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

Mnemonic Devices

[eldavojohn]

So, when I was younger, we were encouraged to use mnemonic devices (such as "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets"). But I've also heard from critics of the process that they just provide more clutter in the scheme of memorizing things.

I guess I've always thought of them as indexes for remembering things. You're storing more information but the keys are easier for you to remember and they hold within them something meaningful about the data.

Oddly, though, often the most bizarre mnemonic devices work the best as the Wikipedia article states:

A curious characteristic of many memory systems is that mnemonic devices work despite being (or possibly because of being) illogical, arbitrary, and artistically flawed. "Roy" is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname "Biv" and of course the middle initial "G" is arbitrary. Why is "Roy G. Biv" easy to remember? Medical students never forget the arbitrary nationalities of the Finn and German. Any two of the three months ending in -ember would fit just as euphoniously as September and November in "Thirty days hath...", yet most people can remember the rhyme correctly for a lifetime after having heard it once, and are never troubled by doubts as to which two of the -ember months have thirty days. A bizarre arbitrary association may stick in the mind better than a logical one.

For an article with a little more information, check out the NYTimes coverage.

Unfortunately, the Wired article only gives us one line sentences from the contestants like:

"It really helps us a lot in school," she [Erin Luley] said.

"(Media presence) makes it more nerve-wracking," said finalist Chester Santos from San Francisco.

"I really did not expect to win," Foer said. "I thought maybe I'd crack the top five."

Wired, that is pure journalistic gold. Perhaps you'd like to rail them with another question like, "What do you like to do for fun with your friends?"

I'm sure it helps you in school, what I want to know is how in the hell do you do that? Does anyone on Slashdot know if people who win these competitions actually use mnemonic devices or are they just gifted savants?

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[NeoThermic]

One of the memory techniques I've seen used before for learning a set of random objects was to place them in a common thing, such as going to work in the morning. This also has the advantage of being able to recall in sequence. For example, say the first four random items were an alarm clock, a banana, a mouse (squeeky type, not computer type), and a spoon, you might remember something like:

'I woke up to my Alarm Clock, which also had a banana on top, which was weird. Sitting up in my bed, I saw a mouse hanging from the end of my bed. I grabbed a spoon to try remove it...'

Obviously depending on how much you have to remember and what you have to remember the amout of extra story can be shortend to nearly the key items, but as long as you can remember the story in whole, there's little to stop you from realling out a list of items.

When I had my dyslexia test done, one of the tests there was to listen to a set of numbers, and wait 10 seconds, then repeate them. I then also had to do it again in reverse with a diffrent set of numbers; the number of digits getting longer with each try. The way I managed to do well in it was to see the numbers in front of me, as if they were neon signs, and then make them dissapear when I had said them. This also allowed me to read them off in any order. Normally the sweetspot for recall is 7, plus or minus two items. I managed to make it to 11 digits in order, 9 in reverse, which is fairly good.

I would wager that people who learn sequences of things would have techniques similar to this.

NeoThermic

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[objwiz]

But I've also heard from critics of the process that they just provide more clutter in the scheme of memorizing things.

To this day I still remember My Dear Aunt Sally (order of operators Multiplication Division Addition Subtraction). I think little mnemonic devices like that are very helpful. Sticks better in my withering mind. Ive even taught to my kids...

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Peganthyrus]

Please, My Dear Aunt Sally.

Being polite to your elders helps you remember that things in Parenthesis precede the basic Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction!

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[hey!]

Well, that's what happens when you design a computer has a three bit working memory address bus on one hand, but on the other has literally billions of switches dedicated to pattern matching and special purpose retrieval functions.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[vondo]

"Thirty days hath..."

I never learned the rhyme. What I learned was

1. Make a fist and look at the back of your hand.
2. Start with the knuckly on the left. That's elevated, so January has 31 days.
3. The gap between the first and second knuckles is recessed, so Feb. does not.
4. Continue like this until your last knuckle. Then start over again on the left. (July and August both have 31.)

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

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Turken]

I definitely agree with this one... I think I learned more of some topics from Animaniacs songs than I did from classes at school. States and their capitols, Countries of the world, presidents of the United States, etc.

And then there's also Tom Lehrer's Periodic Table of the Elements song...

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Isn't it "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally," to include exponents?

