Welcome
Welcome to the Master Your Memory. Use the sidebar to enter each module. Modules unlock in order as you complete them. Your progress and notes save automatically in your browser.
Aim of the Course
The aim of this course is to help you to train, develop and improve your memory. When you have completed it you should be able to remember the kinds of things that people often struggle with: names and faces, facts and lists, step-by-step procedures, speeches, sequences of numbers; as well as being able to perform tasks beyond the abilities of most people, such as memorising all the countries of the world or being able to construct a mental journal so that you know what you do every day from now on.
You won't be able to remember everything that happens to you and you probably won't be able to remember things that you have previously forgotten. That is for Hollywood movies and not how memory works. But with practice you will be able to remember those specific things that you want and need to remember. And you will be able to ensure that you don't forget those things that you don't want to forget in future. This isn’t a course on the nature or philosophy of memory or on the structure of the brain, important though these things may be. This is a course specifically designed to help you remember more of those things that you want to remember. To do so effectively it is important to work with, rather than against, your brain, so a little knowledge of how the brain works is necessary, but we won't be going into great detail.
Who Can Benefit from Training Their Memory?
Assuming you have no medical impairment or brain injury, you should be able to benefit from training your brain and your memory in the manner we set out in this course. Studies have shown that both children and the elderly can make gains from training. For older people there is some evidence that visual skills decline with age but not verbal skills. However, any decline can be offset by experience and knowledge. Of course some people will be better than others, some will work harder than others and some will be naturally more talented than others. That applies to every human activity and memory training is no exception. You do not need to be a genius to reach a very high level of memory performance. Many of the people who have won or finished high up in international memory competitions or broken world records have started off with very average memories and unexceptional school records. They have simply trained themselves to a high standard. If they can, then so can you.
What Will You Remember?
You won't remember everything. People who have trained their memories forget in much the same way as everyone else. This is because there is a distinction between attentive and non-attentive memory (which we will look at in later modules). Once you have completed this course, if you decide you want to remember something specific you should be able to. However, much of your life is not spent trying to remember - it is just spent simply living. So will you be able to remember the normal things that happen to you throughout your life more easily? In truth, the evidence is equivocal. There is some anecdotal evidence from people who have trained their memories that they seem to find themselves remembering more of their lives, but there is a lack of quality evidence to back up the claim. That doesn't mean it is false (if you are interested in learning about how to assess the quality of evidence, see our courses on Analytical Thinking) but it doesn't support the claim that training your memory to learn specific items has a more general effect on your memory. There may be other factors at play, however. Perhaps having trained your memory you spend more time thinking about remembering things and make a conscious decision to remember more of your life than untrained people. Or perhaps having learned to concentrate and pay greater attention to your surroundings, you will start to remember more as a result of being in a more effective and attentive state of mind. Whatever the truth, you may well find that having trained your memory you become more interested in what it is that you remember and what you don’t.
How Long Does it Take to Improve Your Memory?
There is no precise answer to this question. The mere knowledge of the various memory techniques will enable you to remember more effectively should you wish to do so. But as with any skill to really improve takes practice and the amount of research on this is very limited so at present no one can say for certain.
It is interesting and a little disappointing to note that if we were discussing improving your appearance by going to the gym, we would have a much better idea of how long it would take and what you would need to do. It shows that our concerns as a species are often with the superficialities of how we look, rather than the more substantive issues of developing our intellectual skills.
However, we do know that if you want to improve your ability to memorise, it will take practice and the best way to practise is to do it frequently. This way your mental muscle will be consistently stimulated and will constantly improve. We will say more about practice towards the end of this course.
If you are interested in what you may be capable of, Joshua Foer in his book Moonwalking with Einstein, recounts how he trained his memory one hour a day for a year and at the end of that year became the US memory champion. Prior to that he had had no memory training at all and had what he considered to be an 'average' memory.
How to Work Your Way through this Course
Please work through the course in order. Each module is designed to build on the knowledge you will have acquired in the previous ones. Some of the exercises we ask you to do might seem a little unusual at first but we will always explain why it is necessary to do them and they are all based on what we know about memory from research in neuroscience or psychology, or from studying people with outstanding memories.
Mode of Interaction
As you will see, we have structured the course so that you can read it, or listen to it on audio or both.
This means that you have a variety of ways of interacting with it and you can experiment to see which mode of interaction works best for you and best suits your learning style.
There are also a number of exercises that use audio and video. If you are primarily reading the course, there will be occasions that we will suggest that you listen to the audio version. If so, we will refer you to the appropriate audio file. Occasionally, the same will apply in reverse - if you are listening to the audio file, we will on occasion refer you to the printed version.
How Often Should You do the Course?
If you can, try to do some of the course every day, rather than leave a lot of time between sessions. Towards the end of the course we will say some more about how to practise effectively so that you can constantly improve your ability to remember and maintain that improvement.
How Much Time Should You Spend on the Course Each Day?
Spend no more than an hour each day on the course and spend most of that time on the exercises. Monitor your attention levels. If you find that your attention is wavering, stop for the day and return the following day. As you persevere and progress you may find that your ability to pay attention and concentrate increases over time. We suggest that when you reach the end of a particular module, wait a day before moving onto the next one. This will ensure that you are not overloaded with new information and always come to the course with a fresh mind.
Environment
Always try to work in an environment where you can be relaxed and not be disturbed. Our brains can be distracted very easily and can easily get overloaded. One way to avoid this is to do this course in a quiet undisturbed environment. Make sure that you are comfortable and that there are no physical distractions. Ensure that you will be able to focus on the course and nothing else for the time that you have set aside.
Working With a Partner
If you have a partner, family member or friend who is also interested in learning how they can use their memory more effectively, you might find it useful to work with them. Not only will you be able to discuss the ideas contained in this course, but you may be able to introduce an element of gentle competition. You may find that that helps you improve more quickly.
Module Numbering
The modules are numbered in the following way. This is the order that you should work through the course. Where we need to refer to a particular module we will refer to its number so that you will know exactly where to go.
1
1.1
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.2
1.2.1
2
2.1
etc.
Exercises, Quizzes and Feedback
Do the various exercises in the course as they come up. Do not skip them and tell yourself that you will come back to them later. Each exercise is designed to focus on a specific aspect of memory training. Some exercises are to be done on a one off basis, others you will need to repeat a number of times to make the gains that you will want to make (in exactly the same way that you need to repeat physical exercise to build up your fitness levels). Others you should ideally do on an ongoing basis. We will make clear which category each exercise falls into when we reach it.
There are also quizzes at the end of each module to ensure that you have understood everything. If you answer any of the questions wrongly, please go back through the module to make sure you understand why you have gone wrong.
If at the end of each module there are areas that you still don't understand please contact us. You can email us at [email protected] or you can use the contact form on the website.
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