Improving Human Memory

     Has anyone had any luck with any memory improvement systems?  I have read
Harry Lorayne's book and have tried the Peg System, the Link System, and so forth, and they have not worked well for me, although I understand others have
had success with them.
     The only system I have had limited success with is the Ebbinghaus method of
"Spaced Intervals", which seems to help move items from the short-term memory
to the long-term memory.  However, as I age I am having more trouble with
retrieving memory and organizing my mind better.
     Any thoughts or ideas on human memory improvement?

Don't forget the good old physical exercise, which becomes ever important with age. An excerpt from

http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/memory-skills/the-connection-between-physical-exercise-and-memory.html

"Physical exercise is also responsible for the regulation of the blood sugar levels. Research has shown that the amount of glucose tolerance in the body has an effect on the size of the hippocampus. In addition to this, exercise will increase the amount of blood flow tothe brain, and this blood is rich in oxygen. Increasing the amount of oxygen and blood to the brain will allow it to function correctly, and this will have an effect on the memory. While physical exercise is important for both men and women, studies have shown that it is more important for aging women than men. 

While the importance of exercise for the memory of older people is well documented, the situation with young people is different. While there have been a large number of studies conducted on older people, very few have been done on children and young adults. One reason for this is because many feel that young people are already healthy, and their need for exercise to improve their memory may not be as important as seniors. However, one study conducted in 2001 showed that young people who jogged a few times a week performed better on memory tests than those who did not jog on a regular basis. "

Well, I think people have different memories for different things, as in being able to remember a number you saw 1 week ago doesn't necessarily prevent you from forgetting your keys or coat. So what kind of memory improvement are you aiming for?

If you just like memory exercises in general, since this is a chess site, I won't hesitate to ask: How about studying openings? Or blindfold chess?

Hi! I read this thread and want to suggest you several techniques and exercises to improve your memory. Here are some of them

ACRONYMS. You form acronyms by using each first letter from a group of words to form a new word. This is particularly useful when remembering words in a specified order. Acronyms are very common in ordinary language and in many fields. Some examples of common acronyms include NBA (National Basketball Associations), SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), BTUs (British Thermal Units), and LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). What other common acronyms can you think of? The memory techniques in this section, for example, can be rearranged to form the acronym "SCRAM" (Sentences/acrostics, Chunking, Rhymes & songs, Acronyms, and Method of loci).

SENTENCES/ACROSTICS. Like acronyms, you use the first letter of each word you are trying to remember. Instead of making a new word, though, you use the letters to make a sentence. Here are some examples:

* My Dear Aunt Sally (mathematical order of operations: Multiply and Divide before you Add and Subtract)
* Kings Phil Came Over for the Genes Special (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Genus, Species)
More techniques you can see [url=http://enhancebrain.blogspot.com/]here[/url]

I don't use or know any tricks to improve memory but Chess seems to work pretty well. 

Bump

Practice retrieving information from memory rather than passively reviewing it. For example, after reading a chapter of a book, try to summarize it without looking back at the text.