Ever forget things?
Lose your keys?
Go to the store only to come home saying "Damn...I forgot the ____________".
...if your answer is every time...don't feel alone...
Most everyone does.
With FRED this is compounded by the fact that the position he occupies now in my frontal lobe disrupts my short term memory. A lot. Written lists and prompts help. While discussing this anomaly with my youngest grown son last week he pointed me toward
Moonwalking With Einstein
Since my short term loss is basically physiological, I didn't expect much.
I was completely mistaken.
It doesn't solve every problem.
As a Nurse who aced the Math involved in Pharmacology in College...it is a bit sobering to realize that today I am completely unable to do even simple sums "in my head".
But hey...That is why Texas Instruments gave us The Calculator, okay?
Foer uses a technique first discovered in 5th Century B.C to map memories through mnemonics and loci. He teaches us to use a "memory palace" and circumvent/use other parts of our brains for memory.
Read the following "list" of items to pick up or do before a weekend outing. (a sample)
Pickled Garlic
Cottage Cheese
Peat-Smoked Salmon
Five Bottles of White Wine
Three pairs of Socks
Three Hula Hoops
Snorkel
E-Mail Sophia
Dry Ice Fog Machine
Elk Sausage
Beige Stretch Cat Suit
Paul Newman's DVD Somebody Up There Likes Me
A Director's Chair and Megaphone
Ropes and a Harness
A Barometer
Fifteen Items. Commit them to memory by reading the list. Then turn away and see how many of them you can still remember after 15 minutes.
Not many, eh?
By constructing a "Memory Palace" taking a memory of a place...house or road you know well and depositing the items in a memorable sometimes outrageous ways along the path...the brain uses different pathways and you can easily memorize anything you need to...with almost instantaneous recall.
For the above mentioned (sample) list I used the pathway from the parking lot into my apartment...then the apartment itself. My narrative follows:
Just by the car I noticed pickle and a bulb of garlic (pickled garlic) and as I walked up the walk I noticed a cottage that appeared to be made entirely of cheese (cottage cheese) as I reached the front I saw a Salmon swimming upstream in my neighbour's fountain...beside it was an old man named Pete smoking a pipe...(Peat-Smoked Salmon)...as I walked through the hallway to my door I noticed one two three four five six bottles of white wine lining the way (Six bottles of white wine) as I reached the door stacked against it were three pairs of white athletic socks (3 pairs of socks) As I stepped inside I almost tripped over 3 pink Hoola Hoops the girls left by the door (3 Hoola Hoops ) and I looked on my table wondering who had left their snorkel out. (Snorkel) and was stunned to see Sophia Loren sitting by my laptop computer (E-mail Sophia Billows of fog came from the kitchen and I realized I had left the dry ice machine running (Dry Ice Fog Machine) and when I opened the freezer to my surprise there was an Elk sitting cramped in there next to the frozen sausage (Elk Sausage) As I walked into the hallway I couldn't help noticing that Sophia had slipped into a stretchy beige catsuit and nothing else (Beige stretch catsuit) and Paul Newman was standing near her with his blue eyes upturned to the sky muttering "Someone up there LIKES me!" with a lascivious smile on his face. (Paul Newman's: DVD Somebody up there likes me) As I passed my bedroom I glanced in to see Al Pacino sitting in a director's chair with a megaphone in his hand (Director's Chair and Megaphone) as I walked straight into the bathroom I was dumbfounded to see a maze of ropes and a harness to transport you to the shower (Ropes and Harness) and from the shower head hung a barometer (Barometer).
Thus...fifteen items completely commited to memory by simply weaving a story along a well known path.
(...in fact I may never get that damned ELK out of the freezer in my mind...)
Foer went on to explain that using the same construct you could virtually remember/memorize anything important...any list...no matter the length.
Try it yourself, using your own memory palace and narrative.
Chris proved this point by reciting for me in order Shakespeare's Complete Body of Work. (play names)
Incredible stuff.
Still making my way through the book on this long weekend...but can instantly see where it could be used adaptively to circumvent impaired short-term memory.
Also joined Luminosity this year...can't hurt...might help :)
Now will someone help me move this Elk...
