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Making the jump from simple lists to useful stuff

Making the jump from simple lists to useful stuff

Using Memory Techniques to actually improve your life.

There is a common pattern I see with many people first learning memory techniques – joy followed by despair.

First there is a honeymoon period where learners feel they have stumbled on the elixir of memory.

Joy.

This is followed by a sense of despair – from not knowing how to move from simple lists to information useful in study or at work.

Sadly, this is where many drop out.

Their story often goes like this :

They hear a fantastical story about someone who had an average memory and who can now remember pages of information perfectly at astonishing speeds.

They then learn about a very useful tool called a memory palace. After remembering a shopping list or 6 they feel like they can become the next memory prodigy. But, then what? Without assistance they let the superpower of mastering memory techniques slip through their fingers.

This happens because there isn’t much guidance around how to take basic memory technique learning to the next level.  And taking it to the next level can be a different process for each individual.

Using a memory palace is more than just about trying it out a few times. You get better and more efficient at using them with practice. Two areas to master are:

1. The number of items at each location : new students may place one simple word at a location, while those well versed in the techniques can place a paragraph or more of exactly worded text.

2. Using imagery and storytelling to store info : this is a skill you need to practice and improve at to transition from basic to advanced information.

Don’t despair, there are some simple ideas to make sure that you do master these life altering skills.

Recommendations :

1. It takes practice with trial and error to learn.

The three rules of memory training are – practice, practice, practice.
Memory League is a great place for this practice.

2. Set yourself a training schedule and practice lists (of simple and hard information) on a regular basis.

Ok, so you can remember a list now well. That is fantastic. Now push yourself. Aim to remember two ‘simple’ lists (such as grocery items or easily visualised items like ‘elephant or sock’) and one ‘difficult’ list (such as all the towns in your state). Every day for at least 3 weeks.  Don’t beat yourself up if there are errors when you test your results in these lists. Ask yourself why. How could you have made your images better. 3 weeks is not much to commit to gain a life altering skill.

These skills are valuable, if they were easy to attain (at a level of higher than a simple list) everyone would have them. You can acquire them, just do the work.

3. Push your timing scores for remembering a list.

Remember the lists within a set time frame and over the days/weeks shorten the timeframe (again Memory League is great for this).

If you are ambitious, approach this training like a physical athlete. Record your results and push yourself to remember more and faster each day.  Keep in mind that just like the physical athlete you may do several weeks of training with little improvement and then see a jump in your scores. Don’t let the hard training that comes before the improvement stop you. Celebrate your win, no matter how small.

Remember that like athletes you will have bad days, don’t use them as an excuse to dump the training. Come at it again the next day with a fresh attitude.

4. Do not to get hooked up in detail. I can’t stress this enough. It is VERY common for overthinkers to, well, overthink.

If you come up with an image that ‘might do’ give it a go and move on down the list. Pushing yourself with the time limit really helps this (and made big differences to my scores).

Sometimes you will learn just as much about your brain and what is working by looking at what you did not remember and analysing why (and how you could have made that image better). So push yourself to go with the image you have and move on.

With these recommendations, and with a bit of hard work, you will accelerate your journey into using memory techniques in your life and study. Joy!

Memory Palaces – Long term vs Short term

Memory Palaces – Long term vs Short term

Recently I was on the ABC podcast “All in The Mind” with Sana Qadar. You can listen to “The making of a magnificent memory” here.

One of the topics we touched on was learning for short vs long term using memory techniques.

In this blog I expand on some differences in using memory palaces to keep in mind (pardon the pun) when remembering for the long term.

This is a common need, for example when learning a language or a poem.

 

Learning long term

 

Memory places are the key to long term memorisation of large amounts of information. You can read about them in other blogs on this site.

So what is the difference in how we use a Memory Palace when we want to learn for the long term?

