Abstract
This is a time-tested, simple and reliable guide to unleashing the potential of your memory. After reading the book, your imagination will begin to develop, and the results in various areas of life will improve. You can easily memorize phone numbers and foreign words, read faster and better absorb the material read, memorize lectures and lessons, master the material faster when studying on your own, make connections easier, always remembering important dates and other information related to the interlocutor. The book will be useful to anyone who would like to develop their memory.
Chapter 2. Associations
Harry Lorraine: Can you imagine ancient orators roaming the city streets looking for buildings that could be used as loci?
: Yes, and moreover, this search added to their knowledge, and not only helped them remember what they had to remember. As a result, they realized that any information already ordered in some sequence can be used as loci, or things with which some other things can be associated.
: This means that one day such a researcher encountered, for example, the signs of the zodiac and suddenly realized that he had very successfully found as many as 12 loci (the first to use the signs of the zodiac was the Greek philosopher Metrodorus Scriptius — he converted them into 360 loci. Approx. scientific ed.). But first he had to learn them. Much later, some people realized that such loci could be found in the Bible, but first they had to be learned.
: Are you saying that this is the case when knowledge begets knowledge?
All memory, trained or untrained, is based on associations, although, of course, this is a simplification in a sense. After reading our book, you will learn many systems for building associations, but they are not so simple. You see, when people say, «I forgot,» it’s not really true, they just can’t remember.
How can you forget what you don’t remember? Let’s pay attention to this saying, and we will find the key to remembering — if you remember something from the very beginning, how could you forget it?
So, from the very beginning, you have to force yourself to remember something. How to do it? The simple association system you will learn in this book will do it for you automatically!
One of the foundations of trained memory is what we call initial awareness (The term “initial awareness” was proposed by G. Lorain to describe what is understood and realized immediately, naturally. Suppose, if you meet the word “cat”, you can immediately imagine What lies behind it. This is the original awareness (Original Awareness).If you come across the words «rhinorrhea» and «nerdle» (provided, of course, that you do not know them), then without mnemonic techniques, initial awareness will not arise. Note scientific ed.). Everything that you knew beforehand, before memorization, you simply cannot forget. The application of our system of association formation will at the same time create an initial awareness — for before you remember anything, you need to carefully consider it. Forming associations will help you with this as well.
But you may ask how to form an association with intangible or abstract things? This question brings us to another fundamental foundation of trained memory. It’s always easier to remember what makes sense than what doesn’t make sense. As you immerse yourself in the material, you will understand that there are no intangible and absolutely abstract things in the world, at least as far as the memorization system is concerned. You will learn how to turn the most abstract and ephemeral things into something quite concrete and tangible and, most importantly, having a very definite meaning for you. When you master this simple technique, memorization and learning for a lifetime will become simple and easy for you.
We would like to emphasize that almost all learning is based on memorization. Educators do not like to recognize this truth, although they know very well that it is so.
Yes, and any student knows that the more material he remembers, the higher the mark he will receive on the exam from the teacher, who in words, perhaps, condemns “memorization”. We believe that three fundamental skills are important for learning: 1) searching for information; 2) memorization of information and 3) application of memorized information. The search for information depends on teachers and sources of knowledge, the application of information depends on you, but we will take care of point 2.
Let’s start with associations. First, you should know that we use associations all our lives, and the only problem is that they usually arise subconsciously and we do not recognize them as such. This means that any thing is easily and permanently remembered if it forms a distinct association, even if it is subconscious. However, since no person is able to control his subconscious, the search for the necessary associations turns into a random process — of course, a subconscious association can be found, but not always.
From here follows the basic rule of remembering: you can remember any new information if it is associated with what you already know or remember.
Do you remember the lines of the music line, the treble clef and the notes mi, sol, si, re and fa? If a music teacher recommended that you memorize the phrase “We ate red beans with salt”, then you definitely remember them. The teacher was following the basic rule of memorization, perhaps without realizing it. It helped you memorize new (and abstract) information—the note names mi, sol, si, re, and fa—by relating them to what you already know, or at least are capable of understanding and vividly imagining—with the simple phrase, “We and the salt ate red beans. Obviously, this technique works, and works effectively.
