there are certainly ways to improve your overall ability to remember information
like getting more sleep or taking b12 vitamins but this video is not about
those tricks it's about a type of memory tricks called mnemonics but what is a
mnemonic well mnemonics are memory tricks that can help you remember long
strings of information often in a particular order mnemonic devices have
helped people achieve phenomenal feats in the world of memory from memorizing
40,000 digits of pi to knowing the order of a whole deck of cards you can use
them to help you remember phone numbers create a more secure password or maybe
one day break a world record so let's start off with chunking if you've
watched my video explaining short-term memory you have already heard a little
bit about this mnemonic device see short-term memory storage can only hold
five to nine items of information at a time but this storage can also hold up
to four chunks of information the process of chunking information is
explained in the name if you're given multiple pieces of information to
memorize chunk it up into groups now the groups could be based on the
position in which you learned the information similarities between the
pieces of information that you need to memorize or anything that helps you
remember the information one common example of chunking is the way that we
memorize phone numbers we split the ten numbers into three chunks first the
three-digit area code then the next three digits of the actual number and
then the last four digits of the number even if you can't normally remember ten
numbers in sequential order you are likely to remember three chunks of
information number two is an acronym now an acronym is a simple abbreviation for
a list of information that makes the phrase ordering easier to remember so
think back to your grade school days do you remember what PEMDAS means go back
to even further preschool what is ROYGBIV stand for these are examples of
acronyms see it's not easy to remember parentheses exponents multiplication
division addition and subtraction in order on a math test when you first
learned it but PEMDAS is just one word ten years after your last math class
pendous is likely to stick that's the beauty of an acronym it's a single word
or maybe a phrase or a title but it reveals a lot of information that you
otherwise would not have been able to remember in the correct order let's move
on the number three some people don't remember
PEMDAS they remember it as please excuse my dear Aunt Sally if you were taught
this trick to remember how to solve math problems you weren't using an acronym
you were using something called an acrostic to help you remember
information in an important order an acrostic is when you turn an acronym
into a sentence to increase the likelihood of recalling it by giving it
just a bit more meaning take a moment to think of some other examples of
acrostics every good boy does fine is probably familiar to people who took an
elementary school music class my very educated mother just served us nine
pizzas is also a great way to remember the order of the planets in our solar
system from the Sun usually the sillier and the more unique that they are the
easier they are to remember now this is also a great method in creating a secure
password try to think of a quote from a movie that you like one that would be
easy to recall for example the famous line may the force be with you from Star
Wars now that sit-ins is likely too long or
too easy to be a password but MTF bwu is a more random password that is easy
for you to remember but more difficult for someone to guess if you add some
numbers and another favorite quote then the strength greatly increases number
four is a memory palace now you might be familiar with this mnemonic if you've
ever watched Sherlock Holmes started with the ancient Greeks a memory palace
is a virtual palace in your mind where you associate items to objects in each
room see most people start with their childhood house or a current house
because they're most familiar with it you go around to each room and you try
to pick out four to five specific objects to remember these are called
your permanent items and then once you have those memorized and you can easily
recall them for example let's say the third item in your second room and you
can do that reliably then you can move on to associating things with each
permanent item humans have an associative memory which is why this
technique works so well for those who invest in it if you want to remember the
order of a deck of cards you can do it pretty easily with a memory palace you
just assign each card to an object in your house using association and then
you should be able to recall it with ease but this mnemonic takes a lot of
time and practice to develop and it shouldn't be used for things that are
time sensitive however it is great for knowing the order of lists that are
larger than 10 items I have a whole video coming out on this soon if you're
interested so go ahead and click that subscribe button if you aren't all
number five is rhyming another mnemonic device it seems to work well especially
when we are children is simply rhyming things it works great with music too and
it works well with other pieces of information so when did Columbus sailed
the ocean blue it was in 1492 another example is the famous I before E except
after C even though there's like 20 exceptions to that rule lastly we have
number six which is rhythm and music the last mnemonic I have for you guys is
using music or a rhythmic beat you might not know this but twinkle twinkle little
star and the ABC song they have the same notes and rhythm in fact music is so
great at helping people in coda memories I did this cool little trick on my last
vacation I went down to Florida with my sister a couple months ago and that's
when Drake's money in the grave song came out I listened to that song like 20
to 40 times while I was there and it was stuck in my head then we came back from
vacation and now whenever I listen to that song I'm always reminded of the
beach and the salty dry air you can create your own song or reword lyrics to
help you memorize something because rhythm and musical notes work very well
when encoding information in your long-term memory storage one more thing
I want to talk about in this video are famous naman it's if you're interested
in learning more about mnemonics I recommend that you look into the experts
these professionals are known for their extraordinary memories one of the most
famous no modest of all-time was simply called s for decades he's described in
the book the mind of an immodest in 1968 and all the book is slightly fabricated
and dramatized it tells the fascinating story of a man who it seemed could
remember just about anything further reporting and research revealed that s
whose full name was Solomon Sheriff chefs key was not a man with
photographic memory he was just as skilled mnemonics who probably had
fivefold synesthesia if you want to learn more about him you can check out
my video on photographic memory many know modest however have followed in his
footsteps in the 1980s tuna modest made the Guinness Book of World Records for
reciting over 30,000 digits of pi and the current world record holder is
40,000 digits of pi right from their long-term memory the world memory
championships has taken place every single year since 1993 and one of the
most memorable winners is Alex Mullen Mullen was the first
American to win the world memory championships and he has achieved the
highest score in the history of the competition ending this video I want to
let you know if you want a baseline of your current short-term and long-term
memory I've actually created the first-ever online test for both of them
all you have to do is check that link in the description below and you can take
that quiz for yourself absolutely free thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you learned something and I hope to see you in the next video