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Remembering historical events
Friday 21st of November 2008 15:57:12 AM
It can be hard to remember historical events accurately. To help us with this we can use the loci method described in the previous post.
Let us take the first ten American presidents for example. They were Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams(another one), Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison and Tyler. Some who read this might know them by heart but most probably know some of them and most might also have some problems if asked in which order they were presidents. But with the help of the loci method we will arrange and remember them just fine.
First think of a place that you know well. A good place might be a classroom where you studied history. Make a route for yourself through the classroom (if that is what you chose) and chose ten different spots along that route where you will place the presidents.
Now let us make a list of associations. For example:
- Washington = a washing mashine
- Adams = an apple (the one Eve gave Adam)
- Jefferson = a record from the band Jefferson Airplane
- Madison = a miniature of the madison square garden
- Monroe = Marilyn Monroe
- Adams = an apple with the number two painted on it
- Jackson = a lumberjack and his son
- Van Buren = A van with a heavy burden
- Harrison = Harrison Ford
- Tyler = Tyler Durden form the movie Fight Club
These associations might not come natural to you. If not so, then make up your own list.
All you have to do now to remember the presidents and in which order they were in office is to memorize the route with the items from the list placed in order. You will find that it is easier than you might think. Comments(0) - Add a comment
The Loci memory technique
Friday 14th of November 2008 14:18:57 AM
The loci memory technique dates back to ancient Greece. Loci means place in greek and the memory technique was widely used during ancient times. Among others the Romans praised it for it's many uses.
It can be used to memorize facts, speeches, words and many other things. In this post we will describe the basics of the loci method and in later posts we will write more about practical application.
The first thing you need to do is to organize whatever you have decide to remember into a list of elements that you associate with the things you want to remember.
As an example one might take this list of objects (we'll explain later why you should remember these objects), a glass of water, a balloon, a battery, a berry, a boring book, a piece of coal, a stick of dynamite, a oxygen mask, toothpaste and a neon sign.
Now when you have your objects you need a road map. A road map is best if is placed a place you know well. For example the house you grew up in or your neighborhood. The idea of the road map is for you to select as many places along the way (through your house or neighborhood) as you have objects and then place them one after the other.
For example a house: 1, the glass of water is placed at the doorstep, 2, the balloon is placed in the hall, 3, the battery on the bench in the hall, 4, the berry is placed in the kitchen that lies to the right of the hall, 5, the boring book is placed in the living room that you enter after passing the kitchen, 6, the piece of coal is placed right in front of the stairs leading up to the second floor, 7, the dynamite stick is placed right where you get up on the second floor, 8, the oxygen mask lies on the bed in the first bedroom, 9, the toothpaste in the bathroom and finally 10 the neon sign right above the bathtub.
Could you visualize all of that?
If you could I'm sure it would not be very hard for you to remember the list of ten items. And the more times you go through the list and the road map it will be easier for you to remember it. The information will also stick suprisingly long as might notice in a couple of days.
So what was it you memorized?
It was the first ten elements in the periodic table. Hydrogen associates to hydro, water, a glass of water. Helium, a helium balloon that floats in the hall. Lithium, a lithium battery. Beryllium, associates to a berry. Boron, a boring book. Carbon, a piece of coal. Nitrogen, a dynamite stick with nitroglycerine. Oxygen, a oxygen mask. Fluorine, the toothpaste with fluorine. Neon, the neon sign.
These associations might not come natural to you. That's why it's important to find the ones that do make sense to you.
Next post will be about some more practical applications of the loci method.
The new Foxythinking blog - and a tip called chunking
Tuesday 11th of November 2008 14:09:14 AM
This is the new Foxythinking blog where we will be writing about all the latest news concerning brain training and mental fitness, combined with mnemonic techniques and tips and tricks and on how to reach your full potential.
We hope you will enjoy this new blog and please feel free to comment on all the posts.
The first thing we will share with you is a technique called “chunking”.
The average person can hold five to seven elements at once in their working memory. Examples of elements could be items in a shopping list or numbers in a phone number. This five to seven limit can be increased with the help of memory training but the technique “chunking” helps you use the ability you already got to the fullest.
The simple explanation of “chunking” is that you “chunk” many small elements into larger entities.
For example let’s take this list of random numbers 8, 3, 5, 2, 1, 9, 7, 3, 6.
It is probably quite hard for most people to remember these nine numbers, especially if it they are only read once. In fact most untrained persons would not remember all of the numbers if they were read to them only once. This is because of the limit in our working memory.
But if we apply “chunking” it will quickly become easier to remember. Let’s do one first chunking 8, 3, 5, 2, 1, 9, 7, 3, 6 becomes 83, 52, 19, 73, 6. We have now transformed a nine element series into a five element series. A five element series is well within reach for most people.
Let’s do another chunking 83, 52, 19, 73, 6 becomes 835, 521, 736. The original nine element series is now only a three element series that is much easier to remember.
The observant reader might then suggest that we should keep chunking until we have only one element, since that with this logic would be the easiest way to remember the digits. But there are limits to chunking as well, limits that can be stretched with training. It is therefore not certain that 83552, 1736 is easier to remember than our three digit chunking.
If you want to try this new technique right away, play our game memory. The game will also help you increase the numbers of element that you can “chunk”.
