Latest / Do You F*cking Mind? / 338. ENCORE: How memories work, how we form them, improve them and how they can be manipulated

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338. ENCORE: How memories work, how we form them, improve them and how they can be manipulated · Do You F*cking Mind?

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: A listener production after the Town. Why am I jealous
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of my ex? Iron stoves, fruits, all of those? How
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: do I get into a routine? Is Kiptok's making me anxious?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I think I'm being manipulated. Someone told me you could
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: live with half a brain. This is do your fucking
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: mind mindset Hacks for a Badass Light, hosted by me
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Alexis Fernandez, How Low, Beautiful Beans, and welcome to this
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: episode of Today. So in this episode, this is going
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to be an encore episode of one of my earlier episodes.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It's ninety something episode ninety seven, maybe ninety five, I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: don't know. But it is all about memory. It's all
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: about false memories, how we can implant memories, and how
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: memories can be manipulated, and also how you can improve
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: your memory as well. So it's a whole episode on memory.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And can I just say not to to my own
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: horn or whatever the saying is. But I was doing
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a deep dive listening back to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: some of my old episodes, and I love this one.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I forgot how good it was. It is epic if
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you're interested in this kind of thing, and I think
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: it really helps you. Also become better at having conversations
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: with other people and better when you are discussing or
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: disagreeing on something, because it gives you more insight into
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: how people's memories work and how they can so easily
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: be influenced. And you're gonna see gaps in your own
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: awareness and gaps in other people's awareness, and you're probably
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: going to be a bit more understanding and more patient
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: with yourself and with others as well. So hopefully you
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: enjoy this episode. It is one of my all time
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: favorite episodes. I while you're listening to this, I'm either
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in London or Paris, so just keep that in mind.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Love that for me. And if you are in London
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: or Paris and we intersect, intersect, intercept each other, say
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: bonjon bo. Anyway, enjoy the episode, Love you guys so much.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Good times. Hello everybody. I'm welcome to today's episode, which
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: is going to be all about memory. I'm going to
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: talk about how memories are formed, how false memories are formed,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: memory consolidation, the difference between short term working memory long
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: term memory. What happens when you get certain lesions or
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe seizures or certain accidents, and what occurs
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to your memory and with also with neurodegeneration in the brain,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and also at the very end, I'm going to touch
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: on ways that you can actually improve your memory. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be super interesting because I've
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: dived into memory in like snippets here and there on
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: my brain facts and this and that. But I think
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: it's kind of cool to do a whole episode on
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: it because I think that memory forms who you are
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: as a person. It's your life, It makes up your personality,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: it makes up your history, it makes up how you
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: respond to situations and how you act. So if there's
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: an opportunity for you to work on preserving your memory
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: or improving your memory, you want to fucking take it
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: with both hands, because your life will get better when
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: your memory gets better. Loss of memory is one of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the major causes of stress and depression. So pay attention.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Let's work on improving your memory, let's be conscious about it,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: let's do something about it, and you are going to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: feel more excited about life, happier about life than just
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: happier in general. Okay, cool beans, let's get into it.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: So there's been a few interesting studies that have been
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: done on memory and not just a few. We're talking
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a fuck ton of very interesting studies that have been done.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And there's one really interesting study just to kind of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: get you aware of how retrieval works and false memories work.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: So there was a study that was done in nineteen
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: ninety and they got. What they did is they got
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: all these participants who were involved in the study to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: remember getting lost in a shopping center and some of
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the memories that these people like when a child, obviously,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and some of the memories that these people came up
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: with were really quite vivid. One person was even like, oh,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I remember who even found me and who helped me
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: find my parents. It was this man in like a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: flannel shirt. But none of the people that had actually
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: retrieved for these memories had actually been lost in a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: shopping center as a child, So these memories were actually
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: false memories. Through this study where people were speaking to
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: a psychologist and the psychologists would be talking them through
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: memories and talking them through events, and the psychologist told
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  Speaker 1: these people that they had actually been lost in a
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  Speaker 1: shopping center and this information was confirmed by that person's parents. Honestly,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: don't ask me the details. Why the fuck a psychologist
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is talking to your parents about being lost in a
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: shopping center. I don't know, but that's how the study
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: went down. And so because this memory was implanted in
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: somebody's mind, a quarter of the people, one quarter of
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the people turned it into a memory that they believed
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to be real to the extent that they added d
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: details to that memory that the psychologists had not told
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: them about. Okay, So they started having these vivid images.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: They were recalling details of all these events that never
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: actually happened, okay. And this shows this mall study was
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: one of the major studies that showed how you can
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: people bring in external information such as other things that
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you've seen, what people have told you, the media, mixing
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: memories and blending an old memory or a relevant memory
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  Speaker 1: into one. So maybe the person that was in that
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: shopping center is imagining a mall that they used to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: always go to. Maybe they did have an encounter with
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a man and a flannel shirt, but it had nothing
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to do with getting lost, and then they've kind of
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: blended those two memories together when retrieving something that doesn't
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: even exist. And so it shows you how how much
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: influence external information can have on your memory of past
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: events and things that have happened. Okay. This is where
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: police interrogation and like witness accounts and all of that
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  Speaker 1: can be extremely misleading because if they lead with a
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: question that's either biased or like skewed towards a certain
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: piece of information, then that person can actually have their
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: memory compromised of the actual real event. And it can
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  Speaker 1: be compromised. So you can compromise it yourself. You can
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: kind of go in and kind of mess up that
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: memory yourself or someone else can do that for you, because,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned in one of my brain Facts ages ago,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've even listened to that episode,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: but when you recall a memory, you are not recalling
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: when it happened. You are remembering the last time you
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: remembered it, okay, or the most impactful time that you
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: remembered it. So something that I also mentioned, but I
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: thought i'd re mention it because there's so many episodes
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: now that I don't expect new listeners to have already
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: listened to all the episodes. But there was this really
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: interesting thing that occurred with this woman once. And this
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: is not just an isolated case. It's happened many times,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: but this is the example that I'm using where when
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: you relive a memory with new information, it can change
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: how you experienced that memory. So, for example, this woman
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: was a witness at a criminal case in the courts, right,
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  Speaker 1: And she was a witness because she was a bank
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: teller and a man had come in, pulled a gun
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: on her and asked her to obviously handle for the money. Anyway,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: they found this man, she was one of the key
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: witnesses at the trial. She goes to the trial, but
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: before she went up on the stand, she found out
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: through another eyewitness that the bank that he had gone
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to prior when he pulled the gun on somebody, he
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: actually shot that person. So now this woman finds out
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: this new piece of information, and after that new piece
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: of information came to light, which was months after the event,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: she then developed PTSD because she found new information that
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: caused that memory to be a whole lot more traumatic
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: than what it was at the actual time. I mean,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: it's fucking traumatic getting a gun pulled on your fucking face.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know how that doesn't anyway, But she had
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: no symptoms of PTSD the first time, but when she
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: then finds out that the other person was shot that's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: when then she gets PTSD rightly, so right, But it
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  Speaker 1: just shows that she is now reliving that memory with
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  Speaker 1: new information and it has now caused her this trauma.
