Simple Exercises to Boost Your Memory

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

An excerpt from a training book that will make it easier to remember and keep the information you need in your head.

Chapter 6. Hi Andrey! Strategies for memorizing names and faces

Dale Carnegie

Remember that for a person, the sound of his name is the sweetest and most important sound of human speech.

It was a small training session with only ten participants. At the very beginning, we were asked to stand up, introduce ourselves and tell a little about ourselves.

I sat in the middle and, while the other participants told funny facts, pondered my story.

When it was my turn, I put together, like a jigsaw puzzle, interesting events in one picture, quickly presented myself and sat back down. Exhaling mentally, as I was very worried before the performance, I praised myself and, satisfied, continued listening to the remaining guys.

After a couple of minutes, the main part of the training began.

Everything went cheerfully and pretty well, until just before the break, I became extremely curious - what is the name of each of the members of our group?

Pasha, Ksyusha, Sasha … it was very easy to remember everyone. I felt like, if not a superman, then definitely some kind of superhero … It took about two minutes. And then the break started, and I looked at the badges.

Joke

In general, I have an excellent memory for names … I just don't remember which one is yours.

Sasha turned out to be Cyril, Ksyusha - Nastya, and Pasha … I guessed right with Pasha. As a result, I correctly named only three out of ten. Three! But I'm an expert in memory development …

Why don't we remember people's names?

Joke

The next morning after the party, the girl comes up to the mirror, peers into it and tries to remember: "Hmm, no, not that … Or maybe … no, well, no!" A shout is heard from the next room: "Katya, make breakfast!" - “Exactly! I am Katya!"

When meeting someone, a person's attention is usually directed to anything, but not to the name of the interlocutor.

Our brain is busy with thoughts: how do I look, and what will I say now, how will I introduce myself?.. Interestingly, did I turn off the light? Did you close the door? Oh, cool dog! This is a husky, probably … And so on. In general, thoughts about everything except the name.

And we don’t remember what we don’t pay attention to. If we are not focused, then it is unlikely that we will remember the name of the person. This is the first reason.

The second reason is that the names are abstract and difficult to imagine. There is hardly a person who will say: “I remember your name, but I don’t remember your face!” It is always the other way around, and this is because we see faces, but not names.

The third reason is that there is no connection between the name and the person. What does it mean? There are situations when you remember the names, but to whom exactly they belong - no. This happens when you meet in large quantities. There is confusion - we call Ksyusha Nastya, Kirill Pasha, and so on. Sounds familiar?

Summarize. To memorize names well, you need to solve three problems:

1. No distractions.
2. Convert name to picture.
3. Associate a name with a person.

Technique "Detail"

I had a whole 15 minutes break to fix the situation and memorize the names of all the guys in the classroom using special tools. And I decided to do it using the "Detail" technique. It consists of five actions:

1. Before dating, say "What is your name?"
2. Find a distinctive detail in a person's face.
3. Convert a person's name to an image.
4. Combine a distinctive detail and an image in the name.
5. Repeat name at the end of the day.

Let's take a closer look at each point.

1. "What is your name"

For a second or two before you start dating, say this phrase to yourself. This will help focus on the person's name.

2. Distinctive detail

What is it for?

When we visit friends, we hang or put things in a certain place (for example, a jacket on a hanger, a bag or a jacket on the back of a chair) so that later, when we are going home, we can easily find them.

It's the same here: the person's face is the hanger on which we will hang the name. That is, the face is our palace of memory.

What are the distinctive features?

• Ears (large, small, protruding).
• Eyes (large, sunken, bulging, almond-shaped, narrow).
• Nose (hooked, potato, fleshy).
• Beard.
• Bald head.
• The chin.
• Eyebrows (thin, painted, thick, shaggy) and so on.

It is important to note here: what first catches your eye will be the distinguishing feature.

Let's look at an example. Take a look at two photographs (Fig. 15). What would you highlight as a distinctive detail?

If I had to memorize their names, then in the first photo I would highlight the eyes, and in the second - the lips.

How do you learn to highlight details in people's faces?

• Examine your face in detail. And then it will become easier for you to find differences in the faces of other people. This is how the comparison principle will work. Examples: her eyebrows are thinner than mine; I have a potato nose, and he has a crochet. You will begin to find differences faster, and thus, highlight the details for storing names.
• Pick one detail each week and try to learn from all the people you meet during the day.

For example, this week you chose ears. Now, from everyone you meet, try to make out them. What forms are they, how they differ from each other, and so on.

Do the same next week with a different piece.

3. Convert a person's name to an image

How to do it?

• We select the image according to the rhyme: Egor - an ax, Lena - an antenna.
• Or by the similarity of letters / consonance: El vira - el f. You can pick up two images: elf + pitchfork.
• It could also be your personal association with this name. For example, Sasha is a motorcycle. Just because your childhood friend has always loved motorcycles.

Important! Assign permanent images to names. For example, Egor will always be an "ax". This is necessary for the speed and quality of memorization.

4. Connect a distinctive detail and an image to a name

Everything is clear here, and let's look at examples right away.

• A man named Yegor meets you. He has thick eyebrows. Come up with or remember an image for this name and associate it with your eyebrows. Let it be an "ax" now, and then one can imagine how an ax is entangled in the eyebrows.
• You need to remember a girl named Nadezhda. Let's say she has big eyes. My image in the name of Nadezhda is a compass. I would imagine compasses flowing from this girl's eyes like tears.

