Memory: Memory Documents

Many people claim to have a terrible memory and yet can remember telephone numbers, hundreds of names and faces and extremely complicated paths and stories.

The brain has been developed to lend itself to remembering certain sorts of information more easily, for example locations, paths etc. Essentially, where remembering something helped to provide an evolutionary advantage.

It is for these reasons, that people can easily remember their way to work, but find it more difficult to remember abstract things like long strings of numbers.

It is possible to use our natural ability to remember stories and paths, to help remember more abstract data. One of the most common methods is to combine a familiar path (from your own experience) with items representing abstract information.

By way of an example, I've described below x3 methods of representing the numbers 1-10 as more familiar items, that are a little less abstract. The first list is the list that I use and the second two are lists used by others. It is recommended you develop your own or adapt one to help it make most sense to you.

When representing numbers as objects, I attempt to use items that rhyme - for example the number four as a door. Others use objects that look like the numbers, for example a pole as the number one. It's best to use what you find works well for you!

One of the keys to successfully using this approach is to try to remember each stage in the story and each object with as many of the senses as possible, for example, the siren flashes a blue light, that generally makes the area cold and has a clinical smell.

Underneath the list I give an example of using these objects on a path. For story lists of numbers, it doesn't seem very efficient, but when remembering Pi to 50 digits, it really comes into a world of its own!

My list of objects for the numbers 1-10

1 Swan
2 Shoe
3 Tree
4 Door
5 Hive
6 Sticks
7 Vine
8 Gate
9 Wine
0 Siren

Sample story

This story is to help remember the first 3 prime numbers 2, 3, 5.

- The first step in my story, is outside my front door, here, there is an old battered shoe, that smells pretty awful, I trip over it as I leave the house. This represents the number 2 in the first 'slot'

- Moving forward, I walk to the corner of my street. Here, a giant tree has burst through the tarmac and is blocking the way. The tree is dappling the pavement with sunlight and the whole area is warm and fresh, with the smell of a forest. This represents the number 3 in the second 'slot'

- As I turn the corner and walk past my local shop, I notice a large bee hive above it's door. Customers are running wildly around as angry bees buzz around the entrance. This represents the number 5 in the third position.

Double figures

When remembering double figures, I generally combine two or more single objects into a memory. For example 45, is a door with a bee hive shoved into the letter box.

It's often easier to remember the second digit as being smaller in size than the first, to ensure you don't mix the order up!

Cards

This system also works when remembering packs of playing cards. The only difference is that you add on a representation of the suit of the card. For example, Clubs = war, Spades = digging, Diamonds = Wealth/money, Hearts = Love. These can be used to inflect your memory of the object. For example I remember the ace of diamonds as huge pile of treasure, which is very different from the ace of spades which I remember as a hole with a spade in.

Other lists:

Linking
1 T Ton
2 N New
3 M Me
4 R Roar
5 L Live
6 C Kicks
7 V Fern
8 B Bait
9 P Pine
0 S Siro-n

Peg Words

1 Bun
2 Shoe
3 Tree
4 Door
5 Hive
6 Sticks
7 Heaven
8 Gate
9 Vine
10 hen

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