INSTITUTO MIXTO DE CULTURA IMDEC
Enseñar es un deber. Aprender es un derecho.
Resolución 003814 de 2017 SED Córdoba.
Código DANE No 32318200092601
Memory Magic
Dave Farrow is a Canadian who appears in the Guinness Book of
World Records for having the greatest memory. As a student,
Dave had a learning disability called dyslexia. Despite his
struggles with subjects like reading and writing, Dave found ways
to improve his memory in order to do well in school. In 2008, he
set a world record by memorizing the order of 59 decks of playing cards in two days.
How did his brain store all of this information? According to Dave, anybody’s brain can
do it, but it helps to understand how memory works.
Your brain is constantly taking in information through your senses. The information
enters your sensory memory, which has the capacity to hold lots of information, but only
for a few seconds. If you ignore the information, your brain will discard it. However, if
you pay attention to it, the information goes into your short-term memory. This is why
learning to pay attention is an important first step to improving your ability to recall
what you learn.
To help the brain focus, Dave recommends breaking big tasks down into smaller ones.
He sets a timer and works as hard as he can for short periods of time until the timer
alarm sounds. Then he takes a small break. This keeps his focus strong.
Your short-term memory can only hold information from 15 seconds to a few minutes.
In addition, short-term memory can only hold about seven things at one time. Memory
champions like Dave have to hold long lists of information in their short-term memory
at one time. To do this, they rely on different tricks.
One trick is to look at the first letter of every word you want to memorize. Then, create
your own word, phrase or sentence using all of those letters. This is called an acronym.
For example, if you want to remember all the colours in a rainbow, try remembering the
name Roy G. Biv. Each letter in this fictional name matches the first letter of a colour:
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. When you want to remember the
colours of a rainbow, just think of Roy G. Biv and you will have an easier time.
Another trick is to organize information into chunks. For example, when you try to
remember a telephone number, your brain usually remembers it in chunks. You
remember the area code as one chunk, the next three numbers as a chunk, and the last
four numbers as a chunk. This way, your brain only has to remember three things
instead of ten. This works for words as well as numbers. Imagine that you wish to
improve your vocabulary. Whenever you learn a new word, study words that share the
same meaning. This way, you learn several new words at the same time and you only
need to memorize one definition. Such words are called synonyms. For example,
synonyms for the word big are huge, enormous, gigantic, large and massive.
A third memory trick is to use visualization. Say you wanted to memorize how people
developed from wormlike creatures into human beings. First, create a picture in your
mind for each stage (picture a worm, a fish, a monkey and a human). Then think of a
path you regularly walk along. For example, you might normally walk from the path
outside your home, into your house and into the kitchen. Finally, imagine each picture in
a place along that path. For instance, in the garden you might see a worm. There might
be a garbage can in the garden. You can imagine that the garbage can is full of rainwater
and inside you can see a fish. When you enter the house you might see a bedroom door.
You can imagine a monkey is jumping on the bed. Then you might see a member of
INSTITUTO MIXTO DE CULTURA IMDEC
Enseñar es un deber. Aprender es un derecho.
Resolución 003814 de 2017 SED Córdoba.
Código DANE No 32318200092601
your family, a human, cooking dinner. Visualize that path a few times and you’ll have
the information memorized. Visualization works because the brain remembers images
well, and the wackier an image is, the easier it is to remember.
If you don’t keep using the information, your brain throws it away. If you keep
reviewing the information, it will go into your long-term memory. The more you
practice recalling the information, the better you will be at remembering it. Try these
tips the next time you need to remember a phone number, a new word or something for
school.
