Memory is often referred to as a tangible substance that can be increased and improved.  For years, scientist, doctors and psychologists have worked to develop drugs and methods to improve both the recall and creation of memories.  Their success is still uncertain, but at the moment it seems that the different ways of enhancing your memory can be divided into 3 groups, drugs, memory grouping and hypnosis.

Drugs can be further divided into two groups, based on two schools of thought.  One group suggests that blood flow to the brain is responsible for the creation of memories, while another believes that neurotransmitters are responsible for memories.

The nootropic drugs that improve blood flow are designed around the damage caused by a stroke.  Do to the contraction of blood vessels, and therefore loss of blood flow to the brain, a stroke causes memory loss, among other problems.  It is hoped that with drugs that increase blood flow, the opposite can be achieved.  These drugs have been shown to improve memory recall in some lab animals if injected in large quantities immediately prior to the performance of a task.  They remain largely untested on humans.

The other type of nootropic drug, that which increases or decreases the amount of a neurotransmitter in the brain, are more focused on counteracting the effects of Alzheimer’s.  In Alzheimer’s, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is depleted in the brain.  One symptom of Alzheimer’s is memory loss, and some doctors and psychologist therefore believe that acetylcholine is the principle neurotransmitter in the recall of memories.  The drugs also proved relatively effective in non-human laboratory tests.  The only experimentation in humans has been on those already suffering from Alzheimer’s, and it is still undecided whether it is effective.

Steven Rose, a researcher for the Open University Brain and Behavior Research Group, feels that most of the experiments that have been preformed to date on the subject of nootropic drugs have been either inaccurate, incomplete or unethical, or all of the above.  The brain is too complex of an organ for one drug or substance to completely control its function.

Hypnosis as a memory enhancement technique is rarely documented, but an excellent example of the power of hypnosis comes from the the case of Albert DeSalvo, also known as the Boston Strangler.  After the police had interviewed a number of possible suspects for the strangling of 11 women, DeSalvo confessed himself as the killer.  The police were skeptical, and among other things, hypnosis was used to improve his recall of the events to find any possible memory of the events that would certify him as the killer.

When put under hypnosis, DeSalvo was brought back to the night of one of the murders.  He explained everything he "remembered" from the event, some months earlier.  He imitated, word for word, the pleas of his victims, including personal information that he couldn't have known unless he was the killer. DeSalvo was never brought to trial for his crimes, and it is unknown whether a court would have allowed the tapes of his hypnosis to be used as evidence.  Hypnosis is rarely used in criminal investigations, but at least in this case it was shown to greatly improve memory recall when no other technique would.

Several methods of memory grouping, the effects of mood and social factors on memory, and the concept of metamemory have all been shown to improve memory recall.  They are all techniques that can be done alone, at no cost to yourself.  These are often used by librarians, and other professions that require memorizing large quantities of information.

Memory grouping techniques include a structural hierarchy of memories, from general too specific.  Since this is traditionally how we recall information, it makes sense for us to learn it in a similar way.  Grouping techniques also include the “peg” method, where each thing to be remembered is paired with an item on a previously memorized list.

The concept of memories being affected by your mood and certain social factors is called state-dependent recall.  State-dependent recall states that you are more likely to recall something if you are in the state you were when you learned it.Therefore, you are more likely to recall memories of boredom when you are bored and more likely to remember your friends when you are with them. This technique can be used to improve recall by learning the information where you will need to recall it.

Metamemory is the act of being aware that you remember.  In fact, some believe that it plays a larger role in your memory than your actual ability to retain information. If you are aware that you remember, then you are more likely to be able to recall it later. Therefore, by being aware that you are remembering, you should be able to increase what you actually remember.