Anthony Metivier's Blog, page 21

Memory Palace Books: Top 5 Resources to Supercharge Your Brain

Are you looking for the best Memory Palace book to help you keep your memory razor-sharp?

Ask any search engine, and it will throw up plenty of memory improvement book recommendations with techniques that may or may not work for you.

Which one do you choose?

And, could there be any alternative ways to train your brain to remember and recall everything you want to?

In this article, I’ll give you five Memory Palace book recommendations to make your search easier. I’ll also show you three alternative ways to sharpen your brain.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

5 Best Books to Learn Memory Techniques and Improve Your Memory
3 Better Ways to Improve Your Memory

Let’s get started.

5 Best Books to Learn Memory Techniques and Improve Your Memory

Several authors – including Mira Bartok, Dominic O’Brien, and Joshua Foer – have dived deep into the concept of Memory Palaces.

Here’s my pick of 5 excellent books on memory improvement for you to read. A compilation of these could create a treasure trove of memory improvement ideas, including the art of building memory palaces.

Let’s get right to it with my first recommendation.

1. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

First published in 2011, Joshua Foer’s bestseller debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for eight weeks.

In his engaging writing style, Foer will take you on a fascinating journey through how the mind of a memory champion works. He goes in-depth about the mnemonic techniques they use to store memories.

A freelance science journalist, Foer learned the technique of memory training while researching the US Memory Championship. At the contest, Foer observed how people would memorize an entire deck of cards in just a couple of minutes.

This fascinated him and got him thinking whether the skill could be learned. Foer discovered that individuals who aced memory contests used special strategies handed down from the ancient Greeks to visualize things.

Most people use Memory Palaces by visualizing a structure (such as their home) in their mind — these Memory Palaces usually have several different rooms and people inside who represent what they are trying to remember.

He decided to test his own memory power.

A year later, he won the US Memory Championships against champion ‘mental athletes’ who could memorize the exact order of ten shuffled decks of cards in less than an hour.

The book draws on thorough research, the history of memory studies, and various tricks of mental champions.

2. The Art of Memory by Frances A. Yates

Published in 1966, this book is still referenced in influential memorization guides and books today.

The author, France A. Yates, traces the development of the mnemonic systems from the Simonides of Ceos era through the Renaissance until the 17th century when scientific methods were initiated.

This is the oldest mnemonic strategy and is also known as the method of loci.

The book narrates the story of Simonides, who was hired by a nobleman to read poems during a banquet. After the reading, he was asked to go outside to meet someone. Before he could re-enter the banquet hall, it collapsed, killing everyone inside.

All the bodies were mangled beyond recognition. The story goes that Simonides used his memory to recall the faces and names of every person that was killed. He realized the importance of recalling facts based on their locations or the method of loci.

These ideas hold good even now.

For example, if a defense lawyer needs to recall evidence during a trial, he can first create mental images of a place familiar to him – maybe his home – and peg each piece of evidence to a room. During the trial, he can then recall those pieces of evidence by mentally walking through his house.

But there’s more to it than memory stunts for winning court cases. Witness…

3. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan Spence

In this book, the author explores the story of a Jesuit priest named Matteo Ricci who lived during the 16th century, and how he used special mnemonic memory techniques to convert the Chinese to Christianity.

The priest joined the new Catholic order, the Society of Jesus, in 1571 and studied law in Rome. At that time, the order was quite young and needed to widen its influence. To ensure this, it would send young priests into the world to convert people to Catholicism.

The story goes that Ricci became a willing member of that mission and sailed to China as a missionary. For more than three decades, he used his vibrant personality to convert the Chinese to Catholicism. I imagine he knew a lot about how to memorize speeches.

During his efforts, the Jesuit priest believed he could convert more people by impressing them with his learning. That was when he started to use mnemonic devices to memorize huge amounts of information.

One of his key tasks was to convey basic Christian principles to the Chinese people in a manner they could appreciate and learn from. So he turned to memorization techniques for help.

He taught the Chinese people the art of creating memory palaces through images in their heads, helping them store several pieces of information in their mind and be able to recall it later.

The images acted as a narrative or a story helping the Chinese understand the Bible and its teachings through their own cultural and spiritual norms.

4. How to Remember Anything by Mark Channon

In this book, memory grandmaster and author Mark Channon focuses on how a radically improved memory can add more value to anyone’s personal and professional life.

It is filled with memorization techniques that teach you how to recall numbers, dates, and facts, as well as ideas on how to remember them by using different processing strategies.

This makes the book one of the most practical ones on the art of memory improvement.

It comes with innovative exercises that can build the confidence and vocabulary of readers. It also includes core strategies that can make memories and mental images more ‘magnetic’.

5. Unlock Your Amazing Memory: The Fun Guide That Shows Grades 5 to 8 How to Remember Better and Make School Easier by Brad Zupp

If your children are struggling with learning in school, this book has plenty of ideas you could use.

It outlines powerful strategies that can improve memorization skills while making it a fun activity. The techniques teach them to remember what they see, read, and hear – three traits that can result in better grades and more confidence in classroom settings.

These strategies are scientifically proven and claim to have helped thousands of students — those who want to improve their grades, who are forgetful, lack motivation, prefer some subjects over others, feel stressed out or bored in class, and those who have a hard time completing their homework on time.

The book is based on The Feats of Memory show which is an assembly program that was created by the author, Brad Zupp himself. Teachers who have used his techniques say that it transformed the way their students processed their lessons and made tremendous improvements.

The guide also dives into the main issues that affect our attention spans – our memory and focus. This makes it especially useful for students in grades 5 to 8. Children in grades 3 and 4 can also benefit from it with some help from parents and teachers.

6. Bonus! The Victorious Mind: How To Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being by Anthony Metivier

So maybe it’s cheating a little bit to include your own book, but if you’re looking for the best books to help you learn memory techniques it’s one I highly recommend!

The Victorious Mind tells the story of how I overcame the mental distress that imprisoned me in a “highly functioning manic-depressive” identity and almost took my life. I used just three practices to do so: self-inquiry meditation, memory training, and “biohacking.”

But more than a story of self-transformation, it offers detailed guidance through the techniques I used to release myself from the haze of lithium along with the illusion of self.

This book is ideal not just for those struggling with mental illness but for anyone suffering mental malaise – whether it’s digital amnesia and scatterbrain, depression, or “control freakism.”

Apart from these six, you could also read any other memory improvement book you may find interesting.

One additional example is The Memory Palace: A Memoir by artist and children’s book author Mira Bartok, which talks about her traumatic brain injury after an accident, finding her mother who suffers from schizophrenia in a women’s shelter, and a poignant comment Bartok hears at her mother’s memorial service. Here, Bartok uses a Memory Palace as a metaphor.

Now, all these books are sure to give you a wonderful insight into the art of brain training using mnemonic techniques, including Memory Palaces.

However, learning something by reading a long book may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Unless you diligently make notes and push yourself to try out the instructions, your book will end up being just a dusty one on your bookshelf.

What could be more achievable is to make a few small lifestyle changes, or learn from online videos and courses that you can re-read quickly or listen to any time.

Here are three alternative ways to improve your memory that could be far easier to implement.

3 Better, Alternative Ways to Improve Your Memory

A few lifestyle changes, and creating Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method regularly will help you sharpen your memory with just a little daily effort from you.

Let’s look at three ways you can do this.

1. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is about listening to your mind and body, being aware of your surroundings, and being completely present in the moment you live in. Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn calls it “moment to moment non-judgmental awareness”.

Practicing mindfulness meditation for just 10-20 minutes a day can work wonders on your memory. You can also do it while doing your daily chores – just by stopping for a minute to take in the sensation of whatever you’re doing – eating a meal, walking to work, or driving down a busy road.

Mindfulness is known to increase blood flow to the brain. It can strengthen the network of blood vessels in your cerebral cortex and reinforce memory capacity.

Meditation reduces stress on your brain and can be effective in improving memory — even after a brain injury.

A recent study proved that mindfulness improves your working memory. A few participants spent a few weeks learning to focus on breathing and body sensations, being aware of what was happening around them, and redirecting their attention when they were distracted.

After this, they took memory tests that clearly showed an improvement in short-term memory and a slight increase in hippocampus volume.

And just so you know that I walk my talk on this one, here you see me recite 32 verses of Sanskrit in front of a live audience while meditating:

It is really fun and made so much more powerful when you combine meditation with a Memory Palace strategy!

2. Try Word Puzzles and Games

Word puzzles like crosswords, word association games, and Scrabble can stimulate your brain. They activate parts of the brain that deal with vocabulary and word finding, forcing the brain to stay active. It can delay any cognitive decline due to aging and mental illness.

Research proves that using crossword puzzles to teach a second language is an effective strategy of vocabulary instruction. Paper-based and interactive puzzles are used frequently in language teaching, to make learning interesting for teaching spelling rules, lexical meanings, and synonyms.

Opt for the old-school way of doing it — use newspapers or puzzle books you can scribble on, rather than mobile apps that pop up distracting ads or tempt you to switch away to social media.

Remember to vary the type and difficulty of word puzzles frequently. Once you’re an expert at simple crosswords, go for more cryptic ones.

3. Build Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method

Memory Palace is a powerful mnemonic tool to develop and use your spatial memory in a way that unlocks the power of autobiographical memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and more. You can also move information into long-term memory faster for years to come.

Building Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method will provide you with the ultimate organizational system for learning, committing things to long-term memory, and recalling anything.

The trick is to associate information to parts of a location you’re familiar with. This helps your brain file things to remember them easily.

So if you’re learning a new language, peg all words related to travel on your living room sofa, words related to the weather on your dining table, and so on. You could use familiar locations so that you spend your time in quickly memorizing a lot more information, and reduce cognitive load.

The more you practice mnemonic methods for learning and recalling vocabulary, routes, names, and so on, the easier the process becomes.

Improve Your Memory Magnetically

The six books recommended above (and any others like the one by Bartok) will give you a good understanding of the history of memory improvement techniques and ideas on how to build Memory Palaces.

But, creating memory palaces regularly using the Magnetic Memory Method can be the quickest and most effective way to learn, memorize, and recall anything.

If you’d like to get started (for free), sign up for my memory improvement kit.

And before you go, please let me know:

What are your favorite books for mastering the Memory Palace technique?

The post Memory Palace Books: Top 5 Resources to Supercharge Your Brain appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

How to Memorize a Song: A Proven Guide For Memorizing Lyrics

Do you remember the first time you sang in front of an audience?

I sure do…

Yeah, I was just a little kid in grade two, and I didn’t have a guitar at the time. But it was still quite the experience.

Picture this: little Anthony, doing show-and-tell. Singing about going to camp and getting sick with watermelons and all kinds of stuff.

It was nerve-wracking then, and I know memorizing songs still ranks high on the list of “things that freak people out.” Performing in public, especially when you’re singing from memory, is probably up there with public speaking.

But there’s good news: you can make the process a lot easier if you use the strategies I explain in this post. I’ll help you memorize songs thoroughly — know the lyrics, the notes, and how to do individual runs or riffs.

Want to know how to memorize a song? Here’s what this post will cover:

Why Sing Memorized Songs?

What Is a Song?

How to Memorize Lyrics: 2 Ways

Memorizing Notes

Memorizing Chords

How to Memorize Songs: Bring It All Together

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Remember a Song For Any Purpose

Ready to flex your memorization muscles? Let’s get started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx0T6...

Why Sing Memorized Songs?

Before we take a deep dive into the techniques and strategies you can use to memorize a song, you should identify your why. Namely, “why do I want to memorize this song?”

There are a number of benefits to memorizing lyrics. Let’s take a look at the six top reasons.

1. Improves Verbal Memory

You want to improve your memory, right? That’s why we’re all here — and as fans of improving memory, it’s important to improve verbal memory.

A 2013 study shows that instrumental music training can enhance cognitive processing. Their results confirm previous findings concerning music training and cognitive performance.

I’ll reference science a fair amount any time it comes to memory because it’s very important to know that this stuff works (and that it’s been verified by scientific studies, such as how you can improve your crystal and fluid intelligence).

2. Promotes Emotional Stability

Above and beyond improving verbal memory, memorizing songs also promotes emotional stability.

Memorization aids in the production of certain chemicals in the brain — we’ll talk more about neuroscience later in this post.

But for now, just know that memorizing songs can help you feel better. I don’t know about you, but I think we would all like to have better emotions!

3. Creates Focus & Concentration

Improving your emotions leads to a better mindset. It helps you have better interactions with other people. And it creates more focus and concentration.

Ever since I started working on memorizing songs here at home, I’ve noticed much better focus and concentration. And, very important to me, I’ve had more emotional stability.

4. Bonds Us With Others

Memorizing songs also helps us bond more with other people.

There could be many reasons for this, but one of the examples I find most fascinating is when members of a choir show synchronized heartbeats.

My wife and I sing together quite a bit, usually in different languages, which helps promote the benefits of bilingualism for lifelong brain and memory health.

I also think our singing is a huge part of why we’re so happy as a couple. One of our favorite songs to sing together is “The Moon Represents My Heart” — which I sang to her and her entire family at our wedding party in Beijing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCyPV...

5. Produces Health

There are a number of interesting health benefits to learning to sing and memorizing songs.

For example:

Gunter Kreutz, a German professor of Systematische Musikwissenschaften, talks about how you get an oxytocin boost (essentially a high in your brain) when you sing.

For those who don’t speak German, Systematische Musikwissenschaften is a combined physical and mental activity that leads to a more enjoyable mind.

So this is very powerful to have — who wouldn’t want a more enjoyable mind? No matter how enjoyable your mind might be, wouldn’t you want it to be even more enjoyable?

You can also improve your immune system by singing. There’s an article published by the University of California Press that details results from a study designed to determine whether choral singing is associated with physiological changes in the immune system.

6. Improves Breathing, Posture, and Pain Relief

And finally, memorizing songs can improve your breathing and your posture, as well as promoting pain relief.

Stop for a moment and check your posture, right now. Could you benefit from better posture?

Now, before we get much further, it’s important to make sure we’re all talking about the same thing.

What Is a Song?

Let’s talk about the definition of a song. What exactly are we memorizing?

The reason we want to do this is because it’s a tool of memorization to think a little bit about what songs are.

The Definition of a Song

The dictionary definition of a song is:

“A short metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric, a ballad, etc.”

It can be helpful to your memorization to know whether what you’re memorizing is a ballad. It’s useful to know whether it’s a standard lyric (or not). And the genre of the song matters, as well.

These are all mental tools to help you learn how to memorize songs.

The first thing you want to understand is the structure of the song.

Song Structure and Mapping

All songs have structures. And different songs will be structured differently — but it’s still important to understand as you memorize.

Before you begin to memorize, you will do what’s called “song mapping” to identify the A part, B part, C part, etc. That way, if you lose your place while singing it’s easier to find your way back.

This has been incredibly useful for me in my musical career.

When I was on tour with The Outside, there were shows where we were all incredibly tired. And no matter how well-practiced we were, there were times we’d lose our spots. But since I did song mapping, I was always able to find my way back quite easily — and a lot faster than I might have without it.

When most people think about memorizing a song, they focus on how to memorize song lyrics.

To help you out with this, let’s look at lyrical analysis.

Lyric Analysis

There are 5 different ways to analyze the song lyrics you’re trying to memorize.

1. Poetic Analysis

This involves looking at the words themselves and asking the following questions:

How do they work?
Is there assonance?
Is there consonance?
Is there logopoeia (paying attention to context)?
What’s the logic of this material?

You don’t have to have a full understanding of the lyrics in order to memorize them, but it’s helpful to understand at least the basics.

But watch out: don’t sit there and wait until you understand the lyrics before you start to memorize! One of the things you’ll discover, through the process of memorizing music, is your understanding compounds value.

In academia, the accretion of value means that “the sediments of meaning build up.” The more you work with little bits of sand and stone (in this case, lyrics and music), the more settle and get baked in, the more and more meaning builds up over time.

There’s always more understanding yet to come — and that’s a beautiful thing.

2. Emotional Analysis

This is the simplest of the types. Ask yourself:

Is it a happy song?
Is it a sad song?
Are there multiple emotions?
What emotions is the artist trying to get across to the audience?

