Spy School
Page 7
Why is this so important? Certainly there have been situations in your life, such as preparing for exams, when you thought that you knew the material well and could definitely reproduce it, but then during the exam you could not recall it. The fact is that the ability to recognize information, and the subjective feeling that you have learned it, comes much sooner than actual memorization. The fact that you can recognize material in a book does not mean that you’ll be able to recall it when you need to.
Are you giving instructions to an agent? Ask him to repeat the instructions. If you tell him the sequence of actions, they should repeat it in both forward and reverse order. Are you preparing for an exam? Recall the material and write it down on a piece of paper. The subjective sensation of remembering and recognizing is not enough. And keep in mind one of the laws of memory: partial reproduction makes memorized information worse, it is better to recall all of it.
Professional memory
Perhaps you’ve noticed that football fans remember a huge amount of information. Before an important match a true fan predicts its result, and this prediction is often well founded. Fans will remember the outcomes of matches of the same teams under similar conditions, the statistics of key players, decisive goals, referees’ mistakes, etc. The day after a match, a fan can talk about the game for two hours, discussing every nuance, every play.
Fans are not the only ones with great memories. The same can be said of collectors, movie buffs and scientists. All of them remember a lot of facts, dates, numbers, attributes, cases and descriptions. It has to be said that true enthusiasts rarely memorize all this information intentionally. They learn it easily and effortlessly.
In addition to the high level of motivation that professionals have, this can also be explained by their extensive network of associations. Each new event, new fact or new number is associated with familiar information: this runner improved his record by so many milliseconds, this team won for the first time in this season, etc. The brain easily remembers something it is accustomed to, something that is emotionally coloured and meaningful. This is how long-time fans often quite accurately predict match results, though it’s impossible for them to explain how they came up with the forecast.
Of course, intelligence officers have phenomenal memory and sensitive intuitions. Because intelligence work is not just a job, it is a way of life and life and death itself.
Test yourself
Who was responsible for organizing the set-up to identify the agent network interested in access to psychological developments of the RSHA?
A) Major Miloslavsky
B) Agent ‘Michael’
C) Agent ‘Simonides’
D) Colonel Rukin
4
SHUTTLE AGENT
Some operations require the direct presence of a scout in another country. To perform assignments ‘on the road’, the agent must have not only special knowledge but also the necessary connections.
Shuttle agents therefore often leave knowledge, connections and most importantly reliable cover information for other operational staff. The work of a shuttle agent abroad is dangerous, but working under the observation of the enemy’s special services requires true skill.
Presentations and speeches
Nothing is more depressing than a speech that is read from the page. You can hardly justify such disregard for the audience by asserting that public speaking is stressful for the speaker. Fear of public speaking is high on the list of phobias that affect people. Orators were among the first people to use mnemonic techniques. If there is no need to check the next sentence on a piece of paper, the orator can be more confident and deal with his stress better.
There is no need to memorize a speech word for word for a good performance. It’s enough just to remember the main points and the links between them. This way you will not forget your lines and you will still leave space for improvisation and live communication with the audience.
1. Divide your speech into semantic units. There is no need to make it too small; it’s enough to have 5–10 units for a small speech.
2. Formulate the thesis (main idea of each block) – make it a sentence of three or four words.
3. Encode every thesis with a single key word that can clearly define the statement.
4. Remember the list of key words using the story or loci method. You can use your body as a mnemonic space.
5. Rehearse your presentation. Retell or write down the thesis of your speech, reproducing key words from memory. Repeat them in order and in reverse.
Stage actors memorize long texts word for word, and their experience can be very useful. Preparing for a play does not begin with memorizing phrases, but with understanding the characters’ feelings as they change with the development of the plot. Once an actor gets into the essence of his or her hero, the text becomes clear, logical and can be remembered faster and better.
Think about the feelings you want to provoke in your listeners at every point of your speech. Live these emotions and put them into words.
Exercise
Read a short article. Divide it into semantic units. Write down the main ideas of these units using theses. Define the key words and memorize them. Try to retell the article, and then check your story with the original text.
Do this exercise using articles on different subjects. This not only develops memory but also the ability to capture, process and compress information. The ability to present the most important part of a large volume of extracted information in a short report is extremely valuable for an intelligence officer.
Memorizing and structure
To remember a large amount of information better, organize it. One of the most effective ways to organize disparate data is to classify it using a tree structure.