-Augie

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[JordanL]

I very often use the technique of making things "light up" in my head depending on whether or not I have counter them yet, which allows me to do things like flawlessly deal cards out of order.

I have a near photographic memory for certain types of things... for instance, when I was in high school, in my US history class, I read the entire history book the day before school started, and for the entire rest of the year, when I wanted to recall something, I recalled the page it was on, then reread it off th epage in my mind. I had somewhere around an 85% accuracy rate with no studying for about the first six months, and about 70% the rest of the year. The teachers lectures were enough to fill in the holes the entire rest of the year.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[pUr3d0xYk]

Everyone who makes money off of it says that the skill can be learned. There are people who have it naturally (including one guy I've read about who lacks the ability to forget anything--which really makes his life hell); but I have known people who got very impressive results simply from mnemonic tricks.

One that I learned from a memory-enhancement tape was cool...you can memorize any sequence of numbers and attach that memory to any object (for instance, you could memorize everyone you know's address, birthday and phone number, with a little work) - simply by using a list you devise of words that fit numbers. For instance, if your list is "One - bun, two - glue, three - tree" and you need to remember that Joe's birthday is 1/23, you would imagine Joe eating a bun, which was filled with glue, and getting stuck to a tree.

The concept is that visual memory is more permanent than verbal memory, especially when the image is striking or weird (they tell you to be as freaky as you can with the images you concoct). Having tried this for several things, I can say that it works great - I don't have an especially good memory, but I can remember a grocery list, serial number, or what-have-you pretty reliably with this trick.

BTW, a good fictional treatment of the "original" Greek concept of the mnemonic device is in the book (book, not movie) Hannibal. His exceptional memory, like that of many savants, is tied to a very large, cohesive visual-image archive "in his head" - in his case, a mansion where every object represents something that he wanted to remember. That's a known thing that many people with very impressive memories do.

-PD

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Scarblac]

I'm sure it helps you in school, what I want to know is how in the hell do you do that?

I believe the generic term for this sort of thing is Chunking. Your short term memory is of a limited size, you can only keep track of so many things at once (most commonly you hear 7 +- 2 things).

Now those mnemonic devices are usually related with long term memory, not short term - I don't know if the method is even relevant for long term memory.

But the same goes for the article - they're doing short term memory tests as far as I know, you're talking about long term memory.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Surt]

It's thirty days hath september, april, june, and november. All the rest have thirty-one, except for february, because Caesar was a jerk.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[DahGhostfacedFiddlah]

Interesting stuff.

Maybe the reason arbitrary devices work better is that there's no second-guessing? I'm absolutely certain that "30 days has September". So much of what we learn is uncertain, or has exceptions. When you can succinctly file away a piece of information you can be sure will always be valid, maybe the brain is better able to "paste" it, without having to add mechanisms for "unpasting" it if future information invalidates it.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[PetiePooo]

It's thirty days hath september, april, june, and november.

No, no. Its, "Thirty days hath September. All the rest I can't remember."

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Dachannien]

And you've got knuckles left over, so in the event that Thirteenember and Fourteenuary are ever added to the calendar, you're still good to go.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[wildsurf]

Medical students never forget the arbitrary nationalities of the Finn and German.

This is from a mnemonic for the 12 cranial nerves (Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Auditory, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Spinal Accessory, Hypoglossal). The standard mnemonic is:

On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops.

But I find this one even more memorable [pun intended]:

Oh Oh Oh, To Touch And Feel A Girl's Vagina, Such Heaven!

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[wildsurf]

There's also a mnemonic for remembering whether each nerve is sensory (S), motor (M), or both (B):

Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Big Boobs Matter More!

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Doc Ruby]

I find that the more info I have (metainfo) about some info, the more of the mere info I can remember. I also generally find I can remember more of the metainfo as well. The more "complete picture" I have, the more I can remember it. Especially if multiply-interelated info offers more "paths" from one memory to another, I can recollect along the paths. Maybe it's just a matter of collecting more info overall to apply my "loss percentage" to, so I can remember more items from the larger population, while forgetting even more that I don't notice. The meta/info distinction lets me prioritize the info at the expense of the metainfo.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[shotgunefx]

My brother is like that. Mega memory for the finest details. I had to bash him constantly when we were teens for going on and on. Every time he go on, I'd just say "TMI" or Too Much Information.

