Improve Memory – Using Visualizations To Improve Your Memory
A picture is worth a thousand words. How many times have you heard that phrase before? Yet, to improve memory, it is still valid in the message it delivers. If you ever need to use it yourself, maybe you could change it up to say a picture is worth two thousand words. You could do this to see if anyone is paying attention.
When it comes to memorizing, visualization is going to be one of your best allies. When you listen to a sentence being read, you automatically picture an image of what is being said. That is the way people are wired.
People dream in images as well. While there is dialogue included in dreams, most of what we dream is in pictures. The messages get across in a much more concise manner. It’s quite likely to be less dialogue in our dreams than we imagine. It’s just that the images give us all the meaning we need to understand exactly what is going on.
Think about websites you visit. Which are you more likely to remember, one that contains nothing but text, or one that has a combination of text and visual stimuli? Most people would choose the latter.
People respond differently to visual stimuli. So, it is likely if you are a highly visual person, you will be more likely to remember things than those who aren’t. While this can be good from a memory perspective it may hinder you a bit when reading only text. Your preference for visual aspects could make reading purely text a challenge. On the other hand, people who are not as stimulated visually will find the reading of passages a breeze.
Many people will be somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. Therefore, they can read easily enough but probably wouldn’t mind a few visualizations thrown in to strengthen the message.
The biggest takeaway of all of this when you want to improve memory is to try and figure out what type of person you are. Are you a highly visual person or don’t you need or care for the visual aspects too much? When you know this information, then you can structure a plan for memory. Even if you aren’t in the highly visual camp, you can still use it to enhance your memory. Everyone’s brain turns information into images, so it is worth exploring using visual stimuli as a memory aid. You could start out with the visualizations and then reinforce them with text.