Fascinating podcast "All in the Mind" from BBC Radio 4 this week on the pandemic's impact on memory, with an interview with Professor Catherine Loveday from the University of Westminster. It seems people are not remembering as well during lockdown, though once they're out and about again, their memories get better again. It's something to do with having different physical places for different activities.
That's one reason I've set up my work and play computers in different rooms. I've taken advantage of still having all the space we needed for our combined family, but they've all gone, leaving us rattling around in this mansion. I can do online tae kwon do in the dining room - no one's come to dine with us for months so I've pushed the table to one side and stuck my little laptop on it. And I can do online choir in there cos it's next to the piano.
There're memory techniques. A technique that memory champions use to memorise a load of things like a sequence of 52 cards (why would you want to?) is called memory palace. They visualise a space and place that they associate with each number and apparently the technique works.
That sounds similar to the BBC's report - get out and about, meet people and you remember better. I must get out more.
