Improving the ability to remember facts, faces is a process that involves “training” your brain.
In 5 minutes, Boris Konrad can memorize more than 100 dates and any events. After 30 seconds, he can read the whole deck in order. At the 2009 German Memory Championship, Konrad memorized 195 names and faces in 15 minutes, helping him win the gold medal.
Answering the question about the feeling of being born with a brain that remembers very quickly, Konrad simply said that he did not know. In fact, Konrad’s talent was acquired through practice, not innate.
Boris Konrad’s memory ability is acquired after training. (Photo: Daniel Kilov).
“I was born with a normal memory and keep practicing,” Konrad shared that the prize he won in memory competitions is the result of years of practice, learning techniques such as “memory castle” ( Memory Palace) . According to Konrad, anyone can apply these techniques to train the brain.
Together with Konrad, cognitive neuroscientist Martin Dresler from Radboud University Medical Center (Netherlands) further studied the brain effects of memory techniques.
23 study participants spent 30 minutes a day, for 40 consecutive days, more than doubling their ability to memorize lists. For example, someone who only remembers an average of 26 words from a list can remember 62 words after practice.
After four months of finishing the exercise, the researchers invited the group to participate again, and found that the memory ability was still very high even after no training. As such, this is not a short-term possibility and does not require sustained exercise.
Dresler’s team also found common ground after surveying 35 people of memory champions.
“They said their memory was pretty normal before learning the mnemonic methods and practicing… The Loci method was one of the most important memory improvement techniques ,” Dresler said.
The scientists scanned the brain to check for changes after learning the mnemonic techniques. (Photo: Telegraph).
The Loci method, sometimes referred to as the “castle of memory,” is a systematic memorization technique that dates back to Ancient Greece, still prevalent during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Teachers often use it to remember the main ideas in long lectures.
With this method, the memorizer will draw a map of anything in his mind, be it a familiar house or street, and then attach memorable, multi-sensory images to each area to find them again.
To remember a sequence of unrelated events, Konrad would map the human body, from the feet to the top of the head. Then he “puts” two words on each position to memorize them.
For example, by putting the words “moss” and “cow” on his feet, Konrad would imagine walking in a mossy field, getting moss stuck to his socks, watching a smelly cow walking. graze on moss. The next position is the knee containing the word “queen and bell” , Konrad will think of stepping out of the moss and sitting by a tree. Then the Queen of England appeared and sat on Konrad’s knee, took a bell from her pocket and rang it loudly.
The above may sound silly, but Konrad insists they are easy to remember. This method takes advantage of memory’s ability to store locations in space and create associations.
In the study above, the scientists also imaged the brain to track changes during exercise. Initially, the structure of the brains was the same. However, when divided into three groups of people to train their memory, they changed.
The first group did not practice at all, of course there was no change. The second group practiced the same method as the game of Concentration, finding and memorizing the positions of the same cards on the table. Before practice, they could memorize an average of 26-30 words. After 40 days, that number increased by about 11 words.
At the 2011 British Memory Open Championship, candidates were asked to memorize 2,000 numbers and the order of 12 decks. (Photo: Alamy).
The third group applied the Loci method for the highest efficiency. Using the software Memocamp, they doubled their ability to remember in 40 days. Magnetic resonance imaging detected blood flow and brain activity for about 2,500 different associations, including 25 related to memory skills. Photos taken after the training showed that the associations rearranged themselves like those of the memory champions, but the other groups did not.
Neuroscientist Lars Nyberg from Umea University (Sweden), who was not involved in the study, thinks that the above results contribute to unraveling the secret behind the memory talent that ” super-memories” possess.
“Research shows that practice can shape the brain in a similar way, reinforcing the view that high memory capacity is the result of practice, not individual talent,” he said.
The ability to remember lists of names and faces has a number of practical applications, such as remembering things to buy or matching names with faces, a common theme in memory competitions. However, Professor Monica Melby-Lervåg from the University of Oslo (Norway) said that they did not have much impact on memory capacity or overall cognition.
“What’s important is how this approach is applied to tasks related to everyday life, beyond memory competitions,” Melby-Lervag said. Even the ” super memory” admits to forgetting car keys and wallets like everyone else.
Thus, mnemonic methods are only effective when remembering a specific list, and only when people actively use it.
“Memory does not improve on its own. When you don’t apply these techniques, of course, your ability to remember is just as good as before,” Dresler said.