Improving Your Memory: How to Remember What You're Starting to Forget

Book Synopsis: “The finest handbook we’ve seen on the subject.” —AARP Magazine

Appliances and car lights turn themselves off. Smartphones and laptops remind us of appointments. Google lets us search for information we can’t remember. Yet with all these advances, we still grow frustrated and anxious when words won’t come, when we misplace items, or when we forget the name of the person in front of us.

Now, University of Michigan social workers Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern have completely updated their friendly, practical guide to memory improvement techniques, many of which can provide immediate results. Recognizing that people worry something is wrong with them when they forget things, they suggest that the antidote to worry is taking positive action to help us remember what we want to remember. They provide tools for understanding and improving memory, including sixteen helpful exercises. Simple techniques like writing information down, creating a catch word or phrase, altering something in your environment, and reviewing details in advance can put you actively in charge of retrieving information more easily.

As in previous editions, Improving Your Memory reinforces memory techniques through real-life examples. This accessible handbook also discusses how memory works; how it changes with age, stress, illness, and depression, and why people remember what they do.

“One of the most complete memory training guides available. This volume has clearly emerged from considerable practical experience with conducting memory courses.” —Contemporary Gerontology