Sunday's NYTimes magazine features a story this week about memory training. This is not the kind of memory training that we usually hear about--how to remember names or how to work our brains to slow cognitive decline. This was "extreme" memory training, the kind used for competitive memory contests. Turns out that the techniques for this kind of extreme memorization are virtually unchanged since 86 BC. Our brains do better at spatial/visual memory than other types of memory. The big trick of memory champions is to place objects you want to memorize into a spatial pattern--usually a house. Each room contains something to remember, an object or set of objects. We remember them as we walk through the house.
Interestingly, I just read a novel, "Madonnas of Leningrad," in which this technique played a major role. A docent at the Leningrad art museum remembered paintings this way after they were stored for the war. In her old age she would walk through the museum in her memory and remember every painting.
The most interesting part, however, was about how to overcome a memory plateau. This research was based on speed typists. They went through a learning phase and then the process became automatic. They increased their speed until they reached a plateau, fast and accurate typing. How to get faster? Research showed that in order to get faster the typists had to force themselves to type faster, even if they made errors. They would identify when and where they made mistakes, and then practice those sequences. With this technique, their speed improved.
The point was that they had to push past their comfort zone, the speed at which they felt comfortable before they could get better. To quote, "To improve, we have to be constantly pushing ourselves beyond where we think our limits lie and then pay attention to how and why we fail...Psychologists have discovered that the most efficient method is to force yourself to type 10 to 20 percent faster than your comfort pace and to allow yourself to make mistakes. Only by watching yourself mistype at that faster speed can you figure out the obstacles that are slowing you down and overcome them." Bottom line: in typing, like in life, we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, make mistakes, and learn from them.
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