September 8, 2002
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MEMENTO, THE SEQUEL
I rediscovered recently that my short-term memory is shockingly low. Sometimes I feel like I’m filming a remake of Memento. People will walk up to me and greet me like a friend, and I’ll have no recollection of ever meeting them.
These situations are complicated by the fact that I have an identical twin: perhaps I never actually met the person, and they just know my brother? That used to happen so often when I was younger that no matter who greeted me, I’d pretend to know them. Actually, I still do that.
Here’s my problem: suppose you read off six random numbers, like this: 7-1-8-3-9-2… then ask me to repeat them back to you. I might have a small chance, if I can repeat them while they are still echoing in my inner ear.
But if you ask me to repeat those numbers to you backwards, I am totally screwed. That’s because my short-term memory is so bad: as I’m saying the last number “two”, my mind is emptying itself of all five other numbers in the list. It’s like my RAM is one byte… what’s up with that?!
I’ve learned how to use mneumonic devices and the like in the past, so my long-term memory is OK. Now it’s time to do something about my pathetic short-term memory. Any ideas? Umm… Ginkgo? Flashcards?
Comments (21)
Sounds like you need more RAM.
LOL @ moniet!
maybe it has to do with your personality type –I have the same problem–the only solution is to write everything down when it comes to numbers
LOL at moniet. I like to decorate myself with handicaps like that
same here… more RAM helps… but don’t stick it in your eye… it’s not video RAM you’re after (and it hurts…)
I’d offer brilliant advice, but I forgot the question.
Have the same problem, but there’s not much you can do about it. It’s a matter of not being able to process sequential matter as well as most people do. Generally seems to go along with poor facial recognition.
I’m facing something similar now. For example at work I meet all these people, and when they call back for any reason, I have no clue who they are, but I match their level of excitement when they talk to me, so I’m sure I’m not pretending I know them too much or too little. Maybe it’s because I have very bad memory for names, they come very difficult to me, but faces are always imprinted in my mind. It’s hard to match a name to a face.
how ’bout abunch of tattoos?????
I know this one girl who is of above-average but not stinking haughty intelligence who nevertheless performs like an idiot-savant with regard to her recall of numbers. Rattle off a list of numbers, phone numbers, serial numbers on dollar bills, whatever, and she can repeat the sequence flawlessly. She explains her adeptness thusly: When she was a very, very young girl, with every day constituting a newly-lived life on the horizon of discovery, she received a gift of a xylophone where the keys were different colors and they were consecutively numbered. So for instance, red was “1″ and a certain key, say C, and green was “2″ and another key, say D, etc. Somehow, in her mind, in the course of play, the assigned numbers became fused with the notes–inseparably. So now whenever she sees or hears a number, she also effortlessly “hears” the correlate tune within. It is the tune assigned to the number that constitutes her savant recall. Ask her to remember a phone number, she whistles the tune, then decodes it back into the appropriate digits. If this is commonplace, then I’m the idiot, because I think this is quite remarkable!
Memory by association works well. I use it for some things, but most times If I write it down, it is also written in my mind….. even if I no longer have my notes to refer to. . . . .
i’ve got that problem too, only my memory problems are so severe that i dropped out of college because there was no point paying tuition and attending classes that i’d never remember. for short term memory, a couple ginko biloba tablets a day seem to help. good luck.
1-3-9-2-8-7…
Can’t help ya.
You should be able to hold seven numbers though.
Pretty sure that’s why our phone #’s are the way they is.
Shit i remember when phone numbers were more like ”dia-8324″ Maybe we could only remember one name and four numbers back then.
Shit I’m not sposed ta be here. My short term sucks.
Argh! I love that movie, and last night when we rented it (again), it was BROKEN!! Grrrrrr…
Memento was the coolest movie!! Maybe you should tatoo yourself and take many polaroids…
I’m a geek in the medical field, and recommend a neurologist.
Eep, I didn’t finish that.
I have a similar problem, but it REALLY interferes with my daily life. If I park in a parking lot, go into a store and come back out, I am completely incapable of knowing how I got in. I need help getting to an exit, or if I’m alone, I just drive until I find a way out.
Then, I have no idea which direction I came from, or where I should be going. I just drive until something clicks.
I’ve grown very accustomed to carrying pen and paper.
Maybe you have a learning disability… how do you remember your email?!
Agh, you don’t need more ram… you need a faster processer 
John, I agree with Sadzi, that you should see a neurologist. In 1995, I began having similiar problems, along with some other symptoms. It turned out I have both epilepsy and a benign tumor in my brain, and with medication, my situation is soooo much better. Hopefully, your problems are not so severe, but you never know how they could be relieved by medical intervention.
Ginkoba can cause rash and unexplainable anger, which in turn leads to vast consumption of St. Johns Wort, which in turn will lead to an odd craving for sunflower seeds and Yerba Mate’.
Get more sleep. It’s the only way.
It’s “mnemonic” not “mneumonic.” To remember numbers, just visualize yourself punching them into a touch-tone phone pad and you will remember the visually, the “path” your hand took. And if that still does not work, make up the most stupid mnemonic verse you can, the more stupid and nonsensical, the more likely you are to remember it. PS-still waiting for response to emails sent on movie recommendations and depression.