Do your best to interpret what’s going on with the song.

3. Character Analysis

Do the song lyrics suggest character progression?

Since this might be a little hard to understand at first glance, let’s take a look at an example.

Lou Reed’s song “My House” has a line at the end of the first stanza that reads, “My house is very beautiful at night.” But by the end of the song, that lyric has changed to, “Our house is very beautiful at night.”

The character in the song begins it alone, but he shows growth as a result of the process he sings about.

When you identify details like this in a song, it can help you sing it better once memorized.

4. Historical Analysis

Understanding the history behind the song lyrics can also be quite helpful. Do the following research:

Read the Wikipedia page about the song.
Read or listen to interviews with the author.
Read interpretations by other people about what the song means.

By digging deeper into the origin story of the song and the history of the songwriter, you can uncover revelations you might otherwise miss.

5. Melody Analysis

Understanding all parts of the melodic structure is also helpful on your memorization journey. Pay attention to the:

Melody
Harmony
Rhythm
Chords
Flourishes

If you want to dive deeper into melodic analysis, check out Rick Beato’s Everything Music YouTube channel.

All 5 of these types of analysis will help not only your memorization, but also your delivery and enjoyment.

Next, let’s look at the nuts and bolts of memorizing lyrics.

How to Memorize Lyrics: 2 Ways

I believe that memorizing lyrics is a singer’s secret weapon, so let’s look at the two most common approaches.

First, there’s rote repetition. And then there’s mnemonics. Both are really their own worlds, so to speak. But there are some similarities to the approaches.

One key to memorizing lyrics is to immerse yourself in the song. By immersion, I mean listening to the song while you’re walking, going to the gym, cooking, sleeping… spending so much time listening to the song it’s almost like you start to live and breathe it.

For example, when I was memorizing the very long Upadesa Saram and Ribhu Gita, I listened to both of them quite a bit.

To be honest, I listened to the Upadesa Saram a lot more than Ribhu Gita, but that’s because the copy of Ribhu Gita I have is not really sung — instead, it’s the audio of the extracts that Gary Weber has in Evolving Beyond Thought that I turned into a song.

But you can listen to sung versions of Upadesa Saram on the internet. And so I listened to it over and over, while I was in the kitchen and walking around.

Any time you memorize the lyrics to long and complex songs, immersion becomes very important.

Now let’s look at each memorization approach, starting with rote repetition.

Rote repetition

I generally don’t use rote repetition, but I do want to talk about the approach just a bit so you know what to watch out for. There are a myriad number of suggestions online, and many of them seem quite impractical.

I don’t know what will work for you, but a lot of the rote repetition approaches don’t seem to make sense compared to a dedicated mnemonics strategy.

Here are some common recommendations to help you memorize lyrics by rote repetition:

Try dedicated practice,
Use index cards or flashcards, or
Focus on the first and last word of each line.

This last piece of advice is kind of related to keyword selection (which we’ll talk about in a moment), but I honestly don’t know why you would do first-word last-word. Some of those words wouldn’t necessarily be useful in memorizing the entire phrase.

Some people would also say to focus on the first and last lines of a stanza… but I also don’t think that’s very helpful.

Here’s why: primacy effect and recency effect.

Because you’re placing so much emphasis on what are essentially key wordings of particular patterns in a display of words on the screen, then you’re more likely to get tripped up.

Nelson Dellis recorded an interesting video about how to memorize random text word for word (something he deals with in memory competitions), that could potentially be helpful in this context.

Moving on, regular readers know I’m not a fan of using index cards.

One exception: you could write out one line or stanza on a card, and then repeat your exposure to it over and over again. I don’t think that’s a great strategy for any learning speed — but it might be a useful alternative to listening to the song again and again.

The index card approach would let you look at parts of the lyrics in isolation. And if you’re dividing the song into a part A, B, and C, you could break those parts up on index cards.

At the end of the day, rote repetition is going to require a lot of dedicated practice.

But what’s the alternative?

Mnemonics

Regular readers will probably know what’s coming next when I talk about mnemonics…

A Memory Palace is an excellent technique to help you learn how to memorize song lyrics. It’s a very powerful way of laying out your text word by word, in the order it appears (and the order it needs to be recalled). Then you can quickly transfer that information into your long-term memory.

And when you use mnemonics to memorize lyrics, you need a Memory Palace. (Ideally, you’ll already have a Memory Palace you’re familiar with.)

But if you’re not, and you want to learn more about how to create a Memory Palace, you can sign up for my free training here:

You need associative magnetic imagery, you need to know what recall rehearsal is and be able to use it, and you need the Big Five — speaking, writing, reading, and listening in a way that both draws from and puts information into your memory (memory being the 5th of the big five).

There are also a few basic principles to help you make the most of your Memory Palace:

1. Have enough space available

Make sure your Memory Palace has more space than you think you’ll need. For memorizing a song, you’ll want at least 5 or 10 lines more than you imagine.

When I was memorizing the Upadesa Saram, I had to invent a new building to tack on so I could remember all the lines. It worked out, but it’s certainly not best practice!

2. Don’t cross your paths

Especially when you have a Memory Palace that’s big enough to hold complex lyrics, it’s important to make sure not to cross paths as you’re moving around.

I teach all kinds of wonderful principles in the free Memory Palace training and my other courses, to help you create the best path through.

3. Create your imagery

I personally like to submit myself to the theme. So instead of deciding to have one image per word, or pretending like it’s a memory competition, I let the situation decide.

There are many times when you can get multiple words into an image. I’ve been able to get up to 17 words on a single station with maybe 3 to 5 images. There are other times where I had to use five stations, with one word per station.

It’s a lot faster to go with the flow than to design some “system” that doesn’t ultimately work.

4. Use emotion to your advantage

You want to end up with the song so ingrained in your memory that you’re interpreting with your own emotions about the song.

Having this interpretive level of understanding is quite helpful when you make a mistake and need to get back to where you were.

Remember that mistakes will happen; it’s your job to make sure your Memory Palace is so good (and practiced so thoroughly) that you can easily find your way back.

5. Start where you are

There’s always an elephant in the room when we start talking about memorization and how long it’s going to take. The answer is… it depends!

I have pre-existing competence with both music and memory techniques. If you’re trying to both learn basic music techniques and memorize lyrics at the same time, understand that you’ll be splitting your focus if you try to learn both at once.

There’s no perfect answer as to which one to start with, but remember that the hunter chasing two rabbits rarely catches either.

Also of note: professional musicians usually have routines deep in their procedural memory and meta-learning skills. They might not need mnemonics to help them remember lyrics, but they can get use out of memory techniques.

And maybe you’re wondering, “but how many times do I have to repeat the information in my Memory Palace stations, once I’ve created them?” This video talks about the rules around memorization and repetition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nOwZ...

Now you understand how a Memory Palace can help you memorize your song lyrics, let’s take a look at an example.

Example: The Expert

To help you understand the mnemonic approach to memorizing lyrics, I wrote a song that we’ll break down.

When I performed this on a recent Livestream, I had to memorize both the chords and the words (even though I’m the one who wrote them). It was my first public performance, and I didn’t have any performance practice.

https://youtu.be/M37RoCvtxkQ?t=1905

Here are the lyrics:

I am the expert

I know all the things I’ve been told

I’ve been through the desert

And the sand still feels so cold.

I don’t know why we die

They say it happens in time

I ain’t gonna live that lie

You’ll follow anyone

They need only call your name

You’ll be the first to disappear

When you know you’re the one to blame

You don’t know why you die

They say it happens in time

Are you going to walk that line?

We are the experts

We know all the things we’ve been told

Been through the graveyards

And kissed all the things we’ve been sold

We don’t know why we die

They say it happens in time

Are we going to live that lie?

I ain’t walking that line

Next, let’s break down how I memorized each line in the song (which is pretty much the same process for how I would memorize scripture). Each line in italics below goes into one Memory Palace station:

“I am the expert.”

This starts in the beginning of a well-formed Memory Palace. I just see an eye. And there’s a band called The X, and they’re doing expertise things.

“I know all the things I’ve been told.”

I imagine The Knowledge Network – it used to be Channel 12 when I was a kid – and that’s just what I see. I don’t have anything else in this station.

“I’ve been through the desert.”

I’ve mentioned allusions before. There’s an allusion to the desert that relates to the idea of being an expert in something — so all I really need to do is draw upon that allusion. This is an example of a concept that doesn’t really have a specific image to it, although images do come to mind related to the concept.

“The sand still feels so cold.”

For this image, there’s sand going through the hourglass and it’s so cold it breaks the glass. And you have that wonderful idea of ice going through glass and the sand just keeps falling out. Here I’m using different tools: sound, feelings, and references to things like bands.

“I don’t know why we die. They say it all happens in time. I ain’t gonna live that lie.”

This is very similar, right? So we start with an eye symbol (the all-knowing eye), The Knowledge Network again, and the actual tree symbol of The Knowledge Network starting to die.

“They say it all happens in time.”

In my mind, this doesn’t even need a mnemonic, it’s just so obvious. However, if I needed one I would use Trey Parker shoveling hay over a clock.

“I ain’t gonna live that lie.”

This is an allusion to Johnny Cash. I’m skipping ahead in my own song because later I’m going to say “walk that line.”

“You’ll follow anyone. They need only call your name. You’ll be the first to disappear when you know you’re the one to blame.”

There’s a scene from the Oliver Stone movie The Doors, where The Doors are being instructed very quickly they’re to use these lyrics and not these lyrics, and then – of course – Jim Morrison does what he wants to do, which is a very funny scene.

“You don’t know why you die. They say it all happens in time. Are you gonna walk that line?”

This is just a simple image of The Knowledge Network again, but this time it’s got the YouTube symbol to remind me it’s now “you” in this version. The new Knowledge Network is maybe a little bit in danger. And then if you needed something to remember “they” you might use something like Trey Parker (sounds like they) pitching hay, and the clock.

“Are you gonna walk that line?”

This is basically asking Johnny Cash if he’s really gonna walk that line.

“We are the experts. We know all the things we’ve been told. Been through the graveyards.”

I know this is a logical thing to change it to “we,” but when I was memorizing lyrics, I would sometimes switch the desert (from the first stanza) with graveyards (from the last stanza), and I had to fix it.

In order to do that, I needed to make sure that this graveyard was very strong, so I went to Castlevania (the video game) which is loaded with graveyards.

“And kissed all the things we’ve been sold.”

The rhyme helps out a lot here, but also just seeing someone kiss the graveyard, like a tombstone.

“We don’t know why we die; they say it happens in time; are we going to live that lie; I ain’t walking that line.”

And finally, the last thing is just a variation on earlier lines.

Now, when you do this, isolate keywords where possible and let grammar fill in the blanks.

For example, you don’t have to have an image for “been through the graveyards.”

There’s this image of the character from Castlevania – he’s going through graveyards, he’s been through the graveyards – that just takes care of everything, and that’s why Castlevania is also what probably came to mind instead of seeing Robert Graves or somebody with a yardstick. That is farther from the potential.

World Memory Champion Mark Channon and I spoke about this years ago: the more you use memory techniques, the more the right image comes at the right time.

One final note before we move to the next step: everything is going to be a sequence.

In the rote learning section, I warned you away from memorizing the first and last words of a sentence via rote learning.

One of the things you might notice in my example above is that I use the symbol of the eye a lot to start off the line. That has a relationship to the rote memorization first-and-last-word strategy, but in this case, you want to think about the force of that image and how it’s going to help you kick off the entire sequence.

Your first “eye” isn’t necessarily going to help you get through the rest of the sentence. So in the line “I am the expert,” having that band The X as an example, the eye needs to be doing something to the expert. There’s entanglement between them in the elaborative encoding.

You don’t want to end up having primacy on just one thing — you want it to have some kind of force that draws things through the sentence. Imagine the sequence as toppling dominoes, where one leads naturally into the other.

Once you have your song lyrics memorized, it’s time to check your memory!

How to Memorize Song Lyrics: Test Yourself!

One of the best ways to determine how much progress you’ve made is to test yourself.

Rather than just thinking, “oh, I’ve got this,” take the time to verify how it’s going. You can test your memory by:

Writing out the lyrics (by hand) from memory,
Record yourself singing the lyrics, and then
Sing along with the recording.

Ideally, you’ll step away from any notes or sheet music while you’re testing. And, don’t worry about mistakes. Just write out what you think the lyrics are, based on what you’ve memorized so far.

You might end up with distortions where words appear in the wrong place. For example, “The mist is hanging gently on the lake,” versus “A gentle mist is hanging on the lake.” Any time you make a mistake, make a note of it and strategize how to fix it.

Singing along with the recording should happen after you’re done writing down or recording yourself.

Next, you’ll troubleshoot.

How to Memorize Song Lyrics: Troubleshoot Your Mistakes

Troubleshooting requires attention to every single step and revising your practice in every possible way.

Ask yourself:

Is my Memory Palace well-formed?
Is my magnetic imagery plump and robust?
Am I using all the Magnetic Modes?
Am I doing Recall Rehearsal effectively?
Am I using the Big Five?
Am I writing or speaking it out?
Am I listening to it?

And finally: are you doing all of these things in a way that promotes drawing from your memory (and putting it back in) with creative elaboration?

Whether you’re using word-by-word or isolating keywords, you want to fix the issues with mnemonics as you go into testing.

Additionally, you will need to do dedicated practice to fix the places where you make mistakes.

Zone in on what the mistake is, and put it on a loop. Take one word at a time, and then two. Then once those two words are comfortable, expand to three… and so on. This will help you get better at the whole thing.

This is the case no matter where in the phrase the mistake happens. It could be a mistake at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence. Pick that one spot and then repeat it until you “get it” using your imagery.

For example: let’s say there are 3 problematic words in the middle of a 10-word sentence. You would first go in and get one word perfect, nail the mnemonics, and then take the word before or after it and loop it. Loop the words, then the phrases, until you’re able to get the correct lyrics into your long-term memory.

How to Memorize a Song Fast Using Mnemonics?

We’ve mostly covered this question, but there are a couple of things we haven’t touched on yet.

First, dig your wells before you’re thirsty! You’ll hear me say this over and over, but it’s true.

Make sure you have your Memory Palace ready.
Make sure you know the ins and outs of magnetic imagery.
Make sure you’re well trained and have a robust practice.

Then, you can let go of the outcomes and just enjoy the ride. Be F.R.E.E!

When it’s time to perform, just let it go and dive in. You have to be there, in the moment. Breathe. Relax. Let it go!

Now you know how to memorize lyrics, but what if you also need to play guitar or piano (or another instrument) to accompany your performance?

Next, let’s look at the process for memorizing notes.

Memorizing Notes

When it comes to our overarching goal – to memorize a song – where do you start? Do you memorize the lyrics first? The notes? The chords?

If you’re going to play the song as well as sing it, I would actually recommend memorizing the music first, and then the lyrics.

That way, you know the chord progressions and can play along while you practice learning and memorizing the lyrics.

Here are five approaches to help you memorize notes:

1. Have a Song Key

This means knowing the notes of the song. Then, if you have any sort of musical sensibility, you can just match and figure it out.

For example, if I knew the notes and key of a particular Slayer song, then I would try and hear where it matched with another song and try to figure out the notes that way.

Scott Devine, a great bass instructor, teaches this way. He talks about using Stand By Me as a song key — first, wanting to know what key it’s in, then knowing what notes are in it, as well as the root note.

So you learn the notes of one song, and then you match them mentally in your mind.

2. Use a Major System

This approach depends on the instrument and your existing competence with both your instrument and memory techniques.

This is not a be-all-end-all solution, but I find it interesting and fun.

Zero is a soft C, S, or Z.

One is D or T.

Two is N.

Three is M.

Four is R.

Five is L.

Six can be any of these designations – ch, j, soft G, sh.

Seven is a hard G or a K. (I never use the hard G myself.)

Eight is an F or V.

Nine is a B or P.

When Simon Luisi was on the podcast, he shared some amazing suggestions around expanding your Major System.

3. Use an Alphabet List

Let’s look at how you might use the alphabet list as a guitar player.

