Intelligent Memory

Source: AARP.org | July 6, 2004

Intelligent Memory is a term I coined to emphasize that what we use to think and be creative is memory. This memory not only helps us navigate the complexities of daily life, but also is the driving force behind creativity and genius. Better yet, this intelligence and creativity is not fixed at birth, but a skill that we can learn, hone, and improve with age no matter how old or absent-minded we might be.

Intelligent Memory is a special kind of memory. It's different from the memory that remembers where we put the car keys, our next appointment, or even what we were going to the refrigerator for. The memory for these kinds of specifics is what people ordinarily think of as memory. But this memory is only just a small fraction of our memory abilities. Remembering specifics is hard, and gets harder for most people with age. But Intelligent Memory resists aging, and is resistant to brain diseases such as head injury, stroke, and even Alzheimer's disease.

Your personal experiences may have suggested the idea that you have more than one kind of memory. You probably know people who seem to remember every fact important for game shows, but aren't exceptionally smart. And, you surely know some people who are quick-witted, intuitive, creative, and wise, and that those qualities have nothing to do with whether they remember where they parked. The difference is between having a good Intelligent Memory and a good memory for specifics.

Intelligent Memory is made up of connections between other memories, whether they are thoughts, images, experiences, skills, or pieces of knowledge. These connections might be an inspired solution to a problem, a creative idea, or a brilliant insight. When our brains make the right connection, we experience the result as a "Eureka!" moment.

Most elements of thought, and most mental skills, are not innate; they must be learned. When you walk, you don't think about every irregularity in the pavement, or every step you take. Those perceptions, decisions, and actions are handled automatically and unconsciously by your mind. Of course, it did not always perform such mental tasks. You had to learn them as an infant and practice them for many years. That's why they work so smoothly.

Higher skills happen the same way, and can be sharpened the same way. Links between thoughts produce thinking. Sometimes the thinking seems so ordinary, and happens so fast, that you don't consider it part of intelligence. Being hungry, passing a candy machine, and stopping to put in a coin, for example, hardly seems like Nobel Prize-winning cognition. But even this action requires neural activity to make connections between what we feel (hunger), what we see (the candy machine), and how one relates to the other (candy will satisfy hunger and putting money in the machine will get the candy). Solving harder, more complex problems works on exactly the same principles. It just requires more and better connections. The mental process of making connections is the same whether you are buying a candy bar or sculpting a work of art. And what powers these connections is your Intelligent Memory.

You can improve your Intelligent Memory in three ways: Adding individual thoughts or skills; adding connections; and improving the ways your mind searches through connections and checks the results. Of course, you've already been doing all of these. But you can probably do at least some of them more efficiently, just the same way a skilled fitness trainer can show you how to get more benefits from the exercises you've been doing already. Intelligent Memory shows you how well the different parts of your mind are working now, what parts need to be improved, and what you can do to start exercising these parts more effectively.