Memorizing quickly is an important talent to have. Whether for school, work or just to improve yourself, exercising your memory enhances your abilities as a person and helps keep your brain healthy. The art of ancient and historic memorization is filled with clever ways of inserting items into memory. By applying modern psychology, the approach to memorization can be divided into five main methods.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Memorization By Mind
Step 1. Imagine that you memorize several states and their capitals from west to east
For the following steps in this method, we will try to memorize these countries and their capital cities:
To memorize, we just repeat and repeat what we need to memorize until the memorization goes into memory. This repetition makes your brain make new connections and patterns to help you bring out what you've memorized - Neuroscientists say, "neurons that work together bond together."
Step 2. Know that memorization is better for some types of memory than others
Memorizing through repetition encourages your brain to form the connections necessary to say or do what you have memorized.
- Memorizing is great for manual tasks and short lists of items such as a shopping list, starting the car, or ironing a shirt.
- Memorizing by heart is not very good for memorizing large numbers of discrete or complex ideas such as the elements of the periodic table from left to right, the idea of dialectical materialism, or the components of an automobile engine.
Step 3. Make a list of what you need to memorize
Make sure your list is complete and in the order you need it.
Step 4. Read what you have memorized
For these countries, read your table again and again, the names of the countries.
Step 5. Practice what you have memorized without looking at your list
Try covering part or all of your list with a piece of paper and read what you just covered. Scroll down so the table is covered - can you remember what was in the last two empty tables?
At first you will get a lot of errors - don't get frustrated! It's just your brain trying to get used to the job. Keep doing it and in a few minutes you will be able to remember everything you have memorized
Method 2 of 3: Solution
Step 1. Imagine you have to memorize countries on the UN Security Council
There are 10 countries which can be set according to some scheme or another.
Step 2. Know when to use cuts
Slicing works best when you memorize items that are made up of smaller items in a reasonable order. For example we can divide by continent; the elements of the periodic table can be grouped by type; or if you have to memorize engine components, you can divide them into sub-assemblies (intake, engine, exhaust, electrical).
- If you've ever memorized phone numbers, you've probably noticed the way we write them – they're made up by rote. For example, the White House telephone number, (202) 456-1111 is easier to remember as three numbers - 202, 456 and 1111 - than to remember as a single complex number, 2024561111.
- Slashing is not a great strategy for large, complex items and concepts that don't break down into pieces easily. For example, it is not easy to figure out what "memorable" deductions to use for memorizing civil rights concepts, definitions of nationality or a list of similar telephone numbers.
Step 3. Divide what you have to memorize into smaller, easier-to-memorize parts
Since you'll have to make smaller shards out of large ones, this strategy works best with items that you can actually break into according to some reasonable scheme.
Step 4. Practice memorizing your small items (the fractions) from memory
For example our UN Security Council, you can try reading one of the continents and their countries from the list above:
Step 5. Combine the fractions
Mastering each individual part or fraction is just the beginning - to fully memorize something using this method, you need to get the whole list. Try scrolling down so the previous list is covered. How many of this list do you remember?
Method 3 of 3: Connecting Items into Sentences or Concepts
Step 1. Imagine that you have to memorize a shopping list
Your list consists of a group of different items that are unrelated to each other.
Step 2. Understand when to use linking
If you have a very large number of things to remember, this is going to be heavy; For this reason, the linking method is a great way to shorten hard-to-remember lists.
Correlation is good for a number of items in an unordered list with no apparent relationship to one another (e.g., tree lists, birds, keyboards, bottles). It is difficult to implement a strategy like linking because there are no real categories to break things into.
Step 3.
Create a sentence or picture consisting of all the items you have to memorize.
This is the fun part of this method: the more unfamiliar and strange your sentence or image will be, the easier it will be to remember. For example:
- The peanut butter and espresso bean sandwich wrapped in an ethernet cable with a screwdriver running through it.
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Repeat and memorize your sentences or pictures then practice memorizing things you have memorized from the sentences or pictures. You will use a sentence or an image as a button that will bring up what you have memorized.
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Peanut butter and espresso bean sandwich wrapped in an ethernet cable with a screwdriver running through it
=
peanut butter, espresso beans, sandwiches, ethernet cable, screwdriver
Using Mnemonics
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Imagine you need to remember basic trigonometry. Suppose for this task we memorize how to find the sine, cosine and tangent of the base angles of a right triangle.
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Understand what mnemonics are. A mnemonic is just a catchy word for a process you may be familiar with at school level. If you've ever used MeJiKuHiBiNiU to remember colors (red orange yellow green blue purple indigo), or nonsense sentences like "My Mom Was So Excited To Just Give Us Nine Pizzas" to remember planets (Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto), you have used mnemonics.
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Know what good mnemonics are used for. If you have to memorize items that you can make up sentences or phrases, this will be difficult to work with; for this reason, mnemonic methods, such as linking, are perfect for the limited number of items you have to memorize that can fit into the schema. Mnemonics are better suited for memorizing lists of words, for example; it is not good to memorize large lists without clear organization, such as a list of phone numbers or the digits of pi.
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Create a mnemonic schema. A mnemonic schema is simply a "key" sentence or phrase for what you have to memorize. For our example, we can make nonsense words that are simple and easy to remember.
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Memorize your mnemonics and what you should memorize from your mnemonics. Your mnemonics serve as a 'key' to your memory. Scroll down to cover the previous list - can you remember the mnemonic abbreviation?
386197 19 Memorizing Through Association
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Suppose you need to remember the components of a 1911 pistol. From cover to cover, your list of what you should memorize should look like
386197 20 - Slide
- barrel bushing
- barrel
- shooter pin
- extractor
- hammer stop
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Understand how the associative method works. The human mind is very good at associating things. This talent runs so deep, in fact, that it is possible to use the ability to remember things. For this memory, you will create an imaginary journey or guide that you will associate with what you need to remember. Traveling on an imaginary journey or your guide will bring up your memories.
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Know what the associative method is good for. The associative method is very powerful, especially if you have a strong imagination. Throughout history, people have used several variations on the associative method (such as imagining walking through a mental house, looking around an imaginary space or flipping through a fake book) to organize memories.
386197 22 - Memories that are easy to separate and spatially organize are best suited for associative methods - things like verses from poetry, machine components or procedures for cooking eggs.
- Memories that cannot be shared are less suitable like the basic idea of an Expressionist Abstract painting, the history of the Wars of the Roses or remembering how to ask someone out.
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Imagine a second set of memories and associate them with what you need to remember. You will use the second set of memories as the "key" to what you need to remember.
386197 23 For this reason, if you have a list of discrete items that don't fit together in any way, it will be more difficult to form the "key" of your second memory. For our example, we would just imagine being a little guy walking around in a 1911 gun
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Practice walking through or across a mental map and zooming in on what you have to memorize. This method can be as cool and interesting or as simple and memorable as you want it to be. For our example, a little man walking through a 1911 gun might say:
386197 24 "First we will find the barrel bushing, and in it, I can see the barrel sticking out. Behind the barrel and the breech face as we walk further back I will see a small hole through which I can see the firing pin, and to the left is a extractor against the side of the slide, when I go to the very back, I'll hit a hammer stop."
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Traverse and explore your mental map. Several times a day, concentrate and visualize yourself again through your guide. The more you practice, the easier it will be to remember.
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Practice reciting what you have memorized from your mental map. As you do this visualization exercise, your mind will get better and better at forming your visualization "key," but it's not enough - you need to remember certain components that go into your key. Try "working backwards" - starting at the list of items, see if you can reproduce the original mental journey or the "key".
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