1.  Choose a palace that has a relationship to the information. This makes it easier, but it isn’t essential.

2.  You can build the palace on the way

3.  Periodic revision is required on a spaced schedule

 

1. The palace is selected with a relationship to the information

 

Choosing a palace relevant to the information makes for easier recall. Making these obvious connections allows you to jump straight to the start of the information, rather than searching your memory until you find some association or hook. This becomes ever more important as the number of long term palaces you have increases.

For example, Taekwondo terminology is kept at the training dojang. You might have to get creative…want to learn cooking terminology? Maybe place them in the kitchen of a friend who is a good cook.

Any palace can also be associated with your subject matter by simply placing an icon or trigger at the start of it. For example, French recipes may be in a palace that is a normal house, but you put a big croissant at the front door that you need to step over it every time you revise.

If you can’t find a connection between the palace and the detail to be stored, don’t stress – just use a place or location you know well.

 

2. You can build the palace on the way

 

The second point about long term learning using memory palaces is you can build the palace at the time you place the information. You don’t have to take the time to first detail all the locations inside a palace. Instead you simply choose a relevant palace from your list of potential palaces and start at the front of that palace. Position the first piece of information, decide the next location, place the next piece there and continue. As always, resist the urge to insert the locations too far apart.

While building the detailed locations into the palace first is not normally needed, there are exceptions when you might pre-prepare a palace in detail. For example, when attending a workshop where you know you will come across lots of long term information that you want to place as you hear it.

During revision for long term memory palaces you need to not only check you can parrot back the detail but also take time to check you understand its meaning. Sometimes remembering information is so quick using a memory palace that you may skip this step, resulting in remembering more but with a decreased understanding. You can have both, but you need to do both steps while revising.

 

3. Periodic revision is required

 

Research has confirmed that if you want to learn information for the long term, spaced repetition or revision is required.

How much revision tends to vary somewhat between people, within a standard range, but it follows a pattern. I find that the following schedule tends to be enough for many students to hold a high percentage of the information for long term.

 

Example revision schedule for memory palaces

 

  • Immediately after creating the memory palace
  • on the same day
  • on the next day
  • a few days later
  • at one week
  • at one month
  • 6 months later

 

There is one immediate review plus six further reviews. This is a general guide so test yourself, record your results in Excel and confirm your own schedule.

Although this sounds like a lot of work, each revision may not take long – it often only takes a few minutes to visually walk through a palace. As always, if a term or detail isn’t sticking when you do the review, adjust that image or story, or even change it completely.

 

Revision schedule for other recall methods

 

If the information is not in a memory palace it still requires revision. Let’s say you are remembering words and their meanings but haven’t put them in a palace. The word can still be remembered using the image and story techniques, but is held ‘stand-alone’, without being in a palace.

Revision can be through keeping a written list that you refer to or through using flashcards. Automation works well here – the flashcard software called Anki allows automated revision schedules, and can be used from your phone. You can create a ‘deck’ of flashcards with a word on one side, and its meaning on the other side. The software offers up a set of words each day, and you indicate how well you recall it. Worse recall puts the word on a higher repeat priority.

Even if you drop your review schedule that doesn’t mean you are going to forget all the detail, you just lose some of the information long term.

After the first set of long term revision has been done, the details will fade over years, but review of the palace will bring all or most of the information back. This is an excellent benefit of memory palaces – your information libraries are never truly lost. So it is a good idea to have a long term learning list on your excel sheet with the palace and what information is in it.

 

Learning for the medium term

 

Often information is only needed for the medium term. An example of this would be a meeting presentation you need to give once, or a university exam in a few weeks for material that you don’t require afterwards.

In this scenario a memory palace is still normally the best tool, and some revision is still required. Choose a memory palace from your list of long term palaces, as without the full revision schedule this palace will be available for re-use on the long term list in a few months.

Revise this medium term list immediately after creating the memory palace, later the same day, the next day, in three days and again at a week. So the immediate review plus four. And then perhaps one more revision just before you need it, for example the night before the exam or presentation. After that you need never revise it again, so over time the details will fade from the palace and it will likely be able to be re-used in a few months without confusion the old information. Even with this disassociation from the palace over time, a lot of the details are likely to still be retained.

