I want to memorize years in history with the major method for the long term. I have explored three credible options of increasing complexity:
The major method 2 digits (4 digit date is broken up into two).
The major methods 3 digits (remembering the millennia should be fairly easy and I can exclude it).
The major method 4 digits (only numbers 0-2100 however).
I am leaning towards a 3 digit scheme. My main concern with a two-digit method is that certain images will be used many times over (i.e. all images in 1900s would begin with the same image) and that this would confuse my memory.
Are these concerns well founded, or should I stick with the 2 digit method which is much simpler?
It depends on the timescale. If you’re doing American History for example, almost all of the dates would fall in the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first centuries, so a 2-digit method would be viable in this case.
I’d recommend a 3-digit method for your case. Test yourself out by doing random things like “Triceratops III of the Ethiopian-Finnish Commonwealth was abducted by aliens in the year 1674”. The millennium should be easy to memorize, and I doubt you’d confuse the 1st and 2nd millennia for example.
I’d recommend some sort of signifier you could use for BCE vs. CE if your method would go that far into the past.
Trust me, you will still have a hard time keeping things apart when you learn many events that happened in the same period of time. Imagine you study the 2nd world war events. 1939 is ‘pump’, 1940 is ‘Parisian and 1941’ is ‘bride’. You will probably end up having dozens of pumps, Parisians and brides within your journeys (unless you find a history book that strictly goes year by year). But this is still better than having the image for 19 every time.
Let alone all the similar images for the other centuries: The image for 39 would apear in 1939, 1839, 1739, … the image for 40 would appear in 1940, 1840, 1740, … and so on.
If you don’t have a 3 digit system you can do the same with an overlapping 2 digit system, which is what quite a few people do in competition:
1789
3 digit system: 789
2 digit system: 78 & 89
this way you attach 78 and 89 to the event (overlapping on the middle digit). If you got a PAO system you can make P the first pair and O the second pair. The A is something that makes sense in the context of what the date stands for:
Your person for 78 beheading the object of 89 using a guillotine to represent the French Revolution.
Additionally, just use different memory palaces to represent the different centuries. So the above would be in memory palace #17 whereas 1989 would be in your memory palace #19 and
Your person for 78 is smashing the Berlin Wall with the object of 89 to represent… well, just that.
This way the PAO compound image is already different from the one for the French Revolution; plus, since you’re in a different memory palace there is even less confusion.
If you don’t have an existing 3 digit system then consider the time and effort to set it up. Creating a set of memory palaces is likely less time consuming and if your main concern with the 2 digit system is image uniqueness, then I hope the above shows how that is not an issue.
Whether you use the major code for the century to remind you of the memory palace for that century or set up a table of contents memory palace to store away the palaces for the centuries is up to you.
Another question related to what you were saying: if it is an issue in overusing a certain image (i.e. always bride for 941) could this just be solved by using other signifiers for the same number in accordance with the major system (i.e. “burnt” for 941) making them up as you go along?
Or does the decreased speed in encoding and recollection in constant image generation render this option inferior to having a pre-determined list?
Using different number images is quite an interesting idea that I didn’t consider yet, thanks. Instead of bride for 1941 you could use bread, brat, Bart Simpson, portray, port, part, board etc. alternately. This could greatily reduce memory interference. I would recommend to make a pre-determined list of alternatives as coming up with Major system words spontaneously can take quite a while.
An advantage of always using the same image is that you can easily make conections between unrelated events that happened in the same year. Which method is better depends on your needs
I suggest you create an ad-hoc memory palace with a location for each century. Depending on the span of history involved, you would need 5-30 locations.
Repeatedly using the same image for the last 2 digits would not seem to be a problem. A key point is inventing an image to represent any given event.
In extreme cases of very eventful years, you might create a palace location just for that year, and dispense with the number peg word.
Thank you for this reply. I think I will probably use a pre-set list and afterward create different images if it is needed.
“I didn’t consider yet, thanks”. Your welcome! I do find it curious because when I first read of the major method and its consistent phonetic associations, I assumed everyone was constantly creating new images based on numbers, but on this forum, it seems everyone uses pre-set lists of a single image. If anyone has experience with the major method (or other similar systems) using multiple images for the same digits/without pre-set lists, please let us know what it is like.
Actually, what I was referring to was having the same object appear in many images.
However, the same holds for many images in a given locus. Suppose you fix a particular locus representing the 20th century. Repeatedly using the same locus is not an issue so long as your goal is to remember, for example:
Thank you for your reply. Interesting and innovative, I am not sure which to choose now. I like that your system has a consistent way to connect the date to the event through action.
Does attaching an image to a locus not erase previous ones?
Also how are you to differentiate. Do all images appear at the same time when you examine the locus or do you summon them one by one in a series. Is there a limit to how many you can fix to a single locus before it genuinely begins to affect recall?
Think how your natural memory works. If you remember an event happening in a particular location, it does not erase previous memories of events in the same location. Also many people use systems that involving re-using peg words, colors, etc. One image with the color red does not erase all other images with the color red.
But I am assuming you would not “examine the locus” to extract all the relevant images. This would be equivalent, for example, to “let’s recall all events of the 20th century.” Rather the locus would come to mind when you think of a specific image: “what century did this event happen in?”