Primary school teachers have been telling their students for years that it is very easy to remember that after “w” and “w” is written “and”, if you memorize a simple rhyme: “We write Zhi and shi through and.” Since all second graders know how to write «and», they easily connect familiar information with new information, and the problem is solved. Again, in this case, the teacher follows the basic rule of memorization.
Very few people are able to remember how the outlines of Russia, Greece and any other country, with the exception of Italy, look on geographical maps. This is an irrefutable fact. People remember Italy because they have been told (or read) that Italy is like a boot. Again we see here the same good old rule — we know the shape of the boot very well, and we will never forget the shape of Italy, if this association is established.
I gave the most common examples of the formation of associations — conscious and subconscious. This practice is typical for all spheres of human activity: medical students use this mnemonic device to memorize, for example, the Latin names of the cranial nerves: “A donkey sharpens an ax on a pole, and a fakir, leading guests, wants to howl like a shark” (We are talking about memorizing pairs of cranial nerves in Latin: olfactorius, opticus, oculomotorius, trochlearis, trigeminus, abducens, facialis, vestibulocochlearis, glossopharyngeus, vagus, accessorius, hypoglossus. Note scientific ed.). Some schoolchildren imagine houses (Homes) on the shores of the Great Lakes to remember their names (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). To remember the fact that Mount Fuji has a height of 12 feet, they form an association with the calendar: there are 365 months and 12 days in a year.
The problem with such associations is that they only work in relation to some very specific things, that is, they are limited in their application. The memory training system that you will learn from reading this book can be applied to anything. This system is only limited by your desire to use it. The bottom line is this: if you know how to consciously connect what you want to remember with what you already know, then this means that you have a trained memory. This is actually very simple. A person can arbitrarily form any associations — quickly and naturally.
The system of memory training that you will find in this book is by no means unnatural—it simply arranges or properly organizes the natural process. How often, painfully cracking your fingers, you try to remember the necessary information during the exam, saying:
“Oh, that reminds me…” As a rule, what reminds you of the thing you want to remember has absolutely nothing to do with it. Somewhere in the dark recesses of your subconscious, a completely absurd random association formed by itself.
Why, if the speakers of antiquity could use their own houses as loci for memorizing speech points, they nevertheless looked for other houses in order to get more loci at their disposal? It wasn’t that the same house or building couldn’t be used over and over again — speakers could and did. (“Loci,” said one thinker, “are like wax tablets that remain ready for use after the writing has been erased from their surface.”)
No, the problem was that «home» loci became too familiar after a while — after all, a staircase is a staircase, and a hallway is a hallway. True, the ancient speakers never came up with an important principle of memorization: the theses of speech, or whatever else, do not necessarily need to be associated with loci — these theses, that is, the key words of speech, can be associated with each other, so that one resembles about the next one.
This simple idea is the basis of a multi-link memory system. First, we will show how to use it to remember specific tangible things. True, we will slightly change the rule by adding one important phrase to it. Here’s the revised rule: in order to remember any new piece of information, it must be related in some fun way to what you already know or remember. Adding this simple, short phrase accomplishes several things at once: it creates the initial awareness needed for any memorization, forces you to focus, puts your imagination to good use, and also teaches you how to consciously form associations.
Suppose you want to memorize a sequence of the following ten words: airplane, tree, envelope, earring, bucket, sing, ball, salami, star, nose. Okay, now imagine an airplane. For the time being, we do not need to apply the rules of memorization. But now we move on to the next subject — the tree.
And here is the time to apply the rule, assuming that you already know or you remember what an airplane is. A new piece of information to be memorized is a tree. All you need is to create a funny picture or mental image that connects the two. At the same time, in no case should you try to connect them logically into some kind of meaningful whole.
An example of a logical picture: an airplane lands near a tree. This is not funny, and although unlikely, it is still possible, which means that this association most likely will not work. The picture should be funny, ridiculous and depict the impossible. For example, a giant tree flies through the sky like an airplane; the plane grows out of the ground like a tree; planes grow on trees; millions of trees, like passengers, board planes. These are crazy, ridiculous pictures. Choose one of these pictures or come up with your own, just as absurd, and clearly imagine it.
