Until recently, the new scientific
approach to memory improvement has mainly been practiced in a small
number of universities and colleges, where it was developed. Virtually
every book and commercial course available outside of these centers
still relies primarily, if not exclusively, on the method of loci
and related methods that originated over 2000 years ago.
So, for over 2000 years, students of
all varieties and ages have sought to reduce the chore of studying.
Having good memory skills would seem to help with studying. Consequently,
various people have represented themselves as capable of improving
almost anyone's memory performance.
In 477 B.C., the poet Simonides astounded
his contemporaries with his memory skills. One day, the roof of the
banquet hall where he was a guest fell, killing many. In order to
notify next of kin, positive identification was necessary but not
possible for most of the victims. Simonides resolved this problem
by recalling the name of every person by seat at various banquet tables.
He claimed to remember so easily because during the banquet he had
concentrated in his mind the images of each person at each table.
Simonides' method came to be called
the "method of loci" and was regarded in ancient Greece as the "correct"
way to learn something. If you lived back then and asked a memory
scholar for help with your memory skills, you would have been told
the following: to learn some pieces of information, put each piece
in a different location of a spatial image you have in your mind (such
as a banquet table, the rooms of a house, etc.). Later, when you want
to remember the items, recall your image and it will lead you to them.
Over the years, other methods were
derived from the loci procedure. For example, instead of memorizing
items by putting them in a mental image of a physical place, you might
place the items on mental "pegs" organized on an imaginary wall. Or,
one might memorize a rhymed list like "one is a bun, two is a shoe,
three is a tree." This rhyme would then be used to learn some information,
such as three things to get at a store (milk, eggs, bread). One would
imagine the milk sitting on a bun, some eggs in a shoe, and a loaf
of bread hanging from a tree. When the rhyme is later recited, the
images should help recall the original items.
In the first century B.C., Cicero taught
people how to remember a speech by using the method of loci to retain
each point. As a student delivered a speech, he would mentally stroll
through the loci of his house and recall the points encountered in
each room. In the Renaissance, the courts of kings and queens employed
memory specialists to help in remembering important facts. In the
1500s, memory specialists developed complicated peg schemes for members
of a court to remember what they needed to know. The more locations
in a person's mental loci, the more ideas they could recall. In the
1600s and 1700s, memory specialists ignored the method of loci. Instead,
they emphasized the learning of ideas and the associations among them.
In 1885 Herman Ebbinghaus did the first experiments on memory. His
research showed that people can learn short lists easily but had great
difficulty learning long lists. He also showed that people forget
very quickly after studying information. Ebbinghaus' methods influenced
many generations of memory researchers.
Freud also influenced many students
of human memory. He showed that people forget information that is
charged with negative emotions. People were thought to forget because
they "repressed" memories that were upsetting.
Research done during the past three
decades has shown that the ancient methods do not produce permanent
memory abilities. A growing body of knowledge about the different
factors affecting memory has led scientists and health-care professionals
to look beyond the ancient methods.
For example, it has been shown that
memory can also be improved by a variety of methods that do not involve
mental loci, pegs, and other related procedures. Techniques to facilitate
a person's attitude, physical condition, mental state, conversational
skills, and use of physical memory aids have been found to reduce
memory failures.
Ulric Neisser emphasized the study
of memory in natural surroundings. He argued in the 1960s and 1970s
that laboratory experiments on memory did not reveal how a person's
memory worked in everyday life. Because of his analyses of memory,
many memory researchers quit laboratory research and began to study
memory in real world settings. Gradually, people began to try to develop
methods to improve memory in everyday life in these real world settings.
Once you understand that you can improve
your memory, it's just a matter of taking the right steps. Recent
scientific research has developed many more ways to improve everyday
memory ability than existed just a few years ago. The Practical Memory
Institute is founded on modern science-based principles to assist
you in improving your memory. Programs like PMI's can acquaint you
with the different ways to optimize your memory skills and provide
opportunities to evaluate your own memory performance. You can learn
how to prepare yourself for memory tasks by improving your attitude,
condition, and social interactions. You can also learn environmental
and social ways to enhance memory processes.
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