How do we commit to memory what really matters? The secret, say experts at the Association for Psychological Science in the US, is to have a moment of quiet.
In the Association's journal, Psychological Science, psychological scientist Michaela Dewar and her colleagues show that memory can be boosted by taking a brief wakeful rest after learning something verbally new.
'Our findings support the view that the formation of new memories is not completed within seconds,' explains Dewar.
'Our work demonstrates that activities that we are engaged in for the first few minutes after learning new information really affect how well we remember this information after a week.'
The study involved two experiments with 33 participants between ages 61 and 87.
The participants were told two short stories and told to remember as many details as possible.