Recalling Memories Through Your Sight

Do you have a photographic memory? It doesn’t necessarily mean that you remember everything you see; it just means that you, like many others, remember things better through visual images. This is why companies advertise on television, bulletin boards, magazines, etc. People are more likely to remember something that they’ve seen than something by any other means.

Even if you have a verbal cue to help you recall something, many people tend to conjure up visual images to help that idea resonate. For example, if someone told you to think of an abstract concept such as love, you might get a mental picture of your childhood pet, your sibling, a parent, or your spouse. This is because these are things that you associate with this particular feeling.

It is said that visual memories are the easiest to remember because they typically have other cues to go along with them—an audio cue like a song or a voice, or a verbal cue to help you bring them to mind. For example, maybe you’re remembering your favorite restaurant, and you picture the “best seat in the house” along with the taste of your favorite meal there and the taste of the chardonnay you drink when you visit. Perhaps even an emotional feeling comes about when you remember going there with a loved one. The more memory “cues” you have with a particular moment in your life, the more likely you are to be able to recall it in the future.

So if you want to remember something better, connect it to an image. Use flash cards with pictures on them or with the word(s) written out. Find a way to see it over and over again so you get it into your memory.