Page-A-Minute Memory Book
All knowledge is but remembrance -Plato
You have a fantastic memory. Want to prove it to yourself? Okay, try to forget something you already know! Associate and you'll be great!
The starting point, the ignition, of memory is association. Association may be subconscious (in other words, uncontrolled) or conscious (in other words, controlled). Conscious, controlled association = a trained memory!
The Reminder Principle: We usually remember one thing because we are reminded of it by another thing. This principle is a natural phenomenon.
Association is simply the mental connection or binding together of two "things." That's all. And only two things--always. Association is an easy mental act or effort. A reminder-connection. These mental acts or efforts not only enable you to acquire a memory you never thought possible, they also give you a much better sense of observation, concentration, imagination, and confidence. They make you a more alert, more aware human being.
One of the spark plugs of memory is interest. It is always easier to remember things you're interested in than to remember things you're not interested in. Mental reminder-connections force you to be interested in those "things" at that moment! Association forces interest.
After two things are associated, the thing you already know reminds you of the new thing--and it continues to do so until the new things becomes something you already know.
Never BeLIEve a LIE
This sentence is a good example of an association that will always help you to remember how to spell the word "believe."
To be stationAry is to stAnd still.
To use stationEry is to writE a lEtter.
rhythm - Red Hot, You Two-Headed Monster
Acronyms can help recall/ remember facts needed to know for a test (can be technical/ non technical)
Visualize (see in your mind's eye) many HOMES on a great lake. HOMES will remind you of the five Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.
If it can be visualized, it can be easily remembered. The problem is that some of us have trouble visualizing. Association aids visualization. When you associate one thing to another properly, it's difficult not to visualize those two things. The "things" could be anything --name, face, number, appointment, word, foreign word, fact--anything.
Don't let the word or concept of "visualization" throw you. It's something you've been doing all your life. When you think, you see pictures in your mind--that's visualization.
Think of a zebra. Don't you see that black and white striped horselike animal in your mind's eye? Of course you do--and that's all I mean by "visualize." All my systems are based on natural phenomena. How does association aid visualization? Let's say I told you to see a zebra behind the teller's cage at your bank. When you think of teller, you will visualize a zebra (cashing a check, perhaps) and vice versa. One makes you visualize the other.
When my son was about five years old, he was frustrated because he could never remember to say "caterpillar" but instead always said "caterlipper." I told him to picture a cat chasing that crawly, hairy thing up a pillow. It worked.
Peduncle means flower stalk. If you had to, or wanted to, how could you remember that? You'd associate the new "thing," peduncle, to the "thing" you already know--flower stalk. A problem of a different color arises here. How do you visualize a word like peduncle? Well, make it meaningful, tangible, so that it can be visualized. Listen to the word. It sounds like "paid uncle." And the phrase "paid uncle" is meaningful and just as important, it will remind you of peduncle. Most importantly, it can also, now, be connected to--associated to--flower stalk.
For example, visualize this: you owe your uncle money, you paid uncle with flower stalks instead of money. Seems silly? Who cares. It works! This simple association will work left-right and right-left. If you hear or think of flower stalk, that will remind you of paid uncle--peduncle. IF you hear or think of peduncle, that will remind you of paid uncle--flower stalk.
The Substitute Word System
Seemingly abstract and intangible "things" can be visualized and therefore associated. All you have to do is think of something that sounds like that word--enough to remind you of it. This is the substitute word system of memory.
An endocarp is a fruit pit. Picture (visualize) yourself hitting a carp (fish) with a gigantic fruit pit. This is the endo' the carp. Sure it's silly, but try it--just see that crazy picture in your mind for a second.
You see, I want the mental "picture" to be silly or ridiculous or bizarre or illogical or impossible.
This no only helps you form the association-picture--it also forces you to apply the "slap in the face" principle. Basic idea: if you received a slap in the face just as you were told a piece of important information, you'd most likely never forget that particular piece of information. But a slap in the face hurts. The ridiculous-picture idea achieves the same thing painlessly. It helps form a strong, lasting association because it brings your mind into focus. It enables you to grab your mind by the scruff of its neck and tall it--force it--to pay attention.
Visual mental image: you've set fire to one of your knees (lit a knee) and you're saying a prayer over that lit knee. "see that silly picture and you'll never forget that word and its meaning. ("Lit Annie" would do as well.) Do you see that the visual picture--the association--embraces the two vital entities? It embraces the new "thing"---the word you want to remember--and its definition or meaning.
