# Short term memory issues



## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Am I the only student who has a short term memory when it comes to lectures and auditory memory?

For some reason, whatever professors say comes in one ear, comes out the other ear the next second, even if I try really hard to remember what they said. I have had to go through my entire university career recording every single lecture, otherwise I would not have remembered squat what the professors had said. I cannot process what they say on the spot, but I can only do it if they give me enough time (usually around two to three months per course).

I had started out my freshman year with a 100% failures all over the line - I had not passed a single course. Then, with my recorder all of a sudden I was able to process what has actually been said. Then, I was able to understand everything clearly and better: I could debate on it with others; I could actually grow in knowledge and application. That little recording device saved my entire educational career. Now I'm in my senior year and I consistently keep getting A's.

However, my problem could best be described with the trailer of this movie called 'Remember Sunday':






As you can see, the main character has a problem remembering things - he forgets them the next day.

Now, I only have that problem with lectures and specifically with trying to remember things that have been absorbed auditively. I almost instantly forget what people tell me. You see, this has brought big problems in my life: 
-people getting angry at me for having to repeat things over and over.
-at a summer job taking more than three weeks to recall doing a series of tasks for a stupidly simple job at the post office (unloading bags of a certain category at a certain hour). For some reason, I kept consistently forgetting what my boss told me 5 seconds ago. I can't help it.
No, I don't have aneurysms or anything like that - I am a perfectly healthy man.

The biggest question of all: why can I remember entire movie dialogs in painful detail? Why can I recall every scene, face and dialog with accurate precision? I don't understand. I can play an entire movie in my head! Is that my long term memory working? Do I only selectively remember things? I read in a scientific book (quoted by experienced neurologists) that that's exactly how the brain works: if it doesn't think something is important enough, it will not make the neural connections and allocate the space for you to remember it. Simply put: it will not be transferred and you won't remember anything.

If anyone knows the answers to this mystery then please, by all means enlighten me. I would be glad to hear it. Do you also have problems remembering what professors said in lectures - or auditive memory in general?


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## Almighty101 (Jun 28, 2015)

For me it sort of depends on who the professor is.

But you are right, in most cases it is in one ear, then out of other.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Yes, some professors manage to actually teach me something while others can babble for hours and I didn't get anything.


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## Chelsalina (Oct 15, 2014)

Same here I try my hardest to pay attention but I can never comprehend what my teachers are saying. My mother has short term memory loss so I got that from her >.<


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## normalsucksbutsodoesSA (Apr 2, 2015)

I used to have this problem. I know what caused this for me. I'm not going to say it because people here are really sensitive, but I fixed it. It wasn't just this one thing but a combination of things. It can be life habits, drug use, or lack of interest, or you might genetically inclined. You should try really hard to remember things and stop doing things that you know can harm your brain. Exercise and eating right will help but definitely aren't enough. Our brains are amazing and can improve substantially with proper and consistent training. Good luck


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

normalsucksbutsodoesSA said:


> I used to have this problem. I know what caused this for me. I'm not going to say it because people here are really sensitive, but I fixed it. It wasn't just this one thing but a combination of things. It can be life habits, drug use, or lack of interest, or you might genetically inclined. You should try really hard to remember things and stop doing things that you know can harm your brain. Exercise and eating right will help but definitely aren't enough. Our brains are amazing and can improve substantially with proper and consistent training. Good luck


Thanks man. I am not sure what you are referring to, but I would like to say I am 100% clean - I have never touched any form of drugs, cigarettes or any of that sort. My causes are probably: lack of interest, lack of background knowledge (this is the biggest problem), lack of understanding things at this speed. I know that genetically there is no problem since last summer I took an IQ test at my psychologist and it came out as 131. I have also noticed (like I mentioned in my post) that it really depends on the professor.

I wanted to reply to you because I think you gave a very important factor there: things that harm your brain/bad habits. I often game too much and I haven't used my calculative/intellectual brain to its full potential - in fact, it's been dormant other than just doing coursework. My intelligent friend claims I simply have the brain of the 'untrained brain muscle'. It's the same with any other muscle (conceptually): If you don't use it for a long time, it ends up parasiting in the background and therefore you need to re-activate it for it to become fully flexible and usable again.

I do have to admit I haven't exercised for 4 years ever since I started freshman year and I notice now that this was a big mistake. However, I have recently started going to the gym again and now I'm back on my full program, hoping to recover my health back to its full potential. I haven't been eating right at all and I realize now how badly I have been messing up.

So, I would like to thank you for your insight and your tips - they are very sensible. I will do my best to re-activate my intellectual prowess again.


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## Fredderika (Mar 27, 2014)

Anxiety sometimes makes it hard for me to retain what I hear, especially when someone is talking to me face to face. Sometimes when I'm reading my task sheet at work too. It's not usually a problem for me in class, maybe because I'm not really worried about whether I'll absorb the information- I take notes anyway. It looks to me like anxiety could be the cause of your memory problems too.
I can't help but wonder why you record rather than taking notes. I've always been told that the process of converting lectures into notes helps cement them into your memory. My profs usually have powerpoints though, which makes it a bit easier to do.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Yes, anxiety indeed. My best friend told me: "What happens when you try to think under severe stress and anxiety is that your body creates a rush of cortisol, which severely interferes with the logical component of your brain".

About taking notes: the professors just say way too much information and talk way too fast for me to be able to take notes. By the time I wrapped my thoughts around one concept they said, I lost track of the rest. It's a problem - especially with men, where the cortex is 'shorter' than with women. This means men have a really hard time multitasking and they are most comfortable doing one thing at a time. For example, I am fine listening to a concept, pause for an hour, think about it, write it down and think about it some more. However, I am not fine with someone waterfalling information all over the place without giving me a break to think about it. I think it would be best comparable to going to a Calculus II class and having everything shoved in your head while you have not the faintest clue what's being said (that happened to me before).


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## M0rbid (Jan 11, 2011)

^ that's the problem with the educational system. Some people can't comprehend that much info in short period of time. I hate those effin professors.


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## pillbody (Jan 22, 2015)

Yes, I get this issue too and it drives me crazy. It's like cupping your hands under the sweet, majestic waterfall of knowledge, attempting to cup the littlest bit into your hands with it always failing off your palms and between your sad, shaking fingers. If there is one thing I want is this world its a good memory and the ability to remember lectures.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Well said, pillbody. I like the analogy.


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## cat001 (Nov 1, 2010)

I've got a terrible short-term memory which is a result of my dyslexia. I had support at uni which was great. If i'm presented with too much information at once I end up remembering very very little of it, I'm only able to focus on one piece of information at a time. Even in my driving lessons, if i'm given more than one instruction at a time my brain over-loads and I temporarily forget how to drive, very annoying. 

I also have great difficulty remembering faces which is a huge disadvantage working in retail when I need to go to the warehouse to fetch something for a customer and immediately forget who I was talking to.

I found at uni writing plenty of notes and using a dictaphone helped with assimilating the information as you're creating multiple pathways in the brain to the same piece of information, making it easier to retrieve that information later on.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

cat001 said:


> I found at uni writing plenty of notes and using a dictaphone helped with assimilating the information as you're creating multiple pathways in the brain to the same piece of information, making it easier to retrieve that information later on.


 That's how I got through my education too.


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