Modified Photographic Speed Reading combined with a memory technique and a brain exercise with results

General Memory Chat
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Edit : I have edited this method and the latest version of this method is in Post Number 7.
Well I had heard about the Photographic reading method by Raymon Campayo and I have modified it to reduce or eliminate inference which reduces recall when using speed reading and I have combined it with a memory technique and the steps of this technique is as follows-

  1. Photograph 4-6 words in a sentence

  2. Think of an object representing that sentence or those words and coordinating over a 2D paper map.

Note- If more than two objects or three are present then the first object can coordinate with the second object and the second object can coordinate with the third object…

Probably by an interaction or an action.

Results

With this technique I was able to recall 16% of the Sentences of the individual pages of a 13 page chapter in a Large Science Textbook while also recalling 4% sentences in the wrong paragraph, However two pages of that Science book had only 5 sentences combined which I could have easily memorized had I paid more attention which are about 16% of the number of individual pages in the whole chapter.

Here is an account of the results -

  1. Successfully Recalled - 16% of the whole chapter(16 Pages)
  2. Recall was of the wrong papagraph - 4% of the whole chapter(16 pages)
  3. Total Recall(Taking into account incorrect recall of sentence positions) - 20% of the whole chapter(16 pages)

And my Potential Results

  1. Could have Successfully Recalled(By paying more attention to 5 sentences of two pages) - 16% of the whole chapter(16 pages)
  2. Sentences had thought about but did not link and so could not recall - 10% of the whole chapter(16 pages)
    3.Complete and total recall statistic - 46%

Tips I used

  1. Drill down some of the easy to forget information that you learned before learning or memorizing more to improve recall. Based on the Tip given by Alex Mullen in his interview with Nelson Delis. Note- The first tip is easier to apply but it may be significantly less effective than the tip given by Alex Mullen.

  2. Add more maps as you go.

  3. When memorizing text memorize only its main ideas,Idea gotten from Anthony Metivier.

  4. When you feel that your memory is full increase and decrease the size of objects randomly to improve recall. Note - Objects are present in this version of this memory technique and may be removed in a future version of this memory technique if it comes out.

  5. Reuse facts. I think that this line was written or said by Raymon Campayo.

Comments

I think that with some improvements the results of this technique can rival that of The Method of Loci and The Journey Method whose recall decreases the more information you store on them(at least for me) and with the method of Loci I can remember 33% of the information which I have read but I think that the results of the method of may not be as good for me and others if I will try to memorize an entire chapter with the method of loci and also If the response is positive then I will continue to develop this method but if the response id not positive then anyone who wants to develop this method can do so.

Potential Improvements to this method

  1. Using the Forget step from one of Jim Kwik’s memory method

  2. Replacing the Memory Palace method with the Journey method for increased recall.

  3. Adding Brain exercises in this method which Do improve recall to this method.

  4. Replacing Objects with Locations over Locations. Which is an idea for doubling recall speed by one member of this forum.

  5. Adding a Structuring Method to organize Memory Palaces which is in the Art of Memory Forum.

  6. Adding a method to memories cues to decrease the amount of storage needed for memorizing text with a potential future version of this method.

  7. Adapting an improved method of loci to the journey method.

  8. Adding the slightly extended SCALM method to this technique.

  9. Replacing the encoding step of this memory technique with a combined encoding and consolidation step in this memory technique.

  10. Adding a retrieval method for information in this memory technique.

Cheers.

3 Likes
Is it possible to gain the method of loci synthesia,Edit-Yes it is see Virtual Memory Palaces along with text
Is it possible to gain the method of loci synthesia,Edit-Yes it is see Virtual Memory Palaces along with text
Is it possible to gain the method of loci synthesia,Edit-Yes it is see Virtual Memory Palaces along with text
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Well I searched in the internet about this and I found this article which is here -
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03195949.pdf
In which it is written that
“Integrated representations have important beneficial effects on learning and recall. It has been shown that retrieving an item from an integrated representation results in little or no interference (Radvansky & Zacks, 1991).”
And an integrated representation is used in this technique to recall an item(Perhaps a text) which leads to little or no interference(which causes more forgetting in speed reading than in normal reading) and this is further combined with a memory technique to improve memory when this technique is being used.

And while this technique increases speed of reading I am not sure whether it improves as much and I do not know whether this technique increases comprehension.

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Well @Erol based on your knowlage can you tell me how well this technique can work and if according to you it works well then how can I improve it.

