About Repetitions in Mnemonics [Very important point!]

General Memory Chat
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Remember! Matrix…mnemonics are everywhere, even if you can’t see it, it’s there.

There is no distinction between cramming and mnemonics! Сramming (mechanically repeating it 999 times with the hope of remembering) is one of the poorly effective mnemonics.
Don’t use it and don’t look past it, because there is quality mnemonics. That’s one.

Second, NO REPEATS. There is and never has been any repetition in mnemonics. Get into the meaning of the phrase.

If you consider yourself a mnemonist and talk about repetitions, that they should be done, then you demean and insult the very essence of mnemonics, its idea.

Why? Because the mechanisms of repetition and recall (reinforcement of neural connections) are completely different.

With rote learning you: repeat and “memorize” ;
With mnemonics you: memorize and strengthen access to information!

Repetition means: playing back information X number of times, reading it, retelling it.

We don’t forget anything, or rather our brains do. It is great at filtering information and helping to strengthen or weaken connections while we sleep. Depending on the importance of the information.

We think we have forgotten, but if given the right stimuli, the information can be remembered and is remembered. This is an empirical statement that requires more research. We don’t forget, we lose access to information. Neural connections are weakened.

The mnemonist has memorized the material, has multiple images in his or her head. He wants to remember it forever = create reflex neural connections. This usually takes 4-7 days, maybe less with diligence.

Let’s say we have memorized the answers to 30 volumetric questions. We already have the images. You go through them in your head, reading the sequence. The connection gets stronger with each viewing. And it’s not repetition. You already know the information and have access to it. YOU ARE INCREASING YOUR ACCESS TO IT. This is the most important thing in learning mnemonics properly.

There are also such concepts as “active repetition”, “interval repetition”…
My position was written above. It’s a disparagement of mnemonics, a demonstration of incomplete knowledge, or a pest (usually by authors who want to make $ on the topic of memory by describing it superficially and maliciously).

I had a little article posted here a year ago about how to memorize long term (for life). It touched on the topic of repetition. Interval repetition is useless garbage that should not be addressed by you. Because if you know how to memorize, you’ve mastered mnemonics, you don’t need it to hell. There was described an algorithm how to strengthen connections (maybe the vocabulary was different, but the essence is the same): memorize 100% → walk through images and strengthen neural connections → sleep (brain regulates strengthening or weakening for the day) → wake up and again walk through images and strengthen connections → repeat so 4-7 days.

Note that the word repetition is used here in a different context and has a different meaning. Because the reflexive connection will not appear immediately, and neither will a strong one. And connections between different kinds of images take relatively longer to form. You need to strengthen the connections until they become reflexive (0.2 seconds to 0.5 seconds). People who do sports memorization will understand me.

About active recall, I can say that this is another way of substituting concepts and delusions based on ignorance of mnemonics…

Okay, I can agree that when you have memorized the material, you will work with it and test it in practice. Reproduce it on paper or sound it out to yourself, for example in the form of questions.
But this term is superfluous, followed by all the same repetitions, intervals, etc. You may not agree with me.

In mnemonics it’s actually pretty simple, but it takes a lot of effort to explain it and it’s just not easy, heh.

The basic idea I’ve described, I’ll probably do a little afterword on another topic.

What do you need to see the image as? Should the images move or be static? This is a must-read for beginners.

Let’s start with the fact that every image and the connection 2 images have a conditional energy.We do work and expend it.

The greater the detail and the more jarring and quality of the image, the more energy is used. There is also the concept of "image weight. That is how much energy your image uses. The more completion in the imagination, the heavier it is. The less, the lighter. An example would be a car engine and a sock.

It’s okay if your image is “heavy,” it’s not that important, but it’s good to know.

Now let’s move on to understanding. How should you present the image?

It’s not important to color the image - it’s not important to be vivid, emotional in presentation. ALL THAT MATTERS IS IDENTIFYING THE IMAGE. That’s what the emphasis should be on! Imagine a fork, a cat, or whatever.

