Moonwalking With Einstein
March 12th 2011 03:34
Review By Loyd E. Eskildson
The brain makes up just 2% of a human's mass, yet consumes 20% of the oxygen and 25% of the glucose we use. Unfortunately, researchers at UCLA have concluded that we use only 20% of its memory capability (Scientific American, 4/19/2007). On average, people reportedly waste 40 days/year compensating for things they've forgotten. In "Moonwalking with Einstein" author Joshua Foer went from being one of those forgetful folks to champion at the U.S. Memory Championship after a year of memory training. His book summarizes the latest research, as well as several ancient techniques (eg. 'the method of loci' - aka 'memory palace,' dating back to 477 B.C.) to memorize speeches and even entire books. Much of the book is taken up with Foer's training.
Foer begins telling readers that when Gutenberg turned books into mass-produced commodities, it became less important to remember what the printed page could. (Book indexes further reduced the need for memory.) Memory training until then was considered a centerpiece of classical education, along with grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Fortunately, during the last decades of the 20th century, these techniques have been resurrected, mainly by memory contest competitors (introduced to the U.S. in 1997) and those hoping to make money training others. The 'good news' is that becoming a memory master is not a matter of inheriting superior genes - per Foer, there is only one case described of 'photographic memory' described in the scientific literature. ("Rain Man" Kim Peek, the savant who could recite all of Shakespeare's works, etc., had an IQ of only 87.) The 'bad news' is that it takes hard work and creativity.
Research in the mid-50s established that most can only think about roughly seven items (plus/minus two) at a time. Fortunately, 'chunking' is a way to decrease the number of items to remember by increasing their size, and provides the logic behind phone, credit-card, and Social Security number structures.
A second useful research hint comes from examples of those with naturally superior memories. They're likely to have 'synesthesia' - sounds (including word pronunciation) to them are accompanied by color, texture, even taste. Thus, every word conjures up an image. Numbers may have their own personalities - '1' = a strong man, '2' = a slim woman, '8' = a very stout woman, etc. For synesthiacs, simple stories may become impossible to understand because the image-making bogs down their minds. Regardless, for them learning facts, etc. in sequence involves eg. imagining a walk down a known street while associating activities, etc. with various locations en route. Alternatively, a mental walk through familiar buildings, or train-ride station stops can be used - as long as there's some semblance of order linking one locus to the next.
Researchers have also found that our brains remember visual imagery much better than other forms. Thus, it easier for us to remember 'baker' (occupation) than 'Baker' (name) because the occupation brings up images of what a baker does and looks like. Thus, the secret to remembering names, for example, is to turn Bakers into bakers, Foers into fours, Reagans into ray guns, etc. Generalizing this approach is key to strengthening memory, part of the method Cicero is said to have used, was independently developed by Australian aborigines and Southwest Indian Apaches, and is used by all top memorizers today to one degree or another.
Continuing, Foer points out that the more associative hooks a new piece of information has (eg. smell, taste), the more securely it gets embedded into one's long-term memory - especially if one "revisits the memory palace later in the day, again the next, and the following week." (Example: Imagine the first item on a grocery list one wants to memorize is bread, then eggs. In your mental walk from your bedroom to your kitchen mentally place a loaf of bread on your bed, eggs on your dresser, etc.) Also, the funnier, lewder, and more bizarre the hooks used, the better - eg. an image of Claudia Schiffer swimming nude in a tub of cottage cheese at one's front door. Expertise in the subject being learned/memorized also helps.
Few, if any, use the memory palace approach to memorizing speeches and poems. Poets like Homer relied on repetition and rhythms to recite their work from memory (New York Times, 3/08/11). Foer also reports that alliteration, dynamic images, songs, cliches, words that rhyme are more easily memorized. Turns out that those memorizing long poems and books don't do it totally verbatim.
Those developing their memory quickly hit a performance plateau - Foer reports that setting higher goals and analyzing one's performance problems are essential to further progress. Foer contends that these barriers are more psychological than physical - thus, the sudden flood of milers beating the 4-minute mile barrier after Roger Bannister first did. Improvement requires feedback, and with that feedback eg. surgeons get better over time; interestingly, mammogram readers get much less, if any, feedback, and their performance may deteriorate over time. To prevent this, memory experts suggest they practice on old cases where the outcome is already known.
There are five events in the U.S. Memory Championships. One is memorizing 99 names and faces within 15 minutes and recalling them in another 20. Another is memorizing an unpublished 50-line poem in 15 minutes; contestants must also memorize a list of random numbers, random words, and a shuffled deck of cards. The best associate every group of three cards into a sentence - the first card is a person, the second a verb, and the third an object. Similarly, they may remember every six digits as a sentence.
Finally, near the end of "Moonwalking with Einstein," Foer raises the question " Why work to improve memory?" The answer - "How we perceive the world and act in it are products of what we remember." Foer uses his trip to China as an example - while enjoyable, it would have been much more meaningful if he knew Chinese history.
Bottom-Line: "Moonwalking with Einstein" is an interesting and useful read. Unfortunately, written material, lists, cellphone contact lists, computerized reminder systems, and Google are too easy to use as alternatives. Now I need something that motivates me to use Foer's material - perhaps explaining card-counting strategies. Foer says the best can memorize the sequence of a deck of cards within 21 seconds.
Loyd E. Eskildson is retired from a life of computer programming, teaching economics and finance, education and health care administration, and cross-country truck driving. He's now a blogger and reviewer for Basil & Spice. Visit Loyd E. Eskildson's Writer's Page.
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