Natural Memory vs.

Trained Memory
Strengthening both your natural memory ability and your trained memory is the
way to obtain the most powerful memory it is possible for you to have.

There is no single secret to improving your memory, which I suppose is the bad
news. The good news - and this may be the actual "secret" - is that there are
many things you can do to improve your memory.

Memory improvement strategies may as well be secrets, because so few people

seem to know about them. No matter, the important thing is that you are about to
find out!

There are two ways you can improve your memory, and you should take
advantage of them both.

The first is to improve what Mother Nature has given you: your "natural memory".
The second is to learn memory techniques to develop your "trained memory".

Below I explain these two approaches to memory improvement.

Natural Memory. There are several ways to improve your natural memory. These
involve the formation of new habits that strengthen your brain.

The more you make these a permanent part of your lifestyle, the better your
memory is likely to become.

These lifestyle changes include learning to consume a diet rich in brain foods
doing regular, intense aerobic exercise, optimizing your sleep patterns,
decreasing your stress level, and practicing mental exercises that build
concentration and attention span.

However, while you should explore all of these, don't expect an

overnight miracle - just look for noticeable improvement over time. The
miracles are possible, though - they come when you build your trained memory.

Trained Memory. By mastering mnemonics and in particular the memory

systems, you can take what you think of as your "terrible" memory and begin to
easily memorize any type of information. With memory systems you can
memorize long lists, complicated math formulas, scientific terminology, foreign
vocabulary, people's names, business concepts - absolutely anything.
So if you want your best memory possible, invest time improving both types of
memory. Strengthen your natural memory and learn to use mnemonics and the
memory systems. Both approaches build on each other. A strong natural memory
will make the memory tricks and systems even easier to learn and use.

Here's a little more detail about each.

Your Natural Memory

Everyone has what might be termed their natural memory ability. Natural memory
is what you use when you just remember things without trying. It is what people
are talking about when they say that someone was simply "born with a great
memory."

Some people are born with a better natural memory ability than others. Also, how
well something is remembered naturally may depend on the type of material. For
example, a math professor might easily recall a new math formula later on, but
the another person who may have no interest in math formulas would have more
trouble remembering the formula.

The natural memory remembers things passively, without any effort. Information
that has great meaning to you is often remembered in this way. Suppose three
days after you watch an episode of your favorite TV show, your friend asks you
what happened during the show. Details remembered from that episode are
recalled naturally, without an attempt to "memorize" anything.

Contrary to some opinions, your natural memory can be improved, to a certain

degree, especially if you are deficient in one area or another. This is done by
changing the ways you care for and feed your brain and body, and also with
certain mental exercises that build concentration and other brain attributes.

So if you can do so, start working each of these strategies into your lifestyle.
Everyone is different, so if you try these, take it slow and experiment at your own
pace. In any case, there are certainly worse things you could do than learning
how to eat right, exercise, and get proper sleep!

Now for the other approach - building a trained memory.

Your Trained Memory

Your trained memory is what you use when actively studying new material -
either for a class, or just because you want to learn the information. It is here that
you can develop a huge advantage over others.

Of course everyone knows about using "repetition" to remember information.

Repetition simply means says the information over and over again until you
remember it. This method is often boring and not usually very effective.

Then there are the "memory tricks" and "memory systems". Some experts lump
these together, calling all such techniques "mnemonics" (which just means
"memory aids").

But to me it is a lot more useful to separate the "tricks" from the "systems". I
separate them because the "tricks" are used more passively and are generally
less useful, while the "systems" you use actively and are highly effective in any
situation where memorization is required.

A very smart person might be able to get along well using their natural memory
alone. Therefore they might never become motivated to learn any techniques for
remembering. However, learn the memory systems, and you've just doubled your
brain power! Instead of having only one way to recall information (the natural
method, which happens automatically), you now have two ways.
One well-known educator has this to say about using memory systems:

A person of average intelligence who uses memory techniques can often

remember material better and faster than a person of high intelligence who does
not use these techniques.

That is the real promise of memory systems - by using the systems, you can leap
frog ahead of people who are much smarter than you are! Many of those people
are probably too comfortable with their naturally good memories to try and
improve them.

Memory systems let you to absorb massive amounts of information quickly, and
with excellent long-term retention. The results really do seem like magic. Every
time I tell a friend about a huge new set of information I've memorized, their eyes
grow wide with amazement. But my "natural memory" has always just been
average.

So to summarize, there are basically three ways to you can actively try to
remember something:

 Repetition
 Mnemonics
 Memory Systems

Let me quickly clarify what each of these is all about.

Repetition
Almost everyone understands that one way to memorize information is by simply
repeating it over and over. That's how most of us learned the multiplication table,
for example.

