Mon, 25 November 2013
Would You Like A Memory Exercise That Will Give You Outstanding Mental Fitness In Just Minutes A Day ?
I’m talking about an exercise that gets you using one of the world’s richest memory techniques. It involves nothing more than something called the Major Method (see below) and 52 small objects you can take with you anywhere you go. If that’s something that interests you, then here’s a great question about the Magnetic Memory Method approach to memorizing a deck of cards. My answer follows.
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To memorize cards using the Magnetic Memory Method, we first need to learn the Major Method. It’s simple and as I talk about in the episode you can listen to above, Mark Channon has some great ways to memorize the follow list (give the episode a list for some of them):
0 = soft c, s or z 1 = t or d 2 = n 3 = m 4 = r 5 = l 6 = ch, j, sh 7 = k 8 = f or v 9 = b or p For an alternative explanation and tips on making these associations stick in your mind fast, watch at least the first video from my Get Good At Remembering Numbers playlist:
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Without having the Major Method learned and committed to memory, the rest of the Magnetic Memory card memorization method simply won’t work. You could try rote memorization or Juan Tamirez’s singsong method, but that takes forever and a day. And as much as I love the ideas Woody Aragón puts forth in Memorandum, I think the Major System approach will be faster for most people (though you can certainly give other approaches a try). After you’ve memorized the sound-number associations, focus on just one Suite. For example, start with the Spades. You can review my book on the matter for further details, but by now you know that this particular approach to card memorization requires that you assign each suite with a value after having memorized the sound-number associations. In this case, Spades are 10, Diamonds are 30, Clubs are 50 and Hearts are 80. Since we don’t actually count these numbers, each Suite begins one number up (Ace of Spades is 11, Ace of Diamonds is 31, Ace of Clubs is 51, Ace of Hearts is 81).
Rabid Zombie Bambi?!?
The answer is simple. We’re going to use the sound-number association method to create memorable images. Let’s say that you’re starting with the Spades. You need an image for the Ace of Spades. Ace of Spades is represented by 11, so that means you can make an image from “ta ta” or “ta da” or “da ta.” In my memory system, I always use “toad.” But not just any toad! It’s very specifically this toad: Why? Because…
Specificity In Your Associations Makes Them Magnetic
But you need to come up with whatever works for you because your personal life will always serve up the most memorable. It could be Data from Star Trek, a dozing doe like Bambi, or better yet, a rabid, zombi doe attacking Data. The point is to see the image you create as specific and concrete. But if you use a verb like “doze” for 11, you’ll be working with an abstract concept. A dozing doe is better, but also kind of boring, though you’d now be heading in the right direction because you’re compounding an object you can sense in your mind using the Magnetic Modes:
And a big, bright and colorful image of a rabid Zombie Bambi is not only exceedingly specific …
She’s Going To Be VERY Hard To Forget!
It bears repeating: the words you construct from the sound-number system should be objects you can picture in your mind – or at least describe in your mind using words. Here are the rest of my images for the Spades (remember: 1 is ta/da, so each word will start with one of those sounds). Because most people won’t identify with the concrete examples, I’ll just give you the root Magnetic Imagery for the majority of them before diving into a specific example. 2S (12): Tin can 3S (13): Dam – as in the Hoover Dam 4S (14): Tire 5S (15): Tail 6S (16): Dish 7S (17): Tack 8S (18): TV 9S (19): Tape Now for the following cards, we move to 20. That means each will start with a “na” sound followed by the sound of the next number in the digit. Therefore: 10S (20): Nose JS (21): Nut QS (22): Nun KS (23): Enemy The rest of the 20s you simply leave blank until the Diamonds, which are represented by 30 start at 31 with the Ace of Spades. I know that sounds a bit complex, but it’s actually very elegant once we’ve sorted it all out in our heads. Again, I cannot stress enough that you come up with your own images. But can you spot the one major weakness in my Spade number associations? It’s Enemy.
Why Is It A Weakness?
Because it’s not specific. I can’t see the concept of an enemy. Can you? Since writing the first version of this post, I’ve since “compounded” Enemy with the author and painter Wyndham Lewis who edited a journal called The Enemy. Here’s a self-portrait he painted in which he looks very much like an enemy indeed. Now, this compounding of a specific figure to the concept of “enemy” has certainly helped, but it does require two steps rather than one to encode the card. To take another example, in order for this system to work as well as it can (and it will if you put in the small amount of effort required), you need to be able to say that the 7 of Spades is a tack within a second of seeing it. And put it this way: if you put in the effort just one time, you’ll never in your life have to do it again.
Here Comes A New Idea For Using More Than One Memory Palace
Think of four cars, ideally the first four cars you owned so that you can mentally line them up in the order that you owned them. The historical order will help you remember which order they should come in your 4-part Memory Palace. If you haven’t owned four cars, then perhaps you can use four cars owned by your parents, your best friends, your neighbors, etc. Or you can come up with something else. The important point is that you select four “Memory Palaces” and that each has a 13 station journey. The stations I have on each car are:
That’s enough stations for one quarter of the deck. With all four Memory Palaces together, there are 52 stations, one per card. Here’s an important tip: the journey from station to station has to be clear in your mind. The journey should be direct: you should not cross your own path, nor should you trap yourself in any way. That just leads to mental confusion later on when you’re trying to recall the order of the cards. If you haven’t by this point memorized a set of images for the entire deck (52 in total), then at this point, just use the Spades. Shuffle them up and practice placing them at the 13 stations you’ve identified.
Give It Some Practice And Then … |