Self-Efficacy
I recently had the opportunity to teach a brain fitness class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the Coral Gables campus of the University of Miami. As part of the class, we focused a great deal on memory since that is one of the things people were most interested in.
I had anticipated strong interest in the class, but not as much as we actually had. I had thought perhaps 15-20 people would come to the class the first day, but 60 persons came the first day. As part of their participation, I asked students to complete several questionnaires about how they felt about their memory abilities as well as administered a short memory test. We did the same measures at the end of the class.
A striking finding in previous research is that memory self-efficacy is strongly related to actually memory abilities. This term refers to the extent to which you believe you have control over how your memory works and can cope with challenges. Sure enough, in our Osher class, we found that students’ memory self-efficacy was related to how well they performed on a memory class. That leaves two possibilities: people who have good memories have high levels of memory self-efficacy, or that people with high levels of self-efficacy have good memories.
Which is it? Other studies have shown that people with higher levels of self-efficacy respond better to memory training. I think the chances are that the answer to the question is one or the other, but both. Having memory problems may make you feel less well able to control your memory, but feeling as though you understand and control your memory may make you better able to cope with challenges to your memory.
How can you improve your memory self-efficacy? The short answer is to learn more about how your memory works and develop realistic expectations for yourself about how your memory should work. I like a book called The Memory Workbook by DJ Mason, ML Kohn, and KA Clark (New Harbinger, 2001). The participants in our memory class really liked it, and it includes a number of exercises that you can work through on your own.
Hello, Dr. Ownby.
This is fascinating. I’m very glad to have found your site. I read as much as I can about theories and findings related to brain fitness. This is the first time I’ve come across a correlation between what we know and how we feel about our memory and how good our memory actually is.
It reminds me of comments from customers of Brain Fitness Pro. Many report a greater sense of self-awareness and of being better able to understand what is going on at a particular point in time.
Brain Fitness Pro trains and strengthens working-memory, processing speed, multi-tasking, and left / right-brain interaction.
This seems to support a hypothesis that greater self-efficacy can result in part from a better capacity for lucid thought. And this is something that we can train.
Best wishes,
Martin Walker
Founder, CEO
Mind Evolve, LLC
Nice article!
You made an interesting point:
Which comes first? Your belief that you have a good memory? Or actually having a good memory ability?
I agree with you that both views are correct. Belief causes ability, and ability causes belief!
Studies on memory seem to confirm this.
This is good news for those having poor memory ability. If you believe you can, then you can!