An Interview with Dr. Barry Gordon
Dr Barry Gordon, author of the new public television special, Improving Your Memory With Dr. Barry Gordon, recently shared his thoughts about memory with APT
Q: Dr. Gordon, your new public television special debuts this June across the nation. You also have two books, Intelligent Memory and Memory: Remembering and Forgetting in Everyday Life, available to the public.
What led you to concentrate in this particular field? Tell us a bit about your background and how you developed your own television special.
A: Well, I was always interested in how things work and always tinkering with things. My interests originally were in the physical sciences, in physics and math. But then I began getting very interested in memory — partly because I didn't think I had that great of a memory. Also, partly because I was wondering how I could remember certain things — why some things were so incredibly easy and some things were incredibly difficult. I had the benefit of a roommate in medical school who seemed to have a fabulous memory and made the rest of us very envious. So that helped me get interested in understanding how the brain worked.
The special actually came about because I had been doing lectures for the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, DC, for a couple of years. And some people from Maryland Public Television sat in on the last one, which was occasioned by my last book Intelligent Memory. They liked the material and suggested that we do something together. As in many of these situations, the actual TV program is the work of many people — Lisa Berger, my co-writer for Intelligent Memory, Jay Rogovin, Susan Gorn, Michael English from Maryland Public Televison, and Steven Schupak from MPT as well.
Q: In your books you offer fun exercises to help people improve their memories. Share with us a tip that people respond to the best.
A: I tell people not to worry about their memories. Its failings are natural problems. They're not even real failings because that's how memory actually works. Forgetting is built into our memories. If we were to remember too much, things would get jammed up. So that's one reason we forget – to clear things up. Also, our brains link memories together so we can find them better. This is one very critical way our memories work better than those of a computer. A lot of what we call forgetting or inaccurate memory actually is the way our memory works — it makes associations.
Memory mistakes are so natural that people shouldn't be flustered by them. They should do what actors and actresses do which is just to go on. And once you've accepted the possibility you'll make mistakes, you'll actually make fewer.
Q: What signs of improvement have you seen in patients who use your methods of improving memory? How long does it take before patients normally see results?
A: With someone with a memory in the normal range to begin with, memory can start improving right away. But you may not appreciate that it's happening that quickly, both because it takes a while to build up to peak strength, and because there's a lot of memories that can be improved. It's a lot like exercise. You know your muscles are getting stronger when you exercise them, but you've got 200-plus muscles, so just working on one doesn't tone up your entire body. Ultimately, however, you can get tremendous memory progress in any particular area. Some people have been able to improve some aspects of their memories 1000% or more.
Patients with memory problems pose difficult challenges — different from the kind that people with normal memory face. But the basic principles remain the same.
Q: Is there one particular reason either medically or genetically that people have trouble with their memories, or is it a combination of circumstances? If so, what are some of the findings you see as the reason for failed memory?
A: It's really a combination of circumstances. We probably do differ inherently, genetically, from person to person. Some people, for example, are musical geniuses and the rest of us are not. That's probably more inherent. On the other hand, there are a lot of things that we build up through experience that also differentiate us from other people. From a very early age, someone might be interested in numbers and someone else might be interested in people. The two of them are going to develop different memory strengths. One of the paradoxes in memory that I mention in my book Memory: Remembering and Forgetting in Everyday Life is that some of the people who complain most about their memories actually have excellent memories, but they're just not satisfied. It's kind of like not being thin enough.
Q: As people age, many are concerned with the potential loss of memory. For viewers watching this program who are concerned with their memory loss, what are three or four things you suggest they do immediately if they feel their memory is failing?
A: The first thing they should do is not panic. Most of the time when people are concerned about their own memory loss, they're not actually having memory loss from the brain at all. Most of reasons for apparent memory loss are due to such reversible problems as anxiety, depression, overwork, stress, lack of sleep — that kind of thing. These can affect memory, but don't permanently damage the brain. So, people should realize that just because they think they're having a memory problem, doesn't mean that anything is fundamentally or seriously wrong.
The second thing they should keep in mind is that people themselves are bad judges of whether they're having a memory problem. If you think you're having a memory problem, the odds are good that you're not having one. If you were really having a memory problem, you wouldn't remember that you had forgotten. It's actually other people like friends, family and spouses who can better determine how your memory is working. If they're concerned about your memory, then you should be concerned that you're having a memory problem, and go for an evaluation. Whatever might be found, it will be better to catch it early. Some of the things that can impair memory can be taken care of fairly easily. You just have to discover them in time.
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