How to Remember(inc.com)
inc.com
How to Remember
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-to-remember-anything-you-really-want-to-remember-backed-by-science.html
63 comments
Highlighting notes, and re-reading notes are the two study techniques that students think are most effective, but studies show are less effective.
Spaced repetition, repeated testing yourself on the material, questioning yourself to prompt you to work your memory recall, are shown to be the most effective.
Sources discussed and referenced in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE
Spaced repetition, repeated testing yourself on the material, questioning yourself to prompt you to work your memory recall, are shown to be the most effective.
Sources discussed and referenced in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE
Agreed. In college (30 years ago) I found a brochure on the "SQ3R" method - Skim, Question, Read, Recite, Review. As an ADD person it revolutionized my college achievements. I could deliberately attack the learning process and get (something) out of a subject with my limited attention.
While highlighting and re-reading notes might not be as effective as SRS quizzing, I still think there's a lot of value in writing the notes themselves. It sort of acts as the "summarize and share" part of this article (you're sharing with your later self).
I got frustrated with writing notes in one app, then making SRS cards out of them in another app, so I made one that combines the two[0]. I'm still trying to nail down the best workflow, but something like:
1) Read/watch material.
2) Summarize material in note(s)
3) Create cards from note(s) and study with SRS.
Works pretty well I think.
[0]: https://mochi.cards
I got frustrated with writing notes in one app, then making SRS cards out of them in another app, so I made one that combines the two[0]. I'm still trying to nail down the best workflow, but something like:
1) Read/watch material.
2) Summarize material in note(s)
3) Create cards from note(s) and study with SRS.
Works pretty well I think.
[0]: https://mochi.cards
For people wondering SRS means spaced repetition software
Very common in Japan. Most test prep books in Japan come with red plastic sheet and important phrases and sentences printed in red in books.
I've got a trick for remembering things that, to me at least, feels like magic. It was particularly useful in Biology courses where I would have to remember a large set of terminology like family names of fishes.
Just imagine a route you regularly take. Ideally a walk where you have time to consider your surroundings, but any route where you can remember landmarks will do. Now assign each thing you need to remember to a specific landmark. That's it. I've found that if I go through this process and then review it just once in my mind I can remember everything with 100% accuracy.
I used this trick recently to remember a gate code by assigning numbers to nearby architecture. I'd have a terrible time trying to remember it any other way.
Just imagine a route you regularly take. Ideally a walk where you have time to consider your surroundings, but any route where you can remember landmarks will do. Now assign each thing you need to remember to a specific landmark. That's it. I've found that if I go through this process and then review it just once in my mind I can remember everything with 100% accuracy.
I used this trick recently to remember a gate code by assigning numbers to nearby architecture. I'd have a terrible time trying to remember it any other way.
When I'm driving my car and listening to an audiobook or podcast, I find that if I rewind it a couple minutes, my brain will flash back to where I was driving when I heard it the first time.
really weird.
additionally, and somewhat unrelated... The best racers know the course. They can sit back, close their eyes, drive the course in their mind, and open their eyes. If they are missing parts of the course in their memory, they have more to learn. If they time this exercise the closer they are to a lap time, the better they know the course (and the better chance they have of driving it well)
really weird.
additionally, and somewhat unrelated... The best racers know the course. They can sit back, close their eyes, drive the course in their mind, and open their eyes. If they are missing parts of the course in their memory, they have more to learn. If they time this exercise the closer they are to a lap time, the better they know the course (and the better chance they have of driving it well)
The audiobook thing! Yes! I hike or mountain bike with books, too, and when I bike those routes now, sometimes I get almost total word recall of a moment in a book I heard years ago. It’s a great sensation.
I recently signed up on goodreads and went and rated a bunch of books I have read to improve the suggestions. It's been fun using the app, as I keep recalling books I've read and they bring up fond memories. My girlfriend was impressed that I could remember what month and year I read books even over a decade ago. But as I saw the title and cover I could recall where I was when I read it. Many were on airplanes so I associated them with the trips and those were some of the easiest to recall.
This happens when the podcast is paused and then next day when rewinded 10 secs and played back, exactly the location flashes in memory,really weird.
This is called the memory palace technique. Works well for very visual thinkers. Doesn't work at all well for me.
