- Is Memorizing the Same as Learning?
I have been teaching memory seminars (giggles)
for a long time now, since 1991.
And one of the objections that I get
to it is, you know what?
I don't want to memorize, I want to learn.
Or a teacher might say to me,
Ron, I don't want my students memorizing,
I want them to learn.
I want them to understand.
I want them to comprehend.
And my response to is memorizing, really learning,
or is learning and memorizing equal to each other?
Is I would say that,
it is not the end of the learning process.
In other words, memory training or memorizing something
is not the end of the learning process.
The ultimate goal of the learning process is understanding.
It is comprehension.
It's knowing how something really works.
So let's pretend like right here,
this is where you don't know anything about a topic.
And right here you are an expert at it.
You could teach a college level class on it.
You are knowing nothing about it, and here you're an expert.
Will memorizing information gets you from here to here?
Absolutely not.
No, it won't.
So people say, ah, that's it, that's proof.
Memory is not the goal to learning.
Memorizing is not beneficial to learning.
And to that I say, hogwash, of course it is.
Of course having a good memory
and being able to memorize really rapidly
is beneficial to learning.
Well, Ron, well if this is where you don't know
anything about a topic and this is where you're an expert
and you know it well, and you could teach a college class
and you really understand it.
If memory training, won't get you from there to there,
then how is memorizing the same as learning?
Memorizing is not the end of the learning process,
but it is something that can accelerate
the learning process.
Memory training won't get you from here to here,
but if you have the ability to memorize something
really quick, it might get you from here to here
much more rapidly than rote memorization.
In other words,
I memorized the United States Constitution last year,
it's 4,543 words.
Now, I'm gonna be honest with you,
the first time that I've memorized it, I just memorized it.
And if you would've asked me, what does it mean?
I would have been like,
I'm really not totally sure but I can repeat it.
And then you say, well, that's not the goal.
That's not what I want.
I don't wanna be a walking zombie
just repeating information, I wanna understand it.
Well, let me share this with you.
I got a greater understanding
of the United States Constitution
because I memorized it a lot quicker
than if I had not memorized it.
And I'm gonna give you some tips on how to memorize
and I'm gonna give you some tips on how to know
if you're understanding or learning it or not,
if you really understand it.
So I'll give you some tips on that.
Before I do,
here's how learning memorizing helped me to learn it.
I memorized the data.
I got it all in my head.
And I did it very rapidly.
I memorized 4,500 words in maybe six weeks,
four to six weeks, working in my spare time.
But this is how it aided in the learning.
I go for things called walk and talks,
where I just go for a walk
and I talk about the things that I've memorized
and I reasoned them out,
and I'm like, okay, let's talk about the constitution now.
And I'd go for a walk.
"All legislative powers here invested shall be granted,
"and who shall be vested
"in a Congress of the United States."
And I would say that line,
and then I'd be like, hmm, what does that really mean?
Just see what I'm getting at here.
If I had it written down in a journal
and I had it in a notebook, I'd have to carry that journal
with me when I went on these walks and talks.
And sometimes I do, but I'm not reading it.
I'm talking about what's in my brain.
Memorizing something and putting it in your brain
and have the knowledge there gives you the ability
to go for a walk and reason it out.
But it also enables you to do other things.
It enables you to see patterns.
When I memorized the constitution, I was able to see,
oh, wait a minute, this is kinda like that part over there.
Oh, I see similarities in that,
and seeing similarities aides in the learning process.
So I'm gonna say it loud and clear,
memorizing is not the same as learning
but it is a tool that if you're trying to learn science,
if you're trying to learn history,
if you're trying to learn philosophy,
if you're trying to learn medicine,
and you can use some memory techniques
to speed up and get all this data in your head.
Now you have all the data points
and you might be able to go in and take the test
and do well on the test, simply because you memorized it.
But the goal is not getting a good grade on the test,
which can, well...
Okay, maybe it is, but it's not the only goal.
The main goal should be to know the information,
to to understand it.
So, you get it in there, you start reason with it,
you start processing it.
How do you know if you've really learned it
or if you've just memorized it?
Here is when you know you've really, really learn something.
When you can reason with it, when you can contrast and say,
ah, I see, this is kinda how this fits with that.
Or this is kinda how this part of it is different from that.
When you can reason with it and see the differences,
but also see how they compliment each other,
that's when you know you're really starting to learn it
and understand it.
When you can apply it to your life or a different scenario,
that's when you know you've really learned it,
and you understand it.
I do jujitsu and I could memorize jujitsu moves,
but when I'm actually in the middle of wrestling
with somebody or in jujitsu, it's called rolling,
and it's a position that's kinda close
to the one I've memorized, but not exactly.
If I can adapt it to that situation
and still pull off the move,
then I know I really understand it,
because if I had just memorized it, then I would be required
to be in that exact same situation that I memorized.
But if I understand it,
then I don't have to be in that exact same situation.
I just have to apply the principles
that I understood from that move.
Understanding, seeing the similarities and the differences.
Apply that to your life,
seeing how one thing flows into the next.
These are how you know if you've really understood it,
or if you've just memorized it.
If an aspect of what you have memorized has been taken away
and you can still understand the concept
but realize what is missing...
And a great example of that would be in math.
If a variable is gone, or if a number is changed
and you still understand,
oh, wait I still understand this math formula or in jujitsu,
I still understand this,
even though that aspect isn't there,
then you know you have reached the highest level of learning
which is understanding, which is comprehension.
Now, I'm gonna say this about memory,
when you have understood something
then you remember it better.
Wow!
So memory training is going to help you understand better,
and then when you understand better,
you will remember it more.
It's a full circle.
They compliment each other.
They are not at war with each other.
They are complimenting each other.
Memory is part of the learning process.
Memory gives you something to reason against.
Now, can you just memorize a bunch of facts?
Certainly you can.
I use a techniques known as the
mind palace or the memory palace,
where I will pick landmarks around my house.
I could do it out here on this land.
That tree could be number one,
that path behind me could be number two,
and let's say I wanna memorize
the periodic table of elements.
The first element is hydrogen,
so I would see somebody waving high over there in that tree.
The next element is helium,
so I would see helium balloons on the path right here.
And if I picked out a hundred spots on this land
and turned each element into a picture,
I could memorize them using that mind palace technique.
And that's the mind palace technique.
I'll put some video links down in the description list
that dive deep into the mind palace.
It's one of my favorite memory techniques
it's where you visualize a room
and then take what you want to memorize
and place it around the room or on spots of land,
and then to recall it, you just go through the data.
Memory is not the end of the learning process.
It is a tool in the learning process
that can accelerate the learning process.
The goal is understanding, the goal is comprehension,
but I believe memory training and the ability to memorize
really quick with stuff like the mind palace,
it's going to speed that up,
then go for your walk and talks and talk about it.
Ah, or maybe you have study groups and you talk about it.
You reason it out, you understand it more.
But I will never be convinced that memory training
is not a tool that can accelerate that.
If you wanna learn more memory training tips
about like the mind palace,
clicking the link in the description below,
I'll put some links in there.
If you are a fan of memory training or memory
or you just liked this video, you thought it was worthwhile,
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Let me know what you think about memory training.
What are you trying to memorize right now?
But get my black belt memory course,
it is a course on how to improve your memory.
It's, my humble opinion,
one of the best memory training courses out there.
So, I love sharing with you,
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