This week Better, with the support of Science it’s about memory.
Have you ever noticed that you remember the plot of a movie you watched years ago, but struggle to remember a list of facts you read yesterday?
Maybe you remember exactly where you were when someone broke important news to you. You may remember a story a friend shared over dinner years ago. Yet remembering someone’s phone number can feel like holding water in your hand.
There is actually a fascinating reason for this.
Stories seem to give the brain something it likes.
Instead of employing just one system (which happens when you hear a fact), stories recruit several at once. They can trigger emotions, create mental images, activate memory, generate curiosity, and help predict what will happen next.
They connect information with meaning—and our brains tend to remember meaningful things better than isolated facts.
Because the facts can inform us. However, stories can bring information into us.
Imagine someone saying to you:
“The hippocampus helps form memories.”
Interesting. If you try to remember this as a fact, you can forget it entirely… unless you have a special motivation to understand the brain.
But now imagine this:
“Think of the hippocampus as a tiny librarian in your brain—and it’s a cute little hippopotamus. It’s hastily collecting today’s experiences and deciding where to put them on the shelves so you can find them later.”
Information has a sudden shape. It has movement. You can imagine.
In fact, it is the basis of many memory systems (eg, memory palaces) that allow people to remember vast amounts of information.
In fact, when I was studying for my university baccalaureate in 1992, I was fascinated by these techniques and practiced one almost daily. At one point, I was able to memorize the sequence of a shuffled deck in less than two minutes, and even a 100-digit number in about the same amount of time.
Interestingly, I never used the system to memorize chemistry facts (my first degree). But the exercise itself seemed to sharpen my general memory, recall, and clarity of thought.
You’ve probably noticed something like this in your own life.
Think back to school. Many of us found it difficult to remember lists of dates or disjointed information. Yet tell us the story behind the event—the people involved, the drama, the challenge, the unexpected twist—and suddenly it’s easier to remember.
This is because stories do not simply convey information.
They organize it.
And maybe that counts more than memory.
Because we also understand ourselves through stories.
We are the protagonists of the story we tell ourselves about our past and the story we tell ourselves about who we are.
But also the story we tell ourselves about what is possible. We are forever running stories in our heads about what to expect.
So here’s a thought to consider: since stories are so powerful, how about telling ourselves a different story about what’s possible?
Try this
Let’s take one thing we’d like to remember today and turn it into a little story.
Maybe someone’s name.
Maybe it’s something you’re learning.
Maybe this is an idea you want to stick with.
Add a person. Add image. Add location. Be a little unusual if you can.
The brain seems to like memorable images.
Mine?
I imagine a tiny hippopotamus librarian racing around in my head carrying books with memories. And the library is at a university. THE hippopotamus there is the university. Hippocampus.
And somehow I suspect I’ll remember that for a while.
References
Jerome Bruner. Narrative construction of reality. Link.
Or “Memory and Emotion” by James L. McGaugh. Link.
