How to Improve Your Memory
Issue #6
Two ways – Memory Palaces and Spaced Repetition
Memory palaces are more commonly known (refer to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock). The basic idea is to imagine a familiar physical space, and place things you want to remember all over it – essentially, creating a tangible anchor for intangibles.
I came to it through a cryptically named book called Moonwalking with Einstein. Joshua Foer (brother of famed author Jonathan Saffron Foer) explores memory, becomes fascinated with the World Memory Championship, participates and . . . well, I won’t spoil it for you.
Memory palace is the main tool used by contestants, often memorizing lists of items that run in the hundreds, in no time at all. When I explained this to my kids, of course, I was challenged to prove it.
So, I memorized a handy grocery list of about twenty items by mentally placing them along my driveway. The interesting thing was not that I could remember the entire list – it was that I could still do so weeks later. Of course, I can’t remember to whom I lent my copy of that book . . .
While memory palaces are great for lists, spaced repetition is good for concepts as well. Simply put, it’s the flashcard method favored by medical students. Write a question on one side of the card, answer on the other, and repeatedly quiz yourself.
Where it gets interesting is when the repetition is properly spaced in time. Wrong answers are quizzed more frequently, and the spacing is often over weeks and months to build the neuronal connections.
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Shouldn’t there be an app for that? Indeed, there is. The original and most famous one is Anki. If you keep inputting Q&As, it will keep track of your answers, and vary the frequency of quizzing to help you remember.????????????
It’s supposed to be great, but I can’t personally vouch for it. I have my own system for gathering and retaining information that includes selective attention, note-taking and re-visiting, with equal importance for all three.?
A pertinent question then is . . . why improve memory? Why not just let life wash over us like rain? Is capturing life useful?
It certainly was for Leonardo da Vinci, in breathtaking volume, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the great master. Just the surviving part of Leonardo’s notes were more than all the emails and digital documents of Steve Jobs (whose biography was also written by Isaacson).
If the memory, and hence skill, of the great Renaissance maestro could be improved by taking notes, shouldn’t we as well? ?????
What about you? Do you have a system?
Rajan - interesting piece. Thanks for sharing. For me, I remember birthdays of near and dear ones very well (without the need for social media reminders) and also some key anecdotes and other details of important events vividly. I can also remember a great phrase, sentence, paragraph or poem even if I had read that years or decades ago. Part of it probably comes from not only cherishing it but also narrating/sharing those things with family and friends, that it becomes reinforced in my mind and stays there longer. Enjoying your FunSights. Keep’em coming! ??????????