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  Speaker 1: And this happens not to this crazy extent, but this
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: happens all the time, where we layer on pieces of
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: information every time we think of a memory. So when
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  Speaker 1: you remember something, you are remembering the last time you
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: remembered it. That is why. Also when you speak to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: let's say you're speaking to a relative, it could be
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: a parent or a partner or whatever, and you're both
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  Speaker 1: recalling a memory that you were both a part of,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and you're arguing with each other and you're thinking, how
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the fuck could this person be getting it so wrong? Yes,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that happened, but it was not in this year, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: it was not at that holiday. It was here. But
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: they're thinking the same thing about you. They're thinking, how
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the fuck could you be getting it so wrong? So
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: either both of you have got some detail wrong, like
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the essence of it is correct, what happened, what went down,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: who said what? Yes, but then details around it are incorrect,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: And you're literally fighting, arguing and you definitely think you're right,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: but the other person definitely thinks they're right too. And
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: often it's kind of in the middle. Often both of
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: you have got some details wrong and a lot right,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and then you're coming to the middle thinking how has
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this person gotten it's so wrong? And that comes down
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to how you have kind of tainted that memory based
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: on when you have retrieved it. And a lot of
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the time, if you bunch all family holidays into one
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and one day you're talking about a family holiday and
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: then you talk about this event that occurred and that
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: happened in the same sitting, then a year later, you're
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: going to retrieve that information and you remember the last
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: time you remembered it, but you're also talking about another
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: event that you were at, and you might blend those
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: two memories together. Okay, I'm also going to be talking
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: about like eyewitness accounts and how that like you can
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: fuck with your memory. But another study that was done,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: kind of going back to what I was talking about,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that shopping center study. Another study was done where participants
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: were shown like one week, for example, they were showing
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: photos of places that they had never been to. Then
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a few weeks later, they were shown the the same
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: photos of those places and they were asked how they
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: ever been there again, And this time I think it
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: was like over half of the participants the second time
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: around were pretty sure that they had been to one
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of the locations there, despite them only recalling that location
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: because they saw the photo a week or a few
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: weeks earlier. They were adamant when they first saw the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: photo that they had never been there. Then when they
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: see it again, they're like, no, I'm pretty sure I
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: actually have been there. But this comes down to again
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: remembering when you last remembered. So they're now thinking have
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I been there? Have I not? And they're thinking about
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I've seen this place before, but they're not recalling the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: fact that last time they saw it, they knew for
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a fact the experience they had when they saw it
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: was I've never been here before. So again, that just
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: shows how memories can be tainted. Now, I want to
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: talk about a case of a man who's very famous.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: If you studied psychology or neuroscience or anything remote the psychiatry,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you've probably heard of this dude. His name is Henry
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Maliason or Malayson. They refer to him as for a
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: very long time because he was anonymous. He's passed away
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: since and his name is Henry realized, but I'm going
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to call him HM. Okay, So this man, when he
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: was younger, he had I think it was like a
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: traumatic head injury, and due to that, he then had
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of seizures. But the seizures were so intrusive
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: into his life and so invasive that he literally had
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to drop out of school. He couldn't function. And the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: man was quite intelligent, but it was just really impeding
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: on his quality of life. So he was like, I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: need to get this scene too. I need to obviously
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: get this done. He went to a doctor called Scoville,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: doctor Scobel, and this doctor was very experienced in lobotomies okay,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and a lobotomy, which they rarely do now, and even
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: if they do it, it's probably not really called a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: lobotomy anymore. But basically, lobotomies were basically really by and
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: larger fucked procedure where they would either slice like leisure
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: a certain part of the brain or kind of chop
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: up like mick like a little fucking imagine a miniature
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: blade or whisk, where they're like chopping up a little
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: section of the brain and making mush or removing a
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: part of the brain altogether. All these things happened with lobotomies,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: and lobotomists could either be done through like a really
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: invasive surgery where they're like opening up the skull, or
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it could be done just right through like the tea,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: like where the tears come out of and you pierce through.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not even going to get graphic. It's really fucked
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: up anyway. Lobotomies were really really common and obviously very
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: intrusive and very damaging to a lot of people, so
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that's why they obviously don't do it again. But lobotomis
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: were based around the fact that this idea that brain
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: function was very very localized to certain brain areas and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it didn't really variate or deviate from that. So we
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: now know that a lot of brain regions. While while
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: we can be sure that like memory storage and long
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: term memory is in the hippocampus, and we can be
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: sure where the primary motor cortex is and all of that,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: we also understand that those areas have several rolls and
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: they take care of several things. And everyone's brain is
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: also made up slightly differently to each other, so you
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: might have these universal concepts that exist, but the specifics
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of it vary from person to person, and each brain
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: region probably takes care of more than just one task.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So if you go in and destroy this part of
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the brain, you're probably destroying a whole lot more than
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you went out to destroy, you know. So anyway, this
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: guy was having a lot of seizures, and that activity
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of the sizures was present in his hippo campus. And
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: as I've spoken before, hippocampus is very crucial to learning
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and storage of long term memories and memory retrieval and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: all of that, and also moods and whatever, so it's
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: involved in a lot. Okay, Now, the doctor went in
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and performed at lobotomy where he removed the hippo campus
