Memory exercises to help with MILD

**dodobird** · 10-17-2007 09:05 PM

LaBerge talks about a part of your memory which is essential to succeed at MILD.
it is a process that works in the background, and alerts you when conditions that you are waiting for are met.
For example, say you want to watch a TV show, which plays at a certain time. Now you don't have to write it down, but remember to watch the show when the right time comes, and whenever you see a clock, you check if the time of the show has come. In other words, it is constantly on the back of your mind.
LaBerge suggests this practice to train this process: Each day you have to remember to do a reality check each time a few events happen. For example, on Wednesday you are supposed to do an RC, when you see a red car, when you see a vegetable, when you handle money, and when turn on a TV or radio.
Similarly each day of the week you have 4 events to watch.

My problem is that I find this exercise very difficult. I just don't remember to do the RC when the events occur. It shows me that this part of the memory, which is so important for success in MILD is really poor with me. I think I need an intermediate exercise, something that I can train to reach a stage where I can have at least preliminary success at the exercise I described.

Does anyone have an idea for such intermediate exercise to train this part of the memory?

Also, I does anyone know what is the scientific term for this type of memory?

**Sir Mark** · 10-17-2007 09:29 PM

Prospective memory may be defined as remembering to remember (Winograd, 1988) or remembering to perform an intended action. One difference between prospective and retrospective memory is that instead of recalling past actions, events, or knowledge, prospective memory is self-initiated and does not operate directly on external stimuli.
This is the term LeBerge uses in his book, I believe. I have also had difficulty training myself in this way, but I am aware of how important it is as I have continually encountered my dreamsigns and forgotten to do RC's.
A method that I think I am going to try is to start by using one action to trigger another. Example: we write a shopping list in order to remember what to buy in the store. The list itself is a mnemonic tool for organizing our grocery shopping. Maybe if we are able to start with one recurring item, we can "practice" prospective memory? For instance, at some point during the day I take a ping pong ball and put it in my underwear drawer. I know that it's there. The next time I get ready to go into the drawer I remind myself of it's location and lo and behold, there it is. I then take it and put it in the cabinet where my coffee cups are. The next morning prior to opening the cupboard I remind myself it's there, and lo and behold there it is. By repeating this process, I think one gets "trained" to remember. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my idea.

**dodobird** · 10-17-2007 09:45 PM

Thank you Sir Mark! I missed the term Prospective Memory. Now I have something to research with. I will post here further ideas I might come by.

**dodobird** · 10-17-2007 10:33 PM

Most articles about prospective memory suggest using cues and links, which may not be useful for us. For example they may suggest that we link taking a pill with something else that happens at the time you are supposed to take it, such as reading the morning news-paper.

But I did find sources with interesting suggestions:

From http://www.ld4all.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=396183
How can I train my prospective memory?

You can train your prospective memory during the day. There is a simple exercise for this.

* Think about something you are going to do in the future at least 10 minutes away from now, for example eating an apple
* Say to yourself you will remember there was something special (this exercise) when you are eating the apple.
* Try not to think about it anymore
* While eating the apple you remember there was something special (this exercise)

If you remember there was something special the memory exercise succeeded. Don’t worry if you don’t succeed the first times, it’s quite normal. Your prospective memory will become better, just keep practicing. It would be the best to do this exercise multiple times a day with different things. After a while you’ll see that you’ll remember more often that there was something special than you did in the beginning. This means the prospective memory training was successful, since you’ve improved your prospective memory.

Instead of remember that there was something special, you could do a Reality Check. So you will say to yourself that you will do a RC when you are eating an apple. In this way you are also doing RC’s which is helpful to get Lucid Dreams too.

From http://www.braingle.com/mind/292.html
Another way is visualize the intended action in a place where you will not forget it. For example, visualize your car turning into a giant mailbox. The next time you see your car, you will be reminded to mail your letters.