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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
I have a theory that good memory is somewhat paradoxical. I believe that the secret to memorizing is recall. The paradox is that you cannot recall what you are trying to memorize until you have memorized it. The problem is circular. Here is the normal memorizing scenario: you repeat something over and over, and then when you need it, you have forgotten it. So, you needed to repeat it more and more? I don't think so. We are filling short term memory, hoping that some of it will spill over into long term memory. Some of it does, and we can actually memorize in that way.
My idea is somewhat different. Let's say that we want to memorize a list of words. I think you should repeat the list a few times (maybe just once or twice) while looking at the list, and then repeat it (as much of the list as you can recall) several times without looking. This is important, we test our recall without looking. Looking at the list defeats this process. We don't memorize by looking at the list, we memorize by recalling as much of the list as we can remember. Then we go back and read the list a couple more times, correcting our mistakes and reading the items that we forgot. Then we repeat as much as we can, without looking, several more times. This attempt to recall is a test of long term memory.
We could repeat the list a thousand times. I contend that we will be lucky to remember twenty names after one thousand repetitions. But if I say the list a couple of times, and then recall (being careful not to peek at my list) three or four (maybe more) names, then look at the list and repeat the list a couple of times, and repeat this process, then I can memorize much faster and more surely than I can by repeating the list a thousand times. Don't just repeat, try to recall (being careful not to peek). Test your recall.
Old computers had what is called core memory. This was a three dimensional array (actually thousands of two dimensional arrays) of tiny magnetic cores (donuts) with wires wrapped around them. Each core represented one bit of data, a one or a zero. A one was magnetized in one direction; a zero was magnetized in the opposite direction. Is this core a one or a zero? To figure that out we change it to a zero, and if we get a pulse of electricity in return, then it was a one, so we change it back to one. Well, each core only can store its one or zero for a few seconds, then the magnetism fades. So we build circuits that continually go through all of core memory and test each bit, and reinforce that bit by rewriting a one or a zero. We create long term memory by testing short term memory.
Of course there is another trick recommended by memory experts, as in The Memory Book, by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas (the basketball star). The idea is to make the list unforgettable, by making bizarre associations. Instead of memorizing someone's name directly, we memorize bizarre images conjured up by the parts of the person's name, and associate them with that person. Or we memorize a long number as a series of bizarre images which we already associate with each digit. The key word is "bizarre." The more outrageous the images are, the easier they are to memorize. See that book for the details. This works, and many amazing memory experts use just that method. I suspect that they combine it with my recall method, consciously or unconsiously.