You will have a designation for every string:

E is Ernie (or dark Ernie)
A is Al Pacino
D is Dracula
G is Grover (from Sesame Street)
B is Bob (from What About Bob)
E (again) can be Ernie again — or light Ernie

Once you have your strings labeled, then you’ll assign an image to each fret.

For example, when you know you have a D on the fifth fret, then you need to have an image for the fifth fret.

If you have your 00 to 99, this would be Sal from Dog Day Afternoon for me. And this is now the third fret on the D string. For the A string, Al Pacino will interact on the D with Sal from Dog Day Afternoon. So we can have a sandwich interacting with Dracula. So Al Pacino, Dracula, then Sal from Dog Day Afternoon.

You just make these little stories that help you remember which notes or chords come next. I’ve never used this approach to memorize an entire song, but it’s helpful for smaller passages.

4. Use Hammers and Knives

When you have to memorize notes with a sharp or flat (accidentals), you can use imagery to help.

Flat = hammer
Sharp = knife

Let’s say you have a C♯ followed by an A♭— you could imagine Cookie Monster using his knife to cut off Al Pacino’s hammer.

5. Use Visuals For the Keyboard

Here’s one way to visualize the notes on a piano keyboard:

C, D, and E are 3 white notes with 2 black keys.

F, G, A, and B are 4 white notes with 3 black keys.

You can think of two houses:

House one has a garage. There’s a Cat and an Elephant who guard the Dog (CDE).

House two has 2 garages. In this one, a Falcon and a Bear guard the Giraffe and Ape inside (FGAB).

You can also use the Major System to number each key. This process is quite detailed, but I explain it fully in the Magnetic Memory Masterclass.

Let’s look at a couple of other strategies before we tie everything together.

Memorizing Chords

Like I mentioned in the last section, I would recommend memorizing the chords before you move along to lyrics.

You can use some of the strategies above to help you memorize chords: using a pegword method or an alphabet list.

For example, if you were memorizing in E minor, you could visualize a miner’s helmet. Then, if you switched into A minor, you could have Ernie pop the hat onto Al Pacino’s head.

Or if you have augmented or diminished chords in your song, you might have the calendar page from August and Dim from A Clockwork Orange in your imagery.

You can also use transcription practice to help you memorize the chords. This has a couple of benefits:

You’ll understand the key structure better.
You’ll get the A, B, and C parts more focused in your mind.
Writing it out from memory helps move the chords into long-term memory.

You’ll also want to practice the performance itself as a separate skill. Private practice is not the same as performing in front of an audience!

Finally, let’s tie all the pieces together.

How to Memorize Songs: Bring It All Together

For this final step, you’ll pick a strategy and be all in. My recommendation? Use mnemonics.

And to get to the place where you can perform without worrying so much about making a mistake, it helps to be F.R.E.E.

Focus on frequent practice, be in a state of relaxation, treat everything like an experiment, and do it in a way that’s entertaining!

And then it all comes back to the principle from earlier in the post: let go of the outcomes.

Remember: all performers make mistakes. What you need is mental strength and a strategy for making the most of your time memorizing.

Set yourself free by following the rules. Sitting across from me at dinner one night, Tony Buzan told me this. “The rules will set you free.”

So what are your rules for memorizing a song? Frequent practice. Relax. Have a spirit of experimentation. And entertain yourself.

Then, once you’ve memorized this song… you can move on to the next one.

Before we wrap up, there are a number of questions I get asked on the topic, so let’s answer them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions about how to memorize a song? Let’s fix that!

1. How many songs can I memorize?

I don’t think there’s really a limit, as long as you’re alive and mentally capable.

As long as you have Memory Palaces, you can memorize as much as you want. You just have to take it one word at a time and one song at a time. If you need help making this practice regular, here’s how to create an UNSHAKABLE Memory Palace Training Routine.

A lot of people think of the brain like a sponge, where you need to squeeze out old stuff to get anything new in — but I don’t think that’s true. (Especially when you utilize Memory Palaces!)

In The Brain: The Story of You, neuroscientist David Eagleman says that to capture all the information in the brain would require a zettabyte of capacity. That means we have way more room than we need to memorize all the songs we want.

And since there’s a never-ending supply of new Memory Palace locations you can create, you’ll never run out of new places to store lyrics and music.

2. How do I use the mnemonics while performing?

Ideally, you don’t.

Instead, you should use mnemonics to get the lyrics memorized before you perform. And performance also has its own type of muscle memory.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from performing with The Outside was from our drummer Tito — he always said, “if it looks like a mistake, it’s a mistake.”

So instead of saying “whoops!” in the middle of a performance, just pretend like the mistake never happened. Get your place back as quickly as possible, and keep going. If you quickly correct and get back to where you were, there’s a lower chance the audience will notice.

3. What if I get bored of a song?

The short answer is: work on 2 or 3 songs at a time.

The longer answer is, this is largely a mindset issue. If you have the time to memorize songs, then you have the opportunity to be grateful to have this time. To me, being bored feels like a strange conclusion to draw from your situation.

That being said, I think there is such a thing as topic exhaustion. In these situations, I might choose to memorize two songs using the same Memory Palace — the different tune and words can help you renew your interest and give your brain a break with variety.

You can work on 2 or 3 songs at a time, and switch things up any time you start to feel exhausted with one of them. And if you know how to multi-purpose Memory Palaces, use that technique.

4. How do I memorize songs in other languages?

It’s the same process, but you want to bring sound and meaning together with imagery a lot more.

It’s a bit of a trick, but if you can create your magnetic imagery so it reminds you of the sound of the word and the meaning at the same time, it will help you a great deal.

You can also memorize without knowing the meaning. In Hermann Ebbinghaus’s book on memory (Über das Gedächtnis), he seems to say it’s easier to memorize nonsense than it is to memorize meaning. However, knowing the meaning can be helpful with the interpretive step of memorization.

5. Where can I learn more about how to memorize a song?

I’m glad you asked.

How to Memorize a Song: The Zen of Remembering Music

Do you remember the first time you sang in front of an audience?

I sure do…

Yeah, I was just a little kid in grade two, and I didn’t have a guitar at the time. But it was still quite the experience.

Picture this: little Anthony, doing show-and-tell. Singing about going to camp and getting sick with watermelons and all kinds of stuff.

It was nerve-wracking then, and I know memorizing songs still ranks high on the list of “things that freak people out.” Performing in public, especially when you’re singing from memory, is probably up there with public speaking.

But there’s good news: you can make the process a lot easier if you use the strategies I explain in this post. I’ll help you memorize songs thoroughly — know the lyrics, the notes, and how to do individual runs or riffs.

Want to know how to memorize a song? Here’s what this post will cover:

Why Sing Memorized Songs?

What Is a Song?

How to Memorize Lyrics: 2 Ways

Memorizing Notes

Memorizing Chords

How to Memorize Songs: Bring It All Together

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Remember a Song For Any Purpose

Ready to flex your memorization muscles? Let’s get started.

Why Sing Memorized Songs?

Before we take a deep dive into the techniques and strategies you can use to memorize a song, you should identify your why. Namely, “why do I want to memorize this song?”

There are a number of benefits to memorizing songs and lyrics. Let’s take a look at the six top reasons.

1. Improves Verbal Memory

You want to improve your memory, right? That’s why we’re all here — and as fans of improving memory, it’s important to improve verbal memory.

A 2013 study shows that instrumental music training can enhance cognitive processing. Their results confirm previous findings concerning music training and cognitive performance.

I’ll reference science a fair amount any time it comes to memory because it’s very important to know that this stuff works (and that it’s been verified by scientific studies, such as how you can improve your crystal and fluid intelligence).

2. Promotes Emotional Stability

Above and beyond improving verbal memory, memorizing songs also promotes emotional stability.

Memorization aids in the production of certain chemicals in the brain — we’ll talk more about neuroscience later in this post.

But for now, just know that memorizing songs can help you feel better. I don’t know about you, but I think we would all like to have better emotions!

3. Creates Focus & Concentration

Improving your emotions leads to a better mindset. It helps you have better interactions with other people. And it creates more focus and concentration.

Ever since I started working on memorizing songs here at home, I’ve noticed much better focus and concentration. And, very important to me, I’ve had more emotional stability.

4. Bonds Us With Others

Memorizing songs also helps us bond more with other people.

There could be many reasons for this, but one of the examples I find most fascinating is when members of a choir show synchronized heartbeats.

My wife and I sing together quite a bit, usually in different languages, which helps promote the benefits of bilingualism for lifelong brain and memory health.

I also think our singing is a huge part of why we’re so happy as a couple. One of our favorite songs to sing together is “The Moon Represents My Heart” — which I sang to her and her entire family at our wedding party in Beijing.

5. Produces Health

There are a number of interesting health benefits to learning to sing and memorizing songs.

For example:

Gunter Kreutz, a German professor of Systematische Musikwissenschaften, talks about how you get an oxytocin boost (essentially a high in your brain) when you sing.

For those who don’t speak German, Systematische Musikwissenschaften is a combined physical and mental activity that leads to a more enjoyable mind.

So this is very powerful to have — who wouldn’t want a more enjoyable mind? No matter how enjoyable your mind might be, wouldn’t you want it to be even more enjoyable?

You can also improve your immune system by singing. There’s an article published by the University of California Press that details results from a study designed to determine whether choral singing is associated with physiological changes in the immune system.

6. Improves Breathing, Posture, and Pain Relief

And finally, memorizing songs can improve your breathing and your posture, as well as promoting pain relief.

Stop for a moment and check your posture, right now. Could you benefit from better posture?

Now, before we get much further, it’s important to make sure we’re all talking about the same thing.

What Is a Song?

Let’s talk about the definition of a song. What exactly are we memorizing?

The reason we want to do this is because it’s a tool of memorization to think a little bit about what songs are.

The Definition of a Song

The dictionary definition of a song is:

“A short metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric, a ballad, etc.”

It can be helpful to your memorization to know whether what you’re memorizing is a ballad. It’s useful to know whether it’s a standard lyric (or not). And the genre of the song matters, as well.

These are all mental tools to help you learn how to memorize songs.

The first thing you want to understand is the structure of the song.

Song Structure and Mapping

All songs have structures. And different songs will be structured differently — but it’s still important to understand as you memorize.

Before you begin to memorize, you will do what’s called “song mapping” to identify the A part, B part, C part, etc. That way, if you lose your place while singing it’s easier to find your way back.

This has been incredibly useful for me in my musical career.

When I was on tour with The Outside, there were shows where we were all incredibly tired. And no matter how well-practiced we were, there were times we’d lose our spots. But since I did song mapping, I was always able to find my way back quite easily — and a lot faster than I might have without it.

When most people think about memorizing a song, they focus on how to memorize song lyrics.

To help you out with this, let’s look at lyrical analysis.

Lyric Analysis

There are 5 different ways to analyze the song lyrics you’re trying to memorize.

1. Poetic Analysis

This involves looking at the words themselves and asking the following questions:

How do they work?
Is there assonance?
Is there consonance?
Is there logopoeia (paying attention to context)?
What’s the logic of this material?

You don’t have to have a full understanding of the lyrics in order to memorize them, but it’s helpful to understand at least the basics.

But watch out: don’t sit there and wait until you understand the lyrics before you start to memorize! One of the things you’ll discover, through the process of memorizing music, is your understanding compounds value.

In academia, the accretion of value means that “the sediments of meaning build up.” The more you work with little bits of sand and stone (in this case, lyrics and music), the more settle and get baked in, the more and more meaning builds up over time.

There’s always more understanding yet to come — and that’s a beautiful thing.

2. Emotional Analysis

This is the simplest of the types. Ask yourself:

Is it a happy song?
Is it a sad song?
Are there multiple emotions?
What emotions is the artist trying to get across to the audience?

Do your best to interpret what’s going on with the song.

3. Character Analysis

Do the song lyrics suggest character progression?

Since this might be a little hard to understand at first glance, let’s take a look at an example.

Lou Reed’s song “My House” has a line at the end of the first stanza that reads, “My house is very beautiful at night.” But by the end of the song, that lyric has changed to, “Our house is very beautiful at night.”

The character in the song begins it alone, but he shows growth as a result of the process he sings about.

When you identify details like this in a song, it can help you sing it better once memorized.

4. Historical Analysis

Understanding the history behind the song lyrics can also be quite helpful. Do the following research:

Read the Wikipedia page about the song.
Read or listen to interviews with the author.
Read interpretations by other people about what the song means.

By digging deeper into the origin story of the song and the history of the songwriter, you can uncover revelations you might otherwise miss.

5. Melody Analysis

Understanding all parts of the melodic structure is also helpful on your memorization journey. Pay attention to the:

Melody
Harmony
Rhythm
Chords
Flourishes

If you want to dive deeper into melodic analysis, check out Rick Beato’s Everything Music YouTube channel.

All 5 of these types of analysis will help not only your memorization, but also your delivery and enjoyment.

Next, let’s look at the nuts and bolts of memorizing lyrics.

How to Memorize Lyrics: 2 Ways

I believe that memorizing lyrics is a singer’s secret weapon, so let’s look at the two most common approaches.

First, there’s rote repetition. And then there’s mnemonics. Both are really their own worlds, so to speak. But there are some similarities to the approaches.

One key to memorizing lyrics is to immerse yourself in the song. By immersion, I mean listening to the song while you’re walking, going to the gym, cooking, sleeping… spending so much time listening to the song it’s almost like you start to live and breathe it.

For example, when I was memorizing the very long Upadesa Saram and Ribhu Gita, I listened to both of them quite a bit.

To be honest, I listened to the Upadesa Saram a lot more than Ribhu Gita, but that’s because the copy of Ribhu Gita I have is not really sung — instead, it’s the audio of the extracts that Gary Weber has in Evolving Beyond Thought that I turned into a song.

But you can listen to sung versions of Upadesa Saram on the internet. And so I listened to it over and over, while I was in the kitchen and walking around.

Any time you memorize the lyrics to long and complex songs, immersion becomes very important.

Now let’s look at each memorization approach, starting with rote repetition.

Rote repetition

I generally don’t use rote repetition, but I do want to talk about the approach just a bit so you know what to watch out for. There are a myriad number of suggestions online, and many of them seem quite impractical.

I don’t know what will work for you, but a lot of the rote repetition approaches don’t seem to make sense compared to a dedicated mnemonics strategy.

Here are some common recommendations to help you memorize lyrics by rote repetition:

Try dedicated practice,
Use index cards or flashcards, or
Focus on the first and last word of each line.

This last piece of advice is kind of related to keyword selection (which we’ll talk about in a moment), but I honestly don’t know why you would do first-word last-word. Some of those words wouldn’t necessarily be useful in memorizing the entire phrase.

Some people would also say to focus on the first and last lines of a stanza… but I also don’t think that’s very helpful.

Here’s why: primacy effect and recency effect.

Because you’re placing so much emphasis on what are essentially key wordings of particular patterns in a display of words on the screen, then you’re more likely to get tripped up.

Nelson Dellis recorded an interesting video about how to memorize random text word for word (something he deals with in memory competitions), that could potentially be helpful in this context.

Moving on, regular readers know I’m not a fan of using index cards.

One exception: you could write out one line or stanza on a card, and then repeat your exposure to it over and over again. I don’t think that’s a great strategy for any learning speed — but it might be a useful alternative to listening to the song again and again.

The index card approach would let you look at parts of the lyrics in isolation. And if you’re dividing the song into a part A, B, and C, you could break those parts up on index cards.

At the end of the day, rote repetition is going to require a lot of dedicated practice.

But what’s the alternative?

Mnemonics

Regular readers will probably know what’s coming next when I talk about mnemonics…

A Memory Palace is an excellent technique to help you learn how to memorize song lyrics. It’s a very powerful way of laying out your text word by word, in the order it appears (and the order it needs to be recalled). Then you can quickly transfer that information into your long-term memory.

And when you use mnemonics to memorize lyrics, you need a Memory Palace. (Ideally, you’ll already have a Memory Palace you’re familiar with.)

But if you’re not, and you want to learn more about how to create a Memory Palace, you can sign up for my free training here:

You need associative magnetic imagery, you need to know what recall rehearsal is and be able to use it, and you need the Big Five — speaking, writing, reading, and listening in a way that both draws from and puts information into your memory (memory being the 5th of the big five).