The silliness of the image automatically brings the "Slap in the face" principle into play. We tend to forget the simple, mundane, everyday, ordinary things. We rarely forget the unique, the violent, the unusual, the absurd, the extraordinary. Make your associations unusual, ridiculous, impossible--and they'll stick like burrs.
Too many of us see but rarely really observe--and observing is much more important than seeing. To look or see is easy; to observe accurately is a skill that can be acquired. The effectiveness of most actions in business and social life, depends to a large extent on your capacity for sharp, thorough, and accurate observation, along with a quick and retentive memory. Here's the key: we see with our eyes but observe with our minds. The difference between seeing with only your eyes and observing (seeing) with your mind is--attention. The first and only rule for sharpening your sense of observation is Pay Attention!
You can acquire a much sharper, keener sense of observation with just a bit of effort; better observation can become a habit if practiced consciously and conscientiously. Get into the habit of asking questions. Let your mind wonder, be curious about things you see, and that seeing will turn to observing. Ask yourself questions about anything you observe. That will arouse your curiosity, and when that's aroused, you're interested; and when you're interested you must observe better and with more accuracy.
You can practice observation. Think of a close friend. Using pen and paper, describe that person's face in detail. Complete detail. Describe the forehead: Is it high, wide, low, bulging, receding, narrow, lined? Describe the eyes: color, size, protruding, sunken, close-set, wide-set, type of glasses, any peculiarities? Describe the eyebrows: slanting, bushy, sparse, normal, plucked, arched, horizontal, connected, thick, thin, color? Move down the face mentally: Ears, nose, lips, mouth, teeth, chin, mustache. Try to describe each feature in complete, minute detail.
When you see that friend, check your description. Notice (observe) now what you never noticed before, or where you were incorrect. Add these things to your descriptions. Try the same thing with other friends, or perhaps acquaintances. The more you try it, the better your observation will become. Try describing the entire person, not just the face. When you're more proficient, try looking at a stranger's face and describing it later. The more you look with conscious intention to observe, the more you will observe each time you try it. Your observation will improve with use and practice.
Another way to practice observation: Leave the room you're in right now. That's right! Leave the room. Try to describe the room you just left in complete detail, including position of chairs, lamps, ashtrays, pictures.
Any or all of these practice suggestions must sharpen your observation if you try them and if you stick with it. The more you test your observation, the better and harder it will work for you. The more you look and listen with conscious intention to observe--with attention and awareness--the sharper, more accurate, and
more efficient your observation will be.
It's important to work on your observation as I've explained, but as soon as you apply the actual memory systems I'm teaching you, you'll automatically be using and sharpening your observation. In order to apply the systems you have no choice but to be interested, no choice but to look at things with conscious intention to observe.
Observation practice
Elizabeth Koo: Narrowing, arched eyebrows, they point inward steeply towards the nose. Dark colored pupils, fairly narrow/ asian eyes, dark/ ebony brown with blonde streaks more towards the tips. Thin lips, normal width mouth, straight teeth, more rounded chin, slightly lower nose tip. hair covers most of forehead, parted just at the right center of her forehead, ends of hair cut at different lengths and a bit wispy, doesn't quite reach her shoulders.
Dorothy Yang: Wide, Smooth Oval/rectangle glasses, pointed at the frames. Fuller, rounded/ oval face. Full cheeks, round chin. Hair that drops below shoulder level. Jet black color hair, flowing. slightly angled eyes, broad nose, perfectly straight teeth, thin upper lip, normal width lower lip, pale white skin color. Light, plucked eyebrows, medium width and very arched. Deep brown pupils.
Kate Middleton: Very thin upper and lower lips, very symmetrical face, eyebrows plucked and bushy towards the middle but thin going towards the ends. caramelized hair color, a medium brown, with light brown, hazel eye color, wears hair flowing down both sides, shows most of forehead. Hair reaches down below shoulders maybe 4-5 inches. Defined slender jaw, slender cheeks
Names
The most universal memory complaint: "I'm introduced to someone, and a few minutes later--no, seconds later--I've forgotten his or her name!" This complaint is a lie because you haven't forgotten the name. What you did was--you didn't remember it in the first place. You probably didn't even hear it in the first place! You've got to get something before you can forget it. The other cliche is: "oh, I know your face, but I can't remember you name." I've never heard anyone say--"I know your name, but I forgot your face!"
Most of us remember faces--because we've seen them. Names are the problem because we only hear them (if we listen). We remember what we see better than what we hear. I'll teach you a way to force yourself to "get" the name in the first place.
