Incredible You! - Using Strange Connections To Improve Your Memory

You have the power to improve your memory, but why is that important? We live in an age whereby we have the luxury of not having to store all of our memories inside our heads.

We have phones, palmtops, laptops and other computing devices that we carry around with us constantly. In the old days the only way to remember phone numbers was to have them in your head or write them down on paper you might lose or not have with you.

Now we have the cloud for information far more complex than mere phone numbers. We have freed up our organic memories to concentrate on more important and immediate problems.

However that's the problem, your brain works on a use it, or lose it principle. That's why you could play the saxophone, or do hula-hoop when you were 12, but you can't now (unless you kept up your sax-playing-hula-hooping career after high school).

The less we use our memories, the less we are able to remember. However I ask the question again; why is it important?

The type of memory I'm referring to in particular is working memory. Having a good working memory is important for a number of reasons surrounding learning and therefore general intelligence. Studies have shown that children with poor working memories find it harder to focus in class and are unable to act on simple instructions.

This makes sense; as in order to learn we need to remember what is being said to us and process it in real time. When we are problem solving, especially mathematical problems. We are having to keep information in our heads on a semi-temporary basis, in order to use that info later in the task.

Extra focus, calm, and increased intelligence are things I imagine that everyone wants to have. So following on from my Incredible You! - Improve Your Memory Build A Palace For Your Mind article, where I gave you instructions on how to build a memory palace, using the ancient technique of loci. In this article I want to give you another technique which will improve your memory overall, and especially your working memory.

Improving your working memory will increase your ability to process information aster, problem solve and focus longer and more intently on tasks.

The Stranger The Better

OK, enough theory, let's get onto the business of learning to use the method of strange connections to improve and enhance your memory.

Quite simply, this technique involves making connections between the things you want to learn. It can be very helpful for list building and also information encoding; although we'll get to that in a later article. For now let us concentrate on remembering long lists of words.

1. Strawberry Jam
2. Donkey
3. Prison
4. Belt
5. Washing Machine
6. Calculator
7. Clown
8. Jerry Can
9. Sausages
10. Beach
11. Limousine
12. Cat
13. Sunflower
14. Robot
15. Clouds
16. Road
17. Vending Machine
18. Cardboard Box
19. Carpet Cleaner
20. Sugar
21. Plastic Fork

If you are like most people, when you try and remember this list you will remember roughly four to seven words on there. For instance, when I typed the words above, by the time I got to the last one, the first had gone from my mind.

Perhaps the number you remember will be high as nine or ten, however unless you already use a memory technique, or are an autistic savant, you will not remember all of them. The trick to doing recalling all of the words, is to create stark and strange images and then connect each word with the one before and after it.

For example;

imagine,

a huge strawberry the size and approximate shape of a small child, bouncing up and down on a table having a massive tantrum. You notice thick jam oozing out of the bottom of the strawberry.

Next imagine a donkey sitting at a table (not necessarily the same one as before). However this donkey is dressed in an immaculate suit, wearing a pair of horned rimmed glasses and reading a newspaper. Beside him is a large pot from which the donkey is delicately spreading jam onto a piece of toast.

Next think of a donkey this time dressed as a prison inmate, he is being dragged kicking and screaming by his back legs into a prison, by two burly prison guards. Next you see that he's having a fight in the prison shower, with the guy who starred in the show Prison Break.

Next you see a person you know well handing you a belt, on the belt are lots of tiny models of a prison. If you look closely, you can see lots of tiny humans running around the tiny prison yards. It is the strangest belt you've ever seen.

Then you see a person in the street using a huge belt as a lasso, there is a herd of washing machines running past him like buffalo. He shoots it out in front of him and catches one of the washing machines as it runs past, he then yanks it up and twirls it in the air above his head.

Next you imagine yourself standing in front of a washing machine. It has big calculator buttons on the top of it which you're pressing. You can't work out how the thing is meant to give you calculations, there is no screen and you're getting very frustrated with it as you continually bash the calculator buttons.

Perhaps then you see yourself in an accountants office, in front of you is sat a ridiculous looking clown in a formal business suit. He is using a large comedy calculator to give you financial advice . . .

Making Your Own Connections

OK, I just did a few there to give you an example of how to connect up each object. If you study the paragraphs above you'll notice a couple of common themes I use to draw attention to the object I want to remember.

Exaggeration:
This can be used when you're imagining a busy scene with lots going on. Without exaggerating the important object, you may remember the scene, but forget what you're meant to remember about it!

For instance, I make the strawberry a big loud child, throwing a huge tantrum. In my mind I could hear the squelching each time he bounced on the table oozing out jam.

Unusual
In the next one I dressed the donkey as a human gentleman, with horn-rimmed glasses and reading a paper. That way when I remember the scene, I am not thinking about the newspaper or the glasses, the most memorable thing is the donkey.

Humour:
The best thing about using humour, is you know what makes you laugh. For me, it was the thought of a donkey being dragged into prison kicking and screaming and fighting all the way. Then having to have a fight in the prison showers, it is an image I won't forget easily.

Familiarity:
I used this one for the belt and for the prison scene, I suggested that you use someone you know well for the donkey fight. I also suggested you use the guy from Prison Break Using friends, family members and celebrities is a very effective technique as familiar things are easy to remember.

Just one thing to keep in mind, and that is to make sure the person you use is acting out of character. So for instance, I used the image of someone I mutually can't stand when I was thinking of being handed a belt. There is no way that person would ever give me a belt, or anything for that matter.

Miniaturisation:
This is one of my favourite techniques, it is best used when you're trying to make the mundane ridiculous. So a belt with tiny prisons on it, complete with tiny prisoners exercising in the miniature prison yards, is pretty unforgettable.

Disney Tricks:
The beauty about using this method of imagination for memory, is that there are no limits. So in the same way Walt Disney was famous for anthropomorphising inanimate objects. So you too can turn a bunch of boring old washing machines into a herd animal on a migratory journey.

Why not?! It's your imagination, go nuts!!

At the end of the day how you construct these memories will fit in with you and your personality. Just like anything else that you may try your hand at, the more you practice the better you'll get.

If you sit down in front of a random list and attribute strange and wonderful images to them, while connecting them all together like I've shown you. You'll notice amazing results, perhaps you'll have to tweak the list, or maybe it will work first time. Whatever it is, I guarantee your ability to memorise that list will improve significantly.

With that so too will your working memory improve, this will help you in areas from general conversation and debate, to mathematical and non-number type problem solving.

You'll feel sharper, zingier, cleverer and more incredible every day. So off you go and practice improving your memory, intelligence and quality of life!

DO YOU STRUGGLE TO REMEMBER THINGS? DO YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH FOCUS? ARE YOU WILLING TO TRY NEW TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOU WITH THESE ISSUES? OR PERHAPS YOU HAVE JUST HAD POSITIVE EXPERIENCE WITH TECHNIQUES LIKE THIS AND OTHERS.

AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Cryptogee