 

Learning for the short term

 

The key difference is the amount of revision.

For short term retention your ‘short term palaces often come into play. These are familiar, well-practiced palaces with rehearsed locations that allow you to quickly store new details. A set of such palaces should be in your memory arsenal – around five of them will likely be enough, each with around 30-40 locations. If your short-term data is longer, you can join two palaces together with a story.

The details are not revised past the initial learning session or two, so they fade quickly, and the palace normally can be re-used without confusion after a few days. As it will be discarded the subject matter also normally doesn’t need recording in your lists, although keeping a record of what day you used a short-term palace still yields useful data.

And a memory palace doesn’t have to be used for shorter lists – a series of images with linked stories will usually be enough.

So there you have it – long or short, you can build a home for your information.

Interested in learning more memory techniques? Improve your memory with my online Master Your Memory course.

Memorizing terminology for movement

Memorizing terminology for movement

Different learning objectives need different mnemonic strategies.

Which one to use depends on what you are learning and your own best learning method.

Regardless of if you are memorizing terminology for movement, foreign language vocabulary, or anything else, it can be useful to understand if you should use a memory palace as your learning technique.

Everyone is different in their preferences, and I have my reasons for preferring to use memory palaces for memorising terminology.

I’ve written before (here) and here about how memory palaces are fantastic for when the order of the information is important, or for long lists of information.

But what about a list of 20 Korean Taekwondo terminology words that do not need to be remembered in order?

Let’s look at the example of someone who already knows the moves to their Taekwondo exam but now just needs to connect the name to the move (If you need help remembering them move, see my blog here).

Assuming you know the moves well already you can just use them instead of a memory palace to link the name (like in my YouTube video Remember Terminology Instantly – see it here).

The memory palace ‘location’ is the move that you can already visualise and know well.

The image is made to represent what terminology is given to this move. Because you will link them together (in a story) it will help your brain learn and link them together (just like a memory palace).

I tend to give this a quick go when I hear a new piece of terminology in class and then think about it harder later. Making the image and linking it as you hear it is a hard skill to attain but you will improve at doing it on the fly and it helps later on (even if you couldn’t fully form the image).

This allows you to learn the names of movements just one at a time, AND put a whole list of terminology in a memory palace as well if you like.

This is usually my preferred option for grouped and list-like learning.

This is how it works when I learn terminology from a list:

  1. I first decide on a memory palace where I will place this group of terminology. Let’s say for my recent Taekwondo grading.
  2. I work through the list starting at the top. In the first location in my mind I visualize the first move and link it to the correct terminology (as we have discussed).
  3. I move to the next item on the list and the next location and repeat until I have completed the list.

Why do it like this rather than separately?

  1. It gives me an extra hook (or association) in my brain and I find it tends to move the information to the long term faster.
  2. It means whenever I want to go over the list it is fully in my brain.

I won’t miss any out. Don’t underestimate this. When I am bored in a car, on a train, or trying to get to sleep I have a library of things I am learning that I can run through (again moving the learning to long term memory faster).

I most definitely ran through my terminology palace while driving to my Taekwondo exam.

When I do my next exam, I need to know a further list of Korean plus the one from my previous exam. Given it is in a neat brain file I can go back over my ‘old lists’ whenever I like to keep them fresh.

Will you run out of palaces?

Some students initially worry they will run out of memory palaces.

Don’t stress about this either. If you think of all the palaces you know it is endless. Your memory palaces might currently include childhood homes, friends’ houses, the school you went to, your favourite takeaway restaurant or the route you walk to the train.

Just be clear when using this memory palace – is it a temporary (or training) palace, or one for permanent information? You’ll be letting your brain know whether it is on the way to committing this information to long term memory or just holding it for the short term.

Enjoy and annyeong!

Interested in learning more memory techniques? Improve your memory with my online Master Your Memory course

Exercise and Memory

Exercise and Memory

Training your memory is obviously a mental exercise, right? Hit the study, head down.