There are also a few basic principles to help you make the most of your Memory Palace:

1. Have enough space available

Make sure your Memory Palace has more space than you think you’ll need. For memorizing a song, you’ll want at least 5 or 10 lines more than you imagine.

When I was memorizing the Upadesa Saram, I had to invent a new building to tack on so I could remember all the lines. It worked out, but it’s certainly not best practice!

2. Don’t cross your paths

Especially when you have a Memory Palace that’s big enough to hold complex lyrics, it’s important to make sure not to cross paths as you’re moving around.

I teach all kinds of wonderful principles in the free Memory Palace training and my other courses, to help you create the best path through.

3. Create your imagery

I personally like to submit myself to the theme. So instead of deciding to have one image per word, or pretending like it’s a memory competition, I let the situation decide.

There are many times when you can get multiple words into an image. I’ve been able to get up to 17 words on a single station with maybe 3 to 5 images. There are other times where I had to use five stations, with one word per station.

It’s a lot faster to go with the flow than to design some “system” that doesn’t ultimately work.

4. Use emotion to your advantage

You want to end up with the song so ingrained in your memory that you’re interpreting with your own emotions about the song.

Having this interpretive level of understanding is quite helpful when you make a mistake and need to get back to where you were.

Remember that mistakes will happen; it’s your job to make sure your Memory Palace is so good (and practiced so thoroughly) that you can easily find your way back.

5. Start where you are

There’s always an elephant in the room when we start talking about memorization and how long it’s going to take. The answer is… it depends!

I have pre-existing competence with both music and memory techniques. If you’re trying to both learn basic music techniques and memorize lyrics at the same time, understand that you’ll be splitting your focus if you try to learn both at once.

There’s no perfect answer as to which one to start with, but remember that the hunter chasing two rabbits rarely catches either.

Also of note: professional musicians usually have routines deep in their procedural memory and meta-learning skills. They might not need mnemonics to help them remember lyrics, but they can get use out of memory techniques.

And maybe you’re wondering, “but how many times do I have to repeat the information in my Memory Palace stations, once I’ve created them?” This video talks about the rules around memorization and repetition:

Now you understand how a Memory Palace can help you memorize your song lyrics, let’s take a look at an example.

Example: The Expert

To help you understand the mnemonic approach to memorizing lyrics, I wrote a song that we’ll break down.

When I performed this on a recent Livestream, I had to memorize both the chords and the words (even though I’m the one who wrote them). It was my first public performance, and I didn’t have any performance practice.

Here are the lyrics:

I am the expert

I know all the things I’ve been told

I’ve been through the desert

And the sand still feels so cold.

I don’t know why we die

They say it happens in time

I ain’t gonna live that lie

You’ll follow anyone

They need only call your name

You’ll be the first to disappear

When you know you’re the one to blame

You don’t know why you die

They say it happens in time

Are you going to walk that line?

We are the experts

We know all the things we’ve been told

Been through the graveyards

And kissed all the things we’ve been sold

We don’t know why we die

They say it happens in time

Are we going to live that lie?

I ain’t walking that line

Next, let’s break down how I memorized each line in the song (which is pretty much the same process for how I would memorize scripture). Each line in italics below goes into one Memory Palace station:

“I am the expert.”

This starts in the beginning of a well-formed Memory Palace. I just see an eye. And there’s a band called The X, and they’re doing expertise things.

“I know all the things I’ve been told.”

I imagine The Knowledge Network – it used to be Channel 12 when I was a kid – and that’s just what I see. I don’t have anything else in this station.

“I’ve been through the desert.”

I’ve mentioned allusions before. There’s an allusion to the desert that relates to the idea of being an expert in something — so all I really need to do is draw upon that allusion. This is an example of a concept that doesn’t really have a specific image to it, although images do come to mind related to the concept.

“The sand still feels so cold.”

For this image, there’s sand going through the hourglass and it’s so cold it breaks the glass. And you have that wonderful idea of ice going through glass and the sand just keeps falling out. Here I’m using different tools: sound, feelings, and references to things like bands.

“I don’t know why we die. They say it all happens in time. I ain’t gonna live that lie.”

This is very similar, right? So we start with an eye symbol (the all-knowing eye), The Knowledge Network again, and the actual tree symbol of The Knowledge Network starting to die.

“They say it all happens in time.”

In my mind, this doesn’t even need a mnemonic, it’s just so obvious. However, if I needed one I would use Trey Parker shoveling hay over a clock.

“I ain’t gonna live that lie.”

This is an allusion to Johnny Cash. I’m skipping ahead in my own song because later I’m going to say “walk that line.”

“You’ll follow anyone. They need only call your name. You’ll be the first to disappear when you know you’re the one to blame.”

There’s a scene from the Oliver Stone movie The Doors, where The Doors are being instructed very quickly they’re to use these lyrics and not these lyrics, and then – of course – Jim Morrison does what he wants to do, which is a very funny scene.

“You don’t know why you die. They say it all happens in time. Are you gonna walk that line?”

This is just a simple image of The Knowledge Network again, but this time it’s got the YouTube symbol to remind me it’s now “you” in this version. The new Knowledge Network is maybe a little bit in danger. And then if you needed something to remember “they” you might use something like Trey Parker (sounds like they) pitching hay, and the clock.

“Are you gonna walk that line?”

This is basically asking Johnny Cash if he’s really gonna walk that line.

“We are the experts. We know all the things we’ve been told. Been through the graveyards.”

I know this is a logical thing to change it to “we,” but when I was learning my own lyrics and memorizing them I would sometimes switch the desert (from the first stanza) with graveyards (from the last stanza), and I had to fix it.

In order to do that, I needed to make sure that this graveyard was very strong, so I went to Castlevania (the video game) which is loaded with graveyards.

“And kissed all the things we’ve been sold.”

The rhyme helps out a lot here, but also just seeing someone kiss the graveyard, like a tombstone.

“We don’t know why we die; they say it happens in time; are we going to live that lie; I ain’t walking that line.”

And finally, the last thing is just a variation on earlier lines.

Now, when you do this, isolate keywords where possible and let grammar fill in the blanks.

For example, you don’t have to have an image for “been through the graveyards.”

There’s this image of the character from Castlevania – he’s going through graveyards, he’s been through the graveyards – that just takes care of everything, and that’s why Castlevania is also what probably came to mind instead of seeing Robert Graves or somebody with a yardstick. That is farther from the potential.

World Memory Champion Mark Channon and I spoke about this years ago: the more you use memory techniques, the more the right image comes at the right time.

One final note before we move to the next step: everything is going to be a sequence.

In the rote learning section, I warned you away from memorizing the first and last words of a sentence via rote learning.

One of the things you might notice in my example above is that I use the symbol of the eye a lot to start off the line. That has a relationship to the rote memorization first-and-last-word strategy, but in this case, you want to think about the force of that image and how it’s going to help you kick off the entire sequence.

Your first “eye” isn’t necessarily going to help you get through the rest of the sentence. So in the line “I am the expert,” having that band The X as an example, the eye needs to be doing something to the expert. There’s entanglement between them in the elaborative encoding.

You don’t want to end up having primacy on just one thing — you want it to have some kind of force that draws things through the sentence. Imagine the sequence as toppling dominoes, where one leads naturally into the other.

Once you have your song lyrics memorized, it’s time to check your memory!

How to Memorize Song Lyrics: Test Yourself!

One of the best ways to determine how much progress you’ve made is to test yourself.

Rather than just thinking, “oh, I’ve got this,” take the time to verify how it’s going. You can test your memory by:

Writing out the lyrics (by hand) from memory,
Record yourself singing the lyrics, and then
Sing along with the recording.

Ideally, you’ll step away from any notes or sheet music while you’re testing. And, don’t worry about mistakes. Just write out what you think the lyrics are, based on what you’ve memorized so far.

You might end up with distortions where words appear in the wrong place. For example, “The mist is hanging gently on the lake,” versus “A gentle mist is hanging on the lake.” Any time you make a mistake, make a note of it and strategize how to fix it.

Singing along with the recording should happen after you’re done writing down or recording yourself.

Next, you’ll troubleshoot.

How to Memorize Song Lyrics: Troubleshoot Your Mistakes

Troubleshooting requires attention to every single step and revising your practice in every possible way.

Ask yourself:

Is my Memory Palace well-formed?
Is my magnetic imagery plump and robust?
Am I using all the Magnetic Modes?
Am I doing Recall Rehearsal effectively?
Am I using the Big Five?
Am I writing or speaking it out?
Am I listening to it?

And finally: are you doing all of these things in a way that promotes drawing from your memory (and putting it back in) with creative elaboration?

Whether you’re using word-by-word or isolating keywords, you want to fix the issues with mnemonics as you go into testing.

Additionally, you will need to do dedicated practice to fix the places where you make mistakes.

Zone in on what the mistake is, and put it on a loop. Take one word at a time, and then two. Then once those two words are comfortable, expand to three… and so on. This will help you get better at the whole thing.

This is the case no matter where in the phrase the mistake happens. It could be a mistake at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence. Pick that one spot and then repeat it until you “get it” using your imagery.

For example: let’s say there are 3 problematic words in the middle of a 10-word sentence. You would first go in and get one word perfect, nail the mnemonics, and then take the word before or after it and loop it. Loop the words, then the phrases, until you’re able to get the correct lyrics into your long-term memory.

How to Memorize a Song Fast Using Mnemonics?

We’ve mostly covered this question, but there are a couple of things we haven’t touched on yet.

First, dig your wells before you’re thirsty! You’ll hear me say this over and over, but it’s true.

Make sure you have your Memory Palace ready.
Make sure you know the ins and outs of magnetic imagery.
Make sure you’re well trained and have a robust practice.

Then, you can let go of the outcomes and just enjoy the ride. Be F.R.E.E!

When it’s time to perform, just let it go and dive in. You have to be there, in the moment. Breathe. Relax. Let it go!

Now you know how to memorize lyrics, but what if you also need to play guitar or piano (or another instrument) to accompany your performance?

Next, let’s look at the process for memorizing notes.

Memorizing Notes

When it comes to our overarching goal – to memorize a song – where do you start? Do you memorize the lyrics first? The notes? The chords?

If you’re going to play the song as well as sing it, I would actually recommend memorizing the music first, and then the lyrics.

That way, you know the chord progressions and can play along while you practice learning and memorizing the lyrics.

Here are five approaches to help you memorize notes:

1. Have a Song Key

This means knowing the notes of the song. Then, if you have any sort of musical sensibility, you can just match and figure it out.

For example, if I knew the notes and key of a particular Slayer song, then I would try and hear where it matched with another song and try to figure out the notes that way.

Scott Devine, a great bass instructor, teaches this way. He talks about using Stand By Me as a song key — first, wanting to know what key it’s in, then knowing what notes are in it, as well as the root note.

So you learn the notes of one song, and then you match them mentally in your mind.

2. Use a Major System

This approach depends on the instrument and your existing competence with both your instrument and memory techniques.

This is not a be-all-end-all solution, but I find it interesting and fun.

Zero is a soft C, S, or Z.

One is D or T.

Two is N.

Three is M.

Four is R.

Five is L.

Six can be any of these designations – ch, j, soft G, sh.

Seven is a hard G or a K. (I never use the hard G myself.)

Eight is an F or V.

Nine is a B or P.

When Simon Luisi was on the podcast, he shared some amazing suggestions around expanding your Major System.

3. Use an Alphabet List

Let’s look at how you might use the alphabet list as a guitar player.

You will have a designation for every string:

E is Ernie (or dark Ernie)
A is Al Pacino
D is Dracula
G is Grover (from Sesame Street)
B is Bob (from What About Bob)
E (again) can be Ernie again — or light Ernie

Once you have your strings labeled, then you’ll assign an image to each fret.

For example, when you know you have a D on the fifth fret, then you need to have an image for the fifth fret.

If you have your 00 to 99, this would be Sal from Dog Day Afternoon for me. And this is now the third fret on the D string. For the A string, Al Pacino will interact on the D with Sal from Dog Day Afternoon. So we can have a sandwich interacting with Dracula. So Al Pacino, Dracula, then Sal from Dog Day Afternoon.

You just make these little stories that help you remember which notes or chords come next. I’ve never used this approach to memorize an entire song, but it’s helpful for smaller passages.

4. Use Hammers and Knives

When you have to memorize notes with a sharp or flat (accidentals), you can use imagery to help.

Flat = hammer
Sharp = knife

Let’s say you have a C♯ followed by an A♭— you could imagine Cookie Monster using his knife to cut off Al Pacino’s hammer.

5. Use Visuals For the Keyboard

Here’s one way to visualize the notes on a piano keyboard:

C, D, and E are 3 white notes with 2 black keys.

F, G, A, and B are 4 white notes with 3 black keys.

You can think of two houses:

House one has a garage. There’s a Cat and an Elephant who guard the Dog (CDE).

House two has 2 garages. In this one, a Falcon and a Bear guard the Giraffe and Ape inside (FGAB).

You can also use the Major System to number each key. This process is quite detailed, but I explain it fully in the Magnetic Memory Masterclass.

Let’s look at a couple of other strategies before we tie everything together.

Memorizing Chords

Like I mentioned in the last section, I would recommend memorizing the chords before you move along to lyrics.

You can use some of the strategies above to help you memorize chords: using a pegword method or an alphabet list.

For example, if you were memorizing in E minor, you could visualize a miner’s helmet. Then, if you switched into A minor, you could have Ernie pop the hat onto Al Pacino’s head.

Or if you have augmented or diminished chords in your song, you might have the calendar page from August and Dim from A Clockwork Orange in your imagery.

You can also use transcription practice to help you memorize the chords. This has a couple of benefits:

You’ll understand the key structure better.
You’ll get the A, B, and C parts more focused in your mind.
Writing it out from memory helps move the chords into long-term memory.

You’ll also want to practice the performance itself as a separate skill. Private practice is not the same as performing in front of an audience!

Finally, let’s tie all the pieces together.

How to Memorize Songs: Bring It All Together

For this final step, you’ll pick a strategy and be all in. My recommendation? Use mnemonics.

And to get to the place where you can perform without worrying so much about making a mistake, it helps to be F.R.E.E.

Focus on frequent practice, be in a state of relaxation, treat everything like an experiment, and do it in a way that’s entertaining!

And then it all comes back to the principle from earlier in the post: let go of the outcomes.

Remember: all performers make mistakes. What you need is mental strength and a strategy for making the most of your time memorizing.

Set yourself free by following the rules. Sitting across from me at dinner one night, Tony Buzan told me this. “The rules will set you free.”

So what are your rules for memorizing a song? Frequent practice. Relax. Have a spirit of experimentation. And entertain yourself.

Then, once you’ve memorized this song… you can move on to the next one.

Before we wrap up, there are a number of questions I get asked on the topic, so let’s answer them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions about how to memorize a song? Let’s fix that!

1. How many songs can I memorize?

I don’t think there’s really a limit, as long as you’re alive and mentally capable.

As long as you have Memory Palaces, you can memorize as much as you want. You just have to take it one word at a time and one song at a time. If you need help making this practice regular, here’s how to create an UNSHAKABLE Memory Palace Training Routine.

A lot of people think of the brain like a sponge, where you need to squeeze out old stuff to get anything new in — but I don’t think that’s true. (Especially when you utilize Memory Palaces!)

In The Brain: The Story of You, neuroscientist David Eagleman says that to capture all the information in the brain would require a zettabyte of capacity. That means we have way more room than we need to memorize all the songs we want.

And since there’s a never-ending supply of new Memory Palace locations you can create, you’ll never run out of new places to store lyrics and music.

2. How do I use the mnemonics while performing?

Ideally, you don’t.

Instead, you should use mnemonics to get the lyrics memorized before you perform. And performance also has its own type of muscle memory.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from performing with The Outside was from our drummer Tito — he always said, “if it looks like a mistake, it’s a mistake.”

So instead of saying “whoops!” in the middle of a performance, just pretend like the mistake never happened. Get your place back as quickly as possible, and keep going. If you quickly correct and get back to where you were, there’s a lower chance the audience will notice.

3. What if I get bored of a song?

The short answer is: work on 2 or 3 songs at a time.

