The Persistence of Memory

[RJT]

Darrly,

Your post is what I had in mind. Is your opinion based on study you have done or things you have read? I don’t need to know your resume, I am just wondering if it is a common sense approach or is there some science to suggest this, too?

Do you have any suggestions regarding exercises to strengthen one’s memory – other than repetition type practices? For example to remember how to spell a word, one would simply keep repeating the spelling until one has it down pat. I am wondering about other techniques. Or suggested reading material? Thanks.

RJT

[Darryl_P]

RJT,

I'm afraid I don't have any specific references for you since my theories are based on my own observations and experiences and not on any specific thing I read on this subject.

But I can tell you how I developed my own memory when I needed it...maybe that could be useful to you...

When I was studying to be an actuary I breezed through the first 5 exams since they were mostly math-related but I had trouble with the 6th one because it involved over 1000 pages of text which had to be memorized almost verbatim. It took me two years before I could come up with a strategy for it. First I tried just reading it 3 or 4 times over. That didn't work because it was just too boring and my brain simply didn't want to remember it. Then I tried an index card method and that failed for similar reasons. But finally I found a little trick that got me over the hurdle...

I condensed each page into a few one-line sentences of information. Usually there would be 5 to 15 per page. Then I took an important letter from a key word in each sentence to remind me of the sentence. Then I arranged these letters to make little words and then I took groups of those words and tried to make them into a story. And then I just memorized these stories.

Sometimes the words and the story were quite forced and goofy but at least I was able to memorize them this way.

I couldn't believe how much useless information I packed into my head using this technique, but it worked like a charm. Exams 6 through 10 went smoothly from that point on.

The important thing to point out, though, is that the key ingredient to all this was motivation. Something needed to be at stake. There's no way in hell I would have done all that work just for the general benefits of having a better memory. In fact, I'm not even sure if my overall memory improved from that. The only thing I gained is that I now have a trick to use in case I need to memorize a lot of material.

May I ask what your motivation is for wanting to improve your memory?

[RJT]

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May I ask what your motivation is for wanting to improve your memory?

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The original point of my OP was basically just a thought that popped into my head. I posted it only for discussion purposes. Probably I thought of it because, and I am not sure how to put this exactly but: I think I my capacity to remember things is not on par with my level of intellect. To say it another way - for the level of my intelligence, I should be able to remember things easier than I do. (Of course, as one gets older memory is not as sharp, but that is not what I am referring to.) I often think of all the books I have read and wished I could remember more details of them.

But, now that we got into the discussion your post made me think - it would be nice to try to improve my memory if possible. Thus my follow up question to you that you just answered.

I hadn’t had this in mind at the time, but I think it would be helpful to my poker game if I can improve my memory skills. (I only started playing this year.) So for now that will be my immediate practice using the method you suggested - or perhaps a variation of it.