For example, you need to remember the objects on your desk. Perhaps to make sure nobody was looking through your office in your absence. The following objects are on your desk:
a laptop;
a fountain pen;
a notebook (with a bookmark on the 15th page);
several blank sheets of paper;
a pencil sharpener;
a detector for finding listening devices;
last year’s copy of Countries of the World;
an external hard drive;
a framed photo;
a memory card;
a statue of the Buddha;
a pencil;
a book on the psychology of emotions;
a phone charger.
It’s not very easy to remember the list in its original form. But you can classify the objects. For example, you can divide them into electronic devices and everything else. The list will be as follows:
1. Electronic devices:
a laptop;
a detector for finding listening devices;
an external hard drive;
a memory card;
a phone charger.
2. The rest:
a fountain pen;
a notebook (with a bookmark on the 15th page);
several blank sheets of paper;
a pencil sharpener;
last year’s copy of Countries of the World;
a framed photo;
a statue of the Buddha;
a pencil;
a book on the psychology of emotions.
The list is clearer, but the groups are still too large. You can divide them into sub-groups:
1. Electronic devices:
A) Data storage devices:
a laptop;
an external hard drive;
a memory card.
B) Other devices:
a detector for finding listening devices;
a phone charger.
2. The rest:
A) Writing materials:
a fountain pen;
a notebook (with a bookmark on the 15th page);
several blank sheets of paper;
a pencil sharpener;
a pencil;
B) Books:
/> last year’s copy of Countries of the World;
book on the psychology of emotions.
C) Decorations:
statue of the Buddha;
a framed photo.
Now you have a two-level classification tree.
The construction of such a tree takes some time. However, experiments show that ordered information is remembered up to ten times more effectively than a simple list.
Make sense of your information, build charts and tables, classify and organize it.
Test Yourself
In the ‘Figures and Numbers’ exercise, what film represents the number 9?
A) District 9
B) The Fellowship of the Ring
C) Finding Nemo
D) The Goonies
Mind maps
For a visual representation of data structure, you can use mind mapping, a technique developed by British psychologist Tony Buzan. Incidentally, he is a founder of memory championships, where the world’s best mnemonists compete in remembering and accurately reproducing all sorts of different information.
Mind maps are indispensable when you need to master a new area of knowledge quickly. You can link fragmented information together and find connections between seemingly independent facts.
To make a mind map, do the following:
1. Take a blank sheet of paper. Turn it horizontally.
2. Indicate the main topic of your mind map in the centre of the page. It can be a picture, a word or a phrase – anything you want. The main thing is that you should understand and remember it.
3. Expand and clarify the main topic. Draw lines from the main topic and label them with explanatory key words or pictures.
Think about cause and effect. What affects the topic of your map? Where might it lead? What dangers might it present? What components does it consist of? The questions will depend on the topic of the map, and there can be many of them. Don’t let that put you off. It is possible that as you develop the map, some lines will come together, and some lines will be left blank.
4. Do the same thing with each line: explain each one as a separate topic. From the end of each line, draw new branches and mark them with key words or images.
5. Continue branching from the centre to the periphery, until all your ideas appear on the map.
To make the map more useful, follow these recommendations:
1. It’s better to encode ideas and words with images, even if you are not very good at drawing. You will remember them better this way.
2. If you use words, write a single word for one concept. Otherwise you map will be cumbersome and confusing.
3. Make words and images smaller and lines thinner the farther from the centre you get. It will show the hierarchy of knowledge and separate the most important information from the least important.
4. Use different colours.
5. Connect related concepts with lines and arrows or combine them into blocks.
6. Try not to make more than seven branches for each concept. If you need more, create another level of hierarchy.
A completed mind map looks like a neuron: a large image in the centre with a lot of tree-like branches. For example, there is a mind map overleaf illustrating the three principles of mnemonics.
The advantage of a mind map is that it is easily observable – all of the information is presented on a single page. The structure of the information and the connections between its elements are easily visible. The map itself corresponds with all three principles of mnemonics: associativity (all data are connected); imagery (information is presented visually), emotionality (colours, shadings and the character of the map reflect the author’s attitude).
P.S. Maintain secrecy. Do not forget to destroy your mind maps after memorizing their contents.
Exercise
Using a mind map, describe yesterday and tomorrow. The size of the map’s elements will reflect time consumption, and the colour will indicate the importance of a particular task.
Notes
2 July 1955
Buenos Aires. Would never have thought life could take me so far so quickly.
Feathers were pretty ruffled at the dean’s office when they heard I was being sent to the psychology conference.