If you imagine an image that you identify, and therefore distinguish from other images on your mental screen - you automatically see it as vividly as you should! No more, no less. That is, brightness, detail, volume, color, and detail are automatically observed. You don’t turn on each of these parameters, you don’t set the value of these parameters, but as if you press one button and these parameters automatically start with the desired values.

There’s one harmful misconception that all kinds of authors of popular mnemonics books have here: present in detail and vividness, in motion, with emotion.

On the one hand, yes, brightness and detail, right, but when you imagine a black cat, you no longer have to build it up somehow in your mind or turn it into 4K FULL HD.

The ‘energy’ was mentioned for a reason. It takes energy to emotion, to movement, to trying to improve quality and make it even brighter. When you have a lot of images, it plays a role.

There is no need to move images. but you can do it all, there are no inhibitions in your head. I believe that in terms of effectiveness, a simple representation and connection to another image is sufficient. Like superimposing object A on object B, with a common outline. That’s it.

That’s really all, I will be glad if this material will be read and considered.

We have no alternative in the form of:

  1. I will repeat 999 times until I remember
  2. I will study mnemonics and memorize
    There is only mnemonics. Because the principles of mnemonics = the natural principles of memory and brain memorization.

Alphabet, text are mnemonic tools. Ways of transmitting images. Repetition (cramming, reading the text 99 times), as we have found out, is also part of mnemonics, but ineffective and useless.

Of course, it is interesting how, historically, a person has to learn how to work with his memory. Yes, exactly work with it. There is no memory development either, a publicity stunt. Memory training, yes, there is such a thing.
(In this case, I’m talking about healthy people who don’t have diseases associated with memory impairment).

And in general, mnemonics are basic. But it’s not the foundation of everything.

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@NekroFernus. I think I would like to throw you some real facts as opposed to strong opinions.

You can look this one up in the dictionary. Cramming is to study intensively over a short period of time just before an examination. We know from research that the longer period you review the better it is for you. Mnemonics are techniques to extend artifical memory. Repetition is the technique used in rote memorization as well as a central habit in any review technique after you form your mnemonic images.

NO REPEATS. There is and never has been any repetition in mnemonics.

Psychology says that the more time you invest in rehearsing (repetition), the more effective your memory is going to be. Even Quintillian recognized this. Spreading out your practice (not cramming) and reviewing repeatedly has the highest impact of review techniques. This is called the spacing effect in psychology and the technique is called distributed practice.

He wants to remember it forever = create reflex neural connections. This usually takes 4-7 days, maybe less with diligence.

A rehearsal of about 40 seconds is enough to reinforce your long-term memory so that it has a big impact when retrieving that information after one or two weeks. Just making something a habit requires an average of 66 days. That seems to be a good range for a habit of remembering something.

There’s one harmful misconception that all kinds of authors of popular mnemonics books have here: present in detail and vividness, in motion, with emotion.

Epsodic memory is called that because of the brain’s nature to hold on to memories that have increased emotion.

I’m just bringing you the research and if you would like any citations, I can provide them for you.
Doug

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This is literally wilfully ignoring scientific evidence. When doing repetition (of any kind, be that just mentally recalling and checking memories or doing a movement practise of some kind), the human body insulates axons (the connections between individual neurons) with more myelin, which in turn increases the rate at which electrical impulses can travel along said axon. This increase has been measured to be up to 300x as fast as without myelin sheaths. Not repeating when learning something is leaving potential on the table.

Yes we / our brains do forget loads of stuff (ideally the unimportant stuff), and that is a very important function of our brain. Read up on those born with an inherent eidetic memory. These people are often incapable of living a normal life because not only do they remember everything, but they carry the emotional information with them as well. So if they had a fight on September 21, 1997 with their spouse and they remember it, they feel the anger and resentment just as much as back on that day. There is a reason that many therapeutic interventions for PTSD involve attempts to either forget or at least overwrite the emotional memory of a traumatic event. The idea that our subconscious literally stores everything we ever did, saw, felt, heard, smelled, tasted is unsubstantiated and entirely implausible (as the brain first and foremost tries to save energy).

