by Denis Bukin
You enter the living room. There is a corner shelf just past the door. You want to see if there is anything on it, but you cannot because it is completely covered with a large bright painting, hanging there for no good reason. You are trying to get to the shelf, but the painting is hammered in firmly. There is an algebra problem on the first bookshelf. Or rather, an interactive graph of a problem. The Doctor of Mathematics, sitting in the adjacent second bookshelf, is very happy about this, because he has been dreaming of studying this very function for so long. The scientist is thrilled. He’s not going to part with the problem and will stay by this bookshelf for a long time. There is a big magazine, apparently brought in by the doctor, on the sofa. The magazine is huge and heavy. It is clear why the magazine is on the sofa: there is no room for it anywhere else. You can see it pressing into the sofa. How did the doctor even bring it here? The magazine staff are sitting on the desk. There is not enough space, and the whole group is crowded around, from the editor to the office boy hanging on to the edge of the desk, because he has been pushed aside by the loud journalistic fraternity arguing about something. On the windowsill next to the desk is a model of the skyscraper the magazine staff dream of moving into. But this skyscraper has such a bizarre shape that it seems it will never be built. Apparently, this group of staff is fated to wander other people’s rooms. You notice something curious on the corner of the sideboard. It is a meteorite. Its surface is melted, rugged, ruddy with rust, and it resembles a building designed by Gaudi. It probably fell recently, because it’s still hot and smells like a hot iron. Actually, that is the only interesting thing you can find in the apartment. It was brought here recently, and you stay at the sideboard, examining your discovery.
This picture seems absurd, strange and ridiculous, but that is what makes it good. It is easier to remember this way. The main thing is to place the listed items in a well-known space, one that is easily remembered. Please note the three main principles of mnemonics in the story.
1. Associativity – The objects are linked to a well-known place and sometimes to each other.
2. Imagery – All of the words are turned into bright images. They move, they make noise, they have weight, colour, taste, smell and texture.
3. Emotion – You are afraid of getting burnt by the fireworks; you want orange juice, but make a wry face when you imagine its sour taste and the way it sticks to the walls of the cupboard; you pity the rusting car; you are surprised at the man who keeps his sofa with him at all times. You are curious about what is behind the painting, and you worry about the doctor, who had to carry a heavy magazine.
Using the method of loci
In order to use the method of loci, you need to be very familiar with a location. You need to be able to navigate this place easily, to move mentally between rooms and to remember what comes next clearly. Specifically, it is not enough to remember that there is a wardrobe behind the door. You should be able to imagine everything about this wardrobe – its size, its shape, colour, the feeling of touching it, the creak of its door and the way it smells inside.
It is better to choose loci so that they are different from each other. Bookcases that are similar or that are standing side by side might cause interference in your memory, adding to the risk of confusing objects.
When mastering the method of loci, it’s also better to choose real places, especially ones you can visit. Once you’ve mastered the method, to test yourself try using completely invented worlds. Make them memorable, think through all of the details. Come back to them often, and these imaginary places will serve you well.
Exercise
Pick three locations for using the method of loci. Mentally go round each of them, imagining every locus, every object. Everything in your location has a size, shape, colour, weight, texture and smell. Use it: move the imaginary furniture, knock on the table, open the door and touch the armrest.
After you have used places that actually exist, try creating a location using only your imagination.
Body memory
To remember short lists you can also use your parts of your body. Suppose you are preparing a public speech and you need to remember its outline. Place the image of the content of the first part of the speech on your feet and tie it to your shoes. The second part can be connected to your knee and the third part to your hip.
You can place no fewer than ten items on your body:
1. feet;
2. knees;
3. shins;
4. hips;
5. waist;
6. stomach;
7. chest;
8. shoulders;
9. neck;
10.head.
This memory technique will prevent you losing your train of thought when giving a presentation to colleagues and strangers.
★ Train your brain – Word list. Method of loci. Level 1
Master the method of loci in this simple exercise. When memorizing a list, mentally place the concepts in a familiar space. Try to use your body as a mnemonic space.
Notes
★ Train your brain – Word list. Method of loci. Level 2
Master the skill of memorizing words by using the method of loci. This time, imagine the space of your room or apartment.
Notes
30 April 1955
Met with my handler yesterday. He told me I’d been promoted. Now I’m an intelligence operative, though freelance. This means I don’t just collect information, I participate in operations, too. It also means that I have to be more careful.
April has been very full. More training. A break-up with Z. My first recruits. Kovalev’s interrogation and death. A promotion. I can hardly imagine my past life anymore, when I would just serve out my hours at the dean’s office. Now, every day is full of motion and meaning.
