Research

Cramming for an Exam with Your Fists

When was the last time you tried to memorize a list for a test or a quiz? It was hard, wasn’t it? Well, here is a little tip that can improve your memory. A recent article surfaced in Medical News Today about improving one’s memory through certain actions. Clenching your fist did the trick. Clenching your right hand helped create a stronger memory of an event or action, while clenching your left hand helped you recall the memory later. This effect triggers the entorhinal cortex, a golden gate to the brain’s memory mainframe. And every visual and sensory experience that we eventually feel becomes memory funnels through that doorway to the hippocampus.

In order to test how hand-clenching influenced memory and recall, a team of experts from Montclair State University asked 51 right-handed volunteers to memorize 72 words. While the participants were given the words to memorize, one group clenched their right fist before memorizing the list, and the other group clenched their left. Results showed that the participants who clenched their right fist when memorizing the list and then clenched their left when recalling the words performed better. With this finding, a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease seems available. And maybe we’ll soon be free from those annoying afternoons as we scramble about looking for our wallet and our keys. So next time when you are cramming for an exam, be sure to CLENCH YOUR FISTS!

Citations

Article by Dan Lee

Feature Image Source: Boredom Therapy