Book Notes
Summary
This has been a very helpful little book. I honestly like that it is written for 5th to 8th graders so that you can actually have a picture of what it looks like to teach memory to kids that are at a very hard age to teach anything to.
Not to mention it bringing a lot of the philosophy and other stuff that quickly seems to build up around memory writing back down to earth.
I have already tested out the ESCAPE and the picture, sound, remind processes and they work well for confirmands because they are straightforward enough and themselves easy to remember.
Main Framework for Memory
- Get It - Direct your attention and focus on the thing to be remembered.
- Save It - The actual strategy to keep something in memory.
- Recall It - Keep yourself focused and relaxed so that your mind can work.
Zoom in on the Save it Section
- Picture it. First you need to figure out how you will make an engaging image to remember something.
- Connect it. Then you can figure out how you want to connect and/or “place” that image/information with other things in your mind.
- Review it. Recalling the picture and where you put it helps build the neural pathways in your brain and helps you beat the forgetting curve.
Attention Exercises - Under Get it
- Breathing Exercise pp. 6
- Guess What is Next pp. 7
- Ask yourself How to Remember this pp. 9
Save it Exercises
Picture it pp. 12-21, 29
- Start with information you want to remember then ask:
- Can you picture it? or What does it look like?
- What does it sound like?
- What does it remind you of?
pp. 17
Our minds are like detectives from a TV show. All your mind needs is a few clues, then it can solve the case,
E.S.C.A.P.E - Use Interesting Images pp. 18
- Boring = Easy to forget
- Exciting = Easy to remember
- Exaggeration, Silliness, Color, Action, People, Emotion added to an image helps it ESCAPE from being boring.
Connect it pp. 22-23
- Hook images together to keep things in a more compact image
pp. 23
Eventually, you will know the facts and won’t have to picture them. The tools in this book help as you learn new material. You won’t use them to remember a fact forever because your mind will eventually store the information for long-term.
Review it pp. 23
- Review images and information together. If still hard to remember add more creativity using E.S.C.A.P.E
Forgetting Curve pp. 25-28
- The study that shows how you naturally forget overtime unless you review things. When you review you can “beat” the forgetting curve.
- Suggests making a review pattern for yourself
pp. 28
Most people review the same day, the next morning, and then the next night (two nights after first learning it). If it’s difficult to remember , another review on day 4 or 5 helps.
Your Mind is like a little Detective
- The metaphor that your mind is like a little detective and if it can find a clue that is well hooked into the rest of what you are trying to remember you can just let yourself naturally follow the clues and visualize, walk, traverse the images and associations you have made to find what you want to remember.
- The big thing is that your mind does not need tones of details just enough clues that are interesting and grabby enough to search down what you are trying to remember.
Applied Techniques
Vocabulary Memory Technique
pp. 45
All you have to do is create an image for verb, adjective, and noun. Then put that image into the picture for the word and definition. One way is to use the first letter of each part of speech: V for verb, a for adjective and n for noun. When you need to remember whether it’s a noun, or a verb, you’ll remember that creative mind movie of the definition, and also see a part of the image that doesn’t belong - that will be the part of speech.
Spelling Memory Technique
Alphabet Images - Attach an image to each letter to help make it easier to picture the right letter. pp. 48-49
Overall process for remembering the right spelling of something
pp. 53
- Which part is hard to remember? How can I change that into something I can remember?
- How can I picture it?
- What does it sound like?
- What does it remind me of? Then Picture. Connect. Review.
Foreign Language Memory Technique
Main technique to use is “what does this sound like” to help make sticky images.
pp. 55
Rules for remembering foreign languages:
- If you want to speak it correctly, you must memorize the word based on how it sounds.
- If you want to spell it correctly, you must memorize the word based on how it is spelled.
- The spelling and pronunciation are often completely different items to memorize.
- Pretend each word is an English word you haven’t learned yet. There is nothing dramatic about a different languages, so don’t let our mind stress out!
Process for learning a new word - pp. 56
- Learn how to say it correctly
- Ask “what does it sound like?” of if you need “what does it remind me of?”
- If you are still stuck break it down by syllable and make each chunk memorable.
- Make a fun picture of the foreign word
- Picture the meaning or English word
- Make a story with both pictures so that they are connected together.
Connection Memory Techniques
- You can connect memories to specific locations, people, objects or anything you want. To do that you “place” a memory image on that place so that when you encounter it again you can call the image and then that information easily and quickly. on pp. 60-61
- Simple explanation of the story/link method on pp. 61-62
- Simple explanation of the memory palace/castle method on pp. 62-65
pp. 66
it’s safer and more reliable to use the Memory castle method. If you use the Story Method to remember a long list or a bunch of similar facts, and forget one part of the story in the middle, you risk forgetting everything that comes after.
Number Memory Techniques
This is a nice introduction for number remembering. A lot of the more advanced systems are super powerful but hard to approach while this gets you into the basic concepts behind it all.
pp. 67
The first step to remembering numbers is to figure out a memorable creative image for each number, in advance. Some people create these images based on “what does it sound like?” Some use “what does it remind me of?” and others combine both. It doesn’t matter which system you use, as long as you can easily picture an image for each number.
The next step is to combine the numbers into a story.
The last step is to combine the numbers with the other information you need to remember (question and answer) You can also store the image of the number in your memory castle.
- You can use this same approach to come up with a system to remember the months so that you can make month specific images attached to the number.
Memory Pitfalls
- Stress handle with a calming breathing exercise - pp. 74
- Tiredness go to bed or handle with an energizing breathing exercise - pp. 76
- Fear handle with breathing from pp. 74 or positive visualization - pp. 76
- Overexcited same pp. 74 breathing - pp. 77
- Demotivation - pp. 77-79
- Positive visualization
- Trick yourself with self story building and making something funny or fun
- Positive rewards after
- 90 second tool. Just start something for 90 seconds and then another. At that point you are three minutes in and should feel a lot more motivated than before.