How to increase your medical memory
Ramon Salazar investigates how to remember more medical facts when you study
Medicine is undoubtedly one of the
most, if not the most, memory challenging courses any student can
face today. Yet oddly enough, the subject of
improving one's memory is not on the curriculum of most medical schools despite the
unwritten rule of examination success:
"She/he who remembers the most minutiae
wins."
Befriending the memory editor
Although you may wish you could remember everything, the legacy of memory show-
men of history proves that perfect memory
is inauspicious.1
Not only would it take your
mind hours to sift trivia for important mem-
ories, but total recall would quickly deplete a
brain's capacity - or mother nature would
have had to engineer our heads to grow ad
infinitum, but that would not have been terribly convenient for anything other than
memory. Forgetfulness is therefore important, but so too is recall. For this reason our
brains have a metaphorical "editing programme," which determines what is worthy
of memory from what can be discarded.
Through memory exercises on multiple
subjects over the last decade, psychologists
have identified key attributes that let a person's "editor" know that sensory information
is memorable. Information that is repeated,
funny, odd, interactive, sensory, and/or
shocking tends to remain with us effortlessly.2
Moreover, attributes are additive. The more
these criteria are present, the higher the likelihood that an item will be remembered.
Association of items (grouping) and conversion of abstract items to concrete concepts
also improves recall. A well touted example
is to turn a shopping list into a story or a
phone number into peg words. In medicine
the same principles are just as valid. For
example, to remember the drug name
"Edrophonium," each syllable can be converted into a concrete image such as "edge,"
a "row"-boat and a pair of head-"phones."
These can then be associated by imagining a
story where you are leaning over the edge of
a rowboat looking for your headphones,
which fell into the water. This theme can then
be further expanded to include side effects
(for example, pupils narrowing as you look
into the water), indications (you dropped the
headphones in because you felt weak - myasthenia gravis), and so on.
Creating such examples may appear
tedious, but in reality, forming associations,
or making ideas amusing or unusual, can be
done exceedingly quickly, and can pay handsomely in the long run. Moreover, these creative skits, like crutches, are discarded with
time as memories are consolidated through use.
Another practical example is how to
remember the symptoms of a disease. Many
doctors have suggested that after seeing a
patient one should study the condition the
same night, remembering features observed
and imagining those that were not present,
linking them together. This associative chain
makes symptomatology simple to remember.
Feeding your neurones
Studies have shown that increasing blood
supply and oxygen to the brain leads to better memory.3
This can best be achieved by
regular aerobic exercise such as running and
swimming. You may have noticed that the
top students in your class tend to be sports
participants.
Various herbal supplements that can be
bought over the counter have also been
found to improve memory. These include
ginkgo biloba and ginseng.4
Caffeine and tea,
contrary to what many may believe, do not
improve memory per se, but rather prolong
the time that one can study before exhaustion.5
St John's wort is also a useful adjunct
to study, thanks to its well established antidepressant effect.6
Adequate sleep is a boon to recall overlooked by many students. Studying unrea-
sonably late hours is a false economy; more is gained with adequate rest.7
Though we may
think of the recovery position as suitable only
for patients, it is also good for us. Most sleep
authorities suggest eight hours' sleep each night.
When all is said and done, perhaps the
best way to become a super memorist is close
observation of yourself. You already have
memories made effortlessly in the past. What
made those memories memorable? The
answer to that question is your secret to making memory work for you.
And, alas, at the end of the day, in order to
improve your memory with the above pointers, you will first have to remember them.
Ramon Salazar, final year medical student, University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research, Barbados
Email: czar@cariaccess.com
studentBMJ 2000;08:217-258 July ISSN 0966-6494
- Luria AR, The Mind of a Mnemonist. New York: Basic Books, 1968.
- Russell P. The Brain Book. London: Routledge, 1979:123-4.
- Wegener W, Poe R. The Einstein Factor. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 1996:215-25.
- Petkov VD, Kehayov R, Belcheva S, et al. Memory effects of standardized extracts of Panax ginseng (G115), Ginkgo biloba (GK501) and their combination Gincosam (PHL-00701). Planta Medica 1993;59:106-14.
- Herz RS. Caffeine effects on mood and memory. Behav Res Ther 1999;37:869-79.
- Hippius H. St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) - a herbal antidepressant. Curr Med Res Opin 1998;14:171-84.
- Harrison Y, Horne JA. Sleep loss and temporal memory. Q J Exp Psychol A 2000;53:271-9.
