I have been doing memory training since two years ago, although I have been actually practicing for approximately for roughly 2 months of those 2 years. I recently got back into it, beginning like last week since I am done with college now and have more time to devote to this. I have not seen improvements in my training and was wondering if anyone can give advice on how they approach memory training. Like do y’all have a weekly schedule that you follow? and if so, would you mind sharing it with me?
for word memorization, I am at around 14 words per minute and for numbers I am around 19 numbers per minute. I know these scores are pretty terrible when comparing it to the scores of memory athletes such as Alex Mullen. I’ve been working pretty hard, putting in like 1 hour a day and constantly searching over the web to learn more advanced strategy to see what would work best, but sadly have seen very little improvements.
As a beginner, I have created a major system of 00-99 to memorize numbers (2 numbers per loci). For words, I also do 2 per loci just so I wouldn’t have to make like 20 new loci each time I go through a round of memorization. Some of my challenges are that I do not instantly recognize the key image associated to the numbers right away. for example, I have 21 as Ned (Stark) from game of thrones, but it would take me like 2 seconds to phonetically sound it out each time and process the word in my head, which is too long imo. For words, I sometimes get abstract words such as eventual, cause, increase, which are really difficult to create fast images for.
I have read that some people develop visual drills, recognition drills, and linking drills to target each of the weakness, but I honestly don’t know how it works. It looks like a very promising practice though.
I would really appreciate any ideas/advice/tips/schedules… Anything helps.
Also, I wanna know if my progression is normal or is it slower than most people? Can people actually get like 50 words in less than 60 minutes within the first month of training.
I’m surprised your post hasn’t received attention. I’ll give it a try best I can.
Are you trying for memory athletics or for the acquisition of knowledge? The first is about fast acquisition, the second more about long term retention and, perhaps, fluency. I don’t have any experience in rapidly absorbing large chunks of data - I use memory techniques to acquire the basic facts I need to understand what I am studying.
It’s one thing to know the Major System, fluency is another matter. If you are investing cognitive effort in decoding your mnemonics that will degrade your performance. Think of it as a language, if you had to mentally translate every word in a conversation into your mother tongue, you would struggle to follow a conversation. This takes practice and time. I encode license plates and other numbers that I randomly encounter. I practice decoding on chunks of text - anything will do.
Long term retention requires repetitive and varied practice. Repetitive practice can be done with flash cards or Anki software - in general many short sessions are more effective than marathon efforts. You can find out more by searching on “spaced repetition”.
But IMO it’s important to vary the practice. Rote drills on material you mostly know is boring and it can be hard to pay enough attention. Also, memory is very contextual and you may find that you can cycle through your list without a hitch but cannot easily retrieve a fact at random or while talking to someone or walking. For this reason I vary the kind of practice that I do. I vary the order, the kind of question and solve problems that depend on the facts I am trying to learn. And I vary the environment - move to a different room, do it while walking or with a distraction such as TV etc.
Thanks for responding! I was also worried that my question wasn’t receiving any attention since my posting of it. To answer your question, I am trying for both memory athletics and for acquisition of knowledge. However, I am trying for memory athletics first because I think its a a pretty fun hobby to take my mind of school work and just delve deep into my imagination. I want to dedicate this year and the next to year in becoming a memory athlete.
Also do you have any practices that you recommend trying? I do agree that the drills can, overtime, get boring. I have been doing the words and numbers practice on art of memory to get better, but clearly that method isn’t sufficient.
I imagine the best results would come from a disciplined, structured review schedule. But I am undisciplined and lazy. I review for short intervals during the day as a way of taking a break.
I believe that the brain has a tendency to suppress unpleasant memories and also that training when fatigued trains for poor form. With these excuses in hand, I stop when I feel tired or am no longer motivated. I will push myself to do a review but if I don’t enjoy it I stop.
As I said, I try to vary the circumstances and the kind of exercise. I also query the information at random or at least out of order since, usually this is the way it will be accessed.
Once I feel my grasp is secure and reasonably fluent I study or do work that draws on this information. If holes reveal themselves, I go back and firm up that section by a sequence of reviews.
IMO you have to know the horse you are riding and everyone is a bit different.
