Acts of memory

A fascinating article at yesterday's Cognitive Daily (new to my blogroll, a neat psychology blog by a psychology professor and her writer spouse out of Davidson): memories are triggered by body positions.

That's right: just holding your body in the right position means you'll have faster, more accurate access to certain memories. If you stand as if holding a golf club, you're quicker to remember an event that happened while you were golfing than if you position your body in a non-golfing pose.

One of the test questions: "Please, stand up and wave. Now, tell me a memory of one particular time you waved at someone."

Sorry, doesn't work as intended for me. Standing up and waving, or even thinking about it, all I can think of is Stevie Smith's wonderful poem, "Not Waving but Drowning."