Story method and method of loci
You already know two methods for memorizing lists: the story method and the method of loci. They have a lot in common, and above all both of them satisfy the three basic principles of mnemonics: associativity, imagery and emotion. But there are differences: in the story method, associations are built from object to object, in the loci method, they are built from the object to its place in an imaginary location.
It is better to be able to use both methods. Perhaps you will choose one of them, or maybe you will use each one for different tasks, it’s up to you to decide. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages.
An important advantage of the method of loci is that you do not need to recall the whole story to find an object from a memorized list. For example, if you needed to find the fifth object from our earlier list, in your imagination you would immediately go to the coat rack and see the sofa.
The limitations of the method of loci are also obvious. First, you need to imagine a large space to remember a long list. Second, you need to have a lot of familiar spaces so as not to mix up different lists. This is its main limitation, but some people still like it more than the story method.
At the same time, the same space can be reused. Once a memorized list is no longer relevant, you can mentally go around your space and empty it by removing the images. Go around once more and make sure that there is nothing left. Now it can be used again.
★ Train your brain – Word dictation. Method of loci. Level 2
Using the method of flicking through a book and picking nouns from the top left of each page, keep memorizing words. The method of loci is often more convenient and efficient than the story method.
Exercise
Remember some lists of words using one of the different methods. Determine the most effective method for you.
List 1:
coffee
sea
screen
door
crane
horse
thunder
thrush
end
myth
List 2:
refrigerator
interpolation
suffix
trammel
surprise
navigation
symmetry
ferris wheel
luminescence
creativity
1 May 1955
We’re working on two foreigners right now. Frenchmen. A father and son. It’s astonishing how different they are, how unlike Soviets they are in their behaviour and mannerisms. Especially the elder. Although, it could be a quirk of diplomatic service – emanating polish and self-confidence. Status. I wonder what he’ll look like if they catch him spying red-handed. I’ve heard that diplomats don’t get prosecuted, only deported. But the residents are still afraid. There’s nothing to look forward to at home if the KGB uncovers them.
Test yourself
Write down the code names of the three agents recruited by Simonides to help in the mission to find the missing documents.
★ Train your brain – Word list. Level 3
Now that you’ve mastered the story method and the method of loci, keep improving them. Memorize longer lists, reducing the time allotted. Alternate methods after every three or four lists.
★ Train your brain – Word dictation. Level 3
Alternate using the story method and the method of loci when memorizing lists of words. This time try to spend only three seconds on each word.
10 May 1955
The case of the missing archival documents has hit a dead end. At least for me. Kovalev is dead. Bernstein probably is, too. The Frenchmen, I think, have absolutely no interest in investigating Nazi psychopaths. Although I understand that not all cases get solved, I really don’t want my first case to remain unsolved.
Keeping my chin up.
Figures and numbers
Most people find remembering numbers difficult. Perhaps because numbers are the most abstract information, much less tangible and real than words and names. To make numbers more specific, and therefore easier to remember, you can encode them into images. To start, picture images for single-digit numbers. Then move on to create a set of images for two- or even three-digit numbers. Usually someone else’s system for memorizing numbers is of little use, so when you become an experienced mnemonist, you can create your own.
Numbers can be encoded in different ways. One option is to use the resemblance of numbers to images and objects. For example:
0 – a ball, a hat, a ring
1 – a candle, a spear, a feather
2 – a swan, a crawling snail, a desk-lamp
3 – a moustache, a cloud, a camel (if you turn them sideways)
4 – a chair, a sailing boat, a weather vane
5 – a crane hook, a ladle, palm tree
6 – a rolled elephant’s trunk, a wheelbarrow with one wheel, a watermelon with a stalk
7 – a door handle, a desk-lamp post, a golf club
8 – glasses, an hourglass, a bicycle
9 – a balloon with a rope, a monocle with a chain, a lollipop
Another option for coding digits is using rhyme or similar sounds:
0 – hero, mirror
1 – gun, fun, sun
2 – tooth, glue, clue
3 – tree, tea, degree
4 – door, store, war
5 – wife, live, dive
6 – sticks, ships, eclipse
7 – heaven, servant, sever
8 – gate, skate, aid
9 – night, fine, wine
You can even encode digits with fictional characters:
0 – Zorro
1 – One Hundred and One Dalmatians
2 – The Two Ronnies
3 – The Three Musketeers
4 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
5 – Captain Planet’s Planeteers
6 – The Bionic Six
7 – The Seven Dwarfs
8 – Sleeping Beauty (‘8’ is similar to a woman’s shape)
9 – The Fellowship of the Ring
You can use an existing system or come up with a more suitable one for you. The main thing is that the images in this system are specific, easy to visualize and clear to you. It is also better when images are not similar to one another otherwise they can cause interference.