The longer answer is, this is largely a mindset issue. If you have the time to memorize songs, then you have the opportunity to be grateful to have this time. To me, being bored feels like a strange conclusion to draw from your situation.

That being said, I think there is such a thing as topic exhaustion. In these situations, I might choose to memorize two songs using the same Memory Palace — the different tune and words can help you renew your interest and give your brain a break with variety.

You can work on 2 or 3 songs at a time, and switch things up any time you start to feel exhausted with one of them. And if you know how to multi-purpose Memory Palaces, use that technique.

4. How do I memorize songs in other languages?

It’s the same process, but you want to bring sound and meaning together with imagery a lot more.

It’s a bit of a trick, but if you can create your magnetic imagery so it reminds you of the sound of the word and the meaning at the same time, it will help you a great deal.

You can also memorize without knowing the meaning. In Hermann Ebbinghaus’s book on memory (Über das Gedächtnis), he seems to say it’s easier to memorize nonsense than it is to memorize meaning. However, knowing the meaning can be helpful with the interpretive step of memorization.

5. Where can I learn more about how to memorize a song?

I’m glad you asked.

Boris Konrad On The Benefits Of Scientific Memory Training

Control.

In everyday life, or for the layman control is defined as a power to influence or direct others.

If you’re out of control you’re said to be “off the rails,” or too wild to handle. Unpredictable.

But there’s another definition of control.

Control, as defined by science is “a subject or group in an experiment where the factor being tested is not applied, hence serves as a standard for comparison against another group where the factor is applied.”

When it comes to science, control is used to make the data we’re measuring immune to influence. Simple enough, right?

My guest today is Boris Konrad, International Grandmaster of Memory. He is a four time Guinness World Record holder, and lecturer on and teacher of memory.

Professionally, Boris works as a neuroscientist and researcher at Donders Institute in The Netherlands. He is also an award winning keynote speaker of the prestigious German title of “5-Sterne-Rednerpreis.”

In his years of research, Boris has taken the idea of examining the element of control far beyond the constraints of the scientific method.

As a record-setting memory champion he has incorporated a scientific approach to memory improvement, treating his own regimen as an experiment, marrying his experiences in neuroscience to stretching the limits of memory work personally.

In our conversation, Boris shares his story of overlapping profession and self-improvement and how you, too, can serve as your own control, stepping into the role of scientist in the laboratory of your mind, no neuroscience degree necessary.

We talk about all these matters, and so much more that will benefit your memory training. All you have to do is press play above and discover:

What parameters should truly define science as a whole, and what distinguishes scientific guidelines
How neuroscience research began with the work of a single scientist and has evolved into many areas of study
Why retention time is influenced by the method by which information is encoded
How memorizing for competition differs from memorization for the purpose of learning
The tradeoff (and benefits) of investing time into experimenting with new memory techniques in your Memory Palace training routine
What constitutes a real feat of memory (and it may not be what you think!)
How mixing and matching memory techniques can be the most powerful tool for improvement
The reason intelligent spaced repetition works (and why robots aren’t all that bad)
How reusing Memory Palaces is possible without falling prey to the ghosting effect, no modifications required
The cause of spatial memory and how exactly science has recently proven this hypothesis of organization
Why the brain fills in gaps of what it fails to remember
The benefits of solo memory training and using yourself as a control, rather than comparison to others for measured improvement

Further Resources on the Web, this podcast, and the MMM Blog:

Boris Konrad’s Official Website

Superbrain! (Boris Konrad’s forthcoming memory training course)

Boris’s TEDx Talk

The post Boris Konrad On The Benefits Of Scientific Memory Training appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Selective Attention: 5 Quick Ways to Boost Focus And Memory

As you sit down to read…

Your Messenger beeps.

An email alert shows up next.

A child wails outside.

And your neighbor decides to practice his Conga drums (very loudly) on this bright, sunny morning!

You need to turn on your selective attention.

Now, where’s the remote to that thing?

Spoiler alert: Getting your selective attention to work impeccably is not as simple as pressing a button. But if you are willing to put in the effort, I have some quick and easy ways to help you master the art of concentration.

In this post, I’ll explain how selective attention works and how you can use it to improve your attention abilities.

Here’s what this post will cover:

Selective Attention: The What, Where, and How?
A Walk Down History: Selective Attention And Its Theories
Are There Different Types of Selective Attention?
The Link Between Selective Attention And Memory
Why You Must Strengthen Your Selective Attention
5 Magnetic Ways to Boost Your Focus & Memory

Ready to get started? Let’s go!

Selective Attention: The What, Where, and How?

Before you can learn how to improve your selective attention, it’s important to understand just what it is.

What Is Selective Attention?

Selective attention is the process of concentrating on certain stimuli in the environment and not on others, according to the American Psychological Association.

This allows you to push all incidental or unnecessary stimuli into the background or to the periphery of your perception, without actually removing the interferences.

So, what is attention, you ask?

In cognitive science, attention is the ability to focus on a particular stimulus, sustaining it and shifting it at will.

There are four types of attention:

1. Divided Attention: Doing more than one task simultaneously.

2. Alternating Attention: Also known as attention switching — where you switch attention between two things.

3. Sustained Attention: Focusing on one thing or activity for a long time.

4. Selective Attention: What if you were able to direct your attention only on your presentation deck – or your novel or your driving – despite all the distractions around you?

That is selective attention.

The amount of selective attention you apply will depend on your capacity to concentrate and the interruptions around you. It can be a conscious or unconscious effort.

In his book The Principles of Psychology, pioneering psychologist William James, famously says:

“Focalization, concentration, of consciousness, is of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others  and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatter-brained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.”

Where Do You Use Selective Attention?

Here are some examples of the usage of selective attention ability in everyday life:

Studying or working with the TV switched on.
Listening to a podcast on the radio amid noisy traffic.
Listening only to what the teacher says despite friends talking next to you.
Reading a book or memorizing from a text book without getting disturbed by the noises in a coffee shop.
Hearing the cry of your baby even if you are completely engrossed on your laptop.
Hearing the ambulance siren, and making way for it, even if your attention is on the radio.

How Does Selective Attention Work?

Selective attention in young and older adults is a great example of contextual modulation by the brain and the visual cortex when it faces a cluttered scene (visual, or relating to any of the senses).

Let’s try to understand the neural functions behind selective attention.

Experiments by Basilis Zikopoulos and Helen Barbas of Boston University revealed a pathway from the amygdala to the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN). The amygdala assesses the physical characteristics and importance of stimuli and relays it to other parts of the brain. TRN is a hub for attentional processing.

Scientist Francis Crick called the TRN an “attentional searchlight” due to its orientation as the primary inhibitor of the sensory thalamus.

More recently, a team of neuroscientists at McGill University led by Julio Martinez-Trujillo also got evidence of a neuron network in the lateral prefrontal cortex of the brain being responsible for visual processing and filtering visual features.

They implanted a multielectrode-array implant (red square) in the lateral prefrontal cortex area (8A) of two macaques. This is where the active neuron network filters visual information and allocates attention, and is resilient to interference.

Source: Neuron

Now that you understand the what, where, and how… let’s look at a few of the models behind selective attention.

A Walk Down History: Selective Attention And Its Theories

Selective attention has been a focus area in the study of experimental psychology. To fully grasp why and how your attention span works, it is important to go through the various theories.

These theories help pinpoint how individuals prioritize and process sensory inputs:

Cherry’s “cocktail party problem”

This was one of the seminal theories on selective attention proposed by cognitive scientist Colin Cherry in 1953. Here, a partygoer listens intently only to his friend in a noisy room filled with conversation and music.

Broadbent’s Filter Model

In his 1958 Filter Model, Donald Broadbent said that a filter (or bottleneck) buffers only the necessary information and blocks or ignores the rest.

Source: Practical Pie

Treisman’s Filter-Attenuation Theory

In 1960, Treisman addressed the fact that unselected information also gets processed by the human brain, but with a lower intensity (a process called attenuation).

These two were bottleneck models. They were also known as early-selection theories.

Late-selection theories of attention entirely dropped the idea of an attentional filter or attenuator.

You can see the difference below:

Source: Berkeley

Anthony Deutsch and Diana Deutsch’s theory

The subjects in their studies analyzed inputs pre-attentively. You pay attention to any information depending on its meaning to your task.

Kahneman’s model

Through his experiments and findings, Kahneman showed that attention is a single mental resource that gets distributed among each task in varying amounts. So at a cocktail party, all your attention would be on friends, but you would respond immediately if someone else called your name.

Next came a few variants to the capacity theories:

Michael Posner’s Spotlight metaphor of attention

During a magician’s performance on stage, all eyes are on him because of the spotlight. You don’t normally look at the rest of the stage (fringe) and the area outside it (margin).

Zoom-Lens metaphor by other scientists

Even if a spotlight weren’t there on the stage, you would still look at the magician, sometimes increasing your visual field to what his support crew is doing.

If you’re interested in learning more about these theories, I recommend tools like Google Scholar to find scholarly literature related to your search.

Next, let’s look at the 4 potential types of selective attention.

Are There Different Types of Selective Attention?

Selective attention can be divided broadly into:

1. Selective Visual Attention: The “spotlight” and “zoom-lens” models of attention describe the idea of selective visual attention, and

2. Selective Auditory Attention: Simply put, this is selective hearing. You focus on a particular sound of your interest despite several other sound stimuli around you.

Nill Lavie and others proposed two other mechanisms of selective attention in their load theory of attention:

1. Perpetual Selection Mechanisms: This happens in a passive or involuntary way when you exclude irrelevant interruptions when there is too much information around you — because your attention capacity is limited.

For example, you’re disinterested in the overload of information in your advanced calculus class and end up doodling in your textbook.

2. Active Attention Control: Here your attentional control rejects interruptions even when you perceive them.

For example, when you work on more than one class assignment at a time, or when you take an open-book advanced calculus test in a noisy school campus.

Is Selective Attention Same As Inattentional Blindness?

Absolutely not!

In inattentional blindness or change blindness, you focus so intently on just one thing you don’t notice anything new that comes into your visual search field.

This can have dangerous effects — especially if it happens while driving a vehicle.

Dichotic listening is a similar aspect of selective attention where you listen to and process different things presented to the two ears.

How Is Selective Attention Related To Arousal?

Selective attention is governed by our arousal level.

Norman CC and others elaborated on Deutsch and Deutsch’s theory that the selection of stimuli depends on the relevance of the sensory input and its strength.

The strength of the input occurs due to the stimulation of any of the sensory systems: visual, auditory, olfactory, or tactile, and is accompanied by arousal.

The connection between selective attention and arousal is circular. An optimum level of arousal causes selective attention based on various aspects of our cognitive capacities and our experiences.

At the same time, our experiences and perceptions of the stimuli also influence our arousal. These stimuli may then increase or decrease arousal, and the cycle continues.

As Nir Eyal points out in Indistractable, you can stop that cycle, however, merely by being more selective about your choices.

The Link Between Selective Attention And Memory

The filter of selective attention saves the human brain from getting overwhelmed with information overload.

It prioritizes what is important for the moment and filters out what is not.  It prepares our cognitive processes and actions for each everyday task and in survival.

Selective attention is also closely linked to learning and recall. As is other memory issues, which can be confusing, so make sure to read up on everything you need to erase the confusion around things like explicit memory.

Impact Of Selective Attention On Learning and Memory

Although your cognitive brain gets affected by all your experiences, only a small portion of those experiences are remembered.

Studies have shown that what you encoded using selective attention makes for the strongest memories. This means that you have to first pay attention in order to store what is important to you in your short-term memory and working memory.

Distractors also affect learning and recall.

If there is music playing in the background while you study, your capacity to memorize things goes down a bit.

Music is tied to your associative memory reminding you of things that you had associated the track with. This diverts your attention, making it less likely that you encode what you study.

In effect, the music prevents information from moving from your short-term memory or working memory into your long-term memory.

Why You Must Strengthen Your Selective Attention

If your selective attention is weak, impaired or damaged, you can easily get distracted from your tasks.

If this happens persistently, it can adversely affect your personal, school, or professional life.

Selective attention is often impaired in disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A specific neural network in the brain is responsible for selective attention. Manipulating the neuronal activity can alter a person’s ability to focus.

This can be used to treat individuals or older adults who get distracted easily or suffer from ADHD, autism, and schizophrenia.

So how can you improve your selective attention?

5 Magnetic Ways to Boost Your Focus & Memory

You can easily strengthen your everyday selective attention – and thereby your focus and recall – using these five magnetic methods.

1. Exercise

Coordinative exercises (those that need coordinated movement of large muscles or muscle-groups) help improve selective attention by pre-activating your cognitive related neuronal networks.

High-Intensity Interval Exercise (HIIE) has been proven to improve selective attention, especially in university students.

They strengthen your body and sharpen your cognitive control at the same time.

When you improve your fitness, your fatigue decreases and your attention span lengthens naturally.

If exercise isn’t in your routine yet, how about adding it in now?

Set aside at least 30 minutes for working out in the morning or evening.

Vary your workouts with running, aerobic exercises, cycling, or any other physical sport that you are interested in. You can also include mind-body exercises like yoga and tai-chi into your routine.

2. Use Focused Attention

In their trials on a few participants, Eduardo Massad and others found that participants were physiologically aroused while doing a Monty Hall Problem (a brain teaser).

This was because the intense decision-making process needed a higher attentional load by the participants.

Paying deliberate attention to your task will let you do it with far more efficiency. Such focused attention on one exercise at a time will lead to better-formed memories and better recall.

Whenever you find the time, participate in activities that demand concentrated attention.

For example, pick the day’s newspaper and engross yourself in sudoku, finding the odd one out, or a crossword puzzle. Or engage in games such as chess, and obstacle courses.

You could even give a TEDx presentation and deliver your speech from memory, as I recently did.

3. Sleep

Sleep and selective attention seem to be polar opposites. But they regulate your awareness by filtering information from your conscious awareness.

In fact, they regulate each other. Sleep is important for you to maintain optimal attention levels. And your need for sleep increases after tasks that engage selective attention.

Sleep also helps in memory consolidation and in reorganizing memories.

Mental fatigue and sleep deprivation can affect your capacity to pay attention, process, and remember information. Sleepless nights can severely impair selective attention.

So snooze for a good 6 to 7 hours every day to wake up sharp and attentive. You will also be more present with whatever you do.

4. Don’t Pay Attention!

Did you read that right?

Yes.

Interestingly, Atsunori Ariga and Alejandro Lleras from the University of Illinois found that repetitive tasks needing prolonged selective attention lead to constant stimulation of the brain.

If it happens continuously, you register it as unimportant and eventually erase it. To prevent this, take short breaks from whatever you are focusing on – including studying for exams – and your attention will last a lot longer.

5. Build Memory Palaces

A Memory Palace is one of the most powerful types of mnemonics.

Here you peg all the information you want to remember in different parts of a familiar place — your home, for instance.

So if you want to remember a history lesson, associate the events of one year to your coffee table, another year to your sofa, and so on. To recall the events in the right order, you simply have to do a mental walk through your home.

In the process, you are forced to pay close attention to each historical event rather than just rehearsing it as it gets etched in your memory.

Practice creating Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method. Use it to commit everything that’s important to your memory, not allowing any diversions to affect the process.

Paying Attention Matters

Selective attention is needed to perform almost every daily task.

Training yourself to concentrate only on the information you need while averting a sensory overload is an important life skill.

When you combine the power of selective attention with Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method, you can retain and recall information faster and with superior permanence.

Ready to get started? Sign up for your copy of my free Memory Improvement Kit.

The post Selective Attention: 5 Quick Ways to Boost Focus And Memory appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Can You Trust Memory Vitamins To Boost Your Brain?

Can you really supercharge your memory with memory vitamins?

There is a multi-billion-dollar industry touting “advanced nutrition” to “upgrade your intelligence” with a “proprietary blend” of magic nutrients.

Let’s find out if these ginkgo and ginseng pills can improve your cognitive faculties or cure absent-mindedness and dementia, as their labels claim.

