Memory Techniques

Background

• My memory is fairly good
• I am somewhat slow at memorizing text and numbers
• I urgently need ways to improve

Solution

• Came across an ad for a super-memory course
  • The theory seemed sound
  • Worth trying a new method
    • If the theory works, put it into practice
    • The only cost is trial and error
• How to learn it
  • Get the big picture first
  • Practice in segments

Theoretical Basis

• Human evolutionary history

  • Visual information
    • What the brain handles best
    • All visual creatures are good at it
  • Language information
    • Came into being with language
    • Probably tens of thousands of years old
  • Written information
    • A symbol system invented by humans
    • The brain is not good at storing it directly
  • Numeric information
    • A rather advanced abstraction
    • The brain is not good at storing it directly either

• The information-processing flow

  • Acquiring information
    • Types of information
      • Images
      • Sounds
      • Text
      • Numbers
    • How it is taken in
      • Seeing
      • Hearing
  • Processing information
    • Simplify the complex
    • Convert it into images
  • Storing information
    • The four major memory methods
      • Memory pegs
        • A library for the brain
  • Retrieving information
    • Through cues

My Own Practice

• Peg practice
  • First build a peg system
    • Movies I have watched
      • Howl’s Moving Castle
      • Castle in the Sky
      • ⚠️
        • They must be very familiar
        • I have watched these movies more than ten times and know the plots well
    • Roads I have traveled
      • Elementary school
      • Middle school
      • High school
      • University
      • ⚠️
        • Worried about mixing them up with older memories

To be continued...........