Of course, we do not mean that you will imagine the words plane and tree. You need to imagine a picture, these objects themselves in action, and the most amusing and ridiculous associations between these two objects will lie precisely in actions, as in the examples we have given.
Hold this picture, this action, in your imagination for a split second. At the same time, you are not doing anything unusual — after all, you have been imagining some kind of picture all your life. In fact, you cannot even think without imagining any pictures. Aristotle said this many centuries ago at the beginning of one of his books: “It is impossible even to think without imagining mental pictures.”
Seeing pictures in your imagination, imagining mental images, is like having a movie screen in your head. If you read the words husband, child, car, and so on, you will not be able to think about these people and objects without «seeing» mental images of them, even if only for a tiny fraction of a second. Try not to visualize an elephant when you think of this animal. What’s happening? You can’t help but imagine an elephant when you think of it!
OK then. Pick up a funny associative link between an airplane and a tree and mentally imagine a picture of this association.
As soon as you try to do this, stop thinking about the association. This attempt is extremely important. Usually we tell our students that if our system does not work, then they must work! Sounds stupid, but it’s true. Just trying to use our system already improves memory, whether the system worked or not. However, our system still works, and works great. It will greatly improve the quality of your memory.
The next item on the list is the envelope. We believe that you already know or remember the tree. Now you have to remember a new item — an envelope. Again imagine the funny picture or association between the tree and the envelope and draw it in your mind’s eye. Perhaps you can imagine millions of envelopes growing on a tree, or a tree sealing a giant envelope, or trying to stuff a tree into an envelope. We can give you a lot of different tips, but you have to choose one single funny and ridiculous picture. Pick it up and hold it in your mind for a moment.
You do not have to make any effort to see the picture — the whole procedure takes a fraction of a second. It is very important to visualize the picture clearly. In the process of memorization, the clarity of the image matters, and not the time during which you hold the picture in your imagination. So, try to see a clear picture for a second.
The next item to remember is the earring. The item you already know is the envelope. Create a funny association linking the envelope and the earring. You can imagine that you wear an envelope instead of an earring, or you open an envelope and thousands of earrings fly out of it in your face.
Things will go better if you start inventing your own pictures. By offering you pictures from our repertoire, we take away some of your initial awareness. We will continue to give you our recommendations, but regardless of whether you use our or your own associations, the pictures in your imagination should be very clear.
Choose one of our associative links between an envelope and an earring, or come up with your own and visualize it.
The bucket is a new thing to remember. Create an association with an earring — for example, imagine yourself with buckets in your ears instead of earrings, or a bucket with a handle covered with earrings. Draw yourself one of these images.
The next step: you need to remember the word «sing». (It is not an object or a noun, and we have put this word on the list only to show that it is not really important for the association, as you will now see for yourself.) Associate «sing» with a thing, which you already know — with a bucket. It will be enough to imagine a singing bucket. You can also imagine yourself singing with a bucket on your head. This, of course, is quite possible, but the picture is very funny, and therefore also suitable. The only indispensable condition: the picture must be clear.
The next item is a ball. Associate it with the word «sing». Imagine a singing ball or a person who sings, and thousands of colorful balls fly out of his mouth.
Salami. Imagine a giant loaf of salami playing with a ball, or a basketball player (best of all Jerry Lucas) leading a piece of salami instead of a ball.
Star. Imagine a huge piece of salami shimmering in the sky. Or cut the star into slices like salami! Imagine a picture of this exciting action!
Nose. Picture in your mind a person with a sparkling star instead of a nose. Or a star with a big nose.
Draw a clear picture in your mind’s eye.
If you tried to imagine all the pictures, then you probably remembered all ten items. Difficulties with recall can only affect the first item, since you do not have an association that would help you remember it. Soon we will show you how to get out of this predicament. If you remember the first item — great, if not, then it’s a plane. Try to remember all the other items on your own before reading the list below. So think about an airplane. What does it remind you of? Of course, about the tree.
Think of a tree now — it reminds you of… an envelope. Think of an envelope and it will remind you of… an earring. The earring will vividly remind you of a bucket. What stupidity was this bucket doing? Oh yes, it sang. This association will remind you of the word «sing». What else did we have there? Ball. The thought of a ball will immediately remind you of salami, and salami, in turn, will remind you of a star. And finally, the star will immediately lead you to the concept of the nose.
