Memory Working in Strange Ways

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My memory is weird... I always memorize little details that I don't need to know, like phone numbers and random quotes/signs/etc., but if there is something that I need to study, my mind cannot process it as a whole in one sitting. It takes in chunks of information, and then the next day I need to review the information again to fill in these empty spaces. When at school, we study a unit in many parts cumulatively, I have to review every day when I come home from school because I cannot listen in class. However, again, my mind cannot process everything right away. At the end of the unit, to put it all together, I have to spend at least 4 hours of serious, concentrated studying to help me get the big picture and to be able to apply the concepts learned earlier on to things we have learned later. Again, this is often not sufficient enough, and the next day I have to also spend some time reviewing.
It drives me crazy. People with good short-term memories can study at the last minute for a short period of time and ace their tests the next day. I also have the tendency to focus on one thing over the other, so I often end up studying too much for one subject and not as much for another.
It's not just the fact that my short-term memory lacks, but my long-term memory is very odd as well.
Anyone else like this?

Last edited by MathGirl on 28 May 2009, 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hello MathGirl!

You seem like an interesting person. I've read your blog profile at LiveJournal.com. We have a lot in common. I usually score as an INFJ on those MBPTs, but I have scored INTJ many times.

I can relate with your strange memory problem. I have a good recall of signs, faces, numbers, dates, words, etc., as well as events from deep in my past. I often surprise my family with my unusual memory. Although I surprise them, I also often piss them off because of my tendency to forget to pick up my brother from baseball practice, or my tendency to forget to tell my mom someone important called for her, or even my tendency to forget my doctors' appointments. I have to study in a similar manner. I usually try to pay attention in class as much as I could, however, due to my aphasia it is difficult to follow along with complex lectures when they are being spoken. I learn better when reading the material. So most of the time I have to study very thoroughly for the material to be properly encoded in my memory, and ready to be applied to the exams I take.

Please take the time to view my website by using the link below. I think we would make good online friends.

Right now this is whats happening im reading and seem to be taking in nothing but when I review in my mind or barely skim the page I know alot of what happened this has just been going on this past week. Anyone else feel this way.

Why did so many of you look through this thread yet didn't reply?

Do none of you relate? Or is it the way I've written the opening post?

Please tell me what's wrong with my thread.

I'm very forgetful, forgetting to do all sorts of things quite often.

Like the shower here drips fairly easily, and just needs a slight turning. During a visit to the bathroom for whatever reason, I'll hear it, and make a note to turn the handle before I leave. I forget to do it over half the time, and then forget to do it again later!

I've had a single dish sit in my room for months simply because I kept forgetting to bring it out.

When it comes to school and studying, this is something I don't really have to do. Usually lecture + homework and occasional references to my books are more than enough. I've found I'm bad at studying anyways, takes me forever to read.

I do surprise people with the things that I remember.

As someone who was about to click through this thread... all I thought when I read it was "yeah, that's a good description of that," and that didn't seem like enough to make a response out of.

For me, one upside of the weird-backwards-learning-memory thing is that once I really understand something it's permanently locked in my long-term memory. (The last-minute crammers seem to forget quickly.) It was/is frustrating though, since books and teaching are generally set up to go from large-scale-overview to details instead of the other way around. For a time in college I tried to adapt my learning pattern, but in the end I think that was counter-productive. It was also a lot of work 'translating' the lessons and book examples into 'my way' of learning such that I could keep up and get decent test scores, but at least it worked for me. In the end it all worked out, though, and as I get older my long-term recall does seem unusually good (i.e. it's good for subjects I've not used in 20 years).

So anyway, there's my contribution to increasing this thread's reply-to-read ratio.

hello mathgirl - this is the first time i read your OP and i agree with you and the first poster.
you could be describing my memory. I do retain facts easily if they interest me - so special interest area is fine...but other areas require more active memorising and i can be slower than others.
As for remembering mindless detail --- I note the frayed side of a shoelace on the foot of a person sitting opposite me and I will recall this bit of info at random times in my life, for no apparent reason.

My memory works in weird ways too, I can hardly remember what I did yesterday unless something bad happened. I can't remember the things I need to, or want to remember, even sometimes simple stuff like setting my alarm.

Does anyone else watch a video or read text and feel weird if they dont remember everything that happened?