Day 65: Tricks for a Brilliant Memory

Mindmapping is a fantastic aid to studying and Use Your Head by Tony Buzan is a great introduction to the field. It also covers memory systems. Here is an extract from the book:

Assuming that the items to be remembered are:
1 table
2 feather
3 cat
4 leaf
5 student
6 orange
7 car
8 pencil
9 shirt
10 poker

In order to remember these it is necessary to have some system which enables us to use the associative and linking power of memory to connect them with their proper number.
The best system for this is the Number-Rhyme System, in which each number has a rhyming word connected to it.

The rhyming key words are:
1 bun
2 shoe
3 tree
4 door
5 hive
6 sticks
7 heaven
8 skate
9 vine
10 hen

In order to remember the first list of arbitrary words it is necessary to link them in some strong manner with the rhyming words connected to the numbers. If this is done successfully, the answer to a question such as 'what word was connected to number 3'? will be easy. The rhyming word for 5, 'hive', will be recalled automatically and with it will come the connected image of the word that has to be remembered.

SMASHIN' SCOPE OF MEMORY
The important thing in this and all other memory systems is to make sure that the rhyming word and the word to be remembered are totally and securely linked together. In order to do this, the connecting images must be one or many of the following:

1 Synaesthesia/sensuality
Synaesthesia refers to the blending of the senses. The great 'natural' memorisers, and the great mnemonists, developed exceptional sensitivity in each of their senses, and then blended these senses to produce enhanced recall. In developing the memory it has been found to be essential to sensitise increasingly and train regularly your:

a) vision
b) hearing
c) sense of smell
d) taste
e) touch
f) kinaesthesia - your awareness of bodily position and movement in space.

2 Movement
In any mnemonic image, movement adds another giant range of possibilities for your brain to 'link in' and thus remember. As your images move, make them three-dimensional.

3 Association
Whatever you wish to memorise, make sure you associate or link it to something stable in your mental environment, i.e. Peg system: one = bun.

4 Sexuality
We all have a virtually perfect memory in this area. Use it.

5 Humour
Have fun with your memory. The more funny, ridiculous, absurd and surreal you make your images, the more outstandingly memorable they will be. Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter, said that, 'My paintings are photographs painted by hand of the irrational made concrete' and that in many instances they are the paintings of the perfectly held memories of his day and night dreams.

6 Imagination
Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.' The more you apply your imagination to memory, the better your memory will be.

7 Number
Numbering adds specificity and efficiency to the principle of order and sequence

8 Symbolism
Substituting a more meaningful image for a more normal or boring image increases the probability of recall. You may also use traditional symbols, e.g. stop sign or light bulb.

9 Colour
Where appropriate, and whenever possible, use the full range of the rainbow, to make your ideas more 'colourful' and therefore more memorable.

10 Order and/or sequence
In combination with the other principles, order and/or sequence allows for much more immediate reference, and increases the brain's possibilities for 'random access'. Expanded use of order and sequence allows you to develop Memory Matrices, such as the Self-Enhancing Memory Matrix, enabling you to memorise as many as 10,000 items of information and more (see Master Your Memory).

11 Positivity
In most instances positive and pleasant images are better for memory purposes, because they make the brain want to return to the images. Certain negative images, even though applying all the principles above, and though in and of themselves 'memorable', could be blocked by the brain because it finds the prospect of returning to such images unpleasant.

12 Exaggeration
In all your images, exaggerate size, shape, and sound.

These can easily be remembered by the mnemonic anagram smashin' scope.