Memory Training: Top 6 Best Techniques & Fun Games to Play

Memory training can boost your short-term, long-term, and working memory and develop your IQ using various techniques, methods, and games designed to improve your cognitive abilities.

However, if you’re embarking on a journey to improve your memory alone, it can be rather difficult to figure out where to start.

To help you take your first steps, we’ve asked our experts for some tips and compiled them in a comprehensive guide designed to answer all your questions about memory training and its benefits, as well as the various techniques and exercises used in the process.

Key Takeaways

• Memory training encompasses methods and techniques to help you improve your memory and boost your overall cognition.
• Mnemonics, memory palaces, and associations are some of the best memorization techniques.
• Memory training helps with information retention, improves reading comprehension, reduces age-related cognitive decline, and boosts general cognition.
• Some of the best memory training games are sudoku, crosswords, chess, jigsaw puzzles, matching pairs, and Wordle.

What Is Memory Training?

What Is Memory Training?

Memory training is a set of methods and techniques designed to help you boost your memory, consequently improving your daily performance.

Generally speaking, you can schedule memory training sessions with a professional or work on your memory by yourself. Both have their benefits: guided training is quicker and better for those who struggle with self-motivation, while self-directed training allows you to go at your own pace and choose what suits you best.

Whichever path you choose, it’s essential to define your specific goals from the start. Do you want to be less forgetful in your daily life or to develop better memorization techniques for studying? Once you determine what results you hope for, it will be easier to decide on the right approach.

It’s also crucial to track your progress during the memory training—that will help you assess whether a particular method is working for you or not. For instance, it’s a good idea to keep a journal and write down the changes you’ve noticed.

Test Your Memory With an IQ Test

Another method for tracking your memory’s progress is to test it using IQ tests. Since memory is an essential aspect of intelligence, its improvement will be directly reflected in your IQ score and its steady growth.

And there’s no better test for this purpose than our professionally designed IQtest.net, which comes with a specific subset of tasks targeting and measuring working memory. Once you complete it, you can receive a detailed analysis of your score, which shows you precisely how well you performed on memory tasks.

Aside from assessing your memory, IQtest.net can be used as a free memory training tool. After all, every time you retake it, your cognitive abilities get stimulated and receive a little boost.

The Relationship Between IQ and Memory

The relationship between IQ and memory is a direct one; in other words, the higher the intelligence, the better the memory, and vice versa.

That’s hardly surprising considering that memory is a crucial aspect of intelligence, tested on all standardized IQ tests. This is especially true of working memory, a cognitive skill closely related to fluid intelligence, which is, in turn, a part of general intelligence.

General intelligence, or g factor, is your overall cognitive ability and mental capacity tested on an IQ test. It’s composed of two parts: crystallized and fluid intelligence.

Crystallized intelligence is the knowledge accumulated over the years, and while it is measured on verbal parts of IQ tests, it likely can’t be fully captured using just that.

On the other hand, fluid intelligence encompasses cognitive skills such as working memory, reasoning ability, abstract thinking, and problem-solving. As a result, it’s usually represented on IQ tests, and the better developed your cognitive abilities, the higher your score.

The 3 Best Memory Training Techniques

The 3 Best Memory Training Techniques

The best memory training techniques include mnemonics, memory palaces, and associations, all of which are fun and simple and can make any information memorable.

As a result, they are particularly useful as part of memory training for people with ADHD, who may struggle to memorize information using regular methods, such as repetition.

Below, we will take a closer look at these three memory techniques and teach you how to use them.

#1. Mnemonic Technique

Mnemonic techniques work by breaking larger pieces of information into smaller chunks and transforming them into fun sentences, rhymes, and acronyms that are easy to remember.

Three commonly used mnemonic techniques include:

• Acrostics. If you’re trying to remember items in an ordered list, take the first letter from each item and form a sentence. For instance, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” is a mnemonic used to memorize the order of algebraic operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction.
• Acronyms. Acronyms work similarly to acrostics, but instead of forming a full sentence, you use the first letters of the terms you’re memorizing to form a word. For example, the acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) is used to help students remember the five Great Lakes.
• Rhymes. Since our brains tend to remember rhymes better than regular sentences, you can turn the information you’re trying to memorize into short songs and poems. A good example of this is a rule of thumb for English spelling: “I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A in neighbor and weigh.”

#2. Memory Palace Technique

When we memorize information outside of any context, it tends to float freely around our heads, unable to fully integrate into our existing mental framework. As a result, this information quickly disappears, often before we apply it the way we want to.

However, contextualizing your memories and putting them somewhere familiar will make it easier to remember them. That’s especially true if you make the context as vivid and colorful as possible.

And that’s precisely what Memory Palace, a technique described in the memory training book called Moonwalking with Einstein, strives to achieve.

Basically, you need to picture a familiar place—your room or childhood home, for example—and place the information you’re trying to memorize in it. Then, whenever you need to retrieve the information, you simply visit your memory palace.

For this technique to work, you need to fulfill two conditions:

• The palace must be vivid. You must be able to recall it instantly, and it should carry some emotional attachment. It can’t be just any place—in such a case, you might end up forgetting the palace.
• The information must stand out. For example, if you need to remember to buy chocolate after work, you could picture chocolate bars growing on a tree in your backyard. That image will be striking enough to serve as a reminder whenever you visit your memory palace.

