Nature reviews the apparently very successful Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer. Currently #17 on Amazon.
The technique begins by selecting a familiar space such as a large building (historically called a memory palace), which the competitor populates with the images of what is to be remembered. Experts use dozens of these, each with a unique route that can be followed for depositing and retrieving images. The images themselves are crucial — they should be highly detailed, bizarre, even lurid. Competitors need to deliberate on each image to know its colour and shape, its smell and texture, and their feelings about it. When the image is a person, the introduction of humour, action and sex is encouraged.
The main competitive method for remembering the order of a deck of playing cards involves pre-memorizing a subject–verb–predicate image for each card. For example, the king of diamonds: Dad riding a tricycle or, using the book's title, Dad moonwalking with Einstein. In tournaments, cards are turned over three at a time. A new image is then constructed to represent all three cards (images ABC, DEF and GHI are converted into the single image AEI). This new image retains a trace of each card's identity, which can be placed in a room of the memory palace for later retrieval. To support memory of a 52-card deck, the expert needs 17 images plus one additional image.
Because a collection of images typically includes a number of titillating acts, difficulties can arise when combining them results in images of family members engaged in socially unacceptable practices. As he prepared for competition, Foer worried that he was being distracted by the indecent acts his mother had to commit “in the service of my remembering the eight of hearts”. His coach knew the problem: “I had to excise my mother from the deck. I recommend you do the same.”
Comments