Well, did it work? You had to remember all ten words. If you have problems with a couple of them, if you think that you forgot them, then it probably happened because you did not make associations, but simply read the words in the list. You have not forgotten them — you have not remembered them. Go back to the list and try to create associations and — most importantly — make sure that you clearly imagine the desired picture.
If you now take paper and pencil and try to write down all the items in the right order, then make sure that you can do this without missing any of the ten words. Try it and see. Now try to write the entire sequence in reverse order! Think of a nose and it will remind you of a star. The star will remind you of… salami. Sausage — about … the ball. The ball is about singing, the singing is about a bucket, the bucket is about an earring, the earring is about an envelope, the envelope is about a tree, and the tree is about an airplane. Make your own list and try again, and you’ll feel proud that you could memorize an arbitrarily long list and be able to play it back and forth.
Chapter 3
: Of course, everyone knows that motivation is a very important part of memory. The mnemonic systems themselves are of sufficient interest to create motivation.
: Without motivation, no one will ever achieve anything. Once, when I was in high school, I was selected for the All-American high school basketball team compiled by Parade magazine.
We were brought to New York for The Steve Allen Show with an All-American college team of which Wilt Chamberlain was a member. During the rehearsal, I stood in the theater lobby next to Wilt. Above the window, very high, more than three and a half meters from the floor, hung a cornice. Someone approached Wilt and said, «Hey Wilt, can you jump up and touch the ledge?»
Wilt replied, “I must have forgotten how to jump. But you know what I’ll tell you? If you can throw a hundred dollar bill on the ledge, then I will remember very quickly how it is done.
What you learned in the previous chapter is just a very small part of the memory connection system. We call it a communication system, because when you activate memory, you just connect different things together, forming links in the memory chain. One item will inevitably lead you to the next if you find the right association.
Using the link system, you can store lists of any length in memory for as long as you like. Let’s talk about this purely hypothetically for now. If you start using communication for practical purposes, then remember the list of some items in order to use it in the future. It is practical use that primarily ensures long-term preservation and motivation for memorization. You will see that this is true as soon as you learn how to use this system in practice.
Even though you have no reason to be motivated to remember the list given in the previous chapter, you can still remember it now if you want to. Go back to this list tomorrow, just mentally, say, while eating, driving a car, or doing some other activity. Then come back to the list after three days, then after a week, and you will find that you continue to remember the list in its original sequence. You will accurately remember it as long as you want to do it.
The link system is used only for memorizing sequences, and there are many things in the world that have to be memorized or memorized in a certain sequence. Speech is a sequence of thoughts, a formula is a sequence of its constituent parts, any number consisting of two or more digits is also a sequence. (You won’t be able to apply the link system to numbers right now because you don’t know how to represent numbers yet; but soon you will be using the link system to memorize multi-digit numbers.)
The only problem you may have with making connections is not being able to make the pictures fun and funny. There are four simple rules that will get you through this difficulty right from the start. The simplest is the rule of substitution, according to which you must imagine one object in the place of another. Let’s say in the previous example we told you to imagine a flying tree instead of a flying plane, that is, to resort to the substitution rule.
Another rule is the violation of proportions. Try to see the object as unimaginably large. It is not for nothing that we so often used the word «giant» in our advice — in this way we just advised to apply the method of violation of proportions.
The next is the rule of exaggeration. Every time we used the word «thousands» we forced you to use this rule. Try to imagine thousands of things.
Finally, introduce action into your imaginary pictures. The action is always easy to remember. In one of the suggestions, we advised you to see thousands of earrings flying out of an envelope and hitting you in the face. Face punches are a memorable action.
Applying one or more of these rules to any picture will help you make it funny and funny. Very soon you won’t have to think about applying them — you will do it automatically.
Of course, in order to imagine funny pictures, you need to call on the help of the imagination. What a pity that such “gears” of imagination as observation, curiosity, delight, and so on, which were spinning like crazy in childhood, as they grow older, begin to rotate more and more slowly. Somehow society forces us to turn off our imagination. Children, on the other hand, never have problems forming the most stupid and ridiculous associations. They do it easily and naturally.