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: both because the hippo campus is there's two of them.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Everything is like there's two hemispheres the brain, so obviously
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: he removed hipocampus on both sides. And the operation and
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: as far as the seizures was a great success, he
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: barely had any other seizons. Again, his intelligence seemed pretty intact,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: his personality was the same, but his memory was destroyed.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: His memory from the last decade was gone, and he
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: almost forgot pretty much every new memory. He would forget
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: what he ate. He would forget if he had ever
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: watched that movie, so he could watch the same movie
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: again and again. He would forget the start of the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: movie when he get to the end of the movie.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: He would forget if he had even met a person,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: so every time he met that person, he would have
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: no recollection of having met them before. He would forget
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: walking into a room. And when you have that level
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of memory loss, you become very very dependent on carers.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: You become quite disabled. You can't leave your home because
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: you don't know how to get back. You can't go
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: shopping for food because you don't know what you need
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and you don't remember what you've already got at home.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: You don't remember how much you're going to need, You
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: don't remember how much money you've spent. You can't budget,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: You can't fucking do anything when you don't have this
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: ability to consolidate any memory whatsoever. Okay, So this woman
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: who was like a PhD student but then ended up
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: working with him for a very long time, called Brenda Milder.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: She went to work with him and she was interviewing him,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and she put down a lot of findings and through
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: this woman's findings, she learnt so much about memory and
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: how memory is retained, and she found out that he
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: could retain information within working memory. And I'll go into
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: what working memory is exactly, but there's pretty much that
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: bracket of short term memory when you're using your memory
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: consciously and you're using it to process information and do
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: something with that information. So, for example, if he was
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: told a number and he repeated that number again and again,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: he could remember. He could hold onto that number for
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes. But if there was a break of
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: just a couple of minutes, he had no recollection of
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: that number, and he had no recollection that test had
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: even happened. Because there was a lapse in that working memory,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: he stopped the continuity of the thought process. And the
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: moment that stopped, then that particular chunk of working memory
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: was gone could not be consolidated, so he could not
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: be retrieved. Okay, And this immediate data, when you remember
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: something like even for it like just briefly, this immediate
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: data travels to the Hippo campus. And here you've got
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: all these proteins that work to record and strengthen these
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: pieces of information. And then the hippo campus goes through
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this process of consolidation and then sends a memory. It
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: keeps it in the hippo campus, but it also sends
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: it to parts of the cortex as well. Okay, so
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: without the hippocampus, he could not consolidate or store anything properly.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And when you can't consolidate, memory can't be formed and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: it can't be stored correctly. However, they found that his
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: motor tasks when they would give him something to do
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: with the motor task, like one thing was he had
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to trace a star, but when he was tracing it,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: he had to only look at the star in a mirror.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of a different skill that you're using
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: because your arms are going in a different direction of
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: what you're looking in the mirror. So the first time
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: he did it, it was really terrible at it, like most
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: people would be. But then she noticed that every day
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: should go and visit him. When he do this task,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: he got better and better and better at the task.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: And if his memory was truly shot to pieces in
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: all ways, shapes, and forms, then that process should not
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: have improved. So they found that motor task and motor memory,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: which is called procedural memory. I'll go into the different
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: kinds of memory in a second. But this procedural memory
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: is more stored in the basal ganglia and in the
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: cerebellum to different brain regions than the hippocampus. So it's
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: not as involved in the hippocampus as it is in
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: this other brain regions, Okay. Whereas declarative or semantic memory,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: which is names, facts, dates, knowledge, concepts, all of that,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: that is more stored in the hippocampus. Okay, that's the
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: declarative memory versus procedural So let's talk about that. So
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: we've got declarative memory, like I just said, that's it's
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: also called semantic memory. It's the knowing that I know
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: that dot dot dot, I know that glutamate is an
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: excitatory neurotransmitter. I know that Canberra is the capital of Australia,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I know that, etc. Okay, and then you've got procedural memories,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: which is I know how to I know how to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: sign my name, I know how to speak English, I
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: know how to walk, I know how to play the guitar,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I know how to ride a bicycle, drive a car,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah, blah blah. It's kind of it's
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: more motor task, and it's knowing how to do something,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: how to execute a task. And then you've got episodic memory.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: So that's tied to timelines in your life, episodes of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: your life, events, experiences that you've had. So for example,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: with me, I'm terrible at remembering names and faces. I mean, really,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: this is like a self fulfilling prophecy. I think the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: more I say it, the more I ingrained it into
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: my head, so when it stopped saying it. But I'm
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: not great at names and faces. But I'm bang on
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: when it comes to episodic memory. If you remind me
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: of an event that occurred, I can tell you the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: timeline of events that happened that day. So if you
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: say to me, I remember that party that we went
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: to a year ago where this happened that happened, if
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: you can trigger my memory, I can pretty much say, yes,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: you and I went to the beach earlier that day.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: But then when I got burgers, then we went home
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: and I was like sunburnt, and I put fucking alivirajoel
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: on and then I got ready and then we got together.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Colden Ember went to the thing, like I could literally
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: give you a fucking timeline of events that happened, Whereas
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I've got friends of mine that are guns at names
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: and faces, but their episodic memory isn't that great. They're like,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: how the fuck do you remember those details? And why
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: would you need to write, like why you're remembering that?