Some people learn best by listening, others by reading, etc. The same variation is true for memory techniques. Some memory techniques work better for some people than others.
However, strictly speaking, the technique should work well for everyone but especially well for some people.
The human brain can store and recall some types of information more readily than other types. Humans have an uncanny ability to recognize voices, recognize whether we have seen a face before, and we automatically absorb all sorts of information about places we travel to.
We struggle to deal with other types of information, like random series of digits, dates, etc.
All memory techniques work under the same principle: take something that you want to remember, and convert it into a different format which you can remember more easily.
Memory palace technique converts input into a spatial representation. That doesn't mean you have to have a good spatial memory! Unless you have a specific kind of brain damage or cognitive impairment then you have an excellent spatial memory just for being human.
If this technique doesn't work well for you, then the point of failure is your association between the hard to rememeber input and the easy to rememeber format. That's great news because it means there is a memory technique that will work great for you if you give it another try until you can figure out how to make effective associations.
However, strictly speaking, the technique should work well for everyone but especially well for some people.
The human brain can store and recall some types of information more readily than other types. Humans have an uncanny ability to recognize voices, recognize whether we have seen a face before, and we automatically absorb all sorts of information about places we travel to.
We struggle to deal with other types of information, like random series of digits, dates, etc.
All memory techniques work under the same principle: take something that you want to remember, and convert it into a different format which you can remember more easily.
Memory palace technique converts input into a spatial representation. That doesn't mean you have to have a good spatial memory! Unless you have a specific kind of brain damage or cognitive impairment then you have an excellent spatial memory just for being human.
If this technique doesn't work well for you, then the point of failure is your association between the hard to rememeber input and the easy to rememeber format. That's great news because it means there is a memory technique that will work great for you if you give it another try until you can figure out how to make effective associations.
It's interesting in that I have a pretty amazing spatial memory. I can find my way around the wilderness (off trail) by identifying specific trees etc. I just find it exhausting to do the linking part of memory palace. It's literally easier for me just to remember outright, which I have little difficulty doing.
FWIW, I consider myself to be a visual thinker, and feel the same as you. It's far more work to make the link that it is to just remember the dang thing in the first place, which (as long as the thing to be remembered slots in to some spot in an overall system) is close to effortless.
It actually takes work to become good at linking pictures (which I rarely find highlighted in courses that cover mnemotechnic, probably because the author has forgotten he went through this step).
It took me around a year of regular practice to get to the point where it does not take me time and effort for each picture. The key for me was to want to memorise something that was so large that, even if using mnemotechnic was hard it was still way easier than to try and root learn it.
It took me around a year of regular practice to get to the point where it does not take me time and effort for each picture. The key for me was to want to memorise something that was so large that, even if using mnemotechnic was hard it was still way easier than to try and root learn it.
> All memory techniques work under the same principle: take something that you want to remember, and convert it into a different format which you can remember more easily.
Here I thought memory techniques were essentially data structures for the mind. Memory palace always felt to me a bit like a hash table; some of the techniques I read about for remembering sequences of items or numbers were quite literally building linked lists in the head.
Here I thought memory techniques were essentially data structures for the mind. Memory palace always felt to me a bit like a hash table; some of the techniques I read about for remembering sequences of items or numbers were quite literally building linked lists in the head.
Visual thinkers? Is there some kind of categorization in how people think? Are there auditory thinkers, too?
I think in images, spacial relationships, shapes. Some people, when I mention this to them, shrug as if I'd said something as obvious as 'the sky is blue'. Others look at me like I'm speaking gibberish, because what I'm saying makes no sense at all. What I find most interesting about all of this is how such little effect this seems to have on how we as a group see the world overall.
I am one such "auditory thinker". Despite learning to read music from a young age and a lot of practice, I have never been able to sight-read music. I do however have a good auditory memory and I have always been good at playing music from memory, even compared to other musicians.
Perhaps counter-intuitively most classical musicians are "visual thinkers" and are very good at sight-reading and less good at playing by ear.
Perhaps counter-intuitively most classical musicians are "visual thinkers" and are very good at sight-reading and less good at playing by ear.
Yes, internal experiences and cognition vary a surprising amount! It's fascinating to read about!
Some people have difficulty or are unable to visualize in their mind's eye (aphantasia).