This is a false dichotomy. There is nothing wrong with using mnemonics and repetition in conjunction with each other. Repetition might be boring to you, but it may be useful to so many others. Why you feel the need to denounce it is beyond me, to be honest, as it is a tried and tested method of memorization. Coupled with mnemonics, you can have a really powerful memory.

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The notion of “enough research” is anathema to science.

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Oh, the idea behind this text, written at 4am, was that a mnemonist doesn’t need interval repetition, rote learning. Cramming is not healthy in itself. And a person with the skill runs through the images to which he has memorised the information. This has nothing to do with what is meant by repetition.

It has been observed by me that repetition and looking at images to reinforce connections are 2 different things.

Authoritative sources, ok.
In order:

  1. Psychology can claim anything and I don’t recognize it as science, especially when it was a fact from the same psychologists that short-term memory can hold 7-10± items. This has been disproved by mnemonists.

I want to note that scientists who work with brain and psychologists do not know about mnemonics, or consider it as nonsense, a superstructure. They do not try to understand it. They may be trying to describe the workings of memory, the brain mechanisms that allow it to do so. But even if there is more in-depth research, it will be a long time before we get to mnemonics through a scientific approach. That said, there are people who can remember and understand the workings of memory better, albeit at an empirical level.

I respect real science that will look for answers. It’s colossal work really. I am not an expert in medicine, neurobiology or biochemistry. My knowledge to date: advanced school biology and psychiatry, a small part of psychophysiology.

As for Quintilian and Cicero himself, I can say that they were mistaken and did not fully understand mnemonics. But, now I have no sources to prove it, and the topic is for a separate conversation. All in all, a good reason to reread.

What is written next and yes and no. Maybe I’ll rewrite, or do another piece on the subject. Expected similar responses actually. Eh…
About 4-7 days on reflexive connections is a fact that has been revealed by several years of memorisation + testing on other people. It’s been revealed by people with practical experience. You memorised, reinforced the images in the morning and evening, that’s it. You don’t need unnecessary operations.

What’s with the 40 second repetitions and the 66 day habit is not quite clear to me. Interval repetitions are not necessary for a mnemonist. Everything is described.

Emotions are also a separate topic, but if I’m not mistaken, the text has indicated how the images should be presented correctly. This is correct and effective, not because it is written, but because it has been tested by many mnemonists in its time.

Thanks for the answer, Doug. Now I will look at what other people have written.

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It is worth clarifying that I am not a specialist in this field of science, but I am not about to spread pseudo-science either. Any thoughts, things, facts I write about have been revealed in practice, by experience, by an empirical approach. They have been questioned several times and even now I try to look at them from a different angle. But come on, to the point.

There is a position that everything perceived by our brain is somehow stored in it, while being filtered over the day. The brain strengthens or weakens connections during the sleep process. Perhaps the connections are completely lost, I don’t deny it. But in any case, if I can remember what I perceived when I was 8, when I was 12 and other insignificant moments of everyday life of the past years can say a lot. The right stimulus can help you remember things that seemed already completely forgotten. Information is stored. All or not all of it is not known for sure.

Links tend to fade. Think of a normal sports race through the palaces/locations, the same 100 images remember different information from time to time, it takes time for one connection to go away and leave a clean slate for new ones to follow.

Links are weakened for these reasons:

  1. The information is not used
  2. The information is of no use and at night the brain weakens the connections
  3. We do not need the information any more and it is gradually forgotten.

The connection may be created incorrectly or incompletely, it may take a long time to remember what the information was. If there is a feeling that something happened, then the connection has been made and it needs to be strengthened (by remembering, imagining). If there is nothing, then it is not remembered. The connection has not been created or has been erased. Here it may not always be clear why this happened.

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But isn‘t going through the images exactly what people mean by „reviewing“ while using spaced repetition?

