologist we thought it was more localized in Wernicke’s or Broca’s areas. We know now with fMRIs word retrieval is linked to many other parts of the brain including those that are in the prefrontal cortex where executive functioning abilities live. (reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)

Here’s one word retrieval struggle and retrieval trick I experienced recently:

Take the example of my not remembering my favorite dance/music clubin the Haight Ashbury that I frequented with my friends regularly in the 90s. The name was THE IBEAM. I remembered I first heard the musician Chris Isaak there. I first saw, and was aghasted at seeing, Buck Naked and his band there. I visualized where it was on the block of Haight Street in San Francisco. I couldn’t remember the name but I know it started with an /I/ and rhymed with meme. So I started to do an alpha-scan: I-team, I-ream, I-lean, and finally I got to /B/ and there it was. I had so many good contextual clues that it scaffolded my memory using a system or constellation of associative ideas to carve a spot in my hippocampus. I didn’t have to rely on just one part; it was the sum of the parts and its “cue-ing system” (which we will talk more about in a subsequent post) that helped me create a whole.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: 

The reason the ‘tip-of-the-tongue’ phenomenon allows you to recall the info shortly after, starts with your ability to relax so your memory system can process optimally without the stress hormone called ‘chorticords.’ Secondly, the constellation of cueing works more efficiently.

  1. Relax and have a few phrases that get you out of a pickle (when you get stuck) like “Oh come back to me, give me a minute.” Or, “It’s there I can see it, I know it’ll hit me in a few.”

  2. Visualize a picture of the concept/data you want to remember.

  3. Associate it with something that makes sense to you.

  4. Put it in a story and add something ridiculous to it.

  5. Within the hour, repeat the picture out loud to yourself.

For specific illustrations on each of the 5 steps above, see many of the previous blog posts. And, you are welcome to send me your 3-5 things you want to memorize and I will put them in the 1-5 memory constellation for you. Please note I share all examples. Tku;=)

Remember me until next time,

Jenn Bulka,Memory Specialist

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