While it still surfaces from time to time (occasionally if we're out drinking), he's learned to keep recollections to the minimum when talking to people. It certainly doesn't hinder him socially (or anymore anyways)

One time, we saw this girl he went to grade school with. They started talking about it and before you know it, the conversation turns to the school photo day and then he rambles off what she was wearing, including the color of her shoes.

Excuse me if I go on for a bit, but the subject of memory is something that I spend quite a bit of time thinking about for various reasons. Mainly because in some aspects, mine is so incomplete. I've thought about posting an Ask Slashdot on the subject for some time.

I can't remember yesterday half the time. Actually, that's not quite accurate. Some things I can remember quite well and photographic. Tech stuff, movies and television in particular, ridiculous stuff that doesn't really matter. (Well not the tech..)

You know how sometimes they have several editions of a movie? (Not current movies were they all have "editions", but older ones). Any additional shots that weren't in it the first time around, even very subtle ones that don't change any context of the movie, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Even if I haven't seen it in 20 yrs.

Actors too. First time I watched "Snatch", I recognized Bricktop as the cab driver in American Werewolf in London when they were driving around to find David at the end. I hadn't seen AWIL in ages either. Such a useless "talent".

Though personal recollections, they are often like reading a summary of a book. It's really quite frustrating. Though on occasion, whiffs of the past come to, like a movie in my head. Unfortunately, it's not often.

An odd observation, percodan seems to help. I had a small surgery and they gave me a few percs to get me through the first couple days. The first night, I started recalling my house as it was when I was a kid. Every detail, walking around the house in my memory, it was as if I were there. No detail was missing. (No I wasn't tripping, I was barely effected). I could just bring up any part of the house as if I were there. I had similar experiences the next two times. Normally, I might get some recollection like that, but it will be a fragment, as if it is only tuned in for seconds then it fuzzes out. While I wish my memory was more "accessible", I'm not going to take percs to do so. :)

So the good news is it's still all there apparently, the bad news is how the f*ck to I fetch it?

If anyone is experienced in the subject or could recommend any good books, resources, etc I'd be most appreciative.

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[fbjon]

You can do it with your two hands next to each other as well, to get a view of the whole year. Starting from one end again, ridge=31 days, valley=30, except for February.

A deck of cards? That's it?

[brian0918]

Sure, they can memorize a deck of cards, but can they learn the lyrics to It's the End of the World as We Know it?

Re:A deck of cards? That's it?

[mcsestretch]

Sure, they can memorize a deck of cards, but can they learn the lyrics to It's the End of the World as We Know it?
Damn you...now I can't get it out of my head.

When the revolution comes, I'm locking you in a cell with Michael Stipe and a hundred rabid weasels on crank. :)

that's nice

[Loconut1389]

but when are the mammary championships?

Re:that's nice

[Hogwash McFly]

September, in Poland.

Re:that's nice

[hoggoth]

> Mother do you think they'll like this sig?

I'll eat some Karma just to tell you how clever your sig is.

Now I'm playing a big Pink Floyd playlist...

1 Deck in 30 Seconds?!

[mr_rattles]

That's pretty impressive, I don't even think I could flip through all 52 cards in 30 seconds.

Re:1 Deck in 30 Seconds?!

[PFI_Optix]

On long stuff like that, I tend to use the "Simon" method (I just made that up, no idea what it would really be called).

Look at the first card, say the name in your head. Look at the second, say the first and second. For every card, repeat the whole series. You develop a rythm and it almost becomes a song in your head. I tired and just got to 18 cards in 30 seconds that way.

I don't know if I could memorize an entire deck of cards in one sitting, though. If I could look through it for two or three minutes, wait an hour or two, then come back to it, I could probably look through it for another minute or two and recite it.

Isn't this just...

[Billosaur]

...a competition for people with eidetid memory? It seems if you have a so-called photographic memory, then most of these feats would be child's play, I would think. There are some autisitc individuals who would find some of this trivial. It seems like fun and all that, but how about harnessing all that brain power to solving the world's problems instead of memorizing playing cards.

Re:Isn't this just...

[ROBOKATZ]

Maybe because the world's problems can't be solved by memorizing playing cards. Just because they're good at rote memorization does not necessarily make them better at anything else. They'd probably have a slightly easier time in medical school but other than that I don't see what you would have them do.