In this post, I’ll dive into numerous memory supplements available today, and the truth behind them. I’ll also show you three natural, effective ways that guarantee improved concentration and a razor-sharp memory.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

Why Do We Take Supplements to Boost Memory?
Can Vitamins and Other Supplements Really Help you Improve Memory?
The Truth Behind Memory Supplements
Things to Remember When You Buy Memory Supplements
Do Your Lifestyle Choices Affect Memory?
3 Effective Alternative Ways to Boost Your Memory

Why Do We Take Vitamin Supplements to Boost Memory?

Cleverly packaged and marketed vitamins for memory are too attractive to ignore — thanks to some of the perceived long-term effects and benefits.

Memory vitamins claim to:

Enhance blood flow in your brain.
Boost energy.
Promote communication between brain cells.
Help brain cells form new connections, increasing plasticity.
Increase motivation and creativity.
Improve focus and alertness.
Lower fatigue.
Help in Alzheimer’s prevention and in curing other neurodegenerative diseases.
Prevent oxidative stress in the brain.
Lower the damaging effects of free radicals and brain inflammation, and more.

How true are these claims?

We need to delve deeper.

Can Vitamins and Other Nutrients Really Help You Improve Memory?

There are plenty of single-vitamin supplements or proprietary blends available today.

They could be vitamins and minerals (vitamin B, C, D, E, K), herbal extracts (Ginseng, Ginkgo Biloba, Curcumin, Bacopa), natural molecules (Acetyl-L-Carnitine amino acid, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Huperzine A, Magnesium l-threonate) or synthetic compounds (Choline bitartrate).

To understand whether they help, it is important to look at the clinical trials linking them to memory improvement.

Vitamin B:

Vitamins B12, B3, B6, and folic acid slow down cognitive decline, lower high homocysteine levels, and are used in Alzheimer’s treatment. Homocysteine is an amino acid. It is also believed that folate might prevent Parkinson’s disease.

Studies show that these vitamins slow the atrophy of brain regions that are involved in Alzheimer’s disease. However, vitamin B12 and folate supplementation may not always reduce memory problems.

Vitamin E:

This antioxidant lowers oxidative stress in your brain cells.

A study proved that adults with high levels of vitamin E are less likely to suffer from memory disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Alpha-tocopherol (a form of vitamin E) slows down functional decline in people with moderate symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Vitamin D:

This vitamin protects against cognitive decline and dementia, and reduces the risk of heart disease. However, patients suffering from heart disease may not benefit from higher doses of this vitamin.

Older adults who had severe vitamin D deficiency were found to be more likely to develop cognitive disease like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Be aware that excess amounts of this vitamin can lower your reaction time.

Vitamin C:

Apart from cutting your colds short, vitamin C helps improve brain health with its antioxidant properties. It also crosses the blood-brain barrier to remove heavy metals like lead.

Researchers found higher vitamin C levels in those who were cognitively intact versus those who were cognitively impaired.

But it’s not clear how much of it is needed to support cognitive function. Also, your intake may not always translate into enough of the vitamin in your blood. Check out this Chief Life article for more on the benefits of Vitamin C.

Vitamin K:

High levels of this vitamin are known to improve verbal episodic memory in older adults.

Elders with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease were observed to have a deficiency of this vitamin.

High doses can worsen clotting problems in those who have severe liver ailments.

Ginkgo biloba:

Bottled ginkgo biloba contains ginkgo leaf extracts. It is said to prevent mild cognitive impairment and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients. It is also considered to be beneficial in treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

But, a 2008 study demonstrated that it could increase the risk of stroke.

Ginseng:

Ginseng is a slow-growing, short plant with fleshy roots.

While American ginseng improves working memory performance, Asian ginseng improves brain performance and lowers mental fatigue. It is also effective in counteracting the aging effects of free radicals.

Curcumin:

Curcumin or turmeric root is proven to reverse memory problems in people with mild, age-related memory loss.

It is less effective when taken as a supplement due to its poor absorption and rapid metabolism. It is more effective when consumed with food, or with agents like piperine.

Cocoa Flavanols:

Cacao is the dried and fermented bean from the cocoa tree used to make chocolates. It’s not to be mistaken with coconut oil, which might also help memory.

Long term consumption of cocoa flavanols could improve attention, working memory, and verbal fluency in the early stages of memory loss.

Bacopa Monnieri:

Bacopa (Brahmi) is an Ayurvedic herb that boosts memory and attention in healthy people, by improving inter-neuronal communications in the brain.

Source: Flickr

Huperzine A:

This natural supplement is derived from the Chinese club moss plant.

Research shows that taking this for 12 weeks may boost memory in adults with mild brain impairment.

However, its effectiveness in preventing cognitive decline has not been confirmed. Its short-term use is proven to be safe, but the long-term use is not.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Fish Oil):

Fish oil improves mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It contains two types of omega-3 fatty acids: Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) and Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA). DHA alone or with EPA is known to improve episodic memory in adults with mild memory problems.

There is no proof that fatty acids can improve cognitive function in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Phosphatidylserine:

This is a fatty substance or a phospholipid that supports the formation of short-term memory, the consolidation of long-term memory, and the ability to focus attention.

Having enough of these vitamins and minerals in your body will lead to improved memory and disease prevention due to their inherent benefits.

But no research or clinical trial has proven that additional intake will lead to any significant improvement in memory or brainpower.

The Truth behind Memory Supplements

There are some caveats and unpleasant truths around these attractive brain vitamins you should be aware of.

A team of neurologists in the US has critiqued the “pseudomedicine” practice where qualified healthcare professionals over-prescribe dietary supplements that have no insurance cover and need cash payments, for their own financial gain.

And unlike medications, vitamins for memory are not strictly regulated by authorities like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — although the FDA has announced efforts to modernize regulation and oversight of supplements.

And, you should be wary of any tall claims in advertisements. Because – unlike prescription drugs – brain supplements may not be thoroughly tested.

Given these facts, what should you do when you set out to buy these supplements?

Things to Remember When You Buy Memory Vitamins

Think about it: when you visit a store or order online, there will be hundreds of brain supplements that come in thousands of ingredient combinations.

Picking the right one for your specific requirements can be your biggest challenge. Remember that success in using memory vitamins varies from person to person — and there is no definitive verdict on any of them.

And what you choose should really depend on your own genetics, health, diet, and cognitive abilities.

Not only that, how can you differentiate between high-quality supplements and cheap knockoffs?

Here are some tips:

Do your own research — read product reviews, and ask for detailed opinions from people who have used them.
Check if the product was packed, refrigerated, and maintained under the optimum conditions as mentioned on the pack.
Read the labels carefully to understand the following:

Ingredients,
Dosages,
Directions for use,
Claims of efficacy and/or safety,
Cautions or warnings,
Possible side effects, and
A seal of approval from a certifying authority like ConsumerLab.com.

Now, let’s examine whether there could be other ways to improve your brainpower and memory.

Do Your Lifestyle Choices Affect Memory?

Your lifestyle choices can affect your body, mind, and your memory too. Taking fancy vitamin pills won’t help if you have an unbalanced lifestyle.

The main culprits that can impair your memory and brain are:

Food habits: An unbalanced diet with too many food additives and sugar, and little water can impair your nervous system and leave you feeling tired and disoriented.
Sedentary lifestyle: An inactive lifestyle can lead to dullness and cognitive decline.
Alcohol, smoking, and caffeine: Too much of these will affect your ability to store new information and lead to short-term memory loss.
Lack of sleep: Inadequate sleep can lead to a higher risk of cognitive impairment.

But surely, there must be ways to sharpen your memory in natural, non-intrusive, and possibly more effective ways!

3 Effective Alternative Ways to Boost Your Memory

It should be clear by now that popping pills isn’t the best way to keep your brain sharp. Decades of research have gone by, but their benefits are yet to be demonstrated.

Your best bet is to focus on brain training and a healthy lifestyle to prevent Alzheimer’s and memory loss.

Let’s look at the three best ways to boost your memory.

1. Memory Palaces

The most important vitamin for your memory is vitamin M — to use your brain and be able to commit everything important to your memory.

A Memory Palace is a time-tested mnemonic tool that allows you to develop and use spatial memory in a way that unlocks the power of autobiographical memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and more. You will be able to move information into long-term memory faster.

You not only get to remember the information faster, but also get predictable and reliable permanence that grows in strength each time you use the Magnetic Memory Method.

The best part is that you can use any other memory technique like chaining, linking, or the Major System (or Dominic System) inside the Memory Palace. Sadly, it rarely works the other way around, though there are possibilities.

The key to a Memory Palace is to associate pieces of information with a location you are very familiar with, like your home.

For example, if you want to remember a history lesson, walk through your house and peg all the events of one year on your dining table, the next years’ on your living room console, and so on.

When you want to recall the information, you retrace that mental route and the information will be easily accessible.

2. Mindful Eating

Eating well and drinking plenty of water are as crucial to your brain as they are to your body. Mindful eating is all about eating healthy, and acknowledging and managing your cravings and the experience of eating.

As for a healthy diet, you can get almost all the useful vitamins above through your daily diet.

For instance:

Vitamin B from beans, peas, dairy, eggs, fish, meat, green leafy vegetables, and some cereals.
Vitamin E from nuts, seeds, blueberries, avocados, blackberries, spinach, and bell peppers.
Vitamin D from salmon, tuna, mushrooms, and eggs, or simply by spending a safe amount of time under the sun.
Water: Staying hydrated with at least 6-8 glasses of water a day helps improve concentration and cognition.

Simply by paying attention to what you eat and how you eat, your body can avoid any vitamin deficiency, without risking the long-term brain-boosting effects of bottled supplements. Here are some more foods that improve memory you can add to your diet.

3. Exercise

Physical exercise activates your brain and improves memory and cognitive function over the long term.

A 2018 study found that 10 minutes of mild exertion improved mental ability in healthy young adults. There was increased activity in the hippocampus and surrounding areas, and better connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical areas that are responsible for memory processing.

Deadlifting helps improve my focused attention and memory. Do you go to the gym?

When we exercise, blood flow increases everywhere in the body, including the brain — this helps the brain to perform better.

So set aside 30 minutes for working out your body — walking, swimming, climbing stairs, tennis, squash, or dancing, or just daily household activities.

If you don’t have the discipline to do it on your own every day, join a class or identify an accountability partner to work out with. And track your progress periodically — this will encourage you to reach a goal. Otherwise, get a personal trainer to motivate you to exercise.

Skip the Vitamins!

Dietary supplements are quite tempting to try, but they come with too many risky ifs and buts. Even if you do try them, it is very important to seek medical guidance.

Instead, try the alternative techniques in this post to improve your memory — especially building Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method. The long-term effects of using them to remember and recall information is definitely stronger, and it is the best way to sharpen your brainpower.

If you’re new to Memory Palaces or want to learn more about how they can help boost your memory, sign up for my free memory improvement kit.

The post Can You Trust Memory Vitamins To Boost Your Brain? appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

10 Ways Your Memory Can Help Keep You Safe During a Pandemic

Source: Flickr

Coronavirus. COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2.

It seems like you can’t read the news without hearing something about the latest global outbreak.

And with misinformation spreading faster than the virus itself, how are you supposed to know what’s truth and what’s not?

More importantly, how can you maintain your health (and sanity) during a time when everyone seems to be on the verge of panic?

Let’s take a deep breath…

And then look at 10 ways you can stay mentally and physically healthy during this worldwide crisis — by using your memory (and some helpful tips from the folks on the front lines).

Ready to do this?

Let’s go.

Want to skip ahead?

1. Scrub-a-dub-dub

2. Pretend your hands are on fire

3. Don’t listen to Uncle Joe

4. Do listen to the experts

5. Stock up, modestly

6. Memorize phone and other important numbers

7. Meditate and get your Zzzs

8. Save face masks for health care providers

9. Memorize directions

10. Don’t panic

Live Your Magnetic Life

As we begin, remember what the wise writers of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy would advise us…

Don’t panic.

One of the best ways to survive any crisis is to stay calm, be rational, and remember that nothing in life is certain.

Well, other than our first tip for staying healthy…

1. Scrub-a-dub-dub

You may be getting a little tired of hearing it, but properly washing your hands is one of the best things you can do to stay healthy.

Whether you sing “Happy Birthday” (twice) or some other song, be sure to wet your hands thoroughly, lather everywhere, clean under your fingernails, rinse, and dry.

Even better, Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician with Columbia University Medical Center, advises a new habit for everyone: wash your hands as soon as you walk through the door of your home.

And even if your hands are clean, remember: don’t touch your face.

2. Pretend your hands are on fire

But, but, but!

“How can I keep from touching my face? That’s so hard to do!”

For the technique I’ve been using, I imagine I have gloves of fire on my hands and don’t want to touch my face.

If you don’t like the image of fire, try ice or some other substance. The point is to use a simple visualization that you link with your body.

To remind yourself, you can draw a small dot or even the word “fire” or “ice” on the back of your hand.

Lucid dreamers often do this to help them remember to do “reality testing.”

These approaches are linked to another kind of technique for remembering where you put your keys, such as imagining them explode when you set them down. You are simply adding an imaginary layer of multi-sensory imagery to a regular operation.

Here’s another related tip:

If you want to combat that effect when you leave your living room to get a pair of scissors in the kitchen, only to forget what you are looking for, you can imagine scissors in your hand and make a fist around the imaginary pair.

3. Don’t listen to Uncle Joe

No offense to Joe, but unless he works for one of the global health organizations whose work revolves around mitigating the effects of COVID-19… he’s probably not the best source of information.

The same goes for most of the internet. Seriously.

Most of the mainstream media outlets are driven by views and clicks. And what gets them the most eyeballs?

DRAMA! TERRIBLE THINGS!! THE WORLD IS ENDING!!!

Instead of allowing the media to drive your personal narrative and understanding of what’s (really) happening, choose your news sources wisely.

If you’re wondering who to trust, here’s a chart that breaks down media bias.

4. Do listen to the experts

For health-related issues, it’s also good to look to the experts. In this case, the World Health Organization (WHO).

Additionally, for readers in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For those of us in Australia, the national Department of Health. And for readers elsewhere in the world, your trusted regional or national healthcare organizations.

I’ve also been watching Dr. John Campbell’s detailed daily updates on YouTube, including this great one about washing your hands as soon as you get home:

Tim Ferriss recently shared the following recommendations on how to stay informed:

A Center for Health and Security newsletter
And a curated Twitter list

The trick is to make sure your reading comprehension skills are strong. A lot of the panic comes from people failing to understand what they’re reading and the nature of scientific processes.

You can also talk with your own medical professional:

When I was booking my flights to go to TEDx Docklands in Melbourne (February 2020), I visited my family doctor to air my concerns.

As I told our doctor, even though speaking at the event presented a huge opportunity for me as a memory expert, I didn’t want to infect others should I become sick.

She said two things:

We all have to simply go about our lives, and
If you’re going to get sick, get sick early. Later, it could be very difficult to get help.

The second point involves a bit of dark humor, but if you really think it through, it does make sense. 

Although my heart didn’t feel 100% right about it, I went, and to my knowledge, none of the attendees has fallen ill.

And thanks to the memory techniques, I could relax and deliver because I know how to memorize a speech.

I did keep close to our hotel, however. We can visit the art galleries and museums next time we’re in Melbourne.

5. Stock up, modestly

I bought extra water, food, and toilet paper weeks ago.

This was especially important because I have multiple food sensitivities. I won’t be able to just whip into any old can of chili if I can’t make it to the grocery store.

As you prepare, think about other things you would need if you had to self-quarantine or practice social distancing for a week or two.

For example, do you have a fire blanket for every person in your home?

At first, my wife thought I was insane for buying them, but it only takes a second to put one over your shoulders in the event of an emergency — something you won’t be able to do if you aren’t prepared.

Health experts also recommend that anyone who uses prescription medication on a regular basis have at least a 30-day supply on hand.

6. Memorize phone and other important numbers

Sure, you’ve got everyone’s number stored on your phone.

So… what are you going to do if you lose your phone when you’re too sick to keep track of things?

Or how about your insurance number?

There are endless situations where you might need your bank account number, phone numbers of your immediate family, and credit card instantly on the tip of your tongue.

Remember, building mental strength is helpful in emergencies as well as your day to day life.