A few years ago, I decided I would learn how to memorize a deck of cards in a single pass through a shuffled deck. I was surprised to find that it wasn't too difficult. Googling will reveal a few instructional web pages or you tube videos. E.g. see [0].
First, I created a list of letters associated with the numbers 1-13 and suits. There are two commonly used methods for this. I had already used the Major System[1] when I first read about it many years before (1963) in an old 1957 Scientific American. The Major Method worked well and I could recall around 50 random items in order or reverse order or call out the 37 item and so forth.
I decided to try a newer system, the Dominic System[2] for memorizing cards. The Dominic System associates a person with each number, in this case a person was associated with each card. This is done by using the following mapping:
With a few hours of practice, I could easily visualize Captain Hook whenever I turned over a 3 of Hearts; likewise, every card had an associated person.
Then I memorized 52 locations that I would remember easily. I used my home. Starting at the mailbox at the street I had a list of 10 spots: Mail box, Driveway, Guest parking spot, Parking outside of garage, Parking in garage, at the back door, inside the back door, laundry room, back stairs, kitchen door. Likewise, I had four other sequences of locations in my house and yard each 10 long and a couple more to make 52 locations.
I could then go through a shuffled deck of cards and if the three of hearts came up as the fifth card in the deck I would simply think of Captain Hook inside the garage (doing something dramatic, like putting his hook through the hood of my car). As each card was turned up, I pictured the character in the location doing something memorable. Then, a friend of mine might say "What was the location of the eight of spades? This card has initials HS == Homer Simpson so I would think of where I pictured Homer Simpson and realize that he was in my bed upstairs which was location 36 in my list of memorized locations so the eight of spades was in location 36.
It's a pretty impressive trick and it can be combined with card magic tricks without too much difficulty. For example, cutting a deck doesn't change the relative order of the cards to each other.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yevxvTbUa4s
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_system
First, I created a list of letters associated with the numbers 1-13 and suits. There are two commonly used methods for this. I had already used the Major System[1] when I first read about it many years before (1963) in an old 1957 Scientific American. The Major Method worked well and I could recall around 50 random items in order or reverse order or call out the 37 item and so forth.
I decided to try a newer system, the Dominic System[2] for memorizing cards. The Dominic System associates a person with each number, in this case a person was associated with each card. This is done by using the following mapping:
0 - O (letter O) Ten in a deck of cards
1 - A (the ace)
2 - B
3 - C
4 - D
5 - E
6 - S
7 - G
8 - H
9 - N
With a few hours of practice, I could easily visualize Captain Hook whenever I turned over a 3 of Hearts; likewise, every card had an associated person.
Then I memorized 52 locations that I would remember easily. I used my home. Starting at the mailbox at the street I had a list of 10 spots: Mail box, Driveway, Guest parking spot, Parking outside of garage, Parking in garage, at the back door, inside the back door, laundry room, back stairs, kitchen door. Likewise, I had four other sequences of locations in my house and yard each 10 long and a couple more to make 52 locations.
I could then go through a shuffled deck of cards and if the three of hearts came up as the fifth card in the deck I would simply think of Captain Hook inside the garage (doing something dramatic, like putting his hook through the hood of my car). As each card was turned up, I pictured the character in the location doing something memorable. Then, a friend of mine might say "What was the location of the eight of spades? This card has initials HS == Homer Simpson so I would think of where I pictured Homer Simpson and realize that he was in my bed upstairs which was location 36 in my list of memorized locations so the eight of spades was in location 36.
It's a pretty impressive trick and it can be combined with card magic tricks without too much difficulty. For example, cutting a deck doesn't change the relative order of the cards to each other.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yevxvTbUa4s
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_system
Nice!
A similar strategy works for remembering names too. The next time you meet someone, imagine their name emblazoned on their forehead in bright letters. At least for me, this helps to associate the intangible name with a real, physical thing - seeing their face almost becomes a kind of mnemonic.
Sounds like Method of loci (memory palace) [0].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci
This is called the Roman Room technique:
https://m.wikihow.com/Remember-Lists-of-Words-With-the-Roman...
https://m.wikihow.com/Remember-Lists-of-Words-With-the-Roman...