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: But they can retain so much more about names and
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: faces than I can. So some people just are more
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: skilled at certain things and others. Some people layer, and
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you're gonna find out very soon. Some people layer more
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: meaning to these things. So when I look when I
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: hear names and look at faces, I'm obviously not layering
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: enough meaning as I'm consolidating that piece of information subconsciously.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Whereas when I think of a timeline of events, for
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: whatever reason, I put in so much more on chronological
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: events as they're happening, and I don't do that on purpose.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So you might slot into one of those two categories,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: or both if you're very lucky. Now, well, let's talk
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: about the difference between explicit or implicit memory. So explicit
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: is exactly what I said, declarative knowing that like I
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: know these facts, I know the capital of this I
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: know the name of this country, that flag is the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: flag of ex country. All these informations, it's when you
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: study for an exam, it's what you learnt at UNI,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: at school. That is explicit or declarative memory and semantic
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: memory that's all explicit. Implicit is the stuff that you
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: don't have to put in effort to remember. So, for example,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I burnt myself once on that stove. I never have
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to like study it to recall it. It's fucking seed
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: into my mind. Or I you know, for it, or
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: when someone you know does something really beautiful, you have
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: a really funny event, you don't have to study that
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: event to recall it and remember it. It's locked into
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: your mind. If somebody proposed to you, you're not going
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: to forget that very easily, are you. So it's these
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: things that you don't have to work to remember. I know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I like the taste of a donut. I don't have
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to study that. I don't have to keep recalling recalling
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to remember it. That is implicit memory, stuff that you
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: do not have to put in effort to remember. So
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: now how do you access your memories? This is what's
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: really really important because there's different ways of accessing your memories,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and you need to ideally train in the most difficult
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: way to access your memory if you want to improve
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: your memory. Okay, so we've got recall memory. Recall memory
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: is reaching back into your mind to fill in the blank.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: So if you're doing a test and the question is
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: what is or what are the colors of the Spanish flag,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: you are recalling that information. Okay, if someone says what
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: is the name of the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, that is
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: recall information. You don't really have any prompts. Then the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: second one is recognition. Recognition is kind of like a
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: multiple choice test. It's where the answer is visible there
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and you recognize that it prompts something in you and
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you think, yep, I remember that. I know that I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: can recognize that as being the true answer, or I
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: can recognize that most of them are wrong, so out
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of through a process of elimination, I know that this
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: one must be correct. Okay, that is a lot easier
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and less effort less work, less retrieval work less effort
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: accessing your memories than recall memory is. And then the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: last one is relearning. So this is where you're refreshing
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: or reinforcing old information, Like you know, when you feel
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: like you don't really remember something, but when you start
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: going over your notes, you're like, ah, yep, okay, yeah, yep, yep,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: this this kind of rings a bell. Yep, I'm going
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to reinforce that and relinn. So that's the last one, okay.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: So this is when you're studying, like well, studying anything,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: learning a language, practicing, playing music. When you go back
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: to it and start doing it, you notice it's a
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: little bit rusty, but then you click in and you
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: kind of can get back into that zone a lot easier, Okay,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: And that's how you start to strengthen that memory. This
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: whole idea of cells that wired together fire together. If
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: you're doing kind of semantic memory task, you want to
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: get better at it. Of course, repetition is one of
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the best things you can do. So how a memory
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: is formed in the first place. So first you get
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: an input, it's a sensory input, which could be a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: piece of information, auditory, visual, tactile whatever. It then goes
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: into your working or short term memory. Okay. So short
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: term memory is kind of the broader fa like phrase
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: for it that we know, but it's actually technically working memory,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to explain working memory in more detail
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in a sec then it's got to be encoded into
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: your long term memory, which and long term memory you
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: kind of want to look at it as like this
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: infinite cloud of storage and information. You can make it
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: as big as you want. You know, it's pretty impressive,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: this this memory that we have. But not all pieces
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: of data are going to make it into your short
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: term or your working memory, and not all pieces of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: information are equal as far as your ability to remember
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a piece of information. If you hear a number or
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a list of items and you've got to repeat that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: number or the list of items, the chances if you
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: remembering it, if you haven't rehearsed it or recalled it
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: or said it again and again and again in your
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: working memory are probably slim. So unless you have linked
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: that number or list of words to meaning, which of
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: course then strengthens your memory. I'll go into that, then
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you're probably going to forget it, especially if things have
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: been occurring in the interim before you're made to then
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: recall that number or name or whatever. So for example,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: if someone told me to remember the number one oh
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: nine and then an hour later said, can you remember
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: that number? Because the number one oh nine is my
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: absolute favorite number and it crops up at all these
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: meaningful times in my life. Of course I'm gonna remember
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the number. But if someone said, can you remember the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: number one nine to three, I probably won't remember it, okay,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: unless I've repeated it in my head. The same goes
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: for names. If someone says to you, remember the name Bella,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: if you know a Bella, or if you are called Bella,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: You're probably gonna fucking remember that name. Or if you
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: link it to a character in a movie that you
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: love who's also called Bella, you're the chances if you
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: remembering it are so much higher because you have linked
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the name to meaning. Information linked to no meaning makes
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you makes it a lot easier to forget. Okay. So,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: for example, who in Australia remembers the fucking phone number
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to the fucking reading and writing hotline. Most of us
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that existed in the late nineties early two thousands will
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: remember that fucking jingle of one three, double six, triple
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: five oh six, like it was this hectic jingle on
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: repeat for the ad and now I've got that useless
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: phone number stuck in my head for the rest of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: my life. Okay, And that is a perfect way of
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: learning something and retaining it. You have linked it to meaning,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: you've linked it to a song. You've linked it to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: like a pattern in your head, some sort of a
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: rhythm you sing the song. It's much easier to remember
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: something that's linked to something else. Now, this declarative memory
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that's not linked to too much meaning can decay really
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: quickly if it's not encoded with effort. And like I said, effort,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: you're linking it to something you're if you're putting in
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the effort to like that name reminds me of this person.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: If this image bang, I can remember it a lot easier. Now.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: If you don't do that, that memory will probably decay
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: in about twenty or thirty seconds. Okay. If the information
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: is an isolated thing and you didn't keep it in
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: your mind with something that's relevant, you forget it. Okay.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Your mind can hold about four things, some people a
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: little bit more, but it's about four things within your
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: working memory that you're consciously focusing on. And if we
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: don't apply it or process it, it's gonna go and
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that it decays and it will get consolidated. Now I
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: want to go more like more deep. I want to
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: dive deeper into this idea of your working memory, so
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: also known as short term memory, but it's more properly
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: defined as your working memory. It is this is the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: definition of it. It is conscious active processing of incoming