If you have a memory palace with your images that represent the information you learnt and you‘re going through these images, you‘re doing a review (or „repetition“). If you don‘t do the reviews, you will, at some point, no longer be able to recall the images.

So I think your statement:

seems very misleading, especially if a beginner reads it and comes to the wrong conclusion that if you memorized something with mnemonics you didn‘t need reviews.

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Perhaps you can call it that, but by interval repetition we mean: one hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, a day…a month…2 months. This is different. Interval repetition itself will not work in its pure form. You are accumulating material, you need to memorise it and repeat it at intervals. When it becomes a lot, it is unlikely to be performed in a pure form as described. So you have to find the optimal way. After all, it is also an interval in the sense of the word, but the context and approach is different.
You can go through all the images in 20-30 minutes and figure out what the successes are. The article shows the optimal way, which I use and recommend.

About the potential for delusion, I agree. On the one hand, this is the approach criticised, as it is called. On the other hand any intervals are called intervals. The article was written a little eccentrically, the inspiration was there.

Thank you

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I can call a fish a cat and you can call a fish a mouse but wouldn’t it be easier to lose the label and describe the thing itself as an aquatic creature with scales, tail, fins and gills?

Words or labels can be useful shorthand for complex ideas. But the downside is that confusion and conflict arise when we can’t get past the label to the idea behind it.

Maybe instead of “repetition” and “intervals” we are simply talking about “practice?” But even that term carries additional assumptions.

I think everyone’s kind of talking past each other but in reality may be describing very similar things in this debate, haha

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The book where I learned the most about psychology and mnemonics was Mnemonology. Have a look at it and feel free to discuss it with me.

But I won’t be discussing opinions with you. That’s your right to claim whatever you want. But your opinionated style uses a dismissive attitude towards research and even the classical writers, which is not productive. Also many of your definitions, such as short-term memory and cramming, are probably off the mark (in psychology, short-term memory means around 20 to 30 seconds) which leads to us talking about diffferent things. That’s just not my style of conversation.

Also, your claim that no one has talked about the mnemodisc conncept here on the forum is not quite true. Of course, the word is yours, but the concept is about using small features on an item at a location for pegs from what I could make out on your other posts. Granted, feature discovery (my term) is not a searchable term here but zooming in is.

But there’s a good reason why locations (loci) are better than item features and are used in competitions and by classical orators as the basis for a peg system. But as said in other posts, if it works better for you then it’s a good system. An honest appraisal comes after trying both systems for awhile. For most people, they’ll just use an item as in a Roman room style system where items in a location rather than features of the item are used as the peg.

You have some good experience and training in your background it seems and I like reading what you have done and what the results were so keep posting those sorts of things. I’ll try using your ideas in the future I’m sure. Experimentation to get better is a key activity for a better memory!

Doug

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What is the ignoring of science?
Ineffective ways are specified and an effective one has been cited. These theses are easy to test in your own practice.
That efficiency may be of a relative nature, if you like. Interesting observation about how neurons work, I should get around to reading a book about them someday after all.

Can you give me a link to the study? And what value does it hold? Something that needs to be repeated?

If it’s about learning itself, it’s either spiraling, constantly adding in-depth knowledge to old information. Or remembering everything you need by using mnemonics for irrevocable learning, with updating the data.

Ha, that’s where you’re caught in your ignorance…ahem. Eidetic (photographic) memory as it is described and imagined does not exist. It’s an old myth. At least 100% sure that photographic memory as it is described does not exist, otherwise they would have held all the records in mnemosport.
About other manifestations I honestly do not know, and I doubt it. All the more so, it could also happen to ordinary people. In my text we are talking about healthy people who do not suffer from any diseases that seriously affect facial perception and memory.

Do you know the extent of a person’s memory? There is so much space there that it would be enough for several people’s lives. If you have a bunch of stimuli at the same time, you will find it harder to work and live in general. Energy outflows. I wasn’t writing about the subconscious, I was writing about human memory.

