Dooley Noted: 1/21/2016
Last night, my boyfriend blew my mind once again.
We shuffled some cards, and he split the deck in a little more than half.
He said, “I am rusty. Let’s start here.”
He took fifteen minutes to memorize the cards in order.
Then, he had me make sure he was right.
He recounted every card in the perfect order.
Now, one might be quick to call my boyfriend a remarkable human.
He’s amazing, don’t get me wrong.
But I knew how he did it. And we all have the ability to memorize at this capacity.
Jonathan would say we could do much, much more with practice.
While Jonathan didn’t know it was a particular technique, I had read about it in Joshua Foer’s book, “Moonwalking with Einstein.” Foer, an international memory champion, writes about his techniques for memorizing copious information via a Memory Palace.
One creates a familiar room, and builds the short term items into the long term memory of that room. Then, recent information can be recounted with much more ease.
Jonathan had used this specific technique to recount 28 area in exact order, after only 15 minutes.
(Disappointed by his “low” card count, he recounted the full deck 12 hours later in just 20 total minutes of card viewing.)
Having to remember copious names, I used Foer’s techniques to remember the names of my students. When I employed the Memory Palace, I never forgot a name. It works if you work it.
That’s our human potential. If you use long term memory strategies to help feed our short term memory capacity, you can recount things on command.
If you are struggling with memory, consider reading Foer’s book.
Challenging your brain in a new way can stimulate neuroplasticity – and make you dangerous in a casino!
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
P.S. To check or Joshua Foer’s TED talk, click here: