Who would win in a competition to memorize numbers, a chimp or a teenager? The teenager? Think again. Scientists have proved that chimps perform better than human beings when it comes to this kind of problem.

【小题1】

Memory is our ability to learn something, save it and recall it when needed. Our memories are important to our sense of self, our personalities, and our ability to understand the world.

【小题2】 There is short-term memory and long-term memory. Your short-term memory saves information for a few seconds or a few minutes. 【小题3】 Long-term memory involves the information you try hard to keep, because it’s meaningful to you—an example is data about family and friends. And then there is visual memory and sound memory. But these are not hard and fast. In fact, Scientists argue a lot about the nature of memory.

【小题4】 Some memorize better with the help of pictures. Others are helped more by sounds. One thing’s for sure though: If you can put the different kinds of memory together, there can be great results. 【小题5】 At the same time, you could listen to recordings of the same group of words. These things may help when it comes to memorizing the words.

Imagination and association can be useful too. By imagination, scientists mean picturing a word in your mind, while association means relating the word to something you already know.