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Every day, I train my memory by memorizing a pack of cards. I started because I had lousy memory and I wanted to improve it. I have been going at it for a few w
by fersho311 13y ago
Every day, I train my memory by memorizing a pack of cards. I started because I had lousy memory and I wanted to improve it. I have been going at it for a few weeks now, memorizing and shuffling a deck of cards (twice a day). I can now memorize a deck of cards in just a little over 3 minutes (I started at a painful 19 minutes). Have I noticed am improvement in my memory? Yes, and much much more.
What I've come to realize is that memorizing a deck of cards trains so much more than your memory. The way I memorize is to associate every card with an object and its corresponding action, and memorizing the deck of cards is a matter of creating a sequence of events that corresponds to the sequence of cards. So by memorizing a deck of cards I'm actually training different parts of my mind: recalling the item that is associated with the card, coming up with creative stories on the fly when I see a card, and holding the story in my mind as I add 52 objects into the story one by one.
Each of these steps was painfully difficult in the beginning, but now I'm starting to see the fruits of my training. I almost never misplace my things (keys, wallet, etc) anymore. Mind blocks like, "what was the company's name? I used to know it...", happens less frequently and I can recollect facts much faster. Most importantly though, I have seen a dramatic improvement in the speed I learn and understand things. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the rapid association of cards to objects and creatively creating a story have somehow improved my ability to comprehend and grasp new knowledge.
I whole heartedly believe that the brain is a muscle that can be strengthened through exercise.
- JakeSc 13y agoHow did you decide to embark on this challenge? Do you have any online resources that you can link to so we can learn more?
- fersho311 13y agoI started with this 10k memory competition, did really poorly, and decided to continue after the competition because it seemed to me helping me alot. http://www.memrise.com/course/44056/the-10k-memory-competition/ http://www.memrise.com/course/44056/the-10k-memory-competiti...
- gboudrias 13y agoThanks for this! I really needed memory exercises but didn't know where to start.
- kinleyd 13y agoThere are some excellent books by Harry Lorayne that are still available. I got my fix in this department some 30+ years ago in high school. Great stuff.
- fersho311 13y agoHere's a bicycle shop analogy by Tim ferris about how to get started: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/02/07/how-to-memorize-a-shuffled-deck-of-cards-in-less-than-60-seconds/ http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/02/07/how-to-memor...
- gamegoblin 13y agoMy personal memory training challenge is that I don't keep anyone's name attached to their number in my phone. It has made me quite proficient at memorizing 10 digit numbers. It is also a minimal first defense at would-be over-the-shoulder snoopers who see who I am messaging.
- fersho311 13y agoHaha! I do this unconsciously because all of my contacts are on my google voice app and everytime someone calls me on my phone (and not my google voice number) I don't see their name :)
- avtar 13y ago"I almost never misplace my things (keys, wallet, etc) anymore. Mind blocks like, "what was the company's name? I used to know it...", happens less frequently and I can recollect facts much faster. Most importantly though, I have seen a dramatic improvement in the speed I learn and understand things." This piqued my interest. I find myself forgetting simple things all the time and it's very unsettling given that I'm relatively young. Like JakeSc, I too would be interested in learning more about your experience and any resources that you could possibly share.
- fersho311 13y agoI started here: http://www.memrise.com/course/44056/the-10k-memory-competition/ http://www.memrise.com/course/44056/the-10k-memory-competiti... Memrise helped me get me off my feet, and then I created my own objects/actions for each card because I had no idea who half of those people are.
- regularfry 13y agoThe Mentat wiki at http://www.ludism.org/mentat/ http://www.ludism.org/mentat/ is full of related memory tricks. I call them "tricks" - they really do work. I've used memory palace and peg systems to memorise fairly long chunks of recital.
- mkl 13y agoThe thing that's always confused me about the "story" approach to memorising is what happens the next time you do it. Isn't the previous story still there in your memory, contradicting and interfering with any new one?
- fersho311 13y agoI was worried about the same thing when I started. What I found out is that the most recent memory is much much fresher than the past, and its very rare that you will mix up stories from the past with the ones you just memorized. Seems like our memories has a time dimension to it.
- d0mine 13y agoWhat do you think about the research that says that solving crosswords only improves your solving crosswords ability and nothing more i.e., memorizing a deck of cards might only improve your performance on that particular task and everything else is just an illusion?
- fersho311 13y agoIf you lift weights, will it only improve your ability to lift weights? ;)
- gwern 13y agoThe brain is not a muscle, as tempting as the analogy may be.
- kinleyd 13y agoMore like a collection of footpaths that become more accessible with use.
- thesz 13y agoActually, it looks like it is. See brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which will be elevated after many exercise, be them of mental origin or just walking. Lifting weights also counts.
- gwern 13y ago> See brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which will be elevated after many exercise, be them of mental origin or just walking. Just because they share some biological commonalties (of course they do! How could it be otherwise?) doesn't make them meaningfully the same thing, any more than them both having lots of mitochondria does.
- sillysaurus2 13y agoAre you sure this isn't placebo effect? I.e. you've always had this capacity, but the reason you're having success is because you're now focused on utilizing it. That's somewhat different from not having the capacity in the first place.
- tadfisher 13y agoIf one has to train themselves to utilize this ability, is there a difference?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jafaku 13y agoYes, because some people might not have it and the training will be useless.
- PKop 13y agoSo don't try?
- tracker1 13y agoI can say that I've tried, and have a real problem with similar exercises.. that said, I don't learn the same way a lot of other seem to. I am pretty good at getting a couple dozen things into my head at once, but my mind tends to wander beyond that point and I will lose focus. In some ways this works to my advantage, in general an application or system I am working on can fit mostly in what I am actively thinking of at a given time.. the down side is I will then lose track of time, and side thoughts... it will be 7-8-9 at night, and I'll stop because I need to use the restroom, realize how late it is and that I'm hungry. On the flip side, I rarely misplace things, I have a photographic memory, not eidetic... In general if I write something and see it at the same time, I'll remember.. if I only see it, it depends, and if I only hear it, I'll likely forget. I do most of the things mentioned in the article regularly though... I've managed to cope pretty well with my advantages and disadvantages.
- mynameishere 13y agoOoh, anecdote time! As an experiment, many years ago I memorized the first book of paradise lost: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_1/index.shtml http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_1/inde... ...at the start, two or four lines a day. At the end? Two or four lines a day. Nothing improved. But I did memorize the whole goddamned thing.
- swah 13y agoDid you use a method like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci ?
- swah 13y agoDo you do the Dominic method or something similar (tell a story with the cards, etc) ?
- arh68 13y agoI was inspired by a thread similar to this one several weeks ago to memorize a few digits of pi. I don't think it helped me in any way, but I like the imperative to recognize and identify simple patterns. It's just the right mix of hard and easy. It's not every day, but I often just grab a pen or New text file and start recalling. The patterns are what draw me. How I remember it changes slightly (as I forget old patterns) over time but today: I go by groups of 5, 100 digits. There's the 8-2-2-8 near the beginning (w/ 2^3=8, & reversed), the 5-4-6-3 right after. The 5-7-5-7 (w/ 7 49, then 7, 81, 64) comes next. The permutations of 02668, the 34s, etc. The thing is: the numbers are random(ish), but the patterns are there. The mind can find patterns in anything, you just have to cultivate it. Do you think card-deck-memory could pull off any magic tricks? Pi isn't really a crowd pleaser.. :|
- thekbe 13y agoPi is definitely a crowd pleaser. Many a time have I captivated fellow friends with it. Say it fast though.