Secrets of a World Memory Champion

by Chris Hunt

In Chris Hunt's talk titled "Secrets of a World Memory Champion" at GoRuCo 2014, he delves into powerful memory techniques utilized by memory contest champions. The session emphasizes that the myth of having a bad memory can often stem from not being taught effective memorization strategies.

Key Points Discussed:

Understanding Memory Limitations: Hunt introduces the audience to the psychology of memory by illustrating how most people struggle to remember random words but can easily recall detailed directions to familiar locations. This paradox illustrates that while our memory feels poor, it can be effective when we engage with the content meaningfully.
Memory Techniques: He highlights using spatial memory, a principle used by memory athletes to remember vast amounts of information, including numbers, poetry, and playing cards. Hunt explains that by associating information with images and familiar locations, individuals can enhance memory retention.
Memorizing Names: A significant portion of the talk focuses on memorizing names. Hunt offers practical advice: actively listen when introduced to someone and create a mental image associated with their name (like rhyming names with memorable visuals) to form a lasting memory.
Memorizing Playing Cards: Hunt describes how to memorize a shuffled deck of cards by associating each card with a person. By using mnemonics—connecting familiar figures with the value and suit of each card—participants can transform the challenge of memorization into a simpler task of recalling associated images.

Examples and Techniques:

For example, when trying to recall the name 'Ryan', Hunt suggests visualizing it with a rhyme (like 'Lion') and crafting a vivid story around that image to enhance recall.
He outlines a memory system where every card is connected to a notable person, enhancing how individuals can remember an entire deck through storytelling and mental imagery.

Conclusions and Takeaways:

Memory can be greatly improved using structured techniques rather than accepting limitations.
These methods not only make the task of memorization easier but also more engaging and fun, effectively unlocking the potential of individuals to remember extensive information effortlessly.

By the end of the talk, attendees grasp foundational memory techniques, empowering them to employ these strategies in everyday situations, from memorizing names at events like GORUCO to recalling an entire filmography.

00:01:09.980 Oh, pushing G-man. Let us go, yeah. Balance, balance, balance, balance, balance. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Hello, excellent! Alright, so we people have been studying the human brain for hundreds of years, but we still have no idea how memory works. What we do know is that if we were to all sit down together in this room, kind of like this, and I pulled out a list of random words and asked you to memorize those words, you would only be able to remember about four. If we waited 30 seconds and talked about anything else, you would only remember one. And if we waited a little bit longer, you would forget every single word that we went through. But at the same time, if I asked anybody in this room how to get to the restroom in this building, you would be able to tell me with amazing detail. You'd say, "Chris, go into the front door. You'll see all the swag. Walk past the swag to your right. The stairs are going to be down there. At the bottom, when you get to the bottom of the stairs, go right. The restrooms are right there. Women's on the left, men's is on the right." Right? You can all do that.

00:02:10.020 So on one hand, our memories are horrible, and we joke about it all the time. But on the other hand, we are able to memorize the blueprint of this building that we weren't even trying to do. Memory athletes, realizing this, just use that same spatial memory to memorize everything—not just bathrooms. They are able to memorize thousands and thousands of digits, poetry, shuffled decks of cards, and we just tried to do this with ten random words. I started and stared at my watch. We had the word "anticipation." Does anyone remember what happened next? "Clown" and "opera." Perfect! Then I made my way over to the other side of the stage. Does anyone remember how I got here? In a car, right? Then I found something on the floor. What happened? The next two words were "discover" and "orange." Then I went over here and was listening to something. What happened next? "Balance!" I heard somebody say it. Good! And then we came back over to where we started: sprint counts, and finally, everybody gave me a round of applause.

00:04:02.549 You just memorized a lot of you in the room memorizing ten random words, which is more than double the amount of words that psychologists say you should be able to memorize. Pretty crazy, right? So, we are going to see how to apply this to other things as well. The first topic we're going to discuss is names because everybody says they are horrible at memorizing names. We need to get this sorted out because it's really easy. There are two things you need to know when trying to memorize someone's name. The first thing is when you meet them, actively listen to them tell you their name. I can't count the number of times this has happened to me. Even today, I met somebody, and five seconds later, I forgot their name. Right? Our memories are not that bad. The reason you don't remember five seconds later is that you never heard it.

00:05:08.120 So this is Ryan. Everybody say hi to Ryan. Oh, sorry about that. The second thing you want to do when memorizing someone's name is think of a word that rhymes with that person's name. I gave you a little preview in the corner there. When I hear Ryan, I think of 'Lion'. This is something I can easily visualize because I can't visualize Ryan's name, right? So look at Ryan's face. Find something that stands out to you. He's made it super easy because he's got four piercings and a tattoo on his neck. The first thing I noticed about Ryan, though, is that tattoo. So I'm going to look at Ryan's tattoo, think of the word that rhymes with his name—'Lion'—and build a crazy story. I might imagine a lion running in from the right-hand side of Ryan, jumping up, biting his neck, wrangling through the ground like ripping off his tattoo. There's blood everywhere; he's screaming. It's really gross, but I will never forget his name.

00:06:30.290 So every time you see Ryan, you are going to immediately notice the neck tattoo. You're going to remember this crazy story of a lion ripping it off, and you're going to say, "Lyin' Ryan!" Hey Ryan, how's it going? Totally cool! So don't tell anybody your stories. The second thing we will learn how to memorize is a shuffled deck of playing cards. This is awesome for two reasons. One, it is the only thing you're going to be able to memorize that will actually impress your friends. Everything else is really cool, but if you memorize a shuffled deck of cards, people think you're a savant—it’s crazy! The second reason to learn how to memorize a shuffled deck of cards is that it teaches you everything you need to know to compete in a world memory championship.

00:08:06.760 So let’s go through that. Why does memorizing a shuffled deck of cards seem so difficult? The number one reason is because the cards all kind of look the same. A seven of diamonds and a seven of hearts— I could visualize those, but I could see how those would get mixed up, especially when you’re trying to memorize 52 cards. The trick is, instead of memorizing cards, you memorize people. For me, the seven of diamonds is Isaac Newton; the seven of hearts is Einstein. Now you need to come up with 52 different people that you can visualize and assign to each of the 52 cards. Then you remember those people, which is, believe it or not, quite easy if we use a little technique called a mnemonic.

00:09:51.120 A mnemonic is a technique that takes information that's already in front of you and uses that information to remind you of what you want to remember. So a card has two pieces of information: it has the value, and it has the suit. Each of those has special meaning that will remind you of the person that you've associated with that card. Let's go through the values real quick. Every ace in the deck, every two in the deck, it doesn't matter if it’s the ace of spades, ace of diamonds, ace of clubs, two of hearts—these are all athletes. Ace is a male athlete, and two is a female athlete.