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: auditory and visual spatial information and of information retrieved from
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: long term memory. So it involves explicit and implicit. Okay,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: so what we this is kind of what we know.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Is this automatic processing things that are burned into you
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: for your benefit or your survival, but also information that
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: you know you it's kind of explicit, it's kind of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you've got to learn it in the moment. So working
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: memory is working on all these things. It's your ability
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to use the information that you've got in the moment
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: at hand, whether it's a conversation that you're having or
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: whether it's something that you need to remember, pulling information
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: from your long term memory and using it as relevant
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and doing something with it and executing it. It's got
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to do with a goal that you've got and doing
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: something with it. Okay. It's a form of kind of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: multitasking where you're using conscious and subconscious processes because, like
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I said, and there's kind of like a cap to it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: You know how some people when they start doing something,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: they then pause all of a sudden and then can't
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: do the other thing and they're too focused on one thing.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Because technically, multitasking only works when you're doing something consciously
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and something subconsciously, And even then it can kind of
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: get in the way because you've got a cap of
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: how much information you can process at any given time
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: without kind of something breaking down or something not working
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: or you're doing poorly at a task. But this idea
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: of actually multitasking on conscious processing is not really possible.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: There's only so much that you can process at one time. Now,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: let's look at examples of working memory. Working memory. You
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: log in, you got to log into something and ask
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you for your password. You sitting there thinking, I'm wanting
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: to enter this site. Now, I'm using my ability to
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: know what's being asked for me, my ability to retrieve
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: information from my long term memory, and then I can
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: right down and click enter. That is all working memory.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: You're using the information of the now with information of
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the past, mixing it together and doing and putting it
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: into practice to execute a goal. It's this idea where
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: you lock up the house, you turn around to leave
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, my phone, I've left it inside.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: This idea of unlocking the house, going back into the house,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: knowing where you placed your phone, grabbing your phone, and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: then leaving while knowing that you're still in a rush.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: It's this idea of this working memory being like, I've
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: got to grab my phone, but I can't fuck around.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I can't just sit down and scroll through it. I
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: know I'm in a rush. I've got to go. That
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: whole process is your working memory. Or there's the flip
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: side of that, where you entered a room, you don't
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: know why the fuck you've entered that room, and you're like, oh,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: only to leave and return back to where you were
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: to then know why the fuck you entered that room.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: That's working memory. And the reason you return turn back
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: to the room, and that's when you remember why you
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: entered that room is because there was a trigger. There
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: was a memory or a trigger that made you be like, oh,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: that's why I had walked into that room in the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: first place, to grab that book or that item or whatever,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the pen whatever. When you do that and your memory lapses.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: That's because you've overloaded your memory with too many things.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: You're either stressed. You're either trying to remember too many things.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: You're trying to do too many tasks. You're not focused enough.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: So when you do walk into that room to grab
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: that pen and you're like, why am I here? If
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: you stay there and continue to ruminate and stress, the
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: chances of you actually remembering are probably not great depending
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: on how your memory works. But if you turn around
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: and leave, boom, it's going to come back into your
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: memory because you're not blocking it. Okay, But ultimately, working
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: memory is your ability to access pieces of information to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: do something useful with it. So if your working memory
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: is really good, your ability to bring in relevant pieces
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: of information, and here's the key, keep it relevant to
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the task at hand, is stronger. You are probably if
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you've got good working memory, you're probably a great storyteller.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: You don't deviate on these fucked pathways. You really know
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: how to keep it entertaining. Because you've got good working memory.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: You can stick to the task at hand while pulling
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in relevant, funny pieces of information. You can read the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: room at the same time and respond to what's working
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: and what's not working and continue with the unfolding off
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: that storyline. That's a good storyteller, some with great working memory.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: The same goes for someone who can really argue properly.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: You can stick to the conversation at hand, you can
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: stick to the relevant information, and you can also pull
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: in relevant information. You're also really good at debating. You're
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: also really good at those problem solving tests that don't
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: really work on you know, you needing to have you know,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: a high IQ or whatever. But this ability to problem solving,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: problem solving something in the moment. You're also much better
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: at reasoning at a higher level. So this comes down
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: to not only how you argue or how you debate
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: and how you approach things, just within your own life,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: how you can in the moment pull relevant information, look
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: at the piece of information that you have and make
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: something useful out of it instead of going on this
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: like downward spiral of freaking out and not kind of
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: not reasoning with what with the information that you've got. Okay,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes if you struggle to reason with something, it's because
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: you're focusing way too heavily on the one thing that's
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: at hand without pulling in relevant pieces of information that
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: help you be like, Okay, I know for a fact
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: that it could be better if I did this, or
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: that it's not bad because I've seen it happen before,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: or I've been here before, et cetera, et cetera. Okay,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: so that's all working memory. Now let's do a little
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: let's do a little test on your working memory right now,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: don't write it down. That defeats the purpose of the test.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you five words to remember, and
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: then I'm going to give you some little tasks to
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: do in the meantime. It doesn't matter if you can
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: get the task done or not. It's the point that
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: you're putting in conscious effort to something else. And then
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to wait a little bit and then I'm
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: going to see if you can retrieve those five words. Okay,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: so these are the words leaf, building, storm, ring, cushion.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Now I want you to answer this question three times
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: thirty six. I'll give you a few seconds to figure
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: that out. Don't stress too much if you can't three
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: times thirty six. Okay. Now, I want you to close
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: your eyes and I want you to extend both your
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: arms out in front of you, and you want to
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: get your left finger to touch your nose, the tip
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: of your nose, and then extend it out again and
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: get the right finger to touch the tip of your nose,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: extend it out again, and do the same with your mouth.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Extend it out left hand and then right finger to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: your mouth and extend it out amazing. And then lastly,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I want you to answer two times seventy eight. Just
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: give you a few seconds, okay, cool. Now I'm just
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: going to leave a little gap and then we'll go
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: back to it. So as you know, as you're going
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: to start to notice, working memory is a limited it's
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: a limited thing. You've got capacity, and it means that
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: you can't truly multitus because you're pulling information and trying
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: to process it with your conscious mind and you can't
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: be really involved in two conscious processes at once. Okay.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: So you'll find that for most people when they retrieve
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: those words, the average of retrieval is about half okay,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: so the average being two point five. So some people
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: it's way less, some people it's more. Okay. So the
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: goal is to make that piece of information as relevant
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: to your life as possible. You want to add meaning
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to it, and the best way to do that is
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: to visualize and to think of images that are going
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: to help you consolidate that memory faster. Okay, so visuals
