Learn to selectively remember

Dai Haijun

Selective memory is a psychological term, which means that the recipient of information often has a certain tendency. Willing to remember content that is consistent with one's own concepts, hobbies, and interests, and almost unconsciously resist and defend against that part of the information that is not beneficial to oneself or contrary to one's own views, so as to satisfy one's own needs and achieve a psychological balance .

For this reason, advertisers desperately choose celebrities who are well-known and loved by people to appear in advertisements to increase recognition of their products; in order to break through the psychological defenses of the elderly, they invite Old experts and doctors appear on the stage, and patients are invited to act in real-life situations to induce the elderly to pay for their health; as for those durable things, they are often "raised in a boudoir without the knowledge of others."

Personally speaking, people’s selective memory is often unconscious. They always remember those beautiful moments, those highlight moments, and those successful processes. They speak clearly and impressively, and Details that don't seem important are easily overlooked or even ignored. So in response to this, human memory needs to become objective and rational through learning.

This requires us to have a correct examination of our memory. In the information input process, do not use your own preferences as the standard, without any bias, based on facts, and strive to remember any information you need. In the storage stage of information, important information should be repeated in time, images and sounds should be used to assist memory, and abstract summarization methods should be used to integrate with one's own original information, so as to facilitate the transition from short-term memory to long-term memory. In the information output stage, we should also use recall to reproduce the relevant information as completely as possible, rather than presenting the information that has been processed and transformed by ourselves.

In fact, selective memory is not always negative and unobjective. On the contrary, selective memory that has been learned and trained is often a manifestation of wisdom, because rational decision-making requires not all information, but only You need to capture the most valuable information. The human brain receives a massive amount of information every day that cannot be calculated using numbers, so selective memory is necessary and necessary. Therefore, we must determine valuable information based on action goals and purposes to improve our memory efficiency. At the same time, the counterpart of selective memory is selective forgetting. If it is not good for us and is indeed ineffective, of course we must forget it and exit our storage system to maximize memory efficiency.

Zeng Guofan, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty, had this famous saying: "Accommodate things as they come, don't welcome the future, don't mix things at the time, don't love the past." This is a good explanation of the method of selective memory. "Things come to you" means that things have happened and nothing can be undone, so choose to accept it. Complaining and unwillingness are in vain. "The future is not welcome" means that since the future has not arrived yet, there is no need to worry unreasonably or overthink it. "No Zaza at the Time" talks about facing the present, keeping the brain clear, focusing on the present, and not being distracted by distracting thoughts. Otherwise, our brains will hold too many things, and we will feel very anxious, which is not conducive to solving the problem. . "It's past, no love" means that things have passed, and there is no point in regretting, otherwise it will only disturb the present and miss more new possibilities. As the saying goes, only by giving up the past can you gain new life.

Life is unpredictable and life is helpless. A lot of pain and reluctance often make us miss, feel melancholy, and regret about it. This is the source of anxiety, harms communication between people, and affects the harmonious development of society. In this case, we might as well choose valuable things to remember and treasure, so as to make our mood happy, make things smooth, and open our mind. In that way, wouldn't it open up your own intelligent life? You say, dear friend, why not do it?