Getting Confused in Starting to Memorize with Memory Techniques

General Memory Chat
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Hi there!

I have been confused with getting started on memory techniques because i bought a lot of memory training courses from different memory coaches.

I don’t know where to start and i’m on the edge of confusing stage at this point as to where and when to start every courses.

I’m muddle-headed already because of those things.
@metivier is also one of those memory coaches.

I’m excited to start and yet im confused.
Do you know what i mean?

What Memory Coach AB Bonita has said was that i could be confused and my brain wouldn’t be able to process all the information from every memory courses i bought.

Can you be able to help me out guys?

"How to plan my everyday learning and practice with memory techniques? "

Please answer the question above. Thank you.

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@Tanz, you have some questions to answer before you can plan out your day. Here’s a few that should help you plan strategy and design:

  1. What do you want to memorize?
  2. How much information is there?
  3. How long do you plan to keep it in memory?
  4. Do you understand the concepts in the information?
  5. Is the information organized?

There’s a few more minor ones but if you can answer these, you should be able to select a few conversion skills and an efficient technique, either a peg system or a story, and be on your way.

Doug

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What do you want to memorize?
I want to compete in memory championship, that’s simply the answer.

How much information is there?
Like a lot to absorb.
I need my brain to be absorb it like a sponge.

How long do you plan to keep it in memory?
It depends as to whether it is useful or not but one thing is for sure; i want to compete in a setting which you can be competitive in terms of memory prowess.

Do you understand the concepts in the information?
Like i said a lot of information are needed to be absorbed.
That’s why it started to let me be confused or something.

Is the information organized?
It needs to be in order.

Add-on:
“I need some discipline to learn the memory techniques each by each so it’s really overwhelming as it gives so much brain overload to learning memory techniques.
The problem is that i have too much to learn out there.
I have a lot of memory courses i haven’t finished yet.”

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@thinkaboutthebible
Do you have any tips to get started?

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@thinkaboutthebible
I asked CHATGPT about the plan strategy but it is not so-on point.

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@Tanz, you have a clear goal which I didn’t know before I asked you. Thank you.

I’m not a memory competitor so I wouldn’t have the best advice for you. I loved reading about Foer’s journey to be a memory athlete in Moonwalking with Einstein. That covers the amount of work that he did but not much on the memory techniques. This forum has plenty of advice on competitive systems for each type of event. Search for “playing cards”, “names and faces”, “binary” and so on.

You’ll need several conversion skills but don’t do all of them at once. Start simply with a half-hour in the morning and a half-hour in the evening. Then as you learn more, increase your study time. Keep track of your progress. Practice in your study time and then compete in Memory League. That alone will be the best type of practice you can have because it is as close to the real events as possible. There’s also a ton of good info starting with the Beginner’s Portal.

Good luck to you!
Doug

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Maybe that wasn’t the best approach at the outset. I’d recommend starting with a book or two, which will walk you through the process of learning the simplest techniques first and then exploring more powerful systems.

Personally, I think Dominic O’Brien’s How to Develop a Perfect Memory is perhaps the best, most comprehensive approach to memory techniques for beginners. I’d also recommend The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas, The Memory Book by Tony Buzan, Remember It! by Nelson Dellis, and Memory Craft by Dr. Lynne Kelly. But don’t pick up all of them right at the start, or you’ll be in same situation you’re in now. Pick one, and go through it methodically until you’re comfortable with the techniques being described. Use them to memorize information that is important and relevant for you. You’ll then have a better idea, based on your experience, of what techniques you need help with, which ones you’d like to explore in more depth, and so on.

If you haven’t yet read Moonwalking with Einstein, you should. A large number of recent memory competitors have been inspired by that book, including Nelson Dellis and Yanjaa Wintersoul.

Alternatively, just pick one of the courses you’ve bought and work your way through it. After you’ve completed it, then go on to the next one, if you’d like.

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Try 1, then 2 and 3. See what works and what doesn’t. It seems to me that most of the material will be repeated, or called by a different name. No need to worry.

I can write a short list of what a mnemonicist needs to know:
0. Anything that connects simultaneously in time and space, that connects = also memorized.
That’s the golden rule of mnemonics and memory, heh.

  1. The simplest skills to link objects in your head, to encode different information.
    For example, breaking a word down and linking with images; by consonance; by consonant letters; the ability to work with abstract words (quickly seeing an image to a word).
    Good exercises for coding: Engage with lists of abstract words and present them, without the goal of remembering. Trying to encode into images of medications, it’s interesting. Experiment. Encoding is very important in mnemonic skill. It affects the time and speed and ease of remembering.