5. Retention of information

For long-term preservation of information, use SIP.

Using this algorithm, I memorized all the guys in 25 seconds. A couple of times I ran it according to the SIP algorithm and at the end of the training I easily remembered the names of all the participants. And this despite the fact that the second part of the training was very informative and there was a chaos of thoughts in my head.

Additional materials: for the speed of memorization, it is necessary to select the images for the frequency names in advance. You can do it yourself or write to me at [email protected], and I will send you additional materials to the whole book.

Spaced Repetition System (SIP)

We talked a little in the second chapter about how quickly information is forgotten. And before we figure out an effective repetition system, let's brush up on what we already know about Ebbinghaus and his research.

In the 1980s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus decided to figure out the speed of forgetting information. To do this, he memorized meaningless syllables by cramming, consisting of two consonants and a vowel between them (gov, tab, mos, tych, shim, and the like).

The result of this experiment, which lasted for two years, was the following conclusion: after the first error-free repetition, forgetting proceeds very quickly - in the first 20 minutes we lose about 40% of all information.

After an hour, about 60% is lost, and after a day, if nothing is done with the information, no more than 33–35% of it will remain in the head (Fig. 16).

The conclusion that can be drawn thanks to the research of Ebbinghaus is the following: if you want to keep something in your memory for a long time, repeat it.

The easiest and best repetition method is practice. Read, learned something useful - make an implementation plan and make the information your experience.

And if you cannot immediately apply the knowledge gained and at the same time you want to remember the information for a long time, use the spaced repetition system (SIP).

Based on the forgetting curve, psychologists propose the following algorithm for repeating information:

• The first repetition is done immediately after memorization.
• The second is 20 minutes after the first repetition.
• The third is one day after the second repetition.
• Fourth - two or three weeks after the third repetition.
• Fifth - two or three months after the fourth repetition.

When I tried this system, I didn't like it. I did the third repetition - I remembered, but I remembered oh-oh-very slowly, like on the first repetition. And with the fourth repetition (after two or three weeks), it turned out that some of the information was lost, and it was necessary to retrain.

It was inconvenient for me to use this algorithm, but, as they say in one very famous book, “search, and you will find” - and I began to search …

Effective SIP

My searches through trainings, books and articles led me to the following algorithm. For the first time, the idea of such an algorithm was voiced by Nikolai Yagodkin. - Approx. the author.:

1. We remember something.
2. We do the first repetition right away.
3. We do not wait 20 minutes, but immediately after the first repetition we do several more repetitions in a row.
4. Then we start repeating at intervals.

Why is it so effective?

Imagine that you live in a hut in the woods and are going to visit a friend who lives just three football fields away from you. And, naturally, there are no other ways, you only need to go through these thickets.

You walk very slowly, as the bushes interfere, but you still move and after a while you reach your friend. Hooray! You were greeted with warmth and comfort, and you stayed at a party for some time.

And then what? Of course, you need to go home, and you need to go the same way - through a field of thickets.

While you were visiting a friend, the grass, which was not cut at the root, but only at the top, grew again, and as in a fairy tale - one head was cut off, two new ones grew in its place.

But you still need to return, and you go home with the same difficulty as the first time.

It's the same with our repetitions.

When we memorized something, we created a new connection between neurons. And while this connection is very weak, information is remembered slowly and quickly forgotten. And if we initially repeat at long intervals (as suggested by psychologists), then the grass will grow and it will be very difficult to pass.

But if we, for example, walk several times in a row back and forth across our field and trample a path, then we will go faster, and the grass will grow very slowly, right? So!

That is, if we repeat what we have learned several times in a row, the neural connection will become strong, information will be remembered faster and forgotten more slowly. And this is what we need.

Once again, as a result, the algorithm for effective repetitions:

1. Remember something - did the first repetition.
2. Immediately after the first repetition, do a few more repetitions in a row (three, five, ten).
3. We repeat at intervals - after 20 minutes, then an hour or two after memorization, and if there are no errors, then we double the repetition interval.
4. We repeat at least three days in a row three times a day: in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening (an hour or two before bedtime), and then we repeat in a week, two, a month, two, four, eight … and so on.

Leitner boxes

For spaced repetitions, you can use the Anki app, or if you want to do without gadgets and like to memorize through ordinary flashcards, you can make Leitner boxes.

It's very simple and very comfortable.

Take four boxes. On the first you write - every day, on the second - once a week (and write the day, for example, Thursday), on the third - once a month (and write a number, for example, every first number), on the fourth - twice a year (for example, 5 July and 5 December).

The first box contains all the information that you just memorized and repeat for the first three days. After three days, you take it out of this box - check it, and if there were no errors, then this information is transferred to the second box. If there were errors, then we re-memorize this information and leave it for another three days in the first box.

Then every Thursday we look into the second box, get all the information from there and check it. If there are no errors, the information goes to the third box and is checked once a month, if there are errors, then we first re-memorize everything, and then send this information back to the first box.

Leitner boxes are a very handy tool for organizing spaced repetitions. Try it.

Exercise: tell three different people how to effectively repeat any information in order to preserve it for a long time.

Andrey Safronov is a person with a unique memory, a teacher of mnemonics and a champion of intellectual sports Inchamp in the “Memory” category. In his training book "Super Memory in Seven Steps," he collected proven and simple exercises that will help develop memory, teach you how to store the necessary information in your head, and thereby increase productivity in work or study. You don't need extraordinary abilities or sophisticated tools to successfully complete assignments, only perseverance and consistency.