Again, check on your memories, there are a lot of them. Different kinds of images will occur.

After the false dichotomy I started smiling. Why do you need mnemonics? What is mnemonics? What is this valuable knowledge for people? Can you tell?

Here I can speak for myself. I haven’t been cramming for eight years, I don’t repeat the same information over and over again. I have memorization skills and several years of practice, experiments, advice from experienced people. Initially I had a good understanding of the theory of mnemonics. Yes, it has no strict scientific rigour and nothing should be taken on blind faith. But when you start doing it in practice, you realize that all this repetition is unnecessary. The point here is not boredom, but the futility of the effort you spend on it. Self-deception. You are openly told, look, there is a trail number 2 you can use to shorten your time (to learn). But you burn no, all people have walked on trail number 1 and we will, because it’s been trampled, time-tested. You can go between the first and second . . .

Mnemonics is just the opposite of standard teaching. There have been questions like this since ancient times… what is it for? Is it useful? Is it necessary? Is it ■■■■■■■■? The interesting thing is that if you look at the history of art, people’s attitudes towards art are the same every century. Particularly evident in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance. Many of the conflicts and misconceptions associated with mnemonics already existed before. Giordano Bruno, in his treatise “On the Shadows of Ideas”, at the very beginning shows frequent misconceptions and scepticism. To which his opponent cleverly parries and gives short and witty answers.

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I too am interested in reading your answers and talking points, thank you. Just by asking questions and looking at an object from different perspectives, it is possible to find something or confirm an old one, to correct it.

It may seem that I write too confidently and ignore some works, just blindly hitting the keyboard, hehe. Maybe a little bit. The text in question was with a bit of an emotional undertone. If I write it, I imply usefulness of knowledge and faithfulness of thought. My purpose is to provide a fresh perspective on the issue, to remind you that maybe you should try it this way.

Still, people’s memory is ± the same, I can’t rate it as bad or good. You could call it perfect, but that would also raise a few demands and questions. That’s probably one of the problems with transmitting mnemonics as knowledge. You don’t have a clear scientific summary, you derive commonly known theses, put them through their own scrutiny and present them to the public. Some will accept it, some will say it is nonsense and untrue, some will simply not understand it, because they have a different way of doing things.

Either way, our memory is fine, we are improving/developing our memorization skills. This is a belief I’ve had constantly changing and shaping all 4 years.

Mnemonics is the art/knowledge of how to create neural connections. And that means remembering quickly, reliably and easily.

As my colleague used to say: mnemonics are the driver of our brain. A powerful computer without a driver will not work to its full potential. Mnemonics = driver. From these two theses one already draws “radical” conclusions that in general repetition, as it is habitually called, should be bypassed. You know how to memorise, what else do you need? If you immediately record the information you need in your brain, in your memory, then why repeat it as you do in conventional learning? Yes, there is reinforcement of images by looking at them, which does not correspond to repetition, but we can call it that in conversation, although it is not correct. We have to try to look deeper and check. Set tasks to memorise the information with a different approach if you are willing. But there is another problem here, that it is all scattered or described not always correctly. For example, there are mnemonic terms in my speech that in English will not have the meaning that went into them.

Before writing all this, I had 3-4 years where I was learning everything from scratch and communicating with mnemonists from my city, neighbouring countries. A lot of literature was reviewed, paths were identified, where it was better, where it was less. The superfluous ones were discarded, considered one by one. It was an interesting journey, in the beginning I was lucky to stumble across a popular book about memory, and then on the right people, who knew mnemonics. Thanks to them, I was able to get off to a good start and learn how to memorise. It was a long time, information was collected in bits and pieces, sometimes with the effects of surprise. But even then, there were already results.

Then it became a decent system.

If you create quality connections by memorising with quality mnemonics, encoding everything correctly that needs to be encoded. And further amplifying, knowing some of the nuances. It is possible to achieve success in your tasks.

To judge whether or not this skill/method/knowledge is energy consuming, one needs to master it first.