Cheers.

Questions N2
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I do have the book of Ramon, however, I have not read it fully yet.

Also I’m not really keen on speed reading, more of a person on comprehension reading. I can naturally read fast, but this is because I have read 100s of books and developed my own speed, however this doesn’t mean I can retain all the info I’ve read while speed reading. Having said that, I have a coach who agreed to teach me all about speed reading, because I also told him that I didn’t think speed reading should be called “speed” reading if you can’t retain the information you are reading about. I like to read at my own speed, and my natural memory will pick up the points it wants to remember.

If I was to decide to memorise a part of a book for studying, I would simply create a mind map, and a palace, and do the usual memory methods. I personally would not force myself to speed read. However I believe speed reading can be handy for the right reasons.

Whatever you dwell up on will grow. If you practice your own method and see an improvement each time you do, then it will work for you.

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I have also noticed you mentioned my name in your other post with regards to memory palaces, I have read it but I think your posts should be open to all the members of the forum, not directly me, you would get more opinions, and more involvements, therefore better answers.

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Not going to comment on the “method” as I believe something in it is super effective, but I have to test it first, please don"t delete this post. I want to come after experimenting.

However I have some ideas regarding the method of loci and journey method, let’s call it method of places, reading and speed reading in general.

First, method of loci and Journey Method are the same thing, they use places as holder of images and these hold data. The data can be raw, or information or ideas or concepts or a plain image. The Journey method focus on holding chunks of data and hold them in a route. But many times as these two are called memroy palce technique people often think it is only about buildings, routes and similar: it is all about images within images.

Your palace or station can hold anything you imagine and worse you could even imagine anything as a palace, why stick to places? The principles are a reference place and images as encoding mechanism. Therefore your doing aomething right with the method for speed reading.

Second, when you read and your focused on the ideas you may think of images, so those images can be “reference point” or memory palaces or better phrased places. In contrast, you can imagine little landscapes, countryland, cities, without caring for details based on what you’re reading while you’re reading. Give it a try, use the link method or arbitrary imagery.

Third and last, speed reading is good for dismissing redundance and lack of ideas in huge paragraphs, different from skimming where you look at the words looking for specific ideas, while speed reading you should be able to follow what you’re reading. Trying to increase your thinking would be good, though you may already think fast, try this: thinking in images (all kinds not just visuals, emotional), form an story coherent while you say no word in your head… as an exercise. I’ve done this, at first it was hard for me to stop verbalizing, but it is possible. Then read and do the same with waht you read.

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Well I am trying to find how to read ideas in speed reading and I think that an advantage of this technique for me and maybe for some other people is that I and maybe others spend a lot of time in recalling 100% of what they have read and so read very slowly and so are not able to read many pages at one sitting but with this method a person can use both memory techniques and speed read there by greatly increasing his reading speed while remembeeing more information,

Cheers.

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Well I have slightly changed this method for learning Science and with the new method I was able to learn 1.8 pages of 5.5 pages of a Chapter of a Science Textbook whose name is “Acids and Bases”. And so below is the updated method -

  1. Photograph 4-6 words of a sentence while reading a sentence.
  2. Imagine an object representing that sentence which is alive(ex-A living Medicine Pill with eyes and mouth) with a smaller sub object covering that living sub object(As objects cover human beings so similarly that smaller sub pill can be in the belt of that bigger Giant pill)
  3. Imagine that object performing an action with a cause(ex- Throwing that smaller pill in a public place with well spaced out objects(A shelf in a Mall with well spaced out objects while making that object with whom you performed an action well spaced out too) in one step of your visualization.
    4.Imagine that sub object feeling your action with one of his sense or senses and then performing an appropriate reaction(Based on the sentence and/or what you think is appropriate,Ex-).
  4. Imagine how a person(most likely you) would interact with that component (ex-By having that medicine thrown at you and you freeing that medicine(or allowing it go alive).

And if necessary drill down concepts(or information that is short and has a lot of value(marks) before adding details(learning more) - Based on a tip given by @AlexM to Nelson Delis in an interview.
And also learn the main ideas of the sentence that you are reading which you can learn how to do here.

And you can retrieve the individual items from the well spaced out objects and while retrieving information you can think of all sorts of events that have happened To Remind you of the information which you have learnt but remember to observe the details first and recall them later which is a brain exercise which I found on Anthony Metivier’s blog Magnetic Memory.

