Records Smashed at (Human) Memory Championship

Pika the Mad writes "Wired News has a neat story about the recent U.S.A. National Memory Championship.'The finalists competed in three brand-new recall events that forced them to remember and recite aloud random words, personality characteristics of guests at a fictional tea party and the order of cards in two decks of playing cards, parroting answers in front of a crowd of onlookers, photographers and video cameras.' The winner claims that in the world finals he'll be competing against people who can memorize an entire deck of cards in 30 seconds."

Comments

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[mdf356]

There is an article in this month's Discover about it. It doesn't appear to be online.

For the cards, for example, each card is associated with three things: a subject, a verb, and a direct object, I believe. You memorize a deck of cards by getting 3 cards at a time, and combining the subject for the first, verb of the second, and direct object of the third into a triplet. The actions and objects don't need to make senes; they just need to be memorable to you.

The order of the triplets is then memorized by contructing a mental path down which one walks and encouters each triplet in order.

Similar techniques work for memorizing digits of pi or memorizing strings of random numbers.

People who are good at one type of memory (deck of cards, say) aren't necessarily good at another type, indicating this is training and not innate talent. Some of the champs spend up to 30 minutes every day practicing memory tricks.

Cheers, Matt

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Quirk]

I post a link to the book below everytime the subject comes up on /. Luria's treatment of the subject matter is a good overview and shows the potential downside to such gifts. I met one woman who gift was equal to those described in the article. She had no training and simply had the gift. I have an above average memory that serves me well but I find the majority of people become bored when I start to itemize particulars. My parents and sibling smile indulgently at me then carry on a conversation roundly ignoring my detailing.

I've studied various mnemonic methods. The ancient greeks used an empty stadium as a mnemonic device then would 'seat' items to be remembered in the stadium seats.

Luria, A. R. (Aleksandr Romanovich) The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory