1. Most people remember fewer than 10 per cent of the names of those whom they meet.
2. Most people forget more than 99 per cent of the phone numbers given to them.
3. Memory is supposed to decline rapidly with age.
4. Many people drink, and alcohol is reputed to destroy 1000 brain cells per drink.
5. Internationally, across races, cultures, ages and education levels, there is a common experience, and fear of, having an inadequate or bad memory.
6. Our failures in general, and especially in remembering, are attributed to the fact that we are ‘only human’, a statement that implies that our skills are inherently inadequate.
Your memory does decline with age, but only if it is not used. Conversely, if it is used, it will continue to improve throughout your lifetime.
There is no evidence to suggest that moderate drinking destroys brain cells. This misapprehension arose because it was found that excessive drinking, and only excessive drinking, did indeed damage the brain.
Across cultural and international boundaries ‘negative experience’ with memory can be traced not to our being ‘only human’ or in anyway innately inadequate but to two simple, easily changeable factors:
(1) negative mental set and (2) lack of knowledge.