Introduction to Memorization
Memorization techniques for beginners: where to start
Start with a small list, make a meaningful cue for each item, and test yourself without looking. Mnemonics such as a memory palace, the link method or a peg-word system can help with ordered facts and names. To remember material over time, combine the cue with spaced retrieval instead of just rereading the list.
- Pick five items you actually need to remember.
- For each item, create a clear word, picture or familiar-location cue.
- Close your notes and recall all five in order; check your errors.
- Strengthen confusing associations, then retrieve again later today and on another day.
- Increase the list length only when you can retrieve the shorter set accurately.
Which technique should you learn first? Start with the link method for a short ordered list, the peg system for numbered information, or a memory palace for longer sequences. A major 2013 review of learning techniques found particularly broad evidence for practice testing and distributed study. No single visualization trick guarantees that everything you study will stick.
Introduction
People do forget a great deal of information when they do not use it, but there is no universal rule that everyone forgets 90% within 30 days. Retention varies with prior knowledge, attention, practice and the time elapsed. The useful lesson is to retrieve information again after learning it.
If we passively engage in learning the way that most people do, we tend to forget more than we remember. It explains why I did so poorly in school. I thought classes were boring. In fact, I would rather have been anywhere than in class.
I didn’t know the importance of using my imagination to make the material my own. One of the most significant takeaways from learning about memory is the importance of creativity. A creative association can make some facts easier to recall, but it still takes understanding and deliberate practice to retain complex material.
Storytellers
If we look back to the world before writing, undoubtedly, people understood the importance of a great memory. What other choice did they have?
Storytellers were particularly great at memorization. Their job was to impart lessons and entertain others.
Obviously, we don’t know too much about the techniques these masters used because they didn’t write anything down; however, there are clues in some of the stories that were passed down to later generations.
In ancient Greek literature, many characters were assigned a specific adjective to describe them. For example, the word mighty is connected to Hercules, even if he’s not doing anything spectacular. The word beautiful is attached to Aphrodite, even if she’s committing an atrocious deed.
These adjectives act as a mnemonic device, so the person telling the story knows which character is driving the action. The contextual clues aid in creating images and little mind-movies that make storing and recalling memories easy.
Rhetoricians and the need for Memorization
In Ancient Greece and Rome, politicians learned memory techniques to help with public speaking. It was necessary to impress their colleagues with a vast reserve of knowledge and information ready in their minds.
Classical writing describes trained orators using orderly locations and striking imagery to organize material for speeches. We should be cautious about modern-sounding claims that ancient speakers routinely memorized thousands of independently verified data points: the surviving accounts are not equivalent to controlled experiments. The central technique—connecting unfamiliar material to familiar places or images—remains useful today.
Types of Memory
At the time of this writing, it is generally accepted that there are four different types of memories: working, sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Working memory
Working memory is a little snippet of memory that allows us to see continuity. It is necessary for decision-making and reasoning. We need working memory to manipulate and use stored information.
Sensory memory
We are constantly bombarded by what we see, taste, touch, smell, and hear. If we paid attention to everything all at once, we would quickly become overwhelmed.
Our sensory memory creates a brief snapshot, and our brains focus on the essential details. Even though sensory memory is fleeting, it allows us enough time to develop relevant sensory information into short-term memory.
Short-term memory
Short-term memory holds information briefly, but its duration and capacity depend on the task, attention, rehearsal and how items are grouped. The classic “seven plus or minus two” figure describes findings from particular experiments and is not a universal limit. Modern research often emphasizes a smaller number of meaningful chunks, especially when rehearsal is controlled.
Mnemonic training can make information easier to encode into meaningful chunks and retrieve later. That does not mean a technique permanently expands everyone’s raw working-memory capacity.
Long-term memory
There are at least two types of long-term memories: non-declarative and declarative.
Non-declarative memories are the collection of skills and habits that we perform automatically. It doesn’t require conscious thought to perform a non-declarative action.
In general, declarative memories require conscious recollection. We must make an effort to retain this information. For some of us, that is not an easy task. It certainly wasn’t for me until I learned the same techniques I will show you.
We can further break down declarative memories into episodic and semantic. Episodic memories are our personal experiences. For example, remembering your first date is an episodic memory.
Semantic memories are the facts and figures that we retain. Learning that Mars is a planet in our solar system is an example of semantic memory. We are most interested in improving our ability to memorize semantic information.
How Memories are Stored and Retrieved
Only recently have neurologists started to understand how memory works. Ironically, it took a man with a terrible brain injury to provide scientists with essential clues to unlock the mystery. His name was Henry Molaison (H.M.).
What patient H.M. taught scientists
Henry Molaison, known for decades as patient H.M., experienced severe epilepsy. In 1953, surgeons removed tissue from both medial temporal lobes in an attempt to reduce his debilitating seizures. The operation became central to researchers’ understanding of human memory.
A neurosurgeon named William Scoville came to help. After much consideration, Scoville decided that the problem was in H.M.’s temporal lobe and removed a section on each side of his brain. Included in the pieces taken out were the hippocampi.
The operation reduced his seizures but resulted in profound anterograde amnesia: he struggled to form new conscious memories of events and facts. He retained some older knowledge and could still acquire certain skills through practice, demonstrating that not all kinds of learning rely on the same brain systems. The Society for Neuroscience’s BrainFacts account explains these distinctions.
Click here to read more about his story.
What does this mean for memorization?
Because scientists knew what was taken out of H.M’s brain, they could partially map which regions of the brain are important to memory.
The hippocampus and surrounding medial temporal structures support the formation and retrieval of many kinds of declarative memories. Their roles are more complex than simply moving a memory from one storage box to another.
Long-term remembering involves distributed activity across networks including the neocortex and medial temporal lobe. No single region works as a simple filing cabinet or search engine for every memory.
The amygdala is involved in emotional learning and can influence what is remembered, but strong emotion does not guarantee accurate recall. For studying, combine personally meaningful cues with active recall and later review.
Helpful Tips
Before getting started, it is best to provide a few tips that you can apply to any memory technique. Generally, the more interesting, vivid, and emotionally charged the memory is, the easier it will be to recall. For example, it’s much easier for me to remember how teachers made me feel for not knowing an answer because I was embarrassed in those moments. I cannot remember the content they taught because I found it boring. If I knew that I could let my imagination run wild when trying to memorize the names of the presidents, it might have been a different story.
Anyhow, here are my tips:
- As you think about the information you encode, add color to the images you imagine.
- Use your imagination. Make the scenes crazy, large, funny, bizarre, and sexual. The more outrageous the scene, the more memorable it will be.
- Add movement. Because of our evolutionary history, our brains prefer action. Movement is more memorable, so whenever possible, form movies in your mind.
- If you can, add multiple senses to the images and movies in your mind. At the very least, the mental pictures should include sight, but if you can add touch, smell, taste, or audio, it will be even more vivid.
- Sequencing and ordering information will make it easier to remember, especially if there is a lot to sort through. It’s the same as searching through an organized drawer or files scattered randomly on the floor. It is always easier to sort through organized files.
- Imagine things in 3-D. The more immersive your experience, the better your memory will be.
And that’s it! It’s finally time to get into learning memory techniques.
Next: The Link System
Try the next memory techniques
Start with the Link System, compare peg words and memory palaces, and reinforce what you learn with spaced retrieval.
