Investigate Thursdays – What can you remember?

Today, we have a game you can play with your family to test out their short term memory!

Get a tray or a large plate. Put 10 to 20 objects on the tray, then cover them with a towel or cloth.

Tell your family members that you have a number of objects on the tray and that you want them to remember as many items as possible. Also tell them that they will have only one minute to view them. Then take off the cover from the tray and start timing for one minute.

After one minute, cover up the tray. Have your family members write down all the items that they can remember. Could they remember all of the items? Are there any items that were forgotten by all the subjects?

Can you think of any techniques you could use to improve your memory? Repeat the experiment – is there any difference. You could also try the experiments again with more or less time to memorise the items, or more or less items on the tray. You could also try removing 1 item from the tray and seeing if they can work out what it is.

If you’d like to learn more about how your brain makes memories, check out this video by SciShow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq0aQAG0A3o SciShow is a great source of science videos on Youtube, very clearly explained and informative.