You simply said (or wrote) "8x4=32, 8x4=32, 8x4=32," over and over and over
again. That was so much fun, wasn't it?

Repeating something many times over is called learning by rote.

Learning by rote is still the most "popular" memorization method, in that most
people use it when trying to remember something or learn something new.
The problem, of course, is that pure rote memorization does not work that well for
most people. Unless you have an very good memory to begin with, information
learned by repetition tends to fade away - usually pretty fast.

You have to refresh the information every once in awhile by once again
repeating, repeating, repeating it. How boring! No wonder so many people dread
studying.

There are exceptions to this. Repetition may work well for some people and in
some situations.

But you don't have to rely on repetition. It turns out there are methods you can
use that work much better than the rote method. None of these methods are
difficult to use. Some of them do require more practice than others, however.

What I am talking about are mnemonics (memory tricks) and memory systems.
They work much better than rote memorization. And they are a lot more fun to
use, as you will see if you take just a little time to learn them.

So here is what I consider Rule #1:

Most of the time, rote memorization should not be your sole memory technique.

Instead, use mnemonics and memory systems (see below).

Note: When using mnemonics and memory systems, it is helpful to use some
repetition. Especially with complicated information, going back after one day and
then after three days and quickly running through the mnemonic or system in
your mind can really help solidify the material in long-term memory.

Next, on to mnemonics...

Mnemonics
Mnemonics are also known as "memory tricks" (my definition). Mnemonics is one
of those slippery words that can mean different things to different people. I am
using it to mean all the memory tricks that more or less do not require much
visualization. Often mnemonics are tricks other people have thought of to
remember certain information, such as the rule "i before e, except after c".

In general, I lump all the following into the mnemonics category:

 Acronyms
  Acrostics
 Rhymes and lyrics

Generally speaking, mnemonic rules do work well. Who could ever forget the
order of the planets of the solar system after hearing
"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos"? Mercury-Venus-Earth-
Mars-Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune (poor Pluto having been demoted to dwarf
planet status, as you may know).

In my experience, though, unless someone has already worked out a good

mnemonic for a certain piece of information, it can be time-consuming to create
them on your own. When you are studying for an exam or trying to remember
information on the fly (like the name of someone you just met, or information
someone is telling you verbally), the temptation is often to abandon mnemonics
and try to muddle through by rote.

Also, some mnemonics work better than others. For instance, I've found that the
acronym technique can work well short term, but a month later will you really
remember what the "SOMRWD" acronym you made up to remember something
means? Maybe, maybe not.

Memory Systems
Much of this website covers how to use the memory systems. There are also a
number of books about these techniques

Why the emphasis on systems? Because they work extremely well. In fact,
variations of these have been used for centuries to memorize difficult information.

I look down on rote memorization, and I look at mnemonics as kid's play. When
you've got some heavy-duty memorization to do, break out the memory systems.

You can memorize a few sentences by "rote" and remember them for a few days
perhaps (or maybe only a few hours). And you can use a "mnemonic" to forever
remember the names of the Great Lakes.

But if you need to remember a speech, or an entire lecture, or a list of 100 items,
or hundreds of words of foreign language vocabulary, or the names of the dozens
or hundreds of people you meet over the years, - the memory systems are what
you need.

Here's how they work. Most memory systems are based on visualization and
what is known as the "Substitute Word" method.
There are several variations of the Substitute Word systems. Some examples are
the Link Method (the most basic one), the Journey Method, the Roman Room
(Method of Loci), the Story Method, and several peg-type techniques.

Essentially all these require the use of your imagination along with your ability
to visualize creatively. These are both skills in themselves that you can easily
build by practice.

I'll use the Link Method to illustrate how most of the Substitute Word methods
work. The idea is that to remember information for the long term,
to really remember it, three things must happen.

1. You must actually see and understand the information in the first place.
The term "Original Awareness" was coined by Harry Lorayne to describe
what it means when you actually understand something.
2. You must transport the information from your short-term memory to long-
term storage.
3. You must have some way of retrieving the information from long-term
memory whenever you want it.

Fortunately, with the Substitute Word techniques, Original Awareness takes care
of itself. Just by using the techniques you are forced to be orginally aware (in
other words, understand) the information. Steps 2 and 3 both occur when you
apply the techniques.

The specific way the Substitute Word techniques work is that you break down the
information into a series of memorable mental images of familiar things. You then
actively "associate" those images with each other.

The several different variations of the Substitute Word technique (Link, Journey,
Story, etc.) all use these same simple steps. The reason there are different
systems is that certain methods are better for memorizing certain information.
One classic example is using the Roman Room method for memorizing the main
points of a speech you must give. That exact technique has been used by orators
for over 2,000 years.