Trying a memory technique: It worked
I am reading some memory books now, just to learn some of the readily available techniques. From Tony Buzan’s Use Your Perfect Memory, I got a technique for remembering brief lists (10 items or fewer), and I gave it a go to remember my shopping list of 8 items (limes, red raspberries, two cucumbers, mushrooms, eggs, salad greens, pomegranate juice, and oat bran). I went the full route: did the exercise here. Then blogged for an hour without reviewing list, then went to the store.
I remembered everything, though almost forgot the oat bran. It was tied to my Number-Shape Key Memory Image (Buzan’s terminology) for 7, and that is a flag flying from a flagpole (to the left, so it sort of looks like a 7). I think that image doesn’t work well, so I’ll revise it.
The technique is easy, seems to work, and with some practice will come in handy. This particular technique he suggests for things you need to remember for only a short while, so a shopping list is ideal.
I also have Higbee’s book, and Lorayne’s is on the way. My plan is to skim them and pick out the techniques that seem most useful for me.
Buzan has written many books, but as I noted earlier, at least one person has judged them as “Same meat, different gravy.” So the book I have, which seems useful, will probably be my last Buzan book.
Fair warning: Lorayne’s book flat-out will not work if it’s just skimmed, and he goes to great lengths to warn the reader of that. I tried skimming when I first got it, and it was nearly useless. I rediscovered it on my shelves while moving for graduate school about two years ago, and gave it another, more serious go… and the results have been nothing short of amazing. Once I can find time, I fully intend to master the entire thing. I haven’t tried other books of the sort yet, but I imagine they work the same way.
The only technique from Lorayne I was able to pick up from skimming was what he calls the Link – designed for memorizing ordered lists by associating each item to the next through exaggerated mental images, although it doesn’t use a numerical ranking system like Buzan’s seems to. This is fun, but of limited application compared to some of the others (since, on its own, the Link system only works with things you can clearly picture mentally, such as concrete nouns). The real problem with it, though, is that it’s so quick and easy to pick up that it lures you into a false sense of security – I thought the rest of the book would be that easy, and it most certainly was not.
Brian D
7 June 2011 at 10:50 am