Here are five rules that will definitely enhance your ability to remember names
The Memory Book
Early Greek and Roman orators delivered lengthy speeches with unfailing accuracy because they learned the speeches thought for thought, by applying memory systems. What they did basically, was associate each thought of a speech to a part of their own homes. These were called "loci" or "places." The opening thought of a speech would, perhaps, be associated to the front door, the second thought to the foyer, the third to a piece of furniture in the foyer, and so on. When the orator wanted to remember his speech, thought for thought, he actually took a mental tour through his own home. Thinking of the front door reminded him of the first thought of his speech. The second "place," the foyer, reminded him of the next thought and so on to the end of the speech. IT is from this "place" or "loci" memory technique that we get the time-worn phrase "in the first place."
Chapter 2 In the first place: association
All memory, whether trained or untrained, is based on association. But that's stating it too simply. You will be taught many systems of association in this book, but it goes much deeper than that. You see, when people say, "I forgot," they didn't, usually--what really happened was that they didn't remember in the first place. How can you forget something that you didn't remember originally? Turn that around, and you have the solution to remembering--if you do remember something originally, how can you forget it?
That brings you to forcing yourself to remember originally. How can you do this? The simple systems of association you'll learn will do it for you, automatically! One of the fundamentals of a trained memory is what we call Original Awareness--anything you wish to remember must first be observed. Using association will take care of that, too.
It is always easier to remember things that have meaning than it is to remember things that do not. You'll see, as you get a bit deeper into our methods, that nothing is abstract or intangible so far as the systems are concerned. You will learn how to make any intangible thing, any abstract piece of information, tangible and meaningful in your mind. Once you've mastered that simple technique, all remembering and therefore all learning will be easier for you for the rest of your life.
We'd like to insist right here that virtually all learning is based on memory. Educators don't like to admit it, but they know it's true. And any student knows that the more he remembers, the better grades he'll get from the teacher who likes to put down "memorization." We believe that there are three basic learning skills:
All knowledge is but remembrance -Plato
You have a fantastic memory. Want to prove it to yourself? Okay, try to forget something you already know! Associate and you'll be great!
The starting point, the ignition, of memory is association. Association may be subconscious (in other words, uncontrolled) or conscious (in other words, controlled). Conscious, controlled association = a trained memory!
The Reminder Principle: We usually remember one thing because we are reminded of it by another thing. This principle is a natural phenomenon.
Association is simply the mental connection or binding together of two "things." That's all. And only two things--always. Association is an easy mental act or effort. A reminder-connection. These mental acts or efforts not only enable you to acquire a memory you never thought possible, they also give you a much better sense of observation, concentration, imagination, and confidence. They make you a more alert, more aware human being.
One of the spark plugs of memory is interest. It is always easier to remember things you're interested in than to remember things you're not interested in. Mental reminder-connections force you to be interested in those "things" at that moment! Association forces interest.
After two things are associated, the thing you already know reminds you of the new thing--and it continues to do so until the new things becomes something you already know.
Never BeLIEve a LIE
This sentence is a good example of an association that will always help you to remember how to spell the word "believe."
To be stationAry is to stAnd still.
To use stationEry is to writE a lEtter.
rhythm - Red Hot, You Two-Headed Monster
Acronyms can help recall/ remember facts needed to know for a test (can be technical/ non technical)
Visualize (see in your mind's eye) many HOMES on a great lake. HOMES will remind you of the five Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.
If it can be visualized, it can be easily remembered. The problem is that some of us have trouble visualizing. Association aids visualization. When you associate one thing to another properly, it's difficult not to visualize those two things. The "things" could be anything --name, face, number, appointment, word, foreign word, fact--anything.
Don't let the word or concept of "visualization" throw you. It's something you've been doing all your life. When you think, you see pictures in your mind--that's visualization.
Think of a zebra. Don't you see that black and white striped horselike animal in your mind's eye? Of course you do--and that's all I mean by "visualize." All my systems are based on natural phenomena. How does association aid visualization? Let's say I told you to see a zebra behind the teller's cage at your bank. When you think of teller, you will visualize a zebra (cashing a check, perhaps) and vice versa. One makes you visualize the other.
When my son was about five years old, he was frustrated because he could never remember to say "caterpillar" but instead always said "caterlipper." I told him to picture a cat chasing that crawly, hairy thing up a pillow. It worked.
