I noticed a few years ago that when I’m trying to remember a name or number or URL, I definitely have a minds eye picture of a rolodex which fits in with the few seconds it takes for the number or whatever to turn up.
I also just noticed that not only do I turn my eyes to the right, but I incline my head to the right as well. That’s not surprising. there’s the whole left-brain versus right-brain thing to consider.
| Left Brain | Right Brain |
| Logical | Random |
| Sequential | Intuitive |
| Rational | Holistic |
| Analytical | Synthesizing |
| Objective | Subjective |
| Looks at parts | Looks at wholes |
Hang on. That doesn’t make sense. I think my brain might be broken. Surely remembering numbers is more ‘logical’ than ‘random’? I hope it’s not serious.
I am a little more concerned about the apparent latency. It’s almost like my internal command prompt is blocked on
Weird….
Don’t forget, your left-brain controls your right hand side of the body. The world makes sense again!
No…I’m even more confused by that
Of course, remembering numbers might be looked on as ‘looking at the whole’, whatever that means 😉
The way I remember things has been changing, probably as a consequesnce of my 5-years teaching in Japan. I now seem to use a mix of visual, aural, and kinesthetic memories in memory tasks.
Wierd stuff I’ve found I can do (if I’m not dog tired):
* Put up a cyberpunk-esque visual overlay in my peripheral vision when I’m doing a task that requires things to be ticked off a checklist.
* Remember word-lists easily IF they have images illustrating the words – as I can see the picture easily.
* Remembering phone numbers is a funny one – I can do it both aurally and through remembering the sequence of numbers I’ve punched into the phone. The physical memory (muscle memory) seems faster – but that might be because it gets used more often. I use my visual memory much less often as I don’t get to see phone numbers written out as often these days.
Of course, this may be old hat to most people – but it’s pretty new to me.
A billion years ago, I had this wonderful graphic that showed how people moved their eyes to do different things. It was an absolutely brilliant and true piece of work. I lost it and haven’t found it anywhere since.
I’m glad to see Eamon mention physical memory. I sometimes have to rely on that for phone numbers instead of calling up the digits in my head!
The ‘wonderful graphic’ sounds interesting Mike. If you could provide a bit of a description of it I’d love to exercise my Google-Fu and see what comes up…