In fact, that’s not the whole story.

The learning and memory benefits of exercise have been well documented in numerous medical studies. It is a fact that regular aerobic exercise changes the brain and improves memory, thinking skills and overall brain health. There is a positive effect on memory function, cognitive ability, attention, processing speed and executive function skills. Studies also point to exercise helping to reduce neuron degeneration and dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Exercise helps memory and mental health indirectly as well, as it improves mood and sleep, while reducing stress and anxiety. And not forgetting … you get fit!

Aerobic exercise appears to be key

The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is critical for our memory, as it is involved in verbal memory and learning. It is widely accepted that exercise enhances the production of neurons in the hippocampus. A University of British Columbia study concluded that the volume of the hippocampus region was increased after six months of regular aerobic exercise, where the subject had a raised pulse and was sweating. The same study found that resistance training and muscle toning exercises did not have the same effect on the brain, so you need to be puffing.

Aerobic exercise over at least several months has shown to increase brain volume in not only the hippocampus but also the prefrontal and temporal cortex. On top of this, athletes have been shown to have more concentrations of gray and white matter clusters in their brain (which is a good thing) than those with a sedentary lifestyle. So your brain not only gets bigger, but also better. What’s not to like?

But a further study confirmed you need to achieve the right exercise level – not too little or too much. This study was on rodents, but hey, we are all in the rat race together. It suggests that moderate exercise intensity improves cognitive performance, but high intensity exercise becomes less effective, likely because it creates higher levels of stress responses.

How does it work?

Exercise helps memory and cognitive processes in several ways. These include reducing insulin resistance and inflammation and also stimulating the release of growth factor chemicals in the brain. These chemicals help to grow new blood vessels and improve the survival of new brain cells. Aerobic exercise enhances neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to change) and also lowers the amounts of toxic proteins in the brain. This is a great outcome, because these toxic proteins are an important factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, one of the most common causes of adult dementia.

Exercise benefits the mind further than just your memory

Exercise also helps with anxiety, depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

A large body of studies support the idea that exercise can prevent or delay the arrival of these mental disorders. And the effect it has depends on how much exercise you do. Again, moderate aerobic exercise in adults is better than low or high intensity exercise.

Exercise helps with motor skills, too.

Even one exercise session significantly improves motor skills performance in a test, and helps remember that skill for longer.

Dance and your brain

I encourage people of all ages to start learning dance – it’s great for both your body and mind.

As a dancer I know first-hand the improvement I feel in my memory after a dance class. And studies back me up on this. Dance shows the same brain benefits as aerobic exercise, but with additional effects. There is a strong body of observational research that shows dance also alleviates the symptoms of dementia, including Parkinson’s disease. Moving while concentrating on learning coordinated movement seems to be the key, and music has a further effect. Dance has shown such strong benefit for brain health that it is now being used to treat people with Parkinson’s.

And regardless of the benefits to your brain, dance just makes you feel so good.

Physical activity and aging – first the bad news

Aging is inescapable and is linked to decreased cognitive function and increased risk of brain diseases including dementia and Alzheimer’s. The hippocampus loses neurons and size as we age and this is associated with aging-related reductions in neuroplasticity and memory functions.

And now the good news

Physical exercise is known to reduce and delay age-related cognitive decline. Exercise (especially dance 🙂 can alleviate aging related structural and functional changes in the brain, reducing the risk of neurodegenerative disease. As mentioned above, exercise enhances the adult hippocampus neuron production that is critical for memory functions.

Put it to the test yourself

So what should you do? Regardless of age, if you haven’t already done so start an aerobic exercise habit and enjoy improved physical and mental health. Hit the gym, go for a run, or take up dance!

And leave the study alone for an hour or so.

Interested in improving your memory and learning memory techniques? Check out my online Master Your Memory course.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6296269/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110

https://neuro.hms.harvard.edu/harvard-mahoney-neuroscience-institute/brain-newsletter/and-brain-series/dancing-and-brain