I was unable to recall one line of a page which only contained one line and because of this lost the recall of one page or about 18% of the total recall and I also forgot some memorable information due to which I lost the recall of 0.75 pages which is about 15% of the recall and below are the results of this new version of this method -

1.Successfully Recalled - 1.8 pages (32.72% of information)
2.Could have recalled(A single one line sentence) - 1 Page (18.18% of information)
3.Forgotten Memorable Information - 0.75 page (13.63% information)
4. Total+Could Have recalled and Forgotten Memorable information - (32.72% + 31.81% = 64.53% of the information)

And with this version of my method I was able to recall significantly faster than the previous version of this method which is 3x faster recall at one point and I believe that by combining this memory technique with a Dual Mapped Palace and by adding Time Management methods to this method I will be able to read and recall significantly faster with this method.

Recall time and Reading Time Trade off

With this method I am read 3 times faster but recall 3 times faster but I am still able to read and apply memory techniques significantly faster than my previous rate which would take hours instead of about one hour and I hope that the same thing happens with those people who read and then try to memorize as mush as possible using memory techniques and hence read slowly because they read a sentence in a short time but apply memory techniques for a long time until they learn what they have read with 100% recall and by using this method you will feel that you know everything to provide you the motivation to read faster.

Future Work

I want to make the Memory palace in my system Dual Mapped and information about it can be found here to double the speed of recall using this techniques along with Time Management techniques some of which are found in this website and I also intend to add Memory retrieval techniques along with a technique called Repeated Spaced for practicing recall.

A Probable Glimpse of the future work-

I am thinking of adding a step in this technique to preread the Chapter Name and Topic Headings and then assinging them a rank in a Recall List and also spacing Chunks of Pragraphs to recall them later and also repeating the knowlage retrival process upto three times spaced over a period of time(which I think will allow people to memorise in the traditional way while stile using memonomics and improving their performance in them,See https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2016/06/learning-memory

Cheers.

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@user_7e can you try to tell us why this technique works and I request you to tell this to us as knowing why his technique works will help me to improve this technique even more,
Cheers.

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Well @Bateman can you share your wisdom on book memorisation here.

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What do you mean by that? I couldn’t catch with what method your method is used; whether it is memory palace, or just imagining images in a paper, etc… That sentence looks vague.

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Thanks for telling me this,Well the latest version of this method is in Post number 7 and that method gives improved recall and recall speed but at the cost of reading speed which I will increase soon to make this method faster and If you want to try this method soon then I recommand you to try the method in post 7,

Thanks.

How did Kim Peek Speedread?
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The post number seven is Method for memorizing historic dates (like that of competitions).

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Well I meant the 7th post on this Topic and to help you I will temporially set most of the starting text on my 7th post to bold and when you have found it let me know.

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And is what I have reffered you to really called post 7 or is it called something else?
Cheers.

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So 1 - Imagine an alive object, like a pill with arms and legs.
2- Imagine that alive object performing an action
3- Imagine the thing in which was acted upon by that alive object having a reaction that is appropriate for what you are trying to recall.

That is it, right?

Now two questions:

1- What is the action in which the alive object is doing is not being upon anything other than the alive object itself?
2- Where this method is done? In a memory station, in a paper (imagining the actions occurring in a blank paper), what?

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@SupaTurk
Well here are the stages which are done in this memory technique -

  1. At first, the mechanical systems were represented primarily visually, in terms of their physical layout. (The Stage in the Science of Step 2).

  2. In middle stages, the learners used mental animation, imagining the motion of the mechanical components to infer how they interacted in a causal chain (The Stage in the Science of Step 3).

  3. The participants imagined how a person (most likely themselves) would interact with the system (The Stage in the Science of Step 4).

And because of the second stage for learning a sentence which I had quickly imagined myself but had forgotten before using this technique which was about medicine,The Bigger pill will throw the smaller pill towards a public place with well spaced out objects and making those objects well spaced out and here I use a person for for interacting in a casual chain as in the third step a person will interact with the system( If I would have used objects here then I would have to use a person and two objects for step 2 and step 3 and because of this reason I use a person to save objects and to simplify this system).

And here is the article from which I came to know the systems which I have mentioned above,

Cheers.

1 Like
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And @SupaTurk this method is done by objects over a map and I give the Pandamic Legacy Board game in which there are objects over a map and in this method the locations are embemed in the map and Sorry for my English,

Thanks.

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And I am removing the extra bold formatting from my post since I think that it is not needed any more and had made my post ugly.

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Bold Removed.