7. Meditate and get your Zzzs

It’s not just helpful for your memory — getting enough sleep, eating well, and practicing mindfulness meditation can also improve your immunity.

One simple body scan visualization that won’t necessarily protect you from a virus – but can be very relaxing and orient your mind on health – goes like this:

As you lay on your back, imagine a healthy color like blue or green entering your lungs and flowing through your body. Try to follow it through your lungs and veins all the way down to your toes.

 

Then, as you breathe out, imagine all the impurities this healthy color has picked up exiting your breath in a color like white. Imagine it disappearing into the atmosphere.

Repeat 5-10 times, until your body begins to feel relaxed. You can even come up with your own variations.

8. Save face masks for health care providers

Neither the WHO or the CDC recommend face masks for community use in healthy individuals. If you are healthy, the only time they do recommend wearing protective gear is when taking care of a person with a suspected or confirmed 2019-nCoV infection.

If you’re just trying to stay healthy, the jury is out on whether wearing a mask helps or hurts your chances. In fact, NPR has done quite a bit of in-depth reporting about the matter.

If you’re very prone to touching your face – and the visualization above doesn’t help – wearing a mask might help you stop touching your face. But for many people, it just creates another surface for infectious particles to get trapped on.

And remember: if you do touch your face, be sure to wash up.

9. Memorize directions

It’s one thing to consume directions — like “don’t buy masks,” or “call your doctor before visiting their office if you’re experiencing symptoms.”

But to really internalize the directions, you can memorize them. As mentalist Derren Brown points out in his book Tricks of the Mind, by memorizing to-do lists, he was more likely to actually complete them and follow the plan.

Here’s how to do it:

Create a Memory Palace that has enough space for the directions you want to memorize.

If you’ve never created a Memory Palace before, here’s a free training to teach you how:

Let’s say you’re memorizing the direction to call the clinic before showing up.

On Magnetic Station one of the Memory Palace, imagine yourself picking up a big red phone and calling the clinic.

To memorize the direction not to panic, imagine a giant cartoon version of yourself suddenly relaxing after panicking. Or, think of a pop culture character you know who tends to freak out, like Homer Simpson, and imagine him rapidly transforming himself into one of his more vegetative states.

Think these kinds of visualizations are unlikely to work?

Think again: Dr. Tim Dalgliesh is just one psychologist who has shown that pairing positive emotional states with a Memory Palace helps you not only act more positively, but also remember to do so.

10. Don’t panic

I’ll say it again. And again.

During a global health outbreak moving as quickly and evolving as rapidly as this one, the best thing healthy people can do is to stay calm, informed, and prepared.

If you’re having trouble keeping calm, the WHO compiled some good recommendations for coping with the stress of this outbreak:

Live Your Magnetic Life

I’ll leave you with a few parting thoughts:

Be good to people now. Love your loved ones while you can. And don’t wait for things like coronavirus to be a wakeup call because as Michael Gusman reminds us, things can happen anytime.

Until the next time, take care and keep yourself Magnetic (and wash those hands)…

The post 10 Ways Your Memory Can Help Keep You Safe During a Pandemic appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Anastasia Woolmer on Memorizing Movement and Mastering Recall

No one has demonstrated the multi-sensory nature of memory techniques with as much grace as Anastasia Woolmer.

In fact, Anastasia has literally married memory training with physical activity.

This means that she’s released the Memory Palace journey and associated memory techniques from the mind.

One of those ways is through dance.

This is wonderful, because I’m asked frequently about how to memorize movement.

Although I’ve played around with it, finally our community has access to the processes by someone who has spent a great deal of time with this memory-movement skill.

It turns out there’s a lot to it – and some standards that already exist in dance.

To supplement the audio, you can check out a demonstration for yourself by watching Anastasia’s TEDx presentation. Then, dig into this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method and learn the “mnemonic logic” behind the movement.

 

As you can already tell, Anastasia reminds us that mental imagery is not just visual.

Indeed, the best memory strategies always encompass all our senses. The most solid and beneficial techniques incorporate all these senses into a unique and powerful tool that is universally accessible.

The Path Of A WorldClass Memory Expert and Memory Athlete

On top of being a self-taught, two-time Australian Memory Champion, Anastasia is a public speaker, memory coach, former professional dancer and contestant on Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders.

As the Australian Memory Champion, she was the first female to hold the title in the country. Anastasia set the record for the most binary digits remembered in five minutes at 360, the most numbers remembered in 15 minutes, 304, and the most consecutive spoken digits without an error, at a remarkable 86.

Anastasia and I discuss her path, and transformation, from a widely-held (and untrue) belief that her memory was fixed and could not be improved, into a history-making Australian memory champion. As we proceed, you’ll learn more about how she married ancient memory techniques to modern dance to create a method that truly worked for her.

And this podcast and her wisdom is not just for aspiring dancers or choreographers.

As Anastasia demonstrates during our chat, you don’t have to settle for rigid and inflexible learning techniques. You don’t have to be frustrated with attaining your learning goals. You are not tied down to any “right way” to do things.

In the world of dance, I believe this is called free-styling. You’re not bound by the choreography of what moves you should make. Listen to your body, all your senses, and make the journey, and the dance, your own!

Press play now and discover:

The two components necessary to be a “fit” human
How economics relates to memory improvement
The best way to deal with the “initial panic” of an influx of new information to be committed to memory
The benefit of memory exercise in a variety of environments, and why noisy surroundings can actually be great for memory training
The “trick” to multitasked focus, and a simple activity that anyone can do to strengthen that skill
The best method for recovering from memory mishaps, even in a public speaking setting
How to use the Method of Loci to memorize and deliver a speech
The similarities between writing a story and creating a Memory Palace journey
When you shouldn’t memorize anything verbatim (even if it seems like a good idea and you want to strive for perfection – hint: you shouldn’t!)
How learning more, more information, more skills, and taking on more hobbies, is an endless cycle, and why you want to be on it!
The secret dancers naturally utilize that you will want to always employ in learning new information
Why the best methods to memory improvement are multifaceted, multi-sensory, and completely inclusive and customizable, and why individuality is the most important facet of incorporating memory training into your life

Further Resources on the Web, this podcast, and the MMM Blog:

Anastasia Woolmer’s official website

Anastasia’s Master Recall courses

Anastasia Woolmer on Facebook

5 Sensory Memory Exercises for Better Memory Palace Success (MMM Blog)

Aphantasia: Develop Your Memory Even if you Cannot See Mental Images (MMM Blog)

Tansel Ali On How Gratitude Can Help You Remember Almost Anything

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Explicit Memory: Everything You Need To ERASE The Confusion

Do you remember your first trip?

Maybe it was to Paris, or just a school outing.

My first travel memory is with my family. We crossed much of Canada, camping and fishing our way from British Columbia to New Brunswick.

And my first school trips were to a farm and a chocolate factory. You better believe I will never forget the chocolate trip!

No matter where you went for your first outing, I bet you can describe it in all its technicolor details.

Or how about this:

Do you know the capital of Iceland? Or what about some other fact you memorized for a pop quiz or trivia night a few months ago?

In all these instances, it is your explicit memory that helps you intentionally recollect facts and personal experiences.

Amazing, isn’t it?

In this post, I’ll explain all about explicit memory, how you form them and how you can build better and stronger memories.

This is what we’ll cover:

What is Explicit Memory?

Are There Different Types of Explicit Memory?

Implicit and Explicit Memory — How Do They Differ?

How Do You Form an Explicit Memory?

How Does Your Brain Retrieve an Explicit Memory?

3 Fun Ways to Boost Your Explicit Memory

Let’s get started.

What is Explicit Memory?

Explicit memory or declarative memory is part of your long-term memory. You use it throughout the day. When you recall the time of your dentist appointment or recollect your 16th birthday party, you are using your explicit memory.

Explicit memory needs conscious awareness. The cognitive processes of forming explicit memory are also often associative — you link different specific memories to form one consolidated human memory.

There are two types of long-term memory: implicit and explicit memory.

While implicit memory or procedural memory are skills that you pick up unconsciously and unintentionally, explicit memory is everything you actively work on remembering.

Some examples of explicit memory include trying to remember the name of people you meet or trying to cram into your human memory that the capital of Iceland is Reykjavík.

Although implicit and explicit are subtypes of long-term memory, when you think of memory function in “general,” you are referring to the explicit segment.

What’s more? Implicit and explicit types of memory get affected differently with Alzheimer’s disease. While explicit memory is damaged in Alzheimer’s disease, implicit memory remains intact.

Both implicit and explicit memory systems work together in healthy individuals.

Fun fact: there are two other memory processes – short-term memory (also called working memory) and sensory memory (it retains sensory information like those from sounds in the form of echoic memory). A memory must move through these before a lasting long-term memory can be formed.

Are There Different Types of Explicit Memory?

We can categorize explicit memory into episodic memory and semantic memory.

In 1972, Canadian experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Endel Tulving found a few differences between episodic and semantic memories and proposed the distinction between these two types of explicit memory.

Curious?

Let’s take a quick look:

What is Episodic Memory?

Episodic memory, like the name implies, is a memory of a previous experience, past event, or activity.

Memories of specific events like your first kiss, that fantastic trip to Greenland, or your first prom are all episodic memories. Some episodic memories are also autobiographical, like remembering your date of birth or the street name where you grew up.

You can consciously recollect these past personal experiences.

You’re usually able to associate how you felt during these specific memories. That’s because your emotions are essential when it comes to memory consolidation.

Your brain’s hippocampus is in charge of processing and storing your episodic memories while your cerebellum is involved in retrieval.

If you can recall the excitement of your first day at university or the stress of moving to another home, you can very clearly remember everything that happened on that day based on how that episode made you feel.

That’s the main difference between this type of memory and semantic memory.

What is Semantic Memory?

Semantic memory is usually based on knowledge that you picked up throughout your life and your capacity to recollect this knowledge at will. These aren’t based on personal episodes in your life.

Semantic memory usually refers to general knowledge. Things like how WWI started in 1914 or how the White House looks are examples of semantic memory.

However, it’s not just limited to general knowledge. For example, you know that the sky is blue, what an elephant is, and how to ride a bike.

You probably started learning all of these when you were a kid, as you were starting to experiment and interact with the world around you. You don’t remember how you learned them and yet they’re still consolidated in your mind.

These specific forms of memories aren’t tied to a feeling or to any personal experience.

Implicit and Explicit Memory — How Do They Differ?

As you’ve probably noticed, explicit memory involves conscious recollection.

Whether you remember it based on how you felt that time or based on how hard you studied for that exam, you consciously worked to remember it.

This is not the case with implicit memory.

Implicit memories (often called non-declarative) are those you never consciously tried to remember.

They are a form of memory that you use to interact with the world around you every day. These include your vocabulary, your spatial memory, and your motor skills.

You learned them and then don’t have to relearn again and again to perform them. You usually can’t even remember learning that skill and yet you can do it almost automatically.

An example of implicit memory can be a simple task like how to use a fork, how to boil an egg or even the chorus of ‘Single Ladies’. All of these are unconscious memories that you may not even know you had!

Just reading ‘Single Ladies’ may probably be enough to get that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Sorry about that!

How Do You Form an Explicit Memory?

The processes used to form explicit memories are encoding and retrieval.

First, you record or encode information by absorbing it when you read, hear something, or interact with someone. During recording, memories are stored in the hippocampus, which is located in the brain’s temporal lobe.

The hippocampus is the one involved in creating neural connections in different regions. When you’re rehearsing a memory, the memory passes through your hippocampus multiple times.

You have both short-term memory and long-term memory. Anything you remember is first kept in your short-term memory. From there, your hippocampus has the task of deciding if that temporal memory is going to become a long-term memory or simply be forgotten.

If a memory is important, it’s moved to your long-term memory throughout your cerebral cortex. Its exact location will depend on the type of memory.

Physical damage to the cortex (as seen in a magnetic resonance) has been shown to affect your cognitive processes related to memory directly.

Your brain labels most of the memories you make as unimportant and it discards them, so they never make it to long-term memory.

Since explicit memories are part of your long-term memory, these would be facts, figures, experiences, and episodes that your brain consciously moved from short-term to long-term parts of your memory.

For example:

Do you remember the trousers you wore to work two weeks ago?

No, right? That’s because your hippocampus didn’t consider that information relevant enough to retain for longer than a few seconds.

That’s when repetition comes in. The more you retrieve a memory, the easier it’ll be to retrieve it again because you’re telling your hippocampus that it’s important.

Now:

If a young lady happened to notice your trousers and complimented you about them, you would want to tell all your friends about it (as many times as possible, presumably).

At every instance possible, you would repeat the story of how you were just sauntering down the road when this amazingly beautiful girl smiled at you and complimented your trousers.

The more you repeat that story, the more you reinforce that memory and the recording becomes permanent.

You will never forget those trousers. Maybe they even become your lucky trousers!

Once a memory becomes a story, you don’t just remember facts; you remember how those facts made you feel. Your amygdala connects your memories to specific emotions. And you can recall such memories at will.

Is Sleep Important to Form Better Explicit Memories?

There’s a reason why when you’re jet-lagged, or you simply haven’t slept well, you keep forgetting things.

That’s because sleep plays a crucial role in memory formation.

When you sleep, you perform the most crucial part of making new memories: consolidation.

When you’re awake, you acquire the memory or learn a new fact or skill. But it’s only during night time when you sleep that your brain files the memory in a place you can retrieve it later.

And sleeping doesn’t just help you consolidate the memories you’ve gained that day.

When your brain is organizing new memories, it can associate them with older memories as well. This not only helps you remember things better, but also helps you in your creative process by finding links to your memories you didn’t have before.

When you don’t sleep well, your brain simply lacks the time for filing, organizing, and processing new memories, leading to bad recall later. Believe me – I’ve been there!

If you want to remember what you learned here, you better get your 8 hours of beauty sleep tonight.

How Does Your Brain Retrieve an Explicit Memory?

Memories are usually retrieved by association.

When a teacher asks you a question about Independence Day, you’ll probably try to remember the lecture he gave a week before.

Memory isn’t perfect, though.

If you think back to that lecture, you’ll probably remember what the teacher said but not the shoes he was wearing.

That’s because once the explicit memory is consolidated, it is stored by a group of neurons that react in the same pattern created by the original experience. You won’t remember the shoes because they didn’t create an impact on your original experience, so the memory was lost after being a short-term memory.

These patterns are recorded several times over to create redundancy. That way, if there’s damage to the original, you’ll still be able to retrieve the memory.

Can Memories Get Corrupted?

However, this also means memories can become corrupted with time.

Since you can’t notice everything at once – and your mind doesn’t like to have holes – it fills up the gaps between your memories from other similar memories.

If you try to retrieve details from a memory that wasn’t there, your mind may fill that detail with information from a different memory. Then every time you retrieve that memory, you’ll reinforce that false detail into the experience.

That’s why you may be sure you remembered the right thing for a test only to find out you were wrong when getting the result.

Explicit memories don’t have to be retrieved on purpose. Sometimes simple stimuli can act as a trigger. Have you ever smelled some spice or perfume and felt as if you were teleported to another place?

Explicit memories are remembered by an association that your brain makes, in a conscious or unconscious manner.

However you make them, it’s essential to keep up on the state of your memories. One study compared over one thousand Alzheimer’s patients and found that patients who are aware of memory loss are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Why Do You Lose Memory?

Do you keep forgetting things? Don’t get an MRI just yet!

Forgetting things you used to remember is a normal part of the learning and memory process, especially as you age, and it rarely signals memory impairment.

Memories are a use-it-or-lose-it kind of thing. If you don’t remember a particular memory for long enough, your brain’s response is typically to forget it to make space for new ones.

And that’s great! In a healthy brain, time heals all wounds.

However, some people don’t get that luxury.

The findings of different studies that compared the memory process of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder show that PTSD directly impaired the creation of explicit memories in their subjects by affecting brain activity in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

This also affected facial emotion recognition since you rely on these areas to remember and recognize those signals.

However, the tormenting effect that other memories typical of PTSD causes are hard to forget.

For experimental psychology, getting better at forgetting is just as big of a challenge as getting better at remembering.

3 Fun Ways to Boost Your Explicit Memory

Since explicit memories are memories you put effort into recording, you can create those at will.