Soon you will see that our system will again turn the gears of your imagination, although, of course, at first they will turn quite slowly. But don’t despair — your imagination just needs a workout. It is very important that even trying to use our system will automatically become a good exercise for you. Practice will improve your imagination as well as your powers of observation as you work on yourself. Pretty soon you will find that when you think of two things, you immediately begin to connect them with funny, illogical associations — these are the first things that come to your mind.
Funny pictures are perceived more clearly and permanently imprinted in the mind, while a logically perfect picture is seen as more vague and vague. A study conducted at the Optometric College of Southern California showed that when looking at a real object, electrical impulses from the retina travel to the visual centers of the brain. In addition, scientists have discovered (more precisely, rediscovered, because the ancient philosophers said the same thing) that, from the point of view of physiology, there is not much difference between electrical signals activated by an imaginary picture and signals generated in the retina of the eye when perceiving a real image.
So don’t be discouraged if at first you have to spend a lot of effort imagining funny pictures. Don’t be embarrassed by the fact that at first it will take you a lot of time. It is even good that it will take a lot of work from you to start, as this will provide you with initial awareness.
We cannot express it better than an unknown ancient sage who wrote in the XNUMXst century B.C.E. e. «Rhetoric for Herennius»:
… nature itself teaches us what to do. When in everyday life we see insignificant, ordinary and banal objects, we do not remember them, because they do not excite our mind with anything new or remarkable. However, if we see or hear something base, dishonorable, unusual, great, incredible or funny, then we will remember it for a long time. We tend to forget what happens next to us, close to our eyes and ears, but often remember the events of our childhood in the best way. So there is no other reason why ordinary, ordinary things easily slip out of memory, while amazing and new things linger in it for a long time.
It must be emphasized that this idea is by no means new — it has simply been neglected. So try to make your associations funny and memorable. Again, a quote from Rhetoric for Herennius: «Art will complement nature.» This is exactly what happens in our case. When something strongly touches our senses with unusualness, grandeur, inconsistency or ridiculousness, this “something” revolts the mind and is remembered without any effort. It is difficult for us to remember some ordinary, familiar things. By making associations look funny, we make them stand out, unusual, new, or surprising. Art (or trained memory) complements nature — all our memory systems are based on this fact.
If you can apply the linking method to memorize ten items, you can apply it to memorize 20 and 30 items. Of course, it will take you longer to memorize 30 items than to remember ten. But it will take you more time in any case — whether you will use the method of connections or not. There is no limit to the number of items that can be memorized using this method.
We strongly recommend that you practice using the linking method on your own before moving on to the next chapter. Have someone give you a list of 15 items, and you make a chain of associations for them. You can do it yourself: make a list of items and link them together with associations.
Having practiced plenty, demonstrate your abilities to a friend. Let him say aloud a sequence of 15 or 16 items — as many as you can confidently remember. And then have him say the names of the objects, writing them down on a piece of paper. If he does not do this, he will not be able to check whether you have reproduced the list correctly (unless, of course, he has read this book). In addition, writing down the sequence of objects gives you time to form associations. Ask a friend not to name intangible, abstract things — only concrete things should be on the list: nouns and infinitives.
After he says the list aloud, you will repeat it in the same sequence. It doesn’t matter if you miss one or two items. Ask a friend to repeat them, correct the associations and repeat the list in reverse order!
But how do you remember the first of these items? When you begin to apply the linking system for practical purposes, this will no longer be a problem. The subject that you memorize starts a chain of associations. But even now, in the case of a friend, the problem seems to be completely solvable. Think about some item near the top of the list, and turn the chain of associations back — you will inevitably run into the first item.
However, you can do it differently: when your friend says the name of the first item, link it to the friend himself. Let’s take the list from the previous chapter as an example. If your friend says «airplane» first, just imagine your friend with an airplane on his head. That’s the whole point. Then a chain of associations is formed to the end of the list.
When you are ready to play the list, just look at your friend — you will immediately see a plane on his head, and this association will take you further — to the end of the list.
Again, we recommend that you test yourself with a few trial chains of associations before you continue reading. You can demonstrate your abilities to friends or test yourself by making the list you need yourself. We advise demonstrating success to others, because we know that this gives confidence in your abilities — you are convinced that the system works!