Basic Systems

  

mnemosyne.fluentradical.com - Improve your memory with this comprehensive guide to memory techniques.

 
 

Link Systems

The link system is the first system featured here because of its simplicity and speedy nature. While learning the systems, keep in mind the Three Memory Principles discussed earlier. 

Let's begin with an example. Imagine you wish to learn in order the following items:

  1. candle
  2. swan
  3. ribbon
  4. boat
  5. hook
  6. elephant
  7. boomerang
  8. egg timer
  9. balloon with string
  10. ball

In order to remember these, you must use the three principles. Your must create images in your imagination as clear and as vivid as if you were seeing the object right in front of you. Then we will use the principle of association to allow you to remember all of the items accurately. (For computer types: we will be creating a linked list)

So imagine the candle, see its flame, feel the heat and smell the smoke. Now we must remember the second image, and in order that subsequently we can move through the list with ease we are going to link it to the previous image. SO, imagine now the smoke from the candle drifting up (swirls) and curling around the neck of a swan. Now you must be able to feel the feather and see the colour of its wings and its beak. But what is that in its beak? It is a long purple ribbon.

And so on.

Workbook: 
Do not continue until you have been through this 
list once or maybe twice in this manner.

Now scroll down until you can't see the list. Try and remember it. What was the first image? Don't just think about what it looked like, try and incorporate all of the senses. Then follow the link, try and see what connects this image to the next. Don't give up immediately if you don't get it straight away, sometimes you have to think around the image for a while before you 'get' the connection. Work through the entire list and remember as much as you can.

Did you do good? Don't worry if you didn't, as I said before, your imagination will improve with practice. I expect you had to look back at least once.

You have just learned your first memory system! You'll be pleased to know that the list you've just learned is going to be more useful as well in the next system.

 
 

Peg Systems

A peg system is a simple, reusable memory database. The most basic peg system consists of 10 images. To use one to memorise 10 items, work through it one by one and associate each item with each peg. We'll do an example in a second.

The table to the right gives an example set. These are ten pegs, on which we will hang the list of ten items we must remember. The pegs themselves have to be easy to remember, otherwise the effort involved in learning the system will be too great (especially when this sort of thing is scaled up), so there is a logic to the selection.

In this case, the images refer to the shape of the numbers (an elephant's trunk hanging down, the sail of a boat etc.).

Workbook: 
 Memorise these now. In fact you should have already memorised these as an example for the first system.

e.g. imagine three ribbons floating on the breeze. SEE their bright colours, and FEEL them drape through your hands.

Now we'll do an example so you can see how this works:

Example

To the right is a sample list to remember. Here are the images I would create for the first three items: 

  1. Peg: candle, item: milk. First I see the candle. Now I have to link it with the milk. So I imagine milk being poured on the flame, extinguishing it with a pshhhh.
  2. Peg: swan, item: a tie. This is easy. Suppose you saw a swan wearing a tie, what would you think?
  3. Peg: ribbon, item: eggs. I see the eggs wrapped delicately around with a nice purple ribbon and tied off with a bow. Someone picks up the ribbon and the egg with it. Seems dangerous!
  4.  and so on. Exercise for you!

 

PEGS ONE

1 maypole, spear, candle
2 swan
3 ribbon, bum
4 boat
5 hook,
sea horse
6 elephant
7 boomerang
8 egg timer
9 balloon with string
0 ball

 

EXAMPLE LIST 
TO REMEMBER

1 milk
2 tie
3 eggs
4 toothpaste
5 cd
6 watch
7 cash
8 butter
9 lamp
10 soap
 

Loci Techniques

Loci techniques follow the classical prescription for memory. Latin and medieval texts would invariably give 'rules for places' and 'rules for images'. The rules for images are captured in the first memory principle: imagination. The rules for places that we are about to learn make use of the third memory principle: location.

Central Idea:

Everyone is familiar with a great many places. The layout and appearance of buildings, streets and rooms are all infallibly stored in our memory. The location memory techniques take advantage of this.

Think about what we've been doing with pegs. We learn a series of images that we can associate other things with. The Loci systems do exactly the same thing, except that the pegs are locations instead of objects.

What turns this into a memory system is the organisation of the locations into sets. These sets then act as a database in much the same way as pegs.

When memorising, each item to be remembered is associated with a single location.

What locations to use: 

There are a couple of ways of going about this. First is what's called the roman room. In this objects are placed at intervals around a single (large-ish) room. Second is the Journey, involving locations spaced around a house, for instance, or along a street. These are the two main applications.

The Roman Room

The Roman Room is a technique that was specifically recommended by ancient writers on the art of rhetoric. It works best for small amounts of information for which order doesn't matter. The Roman Room really blends into the Journey. Let's repeat Cicero:

"One must employ a large number of places which must be well-lighted, clearly set out in order, at moderate intervals apart, and images which are active, which are sharply defined, unusual, and which have the power of speedily encountering and penetrating the mind." - Cicero

When creating locations, you must follow Cicero's prescriptions for easy memorising. Select your room and allocate places around it, making sure they are well-spaced.

The Journey

The Memory Theatre

The Memory Palace