Peduncle means flower stalk. If you had to, or wanted to, how could you remember that? You'd associate the new "thing," peduncle, to the "thing" you already know--flower stalk. A problem of a different color arises here. How do you visualize a word like peduncle? Well, make it meaningful, tangible, so that it can be visualized. Listen to the word. It sounds like "paid uncle." And the phrase "paid uncle" is meaningful and just as important, it will remind you of peduncle. Most importantly, it can also, now, be connected to--associated to--flower stalk.
For example, visualize this: you owe your uncle money, you paid uncle with flower stalks instead of money. Seems silly? Who cares. It works! This simple association will work left-right and right-left. If you hear or think of flower stalk, that will remind you of paid uncle--peduncle. IF you hear or think of peduncle, that will remind you of paid uncle--flower stalk.
The Substitute Word System
Seemingly abstract and intangible "things" can be visualized and therefore associated. All you have to do is think of something that sounds like that word--enough to remind you of it. This is the substitute word system of memory.
An endocarp is a fruit pit. Picture (visualize) yourself hitting a carp (fish) with a gigantic fruit pit. This is the endo' the carp. Sure it's silly, but try it--just see that crazy picture in your mind for a second.
You see, I want the mental "picture" to be silly or ridiculous or bizarre or illogical or impossible.
This no only helps you form the association-picture--it also forces you to apply the "slap in the face" principle. Basic idea: if you received a slap in the face just as you were told a piece of important information, you'd most likely never forget that particular piece of information. But a slap in the face hurts. The ridiculous-picture idea achieves the same thing painlessly. It helps form a strong, lasting association because it brings your mind into focus. It enables you to grab your mind by the scruff of its neck and tall it--force it--to pay attention.
- Litany--a form of prayer
Visual mental image: you've set fire to one of your knees (lit a knee) and you're saying a prayer over that lit knee. "see that silly picture and you'll never forget that word and its meaning. ("Lit Annie" would do as well.) Do you see that the visual picture--the association--embraces the two vital entities? It embraces the new "thing"---the word you want to remember--and its definition or meaning.
The silliness of the image automatically brings the "Slap in the face" principle into play. We tend to forget the simple, mundane, everyday, ordinary things. We rarely forget the unique, the violent, the unusual, the absurd, the extraordinary. Make your associations unusual, ridiculous, impossible--and they'll stick like burrs.
- Rorqual--a type of whale
Visual mental image: you use a raw quill to kill a whale. Or you roar as you kill a whale. (Raw quill, roar kill--rorqual.)
Imagination can be more important than knowledge. What good is knowledge if you don't have the imagination to use it!?
Too many of us see but rarely really observe--and observing is much more important than seeing. To look or see is easy; to observe accurately is a skill that can be acquired. The effectiveness of most actions in business and social life, depends to a large extent on your capacity for sharp, thorough, and accurate observation, along with a quick and retentive memory. Here's the key: we see with our eyes but observe with our minds. The difference between seeing with only your eyes and observing (seeing) with your mind is--attention. The first and only rule for sharpening your sense of observation is Pay Attention!
You can acquire a much sharper, keener sense of observation with just a bit of effort; better observation can become a habit if practiced consciously and conscientiously. Get into the habit of asking questions. Let your mind wonder, be curious about things you see, and that seeing will turn to observing. Ask yourself questions about anything you observe. That will arouse your curiosity, and when that's aroused, you're interested; and when you're interested you must observe better and with more accuracy.
You can practice observation. Think of a close friend. Using pen and paper, describe that person's face in detail. Complete detail. Describe the forehead: Is it high, wide, low, bulging, receding, narrow, lined? Describe the eyes: color, size, protruding, sunken, close-set, wide-set, type of glasses, any peculiarities? Describe the eyebrows: slanting, bushy, sparse, normal, plucked, arched, horizontal, connected, thick, thin, color? Move down the face mentally: Ears, nose, lips, mouth, teeth, chin, mustache. Try to describe each feature in complete, minute detail.
When you see that friend, check your description. Notice (observe) now what you never noticed before, or where you were incorrect. Add these things to your descriptions. Try the same thing with other friends, or perhaps acquaintances. The more you try it, the better your observation will become. Try describing the entire person, not just the face. When you're more proficient, try looking at a stranger's face and describing it later. The more you look with conscious intention to observe, the more you will observe each time you try it. Your observation will improve with use and practice.
Another way to practice observation: Leave the room you're in right now. That's right! Leave the room. Try to describe the room you just left in complete detail, including position of chairs, lamps, ashtrays, pictures.
