Monday, October 26, 2009

study tips from world memory champion andi bell

Do you remember in the first few weeks of class when we were tested on what knowledge we retained from Winkel's lecture about the birth of cognitive psychology? We were asked to write down any words or phrases that pertained to that lecture. Afterwards, when they were read out loud, it turns out that we had retained little, and most of that had nothing to do with the lecture at all. For instance, I wrote down "the 1960s" for some odd reason. A lot of kids wrote "Charles Darwin" and "Computers", but very few (and I do not recall his name to this day) could remember the name of that one important guy who invented cognitive psychology. Sort of alarming, no?
Well, here is a youtube video 

with a few tips on how we can all learn to memorize random words and phrases we might need for a future quiz.  Seriously, check this out- the BBC makes some totally enthralling television. 

In the video is a guy named Andi Bell. He is the World Memory Champion, and demonstrates his fantastic skills by memorizing 520 randomly shuffled cards in under 20 minutes. Bell has developed a technique where he associates the images on the cards with random objects and also associates those objects with a location along a familiar route. By creating multiple neuro-pathways to a specific memory, Bell has a better chance of recovering that memory. As it turns out, humans are hardwired to remember routes better than random objects or facts. Bell uses this to his advantage by creating stories along a route with the images he associates with the cards.