Planning to Remember: How to remember what you're doing and what you plan to do

by Fiona McPherson

Overview

Of all our memory failures, forgetting what we mean to do is rated the most annoying (and worrying), closely followed by those moments of absentmindedness when we lose track of what we're doing. This book uses the latest cognitive research to help you understand these memory and attention failures, and show you how to overcome them. Large Print.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781927166581
Publisher:	Wayz Press
Publication date:	10/19/2018
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.77(d)

Table of Contents

Why read this book?

What this book is about

What this book should do for you

1. How memory works and why it sometimes fails

Memories are made of this

Why people fail to remember

Know thyself: a quiz

2. Remembering to do things

Memory for future actions is different from other types of memory

Retrospective memory

Forgetting routine actions is not a failure of memory

3. Short-term goals and short-term memory

Working memory

Working memory and attention

Age and attention

4. Forgetting what you’re doing

Short-term memory problems are attention problems

Action sequences are why we make action slips

Common types of action slip

Situations when action slips are most likely

Have I done it already?

What makes some people more prone to absent-minded errors?

How to prevent action slips

5. Structuring your goals

A hierarchy of goals

Ordering your goals

The problem of suspended intentions

6. Circumstances that affect your remembering

Event-based retrieval cues are better than time-based

Is being too busy a valid excuse?

Wanting to remember is not enough!

Timing and complexity

7. Are some people better at remembering intentions?

Age differences

Individual differences

Review

8. General strategies for remembering intentions

Strategies people use

Effective strategies for remembering intentions

Mental strategies for better recall

Using environmental memory aids

9. Strategies for specific tasks

Remembering appointments

Remembering anniversaries and birthdays

Remembering arrangements

Remembering errands and chores

Remembering to take medicine

10. Your master strategy

Assessing memory tasks

Deciding on your memory strategies

It’s not all about memory

We fail to achieve intentions for many reasons

Believing in your abilities

The bottom line

Appendix A: Theories of prospective memory

Appendix B: External memory aids

Appendix C: The coding mnemonic

Appendix D: Specific strategies for specific tasks

Glossary of terms

Chapter Notes

References