# 84 out of 85 people can’t draw the Apple logo from memory. Your memory isn’t bad: here’s how to remember things

> To remember something, give it attention, a meaning and a few spaced recalls, and write down the rest. The 5 moves that work, and why saving a note helps.

Category: Practical. Published 2026-10-24, updated 2026-10-24.
About 6 minutes to read. URL: https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/how-to-remember-things

To remember something, you have to do three things your brain won’t do on its own: **pay attention** when it comes in, **give it a meaning**, and **pull it back out** a few times, spaced out. Everything else, write down. Most forgetting isn’t a bad memory: it’s information that was never stored in the first place.

Quick test before you read on. Take a pen and draw the Apple logo. Which side is the bite on? Does the leaf touch the apple? Which way does it lean? You’ve seen it thousands of times. Go on, draw it.

## Why you forget things you’ve seen a thousand times

In 2015, psychologists at UCLA asked 85 students to draw the Apple logo from memory. **One** got it right. When shown the real logo among slightly altered versions, fewer than half picked the right one, and almost all of them had been confident before they started ([Blake, Nazarian and Castel, 2015](https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/85-college-students-tried-to-draw-the-apple-logo-from-memory-84-failed)). The same thing happened in 1979 with the American penny: almost nobody could draw it correctly ([Nickerson and Adams, 1979](https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285%2879%2990013-6)).

Seeing is not storing. Your brain keeps what it needs (“that’s Apple”) and lets the rest go, because nothing told it the rest mattered. It’s the same reason you lose [a name ten seconds after hearing it](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/why-you-forget-names): you were there, but your attention wasn’t. The good news is that storing is a skill, and it fits in five moves.

![Someone holds a phone with a sticky note folded over the back, giving directions to a computer lab on the second floor, with a laptop on the table behind her.](https://www.memorypilot.fr/img/article/post-it-sur-telephone.webp)

*The low-tech version of move 5: what you don’t need to know by heart goes somewhere you’ll have it with you. (Wesley Fryer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr)*

## How to remember things: the 5 moves that work

### 1. Give it five seconds of real attention

Most things slip because they were never really looked at. When something matters, stop for five seconds and **say it out loud**, even in a whisper: “keys on the shelf by the door”. Words you say aloud are remembered better than words you only read, a result called the [production effect](https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018785) (MacLeod and colleagues, 2010). It also saves you from [the doorway effect](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/why-walking-through-a-door-makes-you-forget), where an intention vanishes as you change rooms.

### 2. Ask what it means to you

A fact with no connection slides off; a fact tied to something you know sticks. In a classic 1975 series of experiments, Fergus Craik and Endel Tulving showed that people remember words far better when they think about their **meaning** than when they look at how they’re written ([Craik and Tulving, 1975](https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.104.3.268)). So ask one question: “what does this remind me of, and why does it matter to me?” Door code 1776? The Declaration of Independence. Done.

### 3. Test yourself instead of rereading

Rereading feels productive and does little. Closing the book and trying to recall does a lot: in a well-known 2006 experiment, students who practiced recalling a text remembered much more of it a week later than those who reread it ([Roediger and Karpicke, 2006](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x)). That’s [active recall](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/active-recall), and it works just as well for a shopping list as for an exam.

### 4. Space it out

One review the next day, another a few days later, a last one a week or two after: three short recalls beat one long session. A large study of more than 1,300 people found that the best gap between reviews grows with how long you want to remember ([Cepeda and colleagues, 2008](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x)). Each recall pushes [the forgetting curve](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/forgetting-curve) back up.

### 5. Write down everything else

Your memory is good at ideas, faces and stories. It’s bad at door codes, appointments and dates that come back once a year. Don’t train it for that: put [codes and passwords](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/where-to-keep-codes-and-passwords) in a safe place, [birthdays](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en/blog/birthday-reminder) in a yearly reminder, and keep your attention for what deserves it.

**The one rule to keep**

**If you need to know it by heart, recall it. If you only need to find it again, write it down.** Mixing the two is what makes people feel they have a bad memory.

That’s what [MemoryPilot](https://www.memorypilot.fr/en) is for: you say “the gate code is 4512B” or “Sam’s kids are Léa and Tom” in your own words, and later you just ask. No folders, no tags, and the answer comes with the note it came from.

## The surprise: saving a note helps you remember the next thing

You might worry that writing everything down makes your memory lazy. Researchers Benjamin Storm and Sean Stone tested it. People studied a first file, then a second one. When they were allowed to **save** the first file before moving on, they remembered the second one better. The effect disappeared when they couldn’t trust the save ([Storm and Stone, 2015](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/saving-old-information-can-boost-memory-for-new-information.html)).

In plain words: once your head knows something is safely stored elsewhere, it stops holding on to it, and makes room for what comes next. Writing down the right things doesn’t weaken your memory. It frees it, on one condition: the place you write in has to be one you trust to give it back.

One last thing. Everyday forgetting is normal. But if it gets worse over a few months, gets in the way of daily life, or starts to worry the people around you, talk to your doctor: that deserves more than a list of tips.

## Frequently asked questions

### How can I remember things better?

Give the information a few seconds of full attention, say it out loud, and connect it to something you already know. Then test yourself instead of rereading, once the next day and again a few days later. For things you only need to find again, like codes or dates, write them down in one trusted place.

### Why do I forget things so easily?

Usually because the information was never stored: your attention was elsewhere when it came in, or nothing linked it to what you already know. A 2015 UCLA study found that only 1 in 85 students could draw the Apple logo from memory. Everyday forgetting is normal; if it gets worse or worries you, talk to a doctor.

### How do you memorize things fast?

Read or hear it once with full attention, then close your notes and try to recall it straight away. Check what you missed, and recall it again later that day and the next morning. Short spaced recalls work better than one long session of rereading, and giving the information a meaning makes it stick faster.