The problem arises when you’re trying to record information that doesn’t seem particularly relevant to your brain.

Imagine you’re at a party and get introduced to five people. By the time you get to the third person, you probably already forgot the name of the first one.

Why? Because your brain wasn’t thinking about it. You were probably more worried about creating a good impression, giving a good handshake, or trying to look friendly.

All that was very important to your brain, so listening to their names was pushed to the side.

How can we solve it?

Here are three fun ways to strengthen your memory performance:

1. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Repeating information is an excellent way for temporal memories to become permanent ones. If you make an effort to repeat someone’s name when you get introduced to them, you’re more likely to remember that name for a long time.

Although repetition is usually associated with implicit memories (like riding a bike), it can also help you form explicit memories.

Repeating answers for a test, passwords, and even phone numbers is a simple but proven way to consolidate a memory.

It’s even better when you use elaborative encoding (exercises) because that reduces the amount of repetition while increasing the impact of each.

2. Use Bizarre Association

A great way to remember information is to associate it with things you already know. Try to think about how things make you feel or tie the memory to another strong memory you have. The stronger the connection, the easier it’ll be to remember.

Even the most forgetful person will probably remember another person who shares their moniker.

You can use this technique when you go grocery shopping. What most people do is try to memorize a list of words of what they’re going to buy. Then you associate your grocery list with a number.

A more effective way is to associate it with a more memorable thing, like a recipe.

Why?

Because your brain finds the task of processing and recording visual memories far easier than a list. This is exactly what a study that compared participants involved in a supermarket scenario found: people are more likely to remember the image of their groceries than the simple words.

And, if you’re using a recipe, it doesn’t even have to be a real one!

For example, say you need to buy eggs, milk, tomatoes, toilet paper, and batteries. You can associate all of them by imagining making scrambled eggs with a bit of milk and tomatoes, mixed with batteries and garnished with little bits of toilet paper.

Make it as realistic in your head as you possibly can. Imagine the colors, the smell, the texture, and even the taste.

The more ridiculous your association is, the more memorable it’ll be!

And when you use the Magnetic Memory Method to become a mnemonics dictionary, all the better.

3. Build Memory Palaces

The last two techniques work better combined.

The Memory Palace technique is an ancient way of remembering things. Traced back to the Greeks, it has been used by geniuses like Hannibal Lecter and Sherlock Holmes to remember everything.

Memory Palaces, however, aren’t fiction.

A Memory Palace consists of associating memories to a location you’re familiar with. You visualize that place in your head and you associate memories to parts of that place.

If, for instance, you were to associate the room you’re in with memories, you’d store the information in the corner, the drawers, the ceiling, etc.

That way, whenever you need to remember something, all you need is to go to your mind palace and look it up.

Neat, right?

Make Better Memories

When you build Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method, you unlock the powers of:

Autobiographical memory
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Procedural memory
Sensory memory
Iconic memory
…and so much more.

These improvements allows you to move information into explicit memory faster — and with predictable and reliable permanence.

Otherwise, you’re just waiting around for flashbulb memory, and that’s not a strategy.

You know you deserve better.

The long term effects of using the Magnetic Memory Method to remember and recall information is stronger and results in a healthier brain.

So are you ready to give a booster shot to your explicit memory?

Pick up your copy of my free Memory Improvement Kit, and make your memory Magnetic!

The post Explicit Memory: Everything You Need To ERASE The Confusion appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Reading Comprehension Strategies: 13 Ways To Eliminate “Rewinding”

We’ve all been there. Drudging through a book that’s hard to grasp.

What started out with such enthusiasm soon becomes a joyless task.

‘’What does that mean?’’ you cry out.

And just as soon as you start getting into a reading flow… you’re rewinding again. It’s a killjoy. It sucks the pleasure out of reading.

It’s enough to make you quit.

And the scary thing is you miss out on so much when your reading becomes stagnated.

But reading comprehension strategies are not just for teachers or struggling students. Mature learners need to keep pace with the younger generations and test their comprehension, too.

With better comprehension, you can remember and use more of what you read.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

1. Something’s Missing From Your Learning Toolbox

2. Be Purposeful For Pleasure’s Sake

3. Physical Books — One Antidote to Digital Amnesia

4. Evaluate and Expand Competence

5. Monitor Understanding To Leap Ahead and Recalibrate

6. Recognizing Story Structure and Maps

7. Generate Questions to Branch Out

8. Make Inferences (and Predictions) Along The Way

9. Seeing With Graphic Organizers

10. Summarizing And Panning for Gold

11. Memory Palace a Stairway To Heaven

12. The Major Method — Where Numbers and Letters Collide

13. Input-Output Lifestyle Choices

The Four Levels of Reading

Your Next Chapter!

Let’s jump in, or if you prefer watching:

 

1. Something’s Missing From Your Learning Toolbox

How do you improve reading comprehension?

Maybe you’re a teacher and want to help your students with reading comprehension. Or you’re simply trying to uncover reading comprehension strategies for adults. Whatever the case, you realize it’s not just the topic you need to master first, but the correct tools for learning.

In her well-known essay, Dorothy Sayers discusses the lost tools of learning:

‘’Although we often succeed in teaching our pupils ‘subjects,’ we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning.”

Since reading uses the information you already know, better memorization leads to clearer reading comprehension. The result? You can understand and remember more of what you read. The cumulative effect is powerful.

2. Be Purposeful For Pleasure’s Sake

Being purposeful about your reading goals aids comprehension. Drill down into your intentions and ask, ‘’what’s in it for me?’’

Why are you reading anyway? If reading isn’t meaningful it can become an empty pursuit. It’s another reason people quit in the second round.

On the other hand, when your reading is aligned with a clear aim, enjoyment follows. Not only that, it aids your memory as time marches on because:

Pleasure is instantly easier to remember!

If you’re still uncertain, start simply. Start practicing regular reading with less challenging novels — this blends enjoyment and momentum. Then when you decide to tackle tougher books your comprehension skills are already well-honed.

3. Physical Books — One Antidote to Digital Amnesia

While digital books have many excellent benefits (cost, search ease, mobility, sustainability, sharing) it’s worth remembering the trusty paper book.

But why would you choose physical books over digital or eBooks?

First, your precious memory plays a vital role in reading comprehension. Digital amnesia affects our cognitive ability to remember – and learn more – faster. Since your aim is to become a better reader through magnetic memory, paper books help to:

Index the material better in your mind
Reference and re-reference while reading
Keep the books visible
Use reading to practice Digital Fasting
Remember page numbers and details
Assimilate reading into your life, and…
Demonstrate the values and virtues of reading from real books and remembering as much as possible from them

 

In a world of devices, wi-fi, hotspots, and tabs… your physical book can become a spiritual retreat.

4. Evaluate and Expand Competence

Let’s face it: some textbooks are long and (frankly) scary. Every reader can struggle with how these books are presented — with lengthy paragraphs and sentences, and challenging vocabulary.

A good place to start is to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. The trick is to gauge your level of competence and gradually expand it (E.E.C. = Expand Existing Competence).

What does your typical reading session look like?
Do you start daydreaming after 30mins as your energy drains?

If so, try to push 10 minutes beyond. You might use a Pomodoro timer to take a break after 30 minutes.

It helps to understand your levels of processing effect in the Big Five of Learning:

In other words, your ability to read, write, speak, and listen comes from memory. When you read, write, speak, and listen you put comprehension into memory in the first place.

Memory to Read –> Reading to Memory

It’s a perfect circle that highlights the importance of developing a better memory.

5. Monitor Understanding To Leap Ahead and Recalibrate

Monitoring is about realizing what you know, what’s unclear, and any gaps in your understanding. The method helps you find the blockers to comprehension. By defining issues with comprehension you can tackle them head-on.

Einstein said:

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”

When you write, listen, and speak about a text you reflect on its meaning.

It’s a chance to move from vagueness to better clarity. The offshoot is, you can zone in on and identify blockers and get misconceptions out of the way.

Aslo, ask for help.

By sharing your thoughts with a study partner you can get valuable feedback too. This feedback loop can enhance your understanding and uncover any confusing passages. Monitoring comprehension can help you to read more books and supercharge your subject knowledge. This is all part of developing mental strength.

6. Recognizing Story Structure and Maps

Mature learners can benefit from recognizing a story’s structure.

It highlights the branches an author uses to structure the text. The contents, headings, and bibliography sections are obvious places to start. By further delving into the order of the subheadings, the setting, events, and characters begin to unfold.

It’s no surprise that you can also start to guess the theme and predict what might happen. Using your imagination in this way is bound to improve your reading comprehension.

7. Generate Questions to Branch Out

It’s only right that grown-ups should take a more proactive stance to learning. And there really are no silly questions when it comes to your reading goals. Let’s face it, who’s listening? Because this is more like self-reflection behind closed doors.

The mental process of elaboration involves repeatedly asking the classical questions: “who, what, where, when, why, and how?” By questioning and eliciting answers, guesses or theories, you can boost your understanding of a text.

Rather than just reading and being a reactive passenger, you’re driving to understand the context. You engage more with what’s going on through questions. And instead of a mundane reading challenge, you turn the pages with a new curiosity.

Depending on your reading genre you can create unique questions to aid memory and faster learning.

8. Make Inferences (and Predictions) Along The Way

Research by Robert Marzano (2010) states that inference is a foundational 21st-century skill for higher-order thinking.

So how do you make inferences in a book you’re reading? Four words — ‘’read between the lines’. Inference involves drawing conclusions from what’s implied rather than stated directly. Put simply, you use what’s known to make a creative guess about what you don’t know.

It’s about searching for clues in the text to figure out what’s being said from the context.

Then through your exemplary best judgment, you can land on what’s being suggested. Whether your inferences turn out to be wrong or right, you start to glean value and construct meaning.

That just means you have to adjust your thinking as you read.

For example:

What’s not being said?
Based on these clues I think….?
Because of the way these characters act it means….
I think….will find an escape route because….
I predict….will get married
I wonder if….Mr….is the actual villain
I suppose….might become the leader
I predict…. will fail

It’s useful to look over Nonaka and Takeuchi (1997) to get an idea of the differences between tacit and explicit knowledge.

Spiral of knowledge (Source: Adapted from Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1997)

9. Seeing With Graphic Organizers

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” It’s true — many words can be conveyed in a single image.



A graphic image has the power to distill big ideas into a bite-size visual. Like rote learning, graphic organizers can boost your reading understanding. Graphic images are often more suitable for expository or information type books.

It’s no surprise that presenting concepts and connections graphically helps you remember them.

It helps draw your attention visually to various features in your book. With a little imagination, mind maps and tables, it works well because it helps you to understand, memorize, and learn faster.

Here are a few examples of graphic organizers:

Tree diagrams – categories and hierarchies
Tables – compare and contrast data
Time and cycle diagrams – order of events (biology, life, water cycle)
Flowcharts – steps of a process​

The hierarchy of knowledge is another reading comprehension idea to consider. It’s about the relationship between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. This becomes more important when you need to make a graphic organizer.

Source: https://kvaes.wordpress.com/2013/05/3...

10. Summarizing And Panning for Gold

Prior to summarizing it’s helpful to do intelligent highlighting while reading.



Decide beforehand how many key points you plan to memorize in the chapter. There’s rarely any need to do a total recall and try to memorize everything. That’s why proper goal setting helps you make a scope limit — it forces you to zoom in on the main ideas. Scott Young’s Ultralearning is great for more tips on this aspect of improving your reading missions.

Rereading can help to uncover any summary information that you mysteriously can’t remember. Like retelling, the process of summarizing condenses the main points into your own words. It’s like panning for gold. Once you’ve found some nuggets, you disregard the sand. Afterward, you can feel satisfied with a summarization mini-chapter.

Periodically, stop reading to contemplate on the main ideas in the text. This forces you to combine the key points into a clear outline. You could use new vocabulary as mental triggers when summarizing.

A good summary should paint an honest account of the big picture. The offshoot is that long passages appear less daunting.

‘’The more you share knowledge the more you memorize it. Share it, save it.’’

The process of sharing isn’t confined to your latest book. Try to practice making summaries of podcasts you listen to, informative videos you watch, or interesting conversations you have.

11. Memory Palace a Stairway To Heaven

The memory palace technique is a classical tool used in the ancient world. (Check out The Memory Code for the fullest possible depth of history.) It can boost understanding of books, since remembering information is a big part of why we read.

It’s a top recommended technique of memory champions and experts in the field. A Japanese man, Akira Haraguchi, recently demonstrated its power by memorizing π to 111,700 digits!

So how does the Memory Palace technique work?

Begin with association. You associate each piece of information you want to memorize with parts of a location you’re very familiar with; usually, your house is a good start.
Since you know this location very well, you place items you wish to memorize along a linear route through your house.
These are mental constructs you build in your imagination.
When you want to recall the information, you go through your mental route, and the information will be easily accessible.
When you add surprise characters and features to your memory palace, it helps make your Memory Palace even more effective.

You can also learn more about leveraging your imagination with Memory Palaces.

12. The Major Method — Where Numbers and Letters Collide

The Major Method is named after Major Beniowski. The earlier Major System (another term for it) was developed by Aimé Paris. He was world-renowned for his work in memorizing numbers. And thank goodness. His contributions have helped many thousands of people connect what we already know with what we don’t know.

Even with aphantasia, working with these techniques leads us to one incredible equation:

Exercising Your Memory = Improving Your Concentration = Better Reading Comprehension

The Major Method works by creating associations between numbers with sounds. Usually, a number is linked with a corresponding consonant like in this pattern below:

0 = soft c, s or z

1 = d, t

2 = n

3 = m

4 = r

5 = l

6 = ch, j or sh

7 = g, k

8 = f or v

9 = b or p

For example: to memorize the number 22 could be ‘nun’. Adult learners can use this sound-word association to memorize many numbers. All of this will come in super-handy when you know how to memorize a textbook.

Combined with a Memory Palace, you can use the Major to link numbers with other concepts you want to remember, like this:

A Memory Palace example showing the Major System combined with other mnemonic examples for remembering information.

 

13. Input-Output Lifestyle Choices

Lifestyle choices like taking care of diet, sleep, exercise, and meditation are often overlooked factors in reading (and learning in general).

Exercise: With people leading more sedentary lifestyles, health has never been as important. Regular physical exercise plays a big part in academic performance. A fertile mind enhances your creative energy.

Digital fasting: Mature learners are probably more adept at blocking out digital distractions. The aptly named smartphone is dumbing down our memory. Simply stepping away from devices can boost your focus and concentration powers. As a part-antidote to digital amnesia, reading leads to better brain health.

Diet: Our mind and body is a highly sophisticated organism. Yet some people live off processed artificial food and drink, and wonder why they’re ill so often. Eating more natural whole foods and avoiding refined sugars can help you become a higher performer.

Sleep: There is a good reason why airline pilots must get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep before flying. It leads to peak concentration and better overall performance.

Meditation: Meditation helps keep you on track with your vision. You can gain inner relaxation to keep you centered on what’s important. Whether it’s reading comprehension or memorizing numbers, meditation helps you to stay focused while everyone else falls by the wayside.

Bonus: The Four Levels of Reading

The team at Educational Technology and Mobile Learning put together an amazing infographic explaining the four levels of reading every student should know.

Source: https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2...

Your Next Chapter

Remember that frustrating feeling when you couldn’t grasp that new book? Having to ‘rewind’ through pages and paragraphs to eke out some understanding?



Instead of a dampened mood because you know you’re missing out on the valuable insight you need, reading comprehension strategies can help you race through the books you’ve always wanted to read.

It’s a fundamental skill that will serve as a tool to unlock any subject matter. You can truly leverage reading comprehension to achieve any goal like starting a business, passing exams, growing smarter, and contributing to brain health and concentration.

But you won’t make progress or increase your crystal and fluid intelligence without taking action. Pick one of the reading comprehension strategies in this post today, and start the new year with 20/20 vision to supercharge your reading comprehension skills.

And if your memory could use a boost along with your reading comprehension, register for my FREE Memory Improvement Kit and training videos.

The post Reading Comprehension Strategies: 13 Ways To Eliminate “Rewinding” appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.