An analogy with grain.

One gardener will plant a grain in the sand and consider himself a good gardener, but only the weeds will sprout.

The other will plant the grain in normal soil and water it.

A gardener there and a gardener there. Only the other knows the subject.

ALSO

I’m getting tired of talking about locations). I can memorise a speech for a speech in two ways:

  1. Cicero
  2. Mnemodisc
    They both work. The task is easy. When several hundred images appear on a topic, method 2 wins in terms of energy expenditure and efficiency.

Although…both can be remembered, and people write that they have a route system for remembering useful information. If it makes you feel comfortable and doesn’t bother you, use it.

I think I commented on something like this earlier today. I’ll say it again.

There are 1,000 images to remember.

  1. 1000 locations, 1000 cells.
  2. Here we have a grouping of 6 items. It is no longer necessary to look at long routes.

Time:

  1. In 15-17 minutes (1 second per location) you can look at all 1000 locations, add 2-4 seconds for binding, maybe 8.
  2. In this time you can make such a system of images from scratch and already remember something, it can be extended at once or gradually. It is already enough for you to start with the fact that there are 10 parts on one image.

Energy input:
Depends on the knowledge of the locations and images, the skill and the training for the volumes. Also other factors as: sleep, water, food, rest, health, mood.
Image binding is the same in both. All that remains is to recall and strengthen it until it becomes automatic as necessary.

  1. You have to switch locations and it may be slow in the beginning. Then it gets better. The average number of costs.
  2. Less switching between images. You don’t need to remember the whole system, just the item that was linked to it and the images on it, and there images to images. It is compact and optimised. Less effort goes into it than with palaces.

This was the basis of the conclusion in favour of the mnemodisc, and Cicero is sent to the sport of memorisation. For example, if you go into sports with a floppy disk, you won’t get the same results as with the Cicero, because it’s not designed for that. That’s the way it is. :smiley:

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You can memorise everything in a day. And if you continue to recall information from memory (to use the information in life), everything will be self-driven to automatic application without conscious reliance on imagery.

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All very neat, but who(m) quotes a post, like 5 posts above the original? :thinking:

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I agree with NekroFernus,Mnemonics may have been created to reduce repetition. If memories are strengthen by related memories then it might be possible to strengthen memories not by repetition but through related memories which are not stored in the brain.If the brain is maybe programmed to strengthen connections by repetitions and our brain replays memories during sleep however if the brain is reprogrammed through practice to strengthen memories automatically and not make the person whose brain had been reprogrammed to retrieve those memories. For non extra-automatic strengthening of memories the memories not being retrieved but being retrieved normally otherwise(However I think that some bits of repetition might help and this might be dangerous and @user_7e might be able to give more details).

Maybe it would be automatic sub consious strengthening of memory pathways with out making the memories in those pathways being repeated however there might be a limit to that as our brains might destroy old pathways to make way for the new(Destruction partially being an amount of alteration to the original pathways, changing it, destroying it and turning it into a new pathway)

There might be a limit to the pathways that can be preserved at a time. The brain preserves the information that it thinks is important and makes way for the new information by removing the old information which it does not think is important.If it preserved everything there might be no way for the new information although the new information might still be stored(The brain might reduce the memories it takes in,The brain already has at least one filter-The RAS).

I wonder why we do not need to repeat the memories images in our everyday life 18-30 times but we might need to repeat other types of information if that reason can be exploited I would use it.I have a lot of Comprehensive Mathematical Memories to remember with out repetition(Mathematical Comprehensive memory being all the memories required to solve maths problems such as the memory of the meaning of math concepts)

I also wonder if we do not practice maths for 4 days we will not be able to remember it(For some maths chapters if not most maths chapters that is taught in schools),Procedural memories might last for 7 days, declarative memories maybe for 3 days although I do not know how much will conditional memories will last for but if the conditional memory lasts for more than at least 3 days then people may not be able to stop being able to do maths after 3 days of no practice due to losing that procedural memories of how to do that maths,they might have lost the declarative, conditional memories which may stop them from being able to solve questions of those chapters although it might not be the only reason.

