Many people have experienced the frustration of forgetting things, sometimes struggling to recall memories no matter how hard they try. Now, a study has found that engaging in a form of psychological “time travel” to revisit the environment in which memories were formed can help in recovering forgotten memories, bringing back things that were once lost.
According to a report by Live Science, researchers at the University of Regensburg in Germany discovered that by recalling the emotions and thoughts they had when initially storing memories, people can recover fading memories, with the refreshed memories being almost as easily retrievable as newly formed ones.
This study focused on memory of learning information rather than events. When we learn new knowledge, memories fluctuate on a forgetting curve, similar to a giant rock placed on a mountain. As the stone rolls down the slope, we lose some details of memory; but when it nears the bottom of the slope where the decline is gentler, the rate of forgetting slows down.
In this study, psychology professor Karl-Heinz Bäuml and his research team recruited over 1,200 volunteers from the University and split them into two groups. One group learned a short passage, while the other learned an unrelated list of nouns. Then, the volunteers were divided into four subgroups and asked to recall what they learned in different ways.
One group served as a control, tasked with recalling the information multiple times in the following hour without any additional steps. The other three groups underwent memory tests 4 hours, 24 hours, and 7 days later.
During the tests, these three groups were instructed to engage in a form of psychological “time travel,” recalling their thoughts and feelings during the initial experiment or remembering parts of the information learned as clues to recollect the rest.
The control group also underwent retesting at later time points, using their recollections without the “time travel” as a comparison baseline.
The results showed that both forms of psychological “time travel” aided in recovering the volunteers’ memories. For example, volunteers who recalled the emotions linked to the memory storage recovered about 70% of the target memory after 4 hours, and 59% after 24 hours.
However, the effectiveness of psychological “time travel” weakened gradually after 7 days. Volunteers who recalled emotions did not recover any memories, while those who remembered some information only regained 31% of the target memory.
Bäuml noted that the level of memory recovery may vary due to unexplored factors in the study, but there is evidence suggesting that for better exam results, it is advisable to schedule short intervals for review.
He suggested spreading out the sessions of psychological “time travel” over time, not waiting until 7 days post-learning, but rather conducting them at 3 days, 6 days, and so on. This would “establish a recurring recovery cycle, maintaining memory overall at a higher level.”
The findings of this study were published on July 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If you feel your memory is lacking, you can try various methods to enhance it, including exercise, getting enough sleep, socializing with friends, managing stress, maintaining a sense of humor, and laughing more often.