  2. Cicero and remembering words, numbers, any information on it. Exercises on working through locations and memorizing on them. Create 50, then 100 in total. You can do 200-800 locations at once if you train a lot in sports. For practice 100-200 locations will do, feel the lack, create new ones.
    Locations should be mentally reviewed and “run through,” increasing the speed of perception. Also work out the connection with the locations and find weaknesses. All in all, this is extensive, but not the main topic. You need to understand which image according to Cicero (location) will be correct and good, and which will be unsuccessful. In practice…

  3. Memorizing 00-99 numbers. In the beginning, working off image codes, coding. A test for beginners. Maybe I’ll write on the forum how to keep all the numbers in my head at once in 1 day. Repeat and work up to automatism 4-7+ days.
    Memorize by twenties, cicero is just to help here. Practice. 5 times 20, then you can increase the volume of success, create yourself a test. And get to 100 numbers at a time. But that’s in the future. The main thing is to work out the principles and get used to the volumes. The most important thing is comfort. You need to hone your time and speed, reliability (number of correct answers) later. Don’t get discouraged when out of 50 you only memorized 12, although you can 48. Ha :smiley:

  4. After continue to practice memory exercises with different methods. And move on to the key topic: the system of memorizing in parts of images.

You come up with 1 main image, memorize in its place 5 random images, for example. On each of the images, allocate 5-10 parts, connect with encoded images of information. This is called a mnemodisc, mnemodiscette, etc. Necessary for remembering practical information.

Continued training of volume (increases), methods, remembering practical things. Move on to memorizing terms, texts (paragraphs) of varying complexity.

  1. In general, the general features indicated. But you can also add memorization of abstractions → foreign languages (Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, whatever you like). Here you need to work with a mnemonics coach.

You are shown an unfamiliar language with symbols, which seems to be arch- difficult, but in fact everything is logical and understandable. The alphabet, words and phrases are memorized. It is practiced. It is necessary again for training and practicing. You may not need languages, but to understand the principles will be useful.

  1. Summarizing. Set yourself a difficult practical task or with a trainer try to prepare tasks. Remember the complex (composed of simple parts) information. For example, theoretical questions for the exam, answers to them [30-35 pieces]. Or just sets of factual information of different kinds, to work off all the passed. We’ll have to think about that.

Mnemosport + practice = profit.
In the beginning, one goes into number memorization, for practice and habituation. And then, after mastering the basics, he can do other sport disciplines.

I would recommend mastering the base and then memorizing the rest. It is possible to compete in memorizing useful information, although technically it is more difficult to implement. But it sounds interesting.

Good luck with your studies

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@thinkaboutthebible
I will take on that advice. Thank you.

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@RMBittner
Sure, it’s a great advice to begin memory training. Thank you.

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@NekroFernus
It’s highly appreciated.
You are one of a kind.
Thank you.
I really appreciate the strategy to do memory training.
Again thanks.

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Very sorry if I’ve ever said anything that confused you.

I’m pretty sure I sent you a detailed video reply to one of your questions the other day. Did you not receive it? It might be in your spam folder.

The issue we face is that there are indeed many ways to start – perhaps too many ways.

I don’t know exactly where you are stuck in terms of finding the starting place that makes most sense for you, but one thing to consider are these four sticking places, especially with respect to memory training:

  1. Why things work as they do

  2. How things work in memory

  3. What specific ways to get them to work

  4. The exact action steps

Sometimes people focus on just one of these things, and in memory improvement, this can be tricky because:

Scientists don’t actually know that much about consciousness, let alone memory.

But even if we don’t know why our ancestors, our contemporary memory athletes and mnemonists do things the way they do them, we do know that those things work.

The action steps can be relative to a goal, but not always.

There is no “generally,” but the sum of my experience suggests this:

Memory techniques are about systems, approximately five.

There is not cookie-cutter way to explain exactly what order these systems should be developed, but I choose the Memory Palace first for a very specific set of reasons.

These include the simple fact that developing several Memory Palaces is a good memory exercise. And if you’re serious about using memory techniques at scale, having them in multiple is going to happen. Why not get into it a.s.a.p.?

Second, most other mnemonic devices can be used inside of Memory Palaces.

Third, all associations I’m aware of are spatial in nature. Many can be used as mini-Memory Palaces unto themselves. This is seen so much more readily when people have a basic (or intermediate or advanced) Memory Palace strategy already in play.

I don’t know how to shout out my “Memory Palace First” suggestion any louder than I already do, but I again apologize if the message isn’t getting through to any individual person.

As you’ve posted here, @Tanz, discipline is needed. That is a memory issue that can be solved, but it’s perhaps a performance coaching issue first and foremost. I’m not a performance coach myself, but these days, there are many inexpensive options out there.

Finally, you mention wanting to absorb a lot of information “like a sponge” relative to too much information being out there.

Brain-sponge analogies can be useful, but they’re not really all that realistic. An exercise I often give students is to challenge the metaphors they have and come up with ones that correspond to existing competence. From there, the metaphors can be changed progressively over time.

Information overwhelm is often caused by not having a goal. And information is overwhelming. But there are a variety of principles that can help us see that it’s also incredibly repetitive. Getting started on one major research project and developing some fundamental “crystal” knowledge in one area can help you build the foundations for pattern recognition that itself becomes mnemonic in nature.

You’ve gotten good suggestions here, and I hope this post compounds on that. Rest assured, I’ve seen many people have the light go on over the years. Sometimes it takes a weekend, sometimes a month, sometimes a year, sometimes more.

