Research has proved that when it comes to maintaining and strengthening your mental abilities, practice makes perfect. In one study, scientists recorded the number of words people could recall after listening to a lengthy list of random words. Before they received memory training, the older members of the study group were able to recall fewer words than the younger members. But after just a handful of memory training sessions, which included tips such as placing words in meaningful groups rather than trying to memorize them out of context, the older participants were able to triple their word recall. In another study involving children, memorization training revealed an improvement in cognitive abilities not related to the memorization training and a leap in IQ test scores of 8 percent, as reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
People with strong memories tend to have memory centers that communicate with the visual and spatial areas of the brain. While they may not have bigger memory centers than the next person, their brain communicates with itself more efficiently. That’s a result of how memory training works: you link what you’re trying to remember to a visual plan. For example, to remember a series of cards, you might imagine yourself walking through a palace and seeing one diamond chandelier in the entry with three club chairs arranged on a heart-shaped rug with four corners. When it comes time to remember the sequence, you “walk” through the room and come up with a 1 (ace) of diamonds, a 3 of clubs, and a 4 of hearts. Try it! You’ll soon find you have a much easier time remembering even complex information.