If it is due to the loss of declarative memories then they can either be revised, reinforced.

Revision and Reinforcing may be the only two ways if those two are distinct ways to increase the strength of pathways in the brain.If what I had written is true that revision and reinforcement can strengthen memories.Subconsoius mind can reinforce the neural connections in the brain and it might also do it when there are memories of events such as an accident although the sub conscious mind also reviews those memories and gradually reduces the reviews of those memories. The stoppage in reviews of memories subconsciously might not happen in those with HSAM and PTSD.If people can learn anything they might even be able to learn HSAM but for academic memories however when it will come to giving exams those might affect giving those exams.I do not know when and what type of memories the sub conscious mind reinforces and how to make it reinforce those memories continuously however reinforcing certain memories might weaken some or all the other memories(Maybe by weakening their neural pathways).

If the subconscious mind can predictably(100% predictably) and controllably reinforce memories selected for reinforcement and do it again and again maybe through by using the data from the circadian clock which might be controlled by the sub conscious mind such as 200 reinfornecemtns after every 4 seconds, If it is possible then I do not know whether it can be done by using the technique of auto-suggestion or not.Maybe it is only half of the piece of the puzzle however it might cause mental illness if it works and people might need to be careful on how many times they auto suggest their brains to work as if that technique works and they tell their sub conscious mind to revise too many times then they might get tired, it might affect their daily life or may not work as the sub conscious mind if commanded to do some thing that it can not do repeatedly it will not do it and if auto-suggestions create programs in the brain then those programs can also be deleted or created,

Credit to ChatGPT,Youtube and some people whose name I am not mentioning to avoid getting them here posting comments where there are two sides I,NerkoFernus,maybe more people with others(People might be disagreeing here on the need for repetition)-I think that people can learn with out practice and also memories without repetition(I have thought that for 5 years at least maybe) ,

And,

Have a Very Nice and Great Day.

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Thank you for your reasoning. I can add to it.

  1. The brain can get tired because it is not trained for so much data at a time and you will not be able to work with the memory you need, everything else will be perceived. A mnemonicist friend of mine tried this on himself, he said, when memorising 4 pages of voluminous formulas for an experiment. He had a certain limit in his head and tried to overcome it, but it didn’t work. He ended up just resting for the rest of the day and not being able to do anything serious.
  2. The brain doesn’t care how much you memorise, but it needs to be trained. The volume is something you don’t have to think about and dismiss. There is a task to do so many processes, you do it.

Today I memorized 60 questions for an exam. It is better to start such things in the afternoon and have free time. You can do it all in 4-7 hours, taking into account the breaks. Took 10 at a time → rest. Most of the effort is spent on coding, I have 95% of the words are abstracts, you have to keep making it up and so it fits. Memorizing takes a small fraction of the time and is quite enjoyable, but it feels when the head says take a rest.

I had this condition when I memorised 180 numbers in 5 minutes and half of them were forgotten, weak connections.

I just need to memorise 60 question names → encode the answers into those images-> memorise → reinforce the connections after every ten and before bedtime + in the morning. It’s not technically repetition. If I were to reread this text several times and memorise - repetition. Of course, you would still read the text and check for similarities, because not all connections would be triggered immediately, but this is just a clarification, a hint to yourself. What have I coded paragraphs here, ah, remembered (after reading 1-3 words).

  1. Mental illness from mnemonics will never happen. They probably will if you rape your head trying to cross the barrier. It’s like hitting a brick wall with your bare foot every day. It will cause mental shifts due to psychophysiological factors.
  2. We can conclude from observations that there is a perception of information, the background that surrounds us + our special processes for remembering. And if you are tired of remembering, your brain will still fix and remember because it does it all the time. Interesting mechanisms.
  3. I don’t know what mnemonics were invented for. It’s self-made, haha. As they say, everything just (doesn’t) exist and then one finds it. Perhaps people have realised that this is the right way to memorise directly.