But one thing is common amongst all of them:

They pick a starting point. And if they drop the ball, then the practice becomes picking it back up.

And that’s true for me too.

Two of my favorite mantras are easy to remember:

Stop stopping.

Get back on the horse.

Combined, they’re like magic.

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I’d be interested to hear a bit more about this! Are you implying that all or most information can be categorized into five general types and there are five corresponding “best practice” techniques/systems to approach encoding each one? (Anchored by spacial association via memory palace journeys?)

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There are infinite, are at least near infinite possible types or categories of information.

The five systems – or nearly five systems – basically boil down to:

  • Spatial memory/Memory Palace systems

  • Alphabet systems

  • Number Systems

  • Symbol systems (if you need to memorize symbols like & and ^ such as for passwords or math)

  • Active recall systems

You could add figural systems, such as for memorizing abstract shapes (apart from symbols). But I never do that, and the one time I competed, memorizing shapes/images was not in play.

As I say, I approximate five systems. This is approximate because you could argue that a number-shape system is different than the Major System, and it is. But they’re both number systems at the end of the day.

You can also say that both the number-rhyme and the Major are variations or degrees of sophistication on the pegword method/system.

And here is why human acts of categorization can be potentially infinite.

In my forthcoming ontological work on Bruno and memory (coming tomorrow, actually), I interpret that he does not think words can ever be infinite, or even close because they appeared at a moment in time. That is (perhaps) another matter all together, so for now, I digress.

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Something I don’t understand in alphabet systems: you could memorize things and group them alphabetically but how do you recall them? Especially if there’s an empty letter (no images assigned)?

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There are different ways to think about it, but the key way is that if your Memory Palaces are well-formed, your associations well-chosen and well-elaborated…

Then you don’t have to recall them. They leap to mind as you go through the Memory Palace.

Sometimes, that doesn’t happen as happily as other times.

But that’s okay because the science of active recall reminds as that the stretch to recall itself helps form memories.

And it also tells us that personalization and variety are key, two more reasons using this technique is great: it demands from us both personalization and variety in order to work.

That circles us back to the discipline issue @Tanz raised in his OP.

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Can you explain the last 2 thoughts, please?
Our memory works on the principle of stimulus → reaction.
Thinking, remembering and replaying.

What does active recall mean? And what is the urge to recall that helps form memories? Do you mean repetition in some form or not?

In order to remember, you have to remember it, link the images to each other, thereby creating a neural connection. 1 image can shrink quite a lot of information, you can always make a clarifying one. The mnemonist does not think about the urge to remember. He is remembering. If it’s just life events, then again the mnemonic law is in action. And one can remember specifically with images, or let the brain filter it out on its own.

Personalization and variety. What is meant by this? There are two chairs, they are two different chairs. Difference of images.

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Certainly stimulus and reaction is part of it. But that’s likely not the whole story – especially when it comes to prospective memory, matters related to introspection, insight and… well, it’s not a unitary mechanism with such simple plumbing according to the science I’ve read.

Active recall is quite a developed science, but in brief, personalization is not like your chair example.

Using a chair generically in a Memory Palace (or as an association without an MP) is where a lot of people get stumped.

Personalization is making sure a chair is a specific chair. And then going further to elaborate with as many highly personalized associations as possible to get the job done. Note that I’m not talking about short-term mnemonics for competition: I’m talking about mnemonics for the goal of longer term retention. This step matters a great deal.

Variety can mean a few things in this context, such as the variety of associations in play for any given mnemonic and the variety of the information. This gets into principles like interleaving as well.

I’m not sure what more to say about discipline. But many others have reflected on it in terms of everything from self help to the neuroscience of self. Whatever it is, it’s probably also not a unitary mechanism.

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Thank you for the clarification. I will read up on the subject.

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I would recommend the following.

  1. Make some memory palaces that are long enough for the Images discipline on Memory League. You’ll need 30 locations for a game. I’d advice to create enough palaces to play five rounds a day, hence 150 locations in total.

  2. Train Images on Memory League. This is the fastest way to get into practice because Images don’t need a system like Numbers and Cards. All you have to do is travel through your palace and link the images to the locations in a memorable way, one by one. Watch how your times improve in one week or two. You’ll be astonished.

  3. You can also try Words and Names on Memory League. For example you could use 50 out of the 150 locations for a round of Words, then play another three rounds of Images. All you need so far is the Memory Palace method.

  4. After some time, you can also create systems for Numbers and Cards. For the beginning I’d recommend a simple two digit Major system plus a One Card, One Image system. Improve your recognition time until you can play on Memory League.

  5. Expand the number of palaces so you can play more rounds a day.

  6. After a while start to experiment with the system images. You’ll probably find that some stick better than others. Refine your systems in order to optimize them. In my experience it’s best to use images that are important to you, or that you know very well.

  7. At least several months should have passed. Now you can start to work on bigger systems for memory championships or facts learning. Whatever suits your needs best.

  8. The most important advice: Have fun!

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