Re:Isn't this just...

[bw_bur]

Remembering things incredibly well doesn't imply high intelligence, or an ability to solve all the world's problems. After following your link, I carried on and read the article about S.V. Shereshevskii, who apparently had truly astounding recall -- he could remember speeches, complicated formulae, poems in a foreign language, and many other things, all very quickly and for years afterwards -- but an entirely ordinary level of intelligence.

His story is very interesting, and more than a little sad. After performing for years as a mnemonist, he became unable to distinguish between recent conversations and those which happened long ago -- but which he still recalled perfectly. Desperately trying to forget the never-ending lists of words, he wrote them down on paper which he then burned. He ended up in an asylum.

It doesn't sound like much fun to me.

Re:Isn't this just...

[Kjella]

Maybe because the world's problems can't be solved by memorizing playing cards. Just because they're good at rote memorization does not necessarily make them better at anything else. They'd probably have a slightly easier time in medical school but other than that I don't see what you would have them do.

My memory is definately not photographic as in faces and landscapes, but is excellent at text, numbers and things that can be broken down as such, for example an UI or a roadmap. School was trivial with a memory like that. For example in programming it is excellent to remember the base libs, the classes, members and workflow of the project I'm working on. At work (no, I don't program for a living) I recall where what documents are related, and where I put them. You wouldn't believe the overhead many people have just in keeping track of that. In short, it might not be an end-all, you're probably not going to be a bright genius that solves world problem, but it makes the average day a lot easier. That's at least my experience.

Have they been tested for cognition enhancers?

[Thag]

I know it's the cynic in me, but I'm only half kidding.

Another possibility is that competitors have worked out the best methodology for succeeding on these tests.

Jon Acheson

Damn

[r00k123]

The championship was THIS weekend?

Damn. I meant to tape that.

Re:Damn

[Spy der Mann]

The championship was THIS weekend?

Don't worry, I can recall every detail of it! :P

How to Win the Memory Championship

[Urban Garlic]

Today's "Slate" has a link to an older article about that.
It was, in fact, written by the guy who won it, so he may know
what he's talking about.

http://www.slate.com/id/2114925/

Re:How to Win the Memory Championship

[figa]

There's a little bit about the history of memorizing in the article, and if you're looking for more on the topic, Frances Yates' The Art of Memory covers memorization from its mythical beginnings with Simonides, through its use by Roman orators, and ultimately its transformation into a mystical technique and occult science in the Middle Ages. Most of the techniques described in the article were practiced by the Romans.

My favorite memory Grandmaster is George Koltanowski. He held the record for the most simultaneous blindfold chess games played, and he gave demonstrations of his exceptional memory using the knight's tour. As this article describes, his audience would provide 64 words or numbers which would be written on a giant chess board on stage. Koltanowski would quickly memorize the board, and, while blindfolded, recall the data in the order of a knight's tour.

Multiplication tables

[QMO]

When I was in elementary school I used to think that memorizing the multiplication tables was stupid. You could look it up in a table, or if you didn't have a table you could work it out in a few seconds.

I continued to feel more or less the same until I was teaching algebra to college students, some of whom didn't know the multiplication tables.

Factoring an simple trinomial can be very difficult without basic single-digit multiplication tables at your immediate recall. Those that didn't memorize the multiplication tables when children were at a disadvantage. Those that didn't learn them for the class either never could factor trinomials with any degree of speed or accuracy.

Re:Multiplication tables

[Descalzo]

I can tell you from personal experience that even the simplest division problem becomes amazingly difficult for students who don't have their times tables memorized. Long division is an arduous torture-session for those who have to look everything up, and a snap for those who have their times tables memorized.

I also find it interesting that it helps to memorize up to 12 x 12, as opposed to only going up to 10 x 10. I don't know why that is.

Re:Multiplication tables

[PitaBred]

Repetition is how you learn things. Give me a reason to repeat something, and I'll learn it. But just learning the tables for the sake of learning the tables... meh. I never did get the hang of that.
I was always amused, because they started us out with like, up to 6. I'd get about in the middle of the pack of the scores, and then they'd spring tables including 7's. I'd always be one of the first few done with those, if not the first. I could do the math. I never cared to just memorize bullshit until I actually needed it though. I'd memorize some of the big ones (6x6, 7x5, stuff like that) and then just do a little addition or subtraction to get the answer.