Something that happens to me, which feels related, is that if I'm listening to a podcast for the second time, at memorable points of the podcast (when the topic changes for example) I always remember exactly where I was when I heard those words for the first time (which part of which street if I'm walking). It's strange.
The memory palace technique is amazing and works wonders for me. However, I do mine a little differently where I imagine all the things I have to remember interacting with each other. I will have to try the landmark strategy though.
Thomas Bradwardine (1300-1349) recommends combining the two techniques. I.e. at each Loci you link together more than one item using the story mnemonic.
Do you have hundreds of different memorized sets along this route now?
[deleted]
This is not going to work for serious memorization, like remembering 15,000 words of a foreign language.
You're not going to remember 15,000 landmarks along some route that you usually take.
You're not going to remember 15,000 landmarks along some route that you usually take.
Something that I started doing recently is to create a "30 second summary" of each important concept, consisting of text and diagrams. I then record a 30 second video where I narrate, using good intonation, the 30 second summary. I also create a hyperlink from the summary to my notes of each prerequisite concept.
This serves three purposes:
1) The act of teaching is one of the best ways to solidify a concept in your mind. It forces you to have a good understanding of it, and forces your mind to produce a good internal organization around concept.
2) It usually takes a while to write + diagram a good summary, and takes a number of tries to get a smooth recording of you speaking the summary (Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHc-bog1hhE). All of this "repetition" / time spent with the concept makes it easier to remember.
3) Sooner or later we realize that remembering everything is impossible. Given enough time, concepts will decay in your mind. In the long term, one of the most important things for you to optimize is the speed at which you can re-create your mental model of a concept. Having these 30 second summaries, complete with links to prerequisite concepts, allows you to re-build your mental model of a subject area extremely quickly in the future in a just-in-time fashion. Just like a smartphone is an "extension" of your brain, a note system like I've described here is like an extension of your memory.
This serves three purposes:
1) The act of teaching is one of the best ways to solidify a concept in your mind. It forces you to have a good understanding of it, and forces your mind to produce a good internal organization around concept.
2) It usually takes a while to write + diagram a good summary, and takes a number of tries to get a smooth recording of you speaking the summary (Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHc-bog1hhE). All of this "repetition" / time spent with the concept makes it easier to remember.
3) Sooner or later we realize that remembering everything is impossible. Given enough time, concepts will decay in your mind. In the long term, one of the most important things for you to optimize is the speed at which you can re-create your mental model of a concept. Having these 30 second summaries, complete with links to prerequisite concepts, allows you to re-build your mental model of a subject area extremely quickly in the future in a just-in-time fashion. Just like a smartphone is an "extension" of your brain, a note system like I've described here is like an extension of your memory.
> "What that [making yourself a quiz] forces you to do," Adam says, "is practice retrieving the information, which makes it stickier and easier to find yourself."
The same is true for flashcards where it is the process of creating them that helps remember the information. I have noticed when I don't create the flashcards I use, the information is not remembered as well.
The same is true for flashcards where it is the process of creating them that helps remember the information. I have noticed when I don't create the flashcards I use, the information is not remembered as well.
Now how about something to forget what I want?
Trying to forget is futile. I recommend becoming a regular practitioner of awareness meditation.
Practice mindfulness to learn to prevent unwanted thoughts from distracting you, and learn to confront and accept memories that are emotionally distressing (therapy can help with this).
2 options
Create happy memories to crowd out the sad ones.
Invent the MIB device
Create happy memories to crowd out the sad ones.
Invent the MIB device
I like the first option. What I do is don't worry about forgetting. I let myself be as angry, frustrated, sad, whatevs. The biggest help is decoupling feeling from action. Just because I am angry, that doesn't mean it'd be a good idea to aim my anger at someone else. Then I just move on. Getting the emotional stuff out of the early frees me up to remember something without getting all emotional about it. Eventually I just have too many other experiences to process before I get to the thing I'd prefer to forget.
11/10 want
Good article on different techniques that don't require any special software/setup. Personally, quizzing doesn't really work for me, but discussing or (even better) trying to teach it to someone else is extremely effective. The third suggestion, association, has mixed results for me - I use it for names and dates, but trying anything more complicated isn't very effective. Anyone else have better results with these methods?
> discussing or (even better) trying to teach it to someone else is extremely effective.