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: are a great way of consolidating memory. You're just using
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: more of your brain. So if you can have like
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: and other things as well, so a song to it.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Some people, literally, if you look at those memory champions
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: out there, some people actually mix movement with a a
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: word or a number, so then it's much easier for
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: them to then recall it. But most people it's either
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: it's visual. So there's a Netflix series on the mind
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: by vox. It's very good, and there's one that talks
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: about memory champions and how they actually train their mind.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: We're talking people that are not are not some you know,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: like prodigy people or whatever. They're just trained their mind
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: like a muscle, or their memory like a muscle to
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: retain these like you know, seemingly useless pieces of information
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and then retrieve it straight away, like memorizing an entire
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: deck of cards in thirty seconds, that kind of thing.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: They are using imagery in their mind. They are visualizing
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: things that they link these cards to an image and
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: they turn that image into a story. And that is
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: how they remember it. You want to add meaning. The
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: more meaning you can add, the easier it is to consolidate,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and the easier it is to retrieve. Okay, So now
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I want you to go and retrieve those five words
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: and see how many you can come up with and go.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I'll give you a few seconds. Cool, So most of you,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: if you rememborize five words, amazing, that's fantastic. But most
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: of you don't feel like annoyed that you only remembered
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a handful, like maybe three or even four. You just
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: don't quite get the last one. That's just got to
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: do with how much meaning you're putting into those words
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and how quickly you're able to consolidate them into your
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: memory and make it relevant to what you're doing and
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: what you're working on. So, if the words are irrelevant
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: your memory, your mind is quite it's savvy and intelligent.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: It's thinking that is pointless get rid. Okay, So if
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: you're trying to then strengthen your memory, you want to
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: learn to find how to find something that's seemingly irrelevant
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: into something that's relevant and meaningful to you. Now, let's
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: quickly touch on that episodic memory that we were talking
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: about it's really interesting that your episodic memory can improve
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: when you can link emotion to an event. For example,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: if you went away on a weekend with your part
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and you just had a really nice weekend and you
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: just chilled right, You maybe had breakfast, you maybe went
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: for a swim, but you know, nothing may jo is happening.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: If I was to ask you what you did exactly,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: unless you've got crazy episodic memory, If I was to
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: ask you what you did, you know, as a timeline
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: of events a year later, most people are not going
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: to remember. They'll just remember the weekend as a concept, okay,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and like a little bits here and there. But if
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: you spent the whole day together, it was all beautiful,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: and that the end of the day your partner proposed
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: to you. Then all of a sudden, that one memory
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: paints the whole day. So he paints the whole day
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: with intense emotion. It was this beautiful thing that happened.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: You wanted the best days of your life. You're really excited,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you're so in love. If someone a year or two
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: years later was to say what happened that day, you'll
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, okay, so we woke up
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: and he was acting all weird and I could tell
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: that he was a bit nervous, but I didn't know
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: what it was. And then we went to breakfast and
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: detail detail, detail detail, even though this emotional thing happened
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: later on end the day. So there's this really interesting
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: concept that if you link heavy emotion to something, your
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: likelihood of remembering everything that happened prior and post that day,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: you will also retain Okay, Now, there's a really interesting
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: podcast called it's called Cereal, and it is about this case.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I think it was the first season of Cereal, I believe,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: and it was about this case of this kid, this
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: teenager that basically got murdered and they pinned her ex
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: boyfriend for it, who was also a teenager that went
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: to the same high school. And they found that it
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: was really kind of difficult to get kids to remember
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: as witnesses, to get witness accounts and storylines to place
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: this guy, i'd nan say, the guy that was convicted
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: for this murder. They found it really difficult when they
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: were interviewing because they were interviewing weeks and weeks later,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: so they were saying, where were you on Friday afternoon?
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Five weeks ago, and everyone's like, I don't fucking know.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: And if someone said were you working, oh yeah, maybe
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I was working. Were you doing this? I don't know,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: So it was really difficult to get them to place
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: themselves where they were. And this is before this is
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: in like ninety nine or ninety eight, so it was
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: before everyone had mobile phones and social media. You can't
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: look back at a photo to trigger a memory. Then
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: they realized that the day that that happened there was
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: like a blizzard. So then they're like, oh my god, perfect,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: let's just talk to the students and say the day
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: of the blizzard, what happened. And most people were able
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: to pull way more information because the blizzard is quite
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: a memorable event, so they were able to remember earlier
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: that day what had occurred even before the blizzard hit,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: so they were able to pull more meaningful information and
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: place people in situations at the library, at the gym,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: at whatever. Then had nothing gone down that day. So
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: also on a side note, fucking amazing podcast. So go
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: listen to it if you like true crime and investigation
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and stuff. Okay, so to wrap it up, I'm going
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: to quickly go into a little bit more about false memories.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: I may or may not have spoken about this in
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: a previous podcast, but it is fucking interesting, So I'm
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: going to over it again and then I'm just gonna,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: of course, go into ways of how you can improve
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: your memory. Okay. Now, false memories are remembering something that
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: didn't happen, remembering a face to be the face that
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: you know when it's not at all, not even remotely
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: close to that face. Okay. Now, your memory, like I
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: said before, does not work like a recording device. It
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't and it can't. That's just not how the brain operates.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: The brain operates in a very interesting, mysterious way where
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: it's pulling in relevant pieces of information to save energy,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: so it can be also using the brain to do
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: other things as well. You can't record every fucking detail.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: It's just going to let you know what is relevant
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: to you and then you're going to keep that. Okay.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: It is very easy to contaminate somebody's memory based on
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: how a question is asked on based on how you
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: get that person to recall information. So here's the study
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: that I'm going to say. I might have already said
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: it before, but there was a study that was done
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: very very interesting, and it was where they got participants
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: to watch a video of a car crash. Okay, they
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: then asked these participants. They split them into two groups,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: and they said, how fast were the cars going when
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: they collided? They asked the other group, how fast were
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the cars going when they smashed into each other? Obviously,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the group that heard, well, maybe not obviously, the group
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: that heard the words smashed into each other reported that
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: the cars were going like at least fifteen ks faster
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: or fifteen miles faster than the cars that collided with
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: each other. Additionally, they asked was there any glass smashed
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: glass on the floor. The ones that heard the word
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: when the cars smashed into each other reported seeing glass
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: even though there was no glass, and the ones that
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: heard collided most of them reported not seeing any glass
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: when there was no glass. So there's a way of
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: contaminating someone's information, someone's memory by kind of using words
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: that kind of elaborate on what it could have occurred,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: or they exaggerate what has happened and asking if something
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: was seen by prompting them. So instead of saying what
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: did you see, they say was their smashed glass on
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: the floor. They're saying smashed glass cars smashing into each other.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: So you're going to think, yeah, they must have been.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: And you're retrieving a memory of seeing smashed glass at
