What
did we do in the morning of Eid last year? What did we do in the afternoon of
Christmas last year? I presume that our brain stills remember the answers, but
what if the question is: What did we do 23 days ago? What kind of snack that we
ate at that time? In general, people won’t be able to recalling it back, yet
people will remember when they graduate from Senior High School, the day when
their mother/father died, the day when they got scholarship. So, what makes our
brains are able to remember the moments above? Evidently, the moments which
will be remembered by our brain are those which are unique, precious, funny,
joyful, hateful, pathetic, and important. Those are the moment that appearing emotion.
This
article is about memory system in which the way to memorize any kind of
information precisely by leaving conventional way of memorizing.
Most
people know that memorizing by repetition does not work well. They just don’t
know how else to memorize, other than using a few memory tricks that are useful
in special situations. However, there are some memory techniques that really do
work for any kind of memorization task. I refer to these methods as memory
systems. These systems can be used just about anything, including: definitions,
language vocabularies, science terms, math formulas, art & music, theories,
new articles, history facts, etc.
The
memory systems include Link Method, Loci Method, Major Memory System,
Substitution Method, Face-name method, and still many more. However I will
explain the first three methods, but the most important thing before we start
it; the very basic thing to master these methods is Visualization and Association. Yudi Lesmana in his book,
“Memorizing Like an Elephant”, said that basically our brain love images, so
imagine uncommon things that joyful in memorizing any kind of information.
1. Link Method
Link method or
usually called chain method, is a very effective memory technique for
remembering a list of item. It works actually by creating a mental image that
involve the items that you want to memorize and link these images becoming a
unique story; like a chain. This method is based solely on your visualization
and imagination skills.
2. Loci Method (Memory Palace)
This
is one of the memory techniques which often used by fiction Character Sherlock
Holmes, a consultant detective. He calls this method as “Mind Palace” in which
this is the way how to store information, so you never forget it, by picturing
it.
According to Yudi Lesmana, a Grand Master of
Memory, Loci Method is the most powerful method of memorizing. It is used by memory performers on stage to memorize
100-digit numbers and the order of several complete decks of cards, students to
pass exams, sales people to give a presentation from memory, to memorize the
key information of a book, to name just a few. People who have never used it
just cannot believe how someone can have such a fantastic memory.
How do we learn it? We
represent the information we want to memorize by a concrete item, and
visualized that item somehow interacting with a particular location. Each location serves as a hook, to
which we visually connect whatever we want to remember. We accomplish this by
creating an image or scene in mind, in which the location and the to-be
memorized item interact.
3.
Major Memory System
Our
brains are notoriously poor at memorizing numbers. The major memory system is
about converting abstract, dull numbers into vivid, striking images. When we do
that, committing these numbers to memory is a snap. Let me show you how to do
it.
Ø Transform
the numbers into letter sounds which we’ll eventually use to form words.
Ø Associate
these numbers with letter sounds that you imagine.
For example, look at the table
below:
#
|
Letter
|
0
|
S, Z
|
1
|
T,
D
|
2
|
N
|
3
|
M
|
4
|
P, B
|
5
|
L
|
6
|
J, C
|
7
|
K
|
8
|
F, H
|
9
|
G
|
Let’s
take the infamous number 21, 372, 41. Transform these numbers into words by
associating it with letter in the table.
2=N
1=D
To
form a word, add vocals among consonants (letter sounds), I added “A” before
“N” and “I” after “D”, so the result is 21= ANDI. And we do the same thing for
the rest. 372= MAKAN, 41= PETAI.
21-372-41
becomes “ANDI MAKAN PETAI” (Bahasa Indonesia) which means Andi eats Petai
(Indonesian traditional culinary). The next step is, imagine the boy names Andi
is eating petai at his house in Indonesia. By doing this method more often, our
brain will do easily_memorize_numbers.
Conclusion
As you can see from the partial methods of memory system, it’s useful and helpful for us in memorizing skills. We can do this every day as memory sport to form genius brain and healthy mind.References:
Lesmana, Yudi. 2014. Memorizing Like an Elephant. Jakarta:
Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG).
2015. Visualization & Association. (on-line),
Memory Improvement Web. http://www.memory-improvement-tips.com/memory-association.html. November 15th, 2015.
Luciano. Remember Any Number with The Major Memory
System. (on-line), Litemind Web. https://litemind.com/major-system/. November 15th, 2015.
Socrates. 2011. Increase Memory with The Linking Method. (on-line),
Mind Expanding Techniques Web._https://www.mind-expanding-techniques.net/linking-method.html. November 15th, 2015.