Any or all of these practice suggestions must sharpen your observation if you try them and if you stick with it. The more you test your observation, the better and harder it will work for you. The more you look and listen with conscious intention to observe--with attention and awareness--the sharper, more accurate, and
more efficient your observation will be.
It's important to work on your observation as I've explained, but as soon as you apply the actual memory systems I'm teaching you, you'll automatically be using and sharpening your observation. In order to apply the systems you have no choice but to be interested, no choice but to look at things with conscious intention to observe.
Observation practice
Elizabeth Koo: Narrowing, arched eyebrows, they point inward steeply towards the nose. Dark colored pupils, fairly narrow/ asian eyes, dark/ ebony brown with blonde streaks more towards the tips. Thin lips, normal width mouth, straight teeth, more rounded chin, slightly lower nose tip. hair covers most of forehead, parted just at the right center of her forehead, ends of hair cut at different lengths and a bit wispy, doesn't quite reach her shoulders.
Dorothy Yang: Wide, Smooth Oval/rectangle glasses, pointed at the frames. Fuller, rounded/ oval face. Full cheeks, round chin. Hair that drops below shoulder level. Jet black color hair, flowing. slightly angled eyes, broad nose, perfectly straight teeth, thin upper lip, normal width lower lip, pale white skin color. Light, plucked eyebrows, medium width and very arched. Deep brown pupils.
Kate Middleton: Very thin upper and lower lips, very symmetrical face, eyebrows plucked and bushy towards the middle but thin going towards the ends. caramelized hair color, a medium brown, with light brown, hazel eye color, wears hair flowing down both sides, shows most of forehead. Hair reaches down below shoulders maybe 4-5 inches. Defined slender jaw, slender cheeks
Names
The most universal memory complaint: "I'm introduced to someone, and a few minutes later--no, seconds later--I've forgotten his or her name!" This complaint is a lie because you haven't forgotten the name. What you did was--you didn't remember it in the first place. You probably didn't even hear it in the first place! You've got to get something before you can forget it. The other cliche is: "oh, I know your face, but I can't remember you name." I've never heard anyone say--"I know your name, but I forgot your face!"
Most of us remember faces--because we've seen them. Names are the problem because we only hear them (if we listen). We remember what we see better than what we hear. I'll teach you a way to force yourself to "get" the name in the first place.
Here are five rules that will definitely enhance your ability to remember names
- Say the name when you say "hello." (you have to hear it in order to do that. Ask for it again, if you haven't heard it.) ex: "Hi Darin, my name is Jake."
- Try to spell the name. (It doesn't matter if you spell it incorrectly, the person will correct you and be flattered that you care.)
- Make a remark about the name. (Anything--you never heard a name like it, or it's the same as a friend's name, or it's a lovely name, and so forth.)
- Use the name during your initial conversation. (Don't overdo it. Just use it a few times where and when it fits.)
- Use the name when you leave. (Always say "So long, Mr. Smith." Don't just say "goodbye.")
You can visualize names like Butler, Wolfe, Carpenter, Paige, Forrest, Brooks, Rivers, etc. because they already have meanings that allow you to conjure up pictures in our mind. But what about the majority of names that have no meaning? You should know the answer. Apply my Substitute Word/ phrase/ thought System. Think of something that sounds enough like the name to remind you of it. Then you'll have a meaningful "thing" to reminderconnect to that person's face.
But there is more to it. These systems must work. There is no way you can apply the Substitute Word System without hearing the name first. That's half the battle--you're forced to hear that name when you try to apply the system.
Mr. Antesiewicz. A difficult seeming name but when applying the Substitute Word System, not too shabby.
The name is pronounced "ante-sevage." IF after you've heard it, you think "anti savage" or "auntie save itch," it no longer seems so formidable. Suddenly it's meaningful; at the moment, more meaningful than Jones, and therefore easier to remember than Jones.
Cameron--camera on
Bentavagnia--a bent (weather) vane can be visualized.
Ponchatrane--punch a train
Tropeano--throw piano
Carruthers--car udders
Smith--a blacksmith or his hammer
Gardner--a gardner
Sitron--sit run
Rafferty--rap for tea
Cohen--ice cream cone
Swanson--swan (and) son
Harrison--hairy son
Substitue thought like blacksmith (for Smith), cone (for Cohen or Cohn), garden (for Gordon), gardener (for Gardner), become standards--thoughts or pictures you'll use for those names without having to take the time or effort to think about it. The same is true for familiar suffixes or prefixes to names.
"Mc" or "Mac"--picture a Mack truck
"Witz" or "itz"--picture brains (Wits), or itch
"Ler"--picture a judge's gavel: law
"Son"--son or sun
"Berg"--iceberg
"Stein"--beer stein
"Ly" or "ley"--lea (a meadow)
The Memory Book
Early Greek and Roman orators delivered lengthy speeches with unfailing accuracy because they learned the speeches thought for thought, by applying memory systems. What they did basically, was associate each thought of a speech to a part of their own homes. These were called "loci" or "places." The opening thought of a speech would, perhaps, be associated to the front door, the second thought to the foyer, the third to a piece of furniture in the foyer, and so on. When the orator wanted to remember his speech, thought for thought, he actually took a mental tour through his own home. Thinking of the front door reminded him of the first thought of his speech. The second "place," the foyer, reminded him of the next thought and so on to the end of the speech. IT is from this "place" or "loci" memory technique that we get the time-worn phrase "in the first place."
Chapter 2 In the first place: association
All memory, whether trained or untrained, is based on association. But that's stating it too simply. You will be taught many systems of association in this book, but it goes much deeper than that. You see, when people say, "I forgot," they didn't, usually--what really happened was that they didn't remember in the first place. How can you forget something that you didn't remember originally? Turn that around, and you have the solution to remembering--if you do remember something originally, how can you forget it?
That brings you to forcing yourself to remember originally. How can you do this? The simple systems of association you'll learn will do it for you, automatically! One of the fundamentals of a trained memory is what we call Original Awareness--anything you wish to remember must first be observed. Using association will take care of that, too.
It is always easier to remember things that have meaning than it is to remember things that do not. You'll see, as you get a bit deeper into our methods, that nothing is abstract or intangible so far as the systems are concerned. You will learn how to make any intangible thing, any abstract piece of information, tangible and meaningful in your mind. Once you've mastered that simple technique, all remembering and therefore all learning will be easier for you for the rest of your life.
We'd like to insist right here that virtually all learning is based on memory. Educators don't like to admit it, but they know it's true. And any student knows that the more he remembers, the better grades he'll get from the teacher who likes to put down "memorization." We believe that there are three basic learning skills:
- the search for information
- remembering the information
- applying the information
Let's begin with association. First of all, you should realize that you've used association all your life. The problem is that you've usually associated subconsciously, without recognizing the association for what it was. Anything you clearly associated, even if subconsciously, is sure to have been easily remembered.
Here's a basic memory rule: You Can Remember Any New Piece of Information if It Is Associated to Something You Already Know or Remember in Some Ridiculous Way.
Do you remember the lines on the music staff, the treble clef, EGBDF? If your teacher ever told you to think of the sentence Every Good Boy Does Fine, then you do remember them. You teacher was following that basic memory rule, probably without realizing it. He or she was helping you to remember new (and abstract) information by associating them to something you already knew, or at least understood.
The trained-memory systems you'll be taught in this book merely systematize, or patternize, a natural process. Many time in your life you've heard or seen something that caused you to snap your fingers and say, "oh that reminds me..." and usually, the thing that reminded you of something had nothing to do with what it reminded you of. Somewhere back in your mind an absurd or random association had been made.
Remembering "in Some Ridiculous Way" will force the original awareness that's necessary to remember anything, it will force you to concentrate and use your imagination as you never have before, and it will force you to form associations consciously.
Memorize these ten items in sequence: airplane, tree, envelope, earring, bucket, sing, basketball, salami, star, nose. First picture an airplane in your mind. The rule can now be applied if we make the assumption that you already know, or remember, airplane. The new piece of information that you want to remember is tree. All you need to do is to form a ridiculous picture, or image, in your mind's eye--an association between those two things.
- First you need a ridiculous--impossible, crazy, illogical, absurd--picture or image to associate the two items. What you don't want is a logical or sensible picture.
An example of a logical picture might be: an airplane parked near a tree. Though unlikely, that is not ridiculous, it is possible--therefore it probably won't work. A ridiculous or impossible picture might be: A gigantic tree is flying instead of an airplane, or an airplane growing instead of a tree, or airplanes growing on trees, or millions of trees (as passengers) are boarding airplanes. These are crazy, impossible pictures. Now, select one of these pictures, or one you thought of yourself and see it in your mind's eye.
Good one... Having a strong memory could lead you to make things better and it builds your concentration.
ReplyDeleteConcentration Exercises For Students
Memory Improvement Techniquest
One On One Maths Tutoring
Right Brain Training
Kids Brain Trainer