Does memory training work? What brain-imaging studies of memory champions, mnemonic training trials and brain-game research show, and what they do not.
Does memory training work, or is a good memory something you are born with? It is one of the most common questions people ask when they first see a memory athlete recite a thousand digits. The research gives a clear and slightly surprising answer: yes, you can improve your memory a great deal, but in a more specific way than most people expect. This article walks through what the studies actually show, where the limits are, and what that means for how you should train.
The rest of this article is the evidence behind those three points.
This was tested directly in a well-known study of people who had performed outstanding memory feats, including competitors from the World Memory Championships. The researchers used neuropsychological tests and brain imaging to compare them with control participants. In the words of their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, they "found that superior memory was not driven by exceptional intellectual ability or structural brain differences." What did stand out was the strategy: the superior memorizers used a spatial learning strategy, and engaged brain regions such as the hippocampus that are important for spatial memory. (Maguire and colleagues, "Routes to remembering".)
That spatial strategy is the method of loci, also called the memory palace: turning information into images and placing them along a familiar route. In other words, what separated the champions from everyone else was not the hardware. It was a learnable method, practised to a high level.
A later study went one step further. Researchers compared the brain networks of 23 of the world's most successful memory athletes with matched controls, then asked a group of people with no memory training to practise mnemonic techniques for six weeks. The training produced changes in how brain networks connect, and the changes resembled the patterns that distinguish memory athletes from everyone else. The more a trainee's brain came to resemble the athletes' patterns, the better their memory improved, and the paper reports that this predicted memory improvements up to four months after training ended. (Dresler and colleagues, Neuron, 2017.)
Two points are worth drawing out. First, six weeks is not long. The participants were not future champions, just people willing to practise. Second, the benefit lasted. Techniques that are trained properly are not a party trick that fades in a day.
If memory can be trained, why are scientists so sceptical of "brain training" apps? Because those products usually promise something different: that practising a game will make you better at other things, such as concentration at work or reasoning in general.
The most thorough review of that claim examined the studies cited by leading brain-training companies. It found "extensive evidence that brain-training interventions improve performance on the trained tasks, less evidence that such interventions improve performance on closely related tasks, and little evidence that training enhances performance on distantly related tasks or that training improves everyday cognitive performance." (Simons and colleagues, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2016.)
That finding does not contradict the memory research. It sharpens it. Training makes you better at what you train. Memory techniques work because you apply them directly to the thing you want to remember. They are not a workout that makes your brain better at everything else.
Practising Speed Numbers makes you excellent at memorizing numbers with your number system. It will help with a phone number or a PIN if you use the same system on it. It will not, by itself, help you remember where you left your keys. If you want better recall of names at work, practise the name techniques on real names.
If the champions' advantage is method, then your starting point matters much less than how well you learn and practise the method. That is encouraging for anyone who thinks they have a bad memory.
Measurable gains in weeks are realistic. The first stretch of training is often the most rewarding, because you are going from no method to a working one.
Short, frequent sessions over weeks are what the training studies used. A weekend of cramming is a different thing. See a weekly memory training schedule that works for a structure you can follow.
Memory techniques help you get information in. What helps it stay is retrieving it. In a classic experiment, students either re-read a prose passage or took recall tests on it, and were then tested five minutes, two days or one week later. After five minutes, re-studying looked better. On the delayed tests, the students who had practised recall remembered substantially more, even though the re-studiers felt more confident. (Roediger and Karpicke, Psychological Science, 2006.)
This matters for memory training too. Every drill you do ends with recall, which is retrieval practice built in. And when you review your own image system, testing yourself beats re-reading your list. Our guides to active recall and spaced repetition go into this in detail.
Memory champions do not describe their skill as photographic, and the research above points to learned strategy rather than a special kind of memory. Their feats come from converting information into images and storing them in a structure, which is a process anyone can learn.
Memory for new, arbitrary material can change with age, but techniques still work, and the training studies show that practice produces lasting improvement. The earlier and more regularly you practise, the more automatic the methods become.
The evidence says training improves the trained task, with little evidence of broad transfer. Train memory because you want a better memory for specific kinds of material, not as a route to general intelligence.
Images do not need to be sharp like a photograph to work. They need to be distinctive and connected to their location. Our visualization guide covers how to make images that stick even if you do not see vivid pictures in your head.
For everyday habits beyond technique, such as sleep and exercise, see how to improve your memory.
You can improve your memory, and the evidence for it is strong. The improvement comes from methods that you apply on purpose, practised regularly, rather than from general exercises or innate ability. That is also what makes it satisfying: you can watch your scores climb, and you know exactly why they did. If you are curious how far the skill goes, read what each memory championship discipline tests, or memory techniques for studying if your goal is exams.
