method in super memory
Memory training: The four essentials are: 'association', 'visualisation', 'imagination' and 'sensation'. Association - stage performers use linking systems, which associate the things they need to remember with objects or events. Visualisation - if you visualise what you want to remember, you will remember it far more easily than if you just try to file away a word. It also helps if you visualise something that is personal to you, especially if it is something you own or want to own. For example, don't think 'car', think 'Mercedes'. Imagination - the more imaginative you are, the easier it will be to remember. Make that Mercedes a vintage model, manufactured in the year your father was born. Sensation - as with imagination, the more sensational or bizarre your picture, the easier it will be to remember. So the resultant memory image would be a 1930 Mercedes in shocking pink with big green blobs all over it.
Mind maps: These are a simple but effective method of note-taking, which show key thoughts in a round form rather than a straightforward list. Start by putting the subject in the middle of a sheet of paper. Then write the main subheadings around it in a circle. Draw lines from the centre to each subheading before adding more items in circles around the subheadings. Some people find it helpful to draw bubbles around each item. Next, re-draw your map to rearrange things in a neater and more logical order - you'll also find that you can make the map more memorable simply by adding little pictures. For example: if the main subject was an apple, draw an apple in the middle of the page and write 'apple' in it. If a subheading was apple pie, draw a pie-shape, connect it to the apple with a line and connect other thoughts ('with blackberries', 'deep dish', 'cream' and so on) with lines to the pie. To recall the whole mind map, think of the apple, and the other contents will come back to you.
The link system: This links items together by fitting them into a story. For example, you are going shopping to buy bread, bananas, eggs, pepper, paper tissues and face cream. Visualise yourself going into a supermarket. The only bread they have is such a big loaf that you can't see where you are going as you're walking along with it - so you don't spot the banana on the floor. You step on it, and go sliding down the aisle. You swerve to avoid hitting a display of eggs, and collide with a box of pepper that bursts open. This makes you sneeze so much that you grab some paper tissues to wipe your nose, but this makes it so sore that you have to find some face cream to soothe it. The more offbeat your story is, the more memorable it will be. Exaggerate everything and add colours, sounds, and even smells. These help to make the system work. Movement and attachment are important as well, so make things crash into each other, pile them up, slot them together or make them open a mouth and speak the next word.
The Roman room system: Instead of making up a story around your items to remember, associate each item with a feature in the room. Use a room in you own home and go round it in the same way. The shopping list could involve the bread propping the door open, a monkey eating bananas on a chair in the hall, and a fried egg pinned to the kitchen door, which you then open to find that it has been booby-trapped with a jar of pepper. You reach for the paper tissues on top of the refrigerator to wipe your nose, and you have to use more to wipe up the mess from a pot of face-cream melting on the hob.
Numbers: All the systems for remembering numbers with more than seven digits work by breaking the number down into separate chunks and then giving a label of each. The 'Number-Shape System' uses a set of images that never change. You can choose your own images to make them more meaningful to you, as long as they are the same shape as the number. For instance, 1 is the shape of a pencil, 2 is the shape of a swan, 4 is a sailing boat; and so on. If the number you want to remember is 214, you visualise a swan using a pencil to write on the side of that boat. Variations on this system are the 'Number Rhyme System' where 1 would be a bun, 2 a shoe, and 4 a door, so you visualise a bun in a shoe by a door; and the 'Meaningful Number System', where 1 is a broom because it has one handle, 2 is a pair of shoes, 4 is a table because it has four legs; so you visualise a broom and a pair of shoes on a table.
Names: The main reason why someone forgets another persons name is because they weren't paying attention when they were introduced. They've failed to file the information in a memorable enough way to store it in their long-term memory bank. To remedy this, when you meet someone new, repeat their name back to them. If you can do it without feeling embarrassed, ask how they spell it. Use the name again as soon as you can. Repeat it once more when you say goodbye to that person. That name will be stored permanently in your memory's database.
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