Re:Multiplication tables

[meburke]

I had problems memorizing my multiplication tables in 4th grade. I wasn't slow, just too stubborn to do the work. My older sister and my mother drilled me all summer so I wouldn't be held back from 5th grade. I've got them down, but I still have a feeling of dislike for multiplication.

At age 13 I ran across a book called, "The Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics" by Anne Cutler and Rudolf McShane. Within a couple of weeks I was doing complicated multiplication, division and square roots in my head without having to resort to my slide rule. Since then I've tutored college juniors, seniors and grad students who never got a handle on basic math, by teaching them this system. I believe I can teach any normal 4th grader to add, subtract, multiply, divide and calculate square roots in about 4 weeks. There are some "rules" to memorize, but they are rules about process, not data, and there are much fewer of them than a 12x12 times table. It aggravates the hell out of me that there are high-school graduates who can't do basic math well enough to operate a cash register.

People learn most from being rewarded for success, and sometimes the success is the reward.

Mike Burke

Re:Multiplication tables

[RockModeNick]

I never remembered the table in early gradeschool when they tried to make me memorize it, but once multiplication was part of algebra problems, I ended up looking up or deriving enough of it often enough that 95% of it I memorized anyway by the time I passed sequential one math in HS.

Re:Multiplication tables

[Forbman]

Well, our drills were 100 problems/sheet. At first, we had a week or so to do them. By the time I was in 4th grade or so, we had 10 minutes to do them. Addition, subtraction at first, then multiplication. They were random. Of course, one quickly learns how to spot similar equations, i.e., repetitions of 7+5 (like 5+7), etc., so that usually knocked out 5-10 problems as fast as you could move your pencil to them and write the answer down. Then it was just repetition.
I didn't "memorize" the tables per se, but just through sheer brute force repetition.

It's fun having kids to share this with them. I don't know if it helps or hurts, but I think it's good that they know that it's just part of the process. A boring, dull part of it, but ultimately it pays off, even if it means being able to add numbers in your head when your hands are full...

Eidetic memory - blessing or curse?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a friend with eidetic memory. Ask him to imagine being in a particular location where he's been before and he is there: he can tell you what's to his left, right and up, the color of any landmark, the text on signs (even detailed text: when asked he "reads" the text from the picture he has in memory!).

He finds analytical problems difficult because his vivid memories get in the way. He also appears to be scattered but this is an illusion: he's merely more aware of the moment than a normal person is.

He became a lawyer, where his memory and vivid visualization skills sometimes help.

That's great

[Langfat]

it starts with an earthquake....doesn't it? ;)

A deck of cards in 30 seconds...

[fireman sam]

Pfft, I can do that.

Oh, you mean the order of the cards... On second thought.

Ooooh!

[Kittie Rose]

I think I've finally figured out what "Elephant Man"'s mutant power was!

Mnemonic Devices - A rude one :)

[kn0tw0rk]

I prefer the one for remembering trig stuff... SOH TAH COA

Sally
Opened
Her
Thighs
And
Her
C***
Opened
Also

I never failed the maths tests involving trig after I'd learnt that :)

Re:Mnemonic Devices - A rude one :)

[ktulu1115]

I thought it was SOH-CAH-TOA?

Re:Mnemonic Devices - A rude one :)

[kn0tw0rk]

Doh!! I guess the mnemonic didnt work after all. I blame all the alcohol I've had since I left school all those years ago :)

Never forget

[SeanDuggan]

Everyone who makes money off of it says that the skill can be learned. There are people who have it naturally (including one guy I've read about who lacks the ability to forget anything--which really makes his life hell); but I have known people who got very impressive results simply from mnemonic tricks.
I remember a sci-fi story along those lines. Basically, the guy couldn't forget anything and it made his social life Hell because he was forever either creeping people out by remembering every detail about them even though he'd met them once several years before, or unintentionally socially "cutting" them by ignoring them because he figured they wouldn't remember him. He tried to use his abilities to make a living on bar bets, but found that the losers generally didn't believe him when he gave the right answer.

I wish I could remember the book or story title, but it was in an anthology of sci-fi stories regarding mutants. Supposedly, this guy's grandfather had the same ability/problem.