To remember any sequence of numbers, all you have to do is imagine a story about it, encoding each digit with an image. Let’s suppose that your phone number is 120-1580. Here is a story that can help you remember this phone number: A feather (1) is whirling slowly in the wind. It fell from a flying white swan (2) in a black hat (0). The swan holds a burning candle (1) in one leg, shielding it from the oncoming air stream with a ladle (5). An hourglass (8) is attached to the ladle handle and it measures out the time that it takes the swan to fly around a circle (0).
Here is another example. Let’s suppose that you need to remember your credit card PIN, 4837. You can invent the following story. A sailing boat (4) is sailing on the sea. The sea is calm and so the sailors have attached bike wheels (8) to the boat and they are turning the pedals as hard as they can to make it move faster. But there is a cloud (3) with a door handle (7) floating by in the sky. They don’t have to turn the pedals any more, they can just grab on to the handle.
The technique of memorizing numbers through image substitution is based on the same universal principles of mnemonics: abstract digits are encoded into visual images, the images are then linked to each other through a story and the absurdity of the story makes them easier to remember.
Learning to memorize numbers is a bit more difficult than learning to memorize words. Nevertheless, it is possible. Mnemonists like to set records in memorizing pi. The current Guinness World Record for this is well in excess of 60,000 digits.
Exercise
Remember your personal numerical information: the PINs of your bank cards, document numbers, phone numbers of your family and friends and their dates of birth, etc.
Exercise
As we know, the most reliable computer passwords contain letters, numbers and special characters. Create and memorize a few complex passwords, protecting your data. The letters can be coded with words, each word beginning with a specific password letter. Special characters can be coded with the items they are similar to: @ is a dog with a long tail or a cat curled up in a ball; # is bars on a window, $ is a dollar, a coin or a note; % is a face (eyes with a long nose between them); ^ is a house, a roof, etc.
For example, if your password is ‘r45^hlm’. The story can be this: a rat (r) is dragging a sailing boat (4) that has a huge ladle (5) instead of a rudder. The boat has a little roof (^) made of hops (h). There are some lions (l) on the roof picking the hop cones off the stems and throwing them to the deck for monkeys (m) to pick up.
The more you remember and the more often you make up these stories, the faster you learn to do so quickly and easily.
15 May 1955
Our training is more fun than the circus, sometimes. We can spend two hours talking to someone without saying anything about ourselves. We can get the most private people to open up and tell us what we need and we can read between the lines. We can completely confuse someone or make them pay attention to something specific. Here’s one of our assignments: spend all day going around town in taxis, and in the evening, report everything about the drivers: their names and last names, where they were born, where they live, whether they have families, how old their kids are and how they like their work. The key is to find someone’s ‘pet topic’, and then he’s yours. It’s harder to extract yourself from that sort of conversation than to strike it up.
But hypnosis . . . that’s something else entirely. There was a demonstration at school today. One of the students, K., was hypnotized and interrogated. We learned a lot of interesting things about him and about ourselves. Although we, the students, barely talk to each other about anything outside of training itself. I wonder if he’ll remember what he said. I’ve heard some do.
We didn’t see the hypnotist, because his identity was being kept secret, we only heard him. (I wonder if K. saw him.) However, his words affected me
from behind the thick screen. They affected other people too, from what I could tell. Fascinating. And frightening. I wouldn’t want to be interrogated like that.
★ Train your brain – Map. Level 1
Look at a map in a book or on the Internet. Create a simple route for yourself, taking note of the streets and roads. Put the map away and give yourself a couple of minutes to write down the directions for the route you created. Remember it and select the right streets on the map. Imagine yourself walking down the street. What can you see to your right and left? At what street will you turn?
★ Train your brain – Letter pairs, 6×5
Pick fifteen pairs of letter tiles and arrange them in six rows of five. Turn over the tiles, trying to find matching pairs of letters. Try not to turn over the same tile twice. Trust your memory.
Notes
Memorization and recognition
The only way to make sure that you have remembered something is to reproduce it in full without any help or prompting, and then compare it with the original material. Not to feel that you know it, not to remember something in the story of another person or in the text, but to write it down and compare it. This rule is used firmly in intelligence services when something must be learned: an instruction or a cover story. Everything is checked through complete recall.