#3. Association Technique

The association technique helps you memorize information by creating connections with other similar concepts or pieces of information. That way, when you need to recall it, all you have to do is remember the association, and it will instantly come to your mind.

Although associations can be useful in various contexts, they are particularly helpful when memorizing people’s names.

For example, if you meet someone whose last name is Baker, you can associate them with an image of an actual baker. As a result, when you’re trying to remember their last name, a picture of a baker will pop up in your head and activate your memory.

Benefits of Memory Training

Benefits of memory training include easier learning and retaining information, improved reading comprehension, slower age-related cognitive decline, and better cognitive performance overall.

Let’s take a look at each of these benefits in more detail:

• Easier learning. The better your memory, the easier time you’ll have memorizing new concepts—that’s certainly not a surprise. However, good memory doesn’t just help you learn information by heart; it also assists its integration into your mental frameworks, thus ensuring that it stays there longer.
• Improved reading comprehension. Working memory plays a vital role in reading comprehension, as it holds the information you’ve just read and uses it to make sense of the upcoming information. So, when your working memory is functioning properly, you’re less likely to find yourself stuck on longer sentences repeatedly.
• Decreased cognitive decline. Among cognitive skills, memory is the most susceptible to age-related decline. However, memory training can slow that down to a degree and ensure that your cognition stays mostly intact regardless of your age.
• Better cognitive performance. Good memory is crucial for performing various cognitive tasks, including problem-solving, processing new information, reasoning, and communication. As a result, you may discover that your brain works much faster once you start training your memory.

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Top 6 Best Memory Games and Exercises to Train Your Memory

The following list will introduce you to some of the best memory training games to try if you want to keep your cognition in shape and boost your intelligence.

#1. Sudoku

Sudoku

Sudoku, a 9x9 numerical puzzle, has become incredibly popular in the past two decades, regularly appearing in newspapers worldwide. That’s probably due to its simple but effective premise—you must place numbers from 1 to 9 inside a grid following specific rules.

In other words, although it’s a numerical puzzle, it has little to do with math. Actually, sudoku primarily trains your logical reasoning, concentration, problem-solving, and, of course, memory.

In this case, the primary target is your working memory, which temporarily stores the numbers as you solve the puzzle, allowing you to quickly recall and use them when necessary.

#2. Crosswords

Crosswords as memory training

Crossword puzzles have a similar effect as sudoku, but they are quite a different type of brain exercise. Instead of numbers, they contain words; more specifically, you are given several definitions and asked to write corresponding terms in white squares horizontally and vertically.

In other words, crosswords primarily target your linguistic intelligence and test your general knowledge, but they also still require you to think logically and use your working memory. After all, you must figure out how the words fit together to fill the gaps and solve the entire puzzle.

#3. Chess

A person playing chess

Chess is the ultimate brain exercise, as it activates and boosts all cognitive skills, including working memory, pattern recognition, deductive reasoning, and critical thinking.

In fact, it’s not a coincidence that most professional chess players have exceptionally high IQs. While it’s true that intelligent people naturally gravitate towards this game, it’s also true that regularly playing chess can develop your IQ and its components, as well as help you reach your full potential.

#4. Jigsaw Puzzles

Two kids solving jigsaw puzzles for memory training

Solving jigsaw puzzles, a hobby enjoyed by millions of people across the world, is also one of the best ways to boost your memory and cognition.

As a rule, these puzzles train your visual-spatial intelligence and require you to hold the image you’re working towards in your mind as you progress. That’s where your working memory gets to shine—the more developed it is, the fewer times you’ll need to refer to the original picture and the faster the entire process.

#5. Matching Pairs

Matching Pair game

At its core, the matching pairs game is quite simple. You’re presented with several cards turned face down so you can’t see what’s on them and asked to pick two to reveal. Once the cards are revealed, you memorize their positions and turn them over again. Then, you go through the entire grid, trying to find pairs that match.

Despite its simplicity, matching pairs is one of the best ways to exercise your memory, as it directly targets your working and short-term memory. Play this game frequently, and you’ll notice how much better you become at it over time.

This type of memory training is available online, but you can also do it using a simple deck of cards—whichever suits you best.

#6. Wordle

Wordle game on the mobile phone for memory training

Wordle, a web-based word game, gives you six attempts to guess a five-letter word every day, using clues after each attempt. To complete the daily task, you must think logically, use deduction, and, of course, activate your memory to access your linguistic knowledge.

This popular puzzle game can be accessed through a browser or an app designed to train your memory and cognition. While the web option has only one version of the game, the app has several modes that may give your memory an extra boost.

Final Thoughts

Memory training can help you when you’re struggling with forgetfulness, as well as when you simply wish to improve your memory and prevent cognitive decline. In other words, you can undertake it regardless of your goal, age, or cognitive condition.

And since the training isn’t too time-consuming or difficult, we believe everyone should try it. A little goes a long way, and even just a few minutes a day can ensure your mind stays sharp even in old age.