With the right technique, you will be able to remember more things.
Nelson Dellis has won the USA Memory Champion and Grandmaster of Memory 4 times. Some of his outstanding achievements are being able to memorize 10 thousand digits after the decimal point of Pi. He was also able to memorize the order of each card in nine randomly shuffled decks and a list of hundreds of names after listening to them once.
However, Dellis said that with a little effort, anyone can improve their memory ability. Here are five steps to help you remember most of the information you need.
We will start with a fairly simple task: memorizing the 7 wonders of the world. To remember them, Dellis recommends transforming each place into simple, memorable images.
Some landmarks will have clearer images. For example, the Great Wall of China, you may remember it as a wall. With Petra, you can attach it to a pet image.
“Using images like the one above is extremely effective. What you want to do is create big memories, using multiple senses,” explains Julia Shaw. She is a psychologist at University College London and the author of The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory.
One part of the brain is responsible for creating emotions, stimulating other parts of the brain to record memories.
You want to target images in your mind that can be felt, smelled, or seen, to make it as real as possible.
The scientific explanation behind this step is that “the weirder or more raw or emotional an image is, the easier it is to remember,” says Shaw.
“When looking at the brain, the scientists showed that the amygdala – a part of the brain responsible for creating emotions – stimulates other parts of the brain to record memories.” That’s why we tend to remember strong emotional events longer.
The next step is to put the images above into the context you are already familiar with. With Dellis’ example, he will place each wonder in locations in his home, starting with the wall at the entrance, then the image of Christ lying on the sofa in the house, representing the statue. Christ.
“The more quirky the picture, the better,” says Dellis. In the kitchen, you can imagine a llamas preparing dinner.
The technique of attaching images to a specific location is called a “memory palace,” and it’s especially useful for remembering the order of certain elements, Shaw explains. “A memory palace is built on existing memories of a real place in your memory. It’s a place you already know, usually a home or a place you know very well,” said the expert. this family added.
The technique of attaching images to a place helps to remember the order of certain elements better.
If you have to remember a list of 7 items, the space you need will be relatively small. But if it’s 10 thousand decimal places of pi, Dellis will need to expand his memory palace to the entire city he lives in, the city of Miami. Dellis divides 10,000 digits into 20,000 sets of 5 digits and assigns them to 10 different neighborhood locations.
” Neuroimaging studies show that the human brain has increased activity in the occipital-parietal region when remembering using the memory palace method,” Shaw said. “This means that this technique uses more of the parts normally reserved for other senses in the brain, like the parietal lobe for orientation and the occipital lobe for vision.”
Memorizing 7 quirky pictures of the wonders of the world isn’t too difficult, but when it comes to memorizing 10,000 decimal digits of Pi, you may need a bigger motivation.
“I would say to myself the mantra: ‘I want to remember it all, I want to remember it all,'” Dellis shared. “This is a simple mantra but it will correct my attention and focus on the work I’m doing, helping me remember better.”
With a huge number of numbers or a very large array of cards, the split method will be quite useful. “With words it’s pretty easy: you look at a word and it associates itself with some pre-existing image in your head. But with things like numbers or cards, or even proper names, it’s difficult. a little more,” Dellis said.
Among them are some systems that we have developed and memorized so that when we read a name or a card, we already have an image for them in our head.
With Dellis, the first set of 5 digits after the decimal point of Pi is transformed into an image of Sam Neill wearing an Iron Man suit. “That’s what it is,” Dellis said. The second set is transformed into an image of his friend dressed as the emperor from the movie Gladiator with his thumb pointing to the ground.
Once you’ve got the images and put them in the memory palace, you just need to make sure they’re in the head. ” Most memories are not stored in our long-term memory,” Shaw said. That is why it is so important to recall information that needs to be remembered, it has the effect of converting short-term memory into long-term memory.
And unfortunately there are no tips for this process at all. It depends on the level of repetition as well as the hard work of each person.
“To become a memory champion, I have to practice every day. I work very hard to make it a part of my nature. And that can only be achieved through practice,” Dellis concluded.