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: a car crash somewhere in your life, and then you're
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: placing it into this memory, okay, and you are swearing
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: that for sure, that's what you saw when you just
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: saw it. Not that long ago, they did another study.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: There's this woman, she's got a fantastic TED talk on
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: false memories. Her name is Elizabeth Loftus if you want
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: to look it up, and she spoke about how they
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: were manipulating memories of soldiers that they were training for
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: if they ever became a prisoner of war. So how
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: they trained them up where they put them under like
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: really intense conditions where they're torturing them and whatever. And
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: when the conditions are so intense, they found that people's
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: memory became quite warped and they were unable to retrieve
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: information perfectly. There were certain things that of course they remembered,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: as in what was done to them this and that,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: but when it came to the eyewitness account of identifying
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: who did the treatment on them. Keep in mind, this
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: is an experiment. They still but with soldiers, they still
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: put them under really awful conditions to prep them for
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: these things. When they asked them to recall who was
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: doing the torturing, they did like a lineup of people,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and in most of the cases they identified somebody that
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: doesn't look remotely close to the guy that was actually
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: doing the torturing or putting them under these crazy conditions.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: So it just shows you that a lot of the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: time an eyewitness account is not always accurate because there
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: might be all these other factors that have come into
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: play to contaminate that person's memory. It could be an
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: intense emotional thing. You could be seeing another face. It
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: could be someone talking about what the criminal could have
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: looked like. There could be so many things that come
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: into play. Or you might get a piece of information
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: that my biased you to choose a certain person in
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: a witness lineup that maybe you wouldn't have had that
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: bias had you not had that piece of information. So
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: if you've watched like Making a Murderer and things like that,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: and you listen to the police interrogation, it is so
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: inappropriate how they interrogate this teenage kid, based with how
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: they implant information. They literally feed this guy a story.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: They keep him for hours in this interrogation room, and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: then the dude starts recalling information that never actually happened,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: in stuff that he'd never actually ever seen before, and
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: then after having some moments to chill out, he's like,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, while that never happened. I don't think
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: I ever saw that. So it's really easy to manipulate
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: someone's memory. It's quite terrifying. Okay, now let's talk about
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: how to improve your memory, how to store memories better.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: So there's a few ways of doing it. One of
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: them is we all know it. It's acronyms, okay, like CPR,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: doctor ABC doing all of that stuff. Also bomb das
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: where you're doing a mathematical equation. Sometimes you might know
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: words that you think are words better acronyms, like, for example,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: there's some like obvious ones like simcard but that means
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: subscriber identification module, or like SCUBA from scuba diving. I
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: didn't know that it meant self contained underwater breathing apparatus.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: The fuck I had no idea. And there was another
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: one that I found recently just trying to remember it. Oh,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: base jumping. I didn't know that base. Jumping base stood
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: for building, antenna span or earth. So there's a fucking
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: fun fact for you if you didn't know that, because
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that, and I thought that was really interesting.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: So obviously an acronym is a really good way of remembering,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: like a bunch of words put together, so you can
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: remember concepts, themes, ideas. Then you've got repetition. It's very good,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: but it's very time consuming when you are repeating something.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: So this comes down to studying when you're trying to,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: like rote learn something. When it comes down to repetition,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: ideally you want to you want to add as much
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: meaning to it as possible or turn it into a story.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: So for example, somebody was just talking to me about
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: a neurotransmitter. I'm like, okay, I'm trying to remember what
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: it doesn't. But if you then say when you take MDMA,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: this does this, if you turn it into a story,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: for me personally, I'm way more likely to retain that
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: information because it's a very not only a story that
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: follows a curve, but it's a very interesting story as well,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: So I'm way more likely to be emotionally invested in
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: it and then be able to recall it when you're, however,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: back to repetition, when you're trying to repeat something and repeat, repeat, repeat,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: so you learn it. You've got to leave gaps in
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: between that repetition. If you're repeating it again and again
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: and again again, you're still working within that timeframe of
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the working memory. You're not leaving a gap, a rest
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: in between for you to then revisit it. Okay, so
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: you need to live a gap in between. But you
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: also can't make that gap too big. So when you
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: look at these language apps, for example, not spawn, but
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: I use Duo Lingo and I fucking love it. You
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: leave it day in between. You're not leaving too long
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: because then you forget a lot of things. But if
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: you leave a day in between, you get better and
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: better and better, because a day is enough for you
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: to kind of forget a few things. But when you
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: return to it, it triggers that memory. You're like, oh, yep, okay,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and it starts getting locked into your memory the more
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: you use it. Flash Cards are also a really really
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: good way of retaining information, ideally unless it's way too intricate,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: or it's two time consuming, or the information you're trying
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: to put on the flash card whatever. Ideally you want
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: to make your own flash cards. Okay. The reason for
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: this is that you're going to write it in words
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: that are more understandable to you. You're going to write
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: it in a way that triggers your own memory much quicker.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: It's your words. And also by creating the flash cards
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: you're working on, you're adding visual movement. You're writing that,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: You're using a whole lot more different processes within your
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: brain to create the flash card and put the information down.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: So then when you go and retrieve it, it's a
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: lot easy you remember even making that flash card, so
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: there's a lot more involved in your memory when you
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: do that. So if you're like a science or math
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: kid or whatever, flash cards are very very very or
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: a med student flash cards are very useful for that.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Then we've got something called chunking. Chunking is phenomenal for
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: remembering things. You want to break information down into manageable pieces.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: So when I was in France, I noticed that they
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: would break up your phone number into five two digit
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: numbers and they would say like sixty eight, forty two,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: seventy two whatever, you know, so, and it would be
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: like that instead of being like one digit at a time,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: one five, three five one, you know that kind of thing.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: So I found that it was a lot easier to
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: remember my own phone number in France when I got
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: a phone number. Then it was to remember my phone
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: number when I first got my phone number in Australia.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I was to say to you, remember the number one
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: nine seven two instead of saying nineteen seventy two. You're
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: going to remember the chunking a lot easier. Or even
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: if I say, like, remember this, remember this three six
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: five four to one instead of saying three hundred and
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: sixty five four hundred and twenty one, you're only remembering
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: two numbers versus six numbers because you've chunked them together, Okay,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: So that you want to start using that as much
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: as possible, especially when it comes for numbers, and even
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: even you can try and like chunk names together by
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: turning it into a little bit of a song where
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: you do three names in one and then another three
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: names in one. Things like that. You also, if you're
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: trying to strengthen your memory, try to make it about
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: recalling and not feeling in the gaps, okay, because that's
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: where the real work. Is in recall, not multiple choice.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: So if you're making yourself flash cards, don't make the
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: multiple choice, make it recall, like what is the blah?