Whenever I have to learn a new OS, system, tool, programming language, etc: if I have trouble with it, I just write up a training manual as if I were also tasked with teaching others. What I end up with is a customized courseware for just me that I can refer back to at any time. Time consuming, but very effective for me.
Whenever I have to learn a new OS, system, tool, programming language, etc: if I have trouble with it, I just write up a training manual as if I were also tasked with teaching others. What I end up with is a customized courseware for just me that I can refer back to at any time. Time consuming, but very effective for me.
I wonder if the main benefit of blogs and tutorials is for the writer, not the reader.
This makes me wonder about the damage FAQs do to a community; where once there was a continual flow of new people needing newbie explanations - and a continual flow of not-quite-newbies benefiting from writing those explanations over and over, but different people each time, and implicitly being welcoming through that interaction - there is instead an implicitly unwelcoming response with a link to a FAQ. A FAQ which is dauntingly large due to its attempt to be comprehensive, but never deleted and refreshed, so getting ever more outdated and cruftier.
This makes me wonder about the damage FAQs do to a community; where once there was a continual flow of new people needing newbie explanations - and a continual flow of not-quite-newbies benefiting from writing those explanations over and over, but different people each time, and implicitly being welcoming through that interaction - there is instead an implicitly unwelcoming response with a link to a FAQ. A FAQ which is dauntingly large due to its attempt to be comprehensive, but never deleted and refreshed, so getting ever more outdated and cruftier.
Can you explain why quizzing doesn’t really work for you? It feels fundamentally the same as teaching someone (active recall).
I highly recommend using flashcards apps, especially this one that I have found.
As mentioned in the article about quizzes, this app has just that.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flashcards.wor...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flashcards.wor...
For those studying Japanese, this one is amazing: https://nihongo-app.com/
It has sets for all Japanese school grades, split into daily chunks so that you can keep going forward with the app for years.
The only thing missing is kanji stroke orders, but the dev has hinted that those would be coming soon.
It has sets for all Japanese school grades, split into daily chunks so that you can keep going forward with the app for years.
The only thing missing is kanji stroke orders, but the dev has hinted that those would be coming soon.
The linked article reads: "Because students believe that learning and testing are separate things, they often study inefficiently"
Efficient learning is not only about performing during a test, but understanding the subject matter.
Efficient learning is not only about performing during a test, but understanding the subject matter.
Adam Grant is a charlatan. Never read his book. It is worthless self help.
Must remember to read this!
Finally, a memory article that doesn't mention spaced repetition!
It doesn't specifically mention spaced repetition, but spaced repetition is a way of quizzing yourself.
Spaced repetition is useful when the number of items to remember is very large; it's a way of optimizing the quizzing.
Spaced repetition is useful when the number of items to remember is very large; it's a way of optimizing the quizzing.
Spaced repitition is orthogonal to quizzing yourself.
[deleted]
I'm not aware of a passive spaced repetition, which just presents items in increasing intervals without interrogating the subject's recall.
For all intents and purposes, the normal SR that everyone uses in the form of software and that everyone refers to when they use the term SR is not orthogonal to quizzing; it's quiz-driven.
I don't think that a passive strategy could be anywhere near effective as the actual SR algorithms in use, which incorporate feedback from quizzing in order to adjust the interval for each item, so that difficult items remain on short intervals while easy items recede farther into the future.
For all intents and purposes, the normal SR that everyone uses in the form of software and that everyone refers to when they use the term SR is not orthogonal to quizzing; it's quiz-driven.
I don't think that a passive strategy could be anywhere near effective as the actual SR algorithms in use, which incorporate feedback from quizzing in order to adjust the interval for each item, so that difficult items remain on short intervals while easy items recede farther into the future.
But I'm sure you could imagine quizzing without spaced repetition
In Anki when you quiz yourself with your cards,
it's Self Testing.
Anki just adds the separation in time, to make it even more efficient.
And yet it is the one technique backed up by science!
It's basically a blue highlighter and a red transparent plastic sheet. You first highlight the stuff you want to test yourself on, and when you are ready you can cover the material with the red sheet. Now the highlighted words just became redacted like in a released CIA doc.
There is a review on Youtube that let you see how it actually looks [1].
[0]: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01C02NOMQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_...
[1]: https://youtu.be/et14d3cafcQ?t=58