LY #41: The Nature of MY Memory

Each quarter I have my students make name-tags which they wear at least half way through the quarter.  I used to tell them, "You only have to wear them until I can point to anyone in class and have that person recite everyone else's names." 

Winner of the Blog's Creative Alias Contest: Debra Oswald.

But really, they wear them only I can name everyone in class and that's usually at midterm.

I used to have some patter that went like this:  my ram drive is limited so I have to download certain things to hardcopy.  But I doubt that would make sense to them anymore.

You's think this was an age-related problem.  But I've always had a terrible memory for names.  In sixth grade I had the role of the "announcer" for our class performance of "The Cask of Amontillado."  I wasn't able to remember both the introduction and all the names of the kids in the play, some of which I'd known since first grade.  I had the introduction printed on the back of a clay skull called Yorick.

But that's not the only way my memory is problematic.  I remember pieces of my life in two different ways -- as scenes and as still images.  My husband remembers much more of our lives together than I do -- he remembers as stories, strung together images and scenes.  Often he remembers stuff I don't. 

My poor memory is overdetermined -- it has many causes. 

Some reading I've done recently in the book Training Your Brain To Adopt Healthful Habits: Mastering The Five Brain Challenges by Ph.D. Jodie A Trafton, et al,  shows that children who grow up in high stress households, emotionally unstable households, have poorer memories -- they spend so much time in their childhood just being aware in the moment, watching out for the next explosion -- that their ability to remember isn't constructed solidly enough.  The neuronal pathways don't get laid down solidly enough.  We tend to be distracted.

Inforgraphic from Online Colleges

I've also had a couple of concussions, one from a fall and one from a mugging.  I don't know exactly how that links up to memory loss.  I do know that several medications I've taken over the years are linked to forgetfulness.  And then, of course, there's the overuse of alcohol in my misspent youth.  Binge drinking is connected to memory loss because of the way it polishes or shrinks the hippocampus, altering it's ability to write short term memory.

What am I doing to aid my memory?  Avoiding stress, getting enough sleep, eating right, and, if only I'd remember, playing games at Lumosity.  But improvements are not the issue.  The issue for readers of this blog is that they should know to swallow all memories cum grano salis.