I’ve never written articles so fast. To be honest, though, the KGB archives are a treasure trove for a psychology historian. My report was approved. My paperwork was filed quickly. My instructions were thorough and took a long time to go through. Local counter-intelligence will probably be watching us, so I should be especially careful.
The timing’s off, though. June–July is winter in Argentina. It’s around 11 degrees over here. The beaches are empty. It’s probably warmer in Moscow right now.
The class inequality is obvious here. For our own safety, we were advised to avoid the Argentinian poor. Even without the warning, I wouldn’t want to get too close to them.
Just a few weeks ago, they almost had a revolution. The Catholics, Peron, unions, the military. I don’t know the details, but it all ended in the bombing of the president’s castle by the Argentinian air force, the head of which, as far as I can tell, joined the rebellion. The number of dead and wounded is not being reported. What’s left of bombshells and explosions are all over the streets, and its pretty gruesome. You can see people crossing themselves when they pass certain areas. Some pray, falling on their knees and crying. That definitely sets them apart from the faithful in Moscow, who even if they do cross themselves, do it furtively, so no one sees.
How could they have even let us into the country at a time like this?! As far as I can tell, Peron won’t stay in his position for long.
The Spanish isn’t easy. The stuff I learned is very different from how they speak here. And the speed! And intonations!!! At first, I couldn’t understand half of what anyone was saying, but now I’ve figured it out, and can sort of communicate with the locals. A different country, a different language and a different culture all force the brain to work at full capacity. There are a lot of foreigners here, but I have to learn to fit in, not to stand out. This takes work, being extra observant and paying attention to details. I fall into bed every night and pass out right away.
11 July 1955
I’ve got used to things here. The culture shock has passed. Work isn’t letting me relax too much. Data collection on Alvarez is moving forward bit by bit. The Argentinians are a lot more open than the Russians. Or maybe I’ve got more experienced at asking questions and communicating with people.
The police were a bit harder to deal with. But not as hard as I thought they would be. Money buys you anything you want around here.
★ Train your brain – Map. Level 2
Create a longer route to memorize from a different map. To help, it can be an area you are more familiar with. Give yourself one minute to write down the directions. Walk along the streets marked on the map, imagining the houses to your right and left, the parks, ponds, canals. Stop at the intersection, turn into the lane. Remember your impressions of what you have seen.
★ Train your brain – Word list. Level 4
Skills in memorizing words help in the preparation of speeches and allow one to better absorb what one has read. In addition, by practising memorizing lists, you improve your attention and imagination. The ability to quickly visualize words and concepts enhances your memory and enriches your thinking.
See if you can memorize word lists of ten words regularly, using the story method and the method of loci, alternating methods after every two or three lists.
Lifestyle and memory
The day-to-day lives of intelligence officers are a far cry from the textbook recommendations on healthy living. Psychological stress and lack of rest do not improve performance. Thrill-seeking intelligence officers with a tendency towards undue risk may have additional challenges.
Intelligence agencies do not encourage disregarding health and, especially, safety: employee training takes a long time and officers have a lot of impor
tant contacts. There are a lot of recommendations for making the professional life of an intelligence officer longer.
What can be done to maintain high performance and productivity? There are several aspects:
• proper nutrition;
• physical activity;
• optimal schedule;
• emotional health and reducing long-term stress.
These recommendations will be described in detail in the following sections.
★ Train your brain – Schulte Tables, 7×7
Below is a more complicated version of the Schulte Tables, containing 49 cells. Try to complete the exercise as quickly as possible, without moving your eyes from the middle cell. The 7×7 playing field is rather large, so this exercise challenges the outer boundaries of your peripheral vision capabilities.
Nutrition for the brain
The human brain makes up only 2% of the weight of the body, but it consumes about 20% of its energy. To maintain high-level performance of the nervous system, your diet must include:
• protein (yogurt, nuts, eggs, fish);
• complex carbohydrates (wholewheat bread, wholegrain cereals, durum wheat pasta);
• healthy fats (seafood, extra virgin olive oil, salmon, sardines, herring, avocados).
Proteins are essential for any living organism. Their deficiency causes fatigue and slows down the process of recovery.
Carbohydrates provide energy for the brain but should not be consumed in large amounts. Carbohydrates begin to raise blood glucose within a few minutes of sugar intake. The release of insulin reduces blood glucose levels, and the brain’s nutrition problem still remains unsolved. It’s far better to eat food with ‘slow’ carbohydrates: crusty bread, brown rice, beans, etc. These carbohydrates release their glucose into the blood slowly, so it is better absorbed and feeds the brain for a long time.