Or how to explain why there are many statements about the harm of writing. That people forget how to memorize. Already do not remember in what sources can be found, whether in the monograph of Frances Yeats, or in old books about mnemonics.

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In any case, people have managed to discover the basis of memory. I believe that everything around us is a mnemonic (alphabet, text, other images). Or memory, in other words. Because mnemonics teach you how to interact with it by creating neural connections. There are more than 55+ types of images, perhaps I’ll describe them at some point, although it’s possible to abbreviate and summarise.

Based on the previous point, we can conclude that there is no other kind of memorisation than mnemonic. However, one may immediately object and say that the brain remembers itself, but the information I need is not always there. And how do I know about mnemonics if it is a natural property of memory working according to the same laws?

And how do people know that in order to become strong or enduring, you have to do sports? (special exercises invented by people) This too has a natural basis.

Our brain operates with images and their associations. The basic law: everything that is simultaneously connected in time and space is remembered. The brain works in exactly the same way without our knowledge of mnemonics.

After all, memorization (mechanical repetition) is also a mnemonic tool, but it is extremely inefficient and designed for short-term memorization maximum (memorize and write down the number on a piece of paper). And it is extremely harmful. How many people hate learning and after 25+ years of age learn very little. How many “excellent students” have spent effort and forgotten, but got a grade!

Yes, people achieve success without mnemonics. Scientists, hardworking people and those who just love to learn. But they do it regularly and systematically, correctly.
You can connect their experience and knowledge with mnemonics, and we end up with a very strong acceleration for quality of life. You can memorise more, faster.
The same 60 questions I would never memorize by heart, much less in 24 hours. Yes, I would read them, I would have the rest in my head, maybe even come up with some kind of system. But the gaps would remain. You also need to read voluminous and good books here.

Seven hours of memorisation or several months/years of struggling with forgetting? I’m sure a mnemonicist can still do something fascinating. It’s a whole field of experimentation and practice.

Ooh, almost forgot, ahaha. About emotions and experiences. It’s also neural connections, images. Any memory from life can be seen as an emotion. A good memory and a good emotion and by analogy. The connections can be made stronger and weaker.

I don’t know for sure if it works for other people, but I will try to describe the method:

  1. Imagine a memory
  2. Think of an image to be associated with it. Encoding.
  3. In your imagination, enlarge it to intensify the emotion, or reduce it to the size of an ant, a grain of sand.

Eventually, some bad situations will let you go, and you won’t worry so much about the little things.

Also, life advice, you can simply accept the negative situations and move on.

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Since memory = emotion and image, why would you experience more negativity? It won’t solve the problem in any way, very rarely. It can be linked to a fear of failing. Learn to juggle or something else where you will constantly fail. It will make you realize that you don’t need to waste your time on it.

Imagine terrible scenarios in your life, what will you do if that scenario already happened five minutes ago? For example, your home was taken away, or all your money, your documents were destroyed for whatever reason. What do you do next? What’s the plan? This is a useful tool that allows you to think soberly even in stressful situations.

If I began to write about emotions, I remind you that the mnemonist must be cold-blooded and focused. No fly, people, or neighbor’s drill, should distract him during the process of memorizing and reproducing results.

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I disagree with your points about repetition on the basis that brains constantly forget things. Memories are pruned when we sleep, and using mnemonics doesn’t guarantee against this natural process.

However…

…I agree strongly with you about this point. The same old unfounded advice about using vivid imagery is rehashed in almost every book about mnemonics.
And recent research on visualisation for skill practice seems to indicate this is a bad idea, probably because it overly taxes working memory, making it harder to pay attention to the important points. They found that mental practice should be done in short episodes and with sparse, simple imagery. I suspect the same applies to memory techniques.

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@Ganxel, vivid, detailed, full of action is actually good, bizarre is not. That’s the big myth I see. It’s distracting. The brain needs breaks, you’re right. Citations available.

Doug