How to Remember Anything: The Proven Total Memory Retention System (4 page)

MAJOR U.S. CITIES

How many cities were you able to identify? Had you created the audionyms yourself, identifying them would have been even easier.

It is not necessary to develop audionyms for every syllable of the word you want to recall. In fact, you should not use more than the first syllable if that is enough to trigger the answer and does not lead to confusion with any other item in the subject list.

If the subject is states of the United States, and you need an audionym for Pennsylvania, look at the first syllable in the word
Penn-
syl-van-ia. You see the audionym
pen.
That is probably enough to trigger the answer Pennsylvania. However,
pencil
is also a single object that makes it even easier to recall Pennsylvania, but either one will work—as long as you know the subject is states of the United States.

GUIDELINES FOR CREATING AUDIONYMS

1.
Never create an audionym for a word unless you know how to pronounce the word.

2.
The audionym must be a soundalike object that you can visualize.

3.
You must know the topic or subject on which you are working.

4.
You do not have to create an audionym for each syllable in the word you want to remember. The audionym should represent just enough of the beginning of the word to trigger the answer for you. For example,
pen
equals Pennsylvania (or
pencil
equals Pennsylvania). If, in reviewing the material, the information is not clear enough, additional syllables may need audionyms in order to give you the correct answer.

5.
If you have difficulty creating an audionym for a word, say the word fast or slow.

6.
The audionym does not have to sound exactly like the word you want to remember. Your natural memory and common sense will be an aid.

7.
It is not enough for audionyms to just rhyme with the word you want to remember. An audionym should have the same—or very similar—consonant sounds.

The audionym is as basic to my learning system as the alphabet is to the written word. You remember incredibly more of what you see than of what you hear or read. The audionym becomes a picture of the information you want to remember.

Your ability to change the things you hear or read into audionyms will be the key to your success in developing your memory power. Please don’t become discouraged if, at first, it takes a while to create audionyms. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Step 3

HOW TO REMEMBER BY ASSOCIATION

Step 3 in the learning system is the association of one visual object with
another in some illogical way. Using associations to remember things is certainly not new. Ancient scholars used this technique very effectively.

It is interesting to observe how oversimplified some people consider “memory by association.” Once I was speaking before an audience of about 600 and had just recalled a 100-digit number given to me in sets of two digits at a time. I had not seen the numbers. I had heard each set only once. After I had successfully recalled the 100 numbers, I heard someone say, “I know how he did it. It’s all by association.” He was right, of course, but what was I associating with what? To work, the system must be more than just association. It must be simple, effective, fast, and easy. Here are some important things to know about the association technique:

Always start the association with what you will know later.
For example, you will know the state for which you want to recall the capital city. You will know the face for which you want to recall the name. You will know the person for whom you want to recall the phone number, and so forth.

Always make the association so illogical that it could never happen in real life.
At first, this may take awhile because you may not be accustomed to thinking illogically. In a later chapter, I’ll show you how to make the associations illogical enough to work every time.

Every association will involve only two objects at a time, no matter how complex the information is that you want to learn and remember.
Nothing you learn will be any more difficult than associating two objects together in an illogical way just like you did when you saw the nine objects in the Cube for the first nine presidents.

HOW TO CREATE POWERFUL ASSOCIATIONS

It is difficult to convince people that a well-developed memory is not something a person is born with. Memory training is no different than any other learned skill. There are certain procedures to follow and a degree of mental dexterity that comes with practice. With the exception of hypnosis and the electronic or chemical stimulation of brain cells, there are only three ways we remember:

1.
Repetition
. This has always been the most common method of learning because it is the only method with which most people are familiar. Organized memory techniques are not widely known. Learning by repetition is time-consuming and inefficient. Information learned by repetition must be continually repeated in order to be retained. In fact, as soon as repetition stops, forgetting starts. No matter what learning style is used (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and so on), repetition is the least efficient method of learning. Isn’t it ironic that the least efficient method of learning is the most predominant method of teaching throughout our formal education?

2.
Impression.
This method works, but is the least practical because we do not get to choose what we will recall through impression. Memory by impression occurs when we encounter a traumatic experience—such as something that leaves such an impact or impression upon our minds that we could not forget it even if we tried.

3.
Association.
This involves illogically associating what you want to remember with something you already know. This is, without question, far superior to any other method for remembering. First, it capitalizes on your natural ability to remember what you see. Secondly, it is easier to remember things that are illogical, exaggerated in size or quantity, or out-of-proportion.

The printed words we read and the spoken words we hear usually have no pictures associated with them as they arrive at the point of our senses. I suspect that those who have what we refer to as good natural memories are people who subconsciously see pictures for spoken or printed words. Some image undoubtedly flashes in their minds that allows them to retain information better than the average person. Most of us, however, are not in that category, so we must train ourselves to organize the information we want to remember by using memory systems. These allow us to see information we hear and read and to lock it into our memories.

The technique of association, when properly organized, requires two necessary elements: “what you already know” and “what you want to remember.” For example, when meeting a person for the first time, there are two basic elements to be associated: the name and the face. At some future time, when you want to recall the name, you will already know the person’s face.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I remember your face, but I’m sorry, I just can’t recall your name.” Sure you have! But, have you ever heard anyone say, “Hi, Joe,” or “Hi, Sally, I remember your name but I just cannot recall your face”? No! That just doesn’t happen! You see the face and you remember it because you remember what you see. You hear the name and you forget it because you forget what you hear.

Every association must begin with what you know. For example, if you want to remember your friend Joe’s telephone number, you would not associate Joe with the phone number. You would associate the phone number with Joe. In this case, Joe is what you know (because you will know that it is Joe whom you want to call). The phone number is what you want to remember. You would never think, “This is the number I want to call. Whose number is it?” Instead, you would think, “I want to call Joe, what is his number?”

To make an effective association of any two objects, you must establish what you will know when you need to recall it, then associate what you want to remember with what you will know. Through the power of association, you will learn to systematically store data in your mind and retrieve it with incredible accuracy. For the moment, it is important that you remember to begin every association with a known factor (what you are certain you will know when it is time to recall the information being mentally stored).

You may have frequently heard the phrase “memory by association.” To be effective, an association must be illogical. The more illogical the association, the easier it will be to remember. Which one of the following associations would you most easily remember if you were to see it in real life?

In the first example, the chicken and horse were associated in a logical way. While this may work occasionally, it is too common and would not likely be retained for too long. In the second example, the association is illogical and could be retained for a longer period of time. Although this example is illogical, it is possible that such an event could occur. The third example shows an association so illogical that it could never happen! For this reason, it is a very powerful and effective association.

Any two items can be associated with each other. Again, every association you make with my learning system will involve only two objects at a time. The objects, themselves, do not have to be illogical. It is how the objects are mentally associated that makes the mental image illogical.

It is critical, in any association, to know which is the known object (what you will know when it is time to recall what you want to remember). The other object is the information you want to remember.

GUIDELINES FOR CREATING ASSOCIATIONS

1.
Identify the “known” (what you will know at the time you want to recall the information) and change it to an audionym (a soundalike you can see). If the known is in the numbered Cube or is a physical location, there is no need to create an audionym because you can already see it.

2.
Identify the information you want to remember and change it to an audionym.

3.
Visualize the known audionym in its normal location (or a physical location in its normal place).

4.
Associate the information you want to remember with the
known
audionym or location.

5.
Be certain when making your association that it is so unusual, ridiculous, amusing, illogical, or out-of-proportion that it could never happen in real life.