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: What is this? What is that? You know? That's the
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: best way of doing it. Then, of course it's super
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: important to sleep. Never, never, never do an all nighter
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: before an exam. It is so futile and fruitless and
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: pointless and ridiculous, and it's just a waste of your
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: time and you've done yourself no service at all. It's
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: a disservice. Okay. Reason being, you've crammed, Like I said,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: you've not left enough gaps between the pieces of information
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: that you're trying to consolidate, so a lot of it
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: will stay in your working memory, but then not consolidate
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: into long term. Sleep is one of the best ways
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: to consolidate memory as well. And you're fatigued, so it's
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: just a stupid idea. Don't do it to yourself. You're
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: better off studying for half of it and sleeping for
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the other half. One hundred percent, hands down. Okay, So
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: sleep is one of the best ways to prove your memory.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Then you also they found that cardioaerobic exercise is one
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: of the best ways to increasing for a long period
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: of time, increasing blood flow to the hippo campus. The
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: more oxygen and blood flow you get to the hippa campus,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the more likely you are to increase the memory. Your
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: hip a campus starts to shrink one to two percent
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: once you reach kind of I think it's in your thirties.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: It starts to strength one to two percent a year
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: if you're not doing certain things to keep it, like
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: to keep blood flow to it, to keep activating it,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: keep growing at all of that stuff. So that's why
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: you get a lot of memory decline in old age,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: except for the people that have a really good cognitive reserve,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: which I've spoken about before. I won't go into, but
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: that's this idea of like you're working at working at
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: your putting effort, conscious effort towards your memory. Okay, then
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: of course saunas listen to my sauna episode huge. Then
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: doing things to reduce your stress, listen to my stress
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: episode massive. Because cortisol has a really chronic levels of
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: cortisol will affect your memory in a really bad way.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Acute levels of cortisol, like acute stress, will actually help
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: improve your memory in that moment So if someone's like, fuck,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: you've got to quickly remember this number plate, You've got
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: to do your stress, you're heightened, you're probably going to
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: remember the number plate. You'll be like driving an into
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: your memory, repeating it. Your heightened alertness, you're gonna remember, okay.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Versus if you're really really highly stressed and someone's like, hey,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: can you just remember this number for me, and then
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: returns can you and you're like, I don't fucking remember it.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: I've got too much on my mind. Okay. So there's
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: the difference between acute stress where it's going to help you,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: and then chronic stress where it's absolutely not going to
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: help you. But I've got a whole podcast on that.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Go listen to my stress podcast. Then snacking on things
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: that have high levels of flavonoids. So berries are a
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: good example. Flavonoids are great for neuroprotective purposes. There's a
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: lot of nootropics out there that have flavonoids in them.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Go drink them or eat them. Then conversations in person
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: with people. Socializing is phenomenal for your memory, where you're
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: having deep conversations about where you're either debating things or
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: where you're recalling information or telling stories. Telling stories is
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: a great way to improve your memory all of these things.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Of course, those memory apps are great where you're using
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: your working memory to work through a fucking maze and
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: to pull information into here and there where you know
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: the ones where there's one that my sister uses. I
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: really need to remember. It's hectic and there's it lets
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: off all these little trains and you've got to put
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the train into the right house. The brown train goes
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: into the brown house, but they start intersecting and you've
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: got to close off parts otherwise the train goes down.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: That's a great way to practice and use your working
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: memory because you're literally trying to remember that brown train
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: is still on its track while this white train's got
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: to go through the red train. Phenomenal. Okay, then you
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: also want to, of course train your memory with practice.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: This is going to increase your neural activity, and that's
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: going to be things like learning a language, learning an instrument,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: learning a motor skill. That kind of stuff is also
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: great for your overall memory as well. Okay, so guys,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: I really hope that this episode was quite interesting. I
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: find memory fascinating and I honestly love this topic so
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: much I could listen to documentaries about memory. So I
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: highly recommend you, guys, got go watch that Netflix series
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: about people that are memory athletes, the Memory Champions. It's
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: so interesting because a lot of these people that do
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: it are just to your everyday person, just like me,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: probably you, unless you're a memory athlete yourself, that just
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: had the normal capacity to remember a couple of numbers
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and that was it. And they then turn into these
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: like crazy like it's like a computer where they retain
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: so many numbers in one go. It's incredible. Okay, so
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: go check that out as well. Guys, Thank you so
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Hopefully you guys start making your
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: own little flash cards, you start doing stuff for your
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: own memory, because guys, memory makes up a part of
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: who you are. It is you without your memories, you
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: are lost. This is why losing your memory can be
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: one of the hardest things to go through, because you
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: have this detachment to who you are, your identity and
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: your own history that makes you you. Okay, So even
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: suffering short term memory loss from like a concussion or
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: head TRAUMAUP whatever, that's quite stressful as it is, and
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: that the more stress you have the harder it is
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to retrieve your memories. Explain how that works in my
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: stress episode. And then when you look at people who
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: suffer from a Neuer degenerative disease where memory loss is
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: one of the key symptoms, like Alzheimer's disease, you're going
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: to see that these people also that it's very comorbid
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: with severe, severe depression because they have a loss of
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: sense of self. They can't place themselves and understand who
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: they are and how they can relate to other people
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: and who that other person is and the memories that
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: you share together. Okay, so do everything you can to
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: strengthen your memory. Memories and your ability to work on
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: your working memory is going to increase your quality and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: enjoyment of life in the short term but also in
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: the long term. Guys. That is the wrap up for
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: today's episode. I just want to say shout out to
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: my listeners in South Africa. We've got people in Johannesburg,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, all these so many cities. It's amazing,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: amazing bloam fon time. Can someone please teach me how
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: to pronounce that? But love you so much. People from
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Blome fon time. I feel awful because I'm probably butchering
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: that beautiful name. Ah, but thank you guys so much
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: for tuning in listening today. Love you all around the world.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: My bed, it's my global beans. Remember as always, be
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: kind to yourselves, be kind to your brains, keep practicing
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: on your memory. Don't take shit from anyone, and especially
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: don't take shit from yourself. Don co listener