A Blog about whatever comes to my mind.
Technology Junkie, Evernote Ninja, Workforce Management Geek, and software demo guy.
This is the stuff I find interesting.
I have often wondered what relationship existed between memory and intelligence. Clearly there is a perceived correlation. Memory impacts the ability to quickly and easily retrieve and apply stored information in situations when you need to solve a problem. The faster an individual is able to do that, the higher their perceived intelligence is. The fact is, there as many as 9 types of intelligence and 3 stages of memory with 6 types of memory that stem off of long term memory.
My focus here is to accumulate a number of tools to help increase the "working memory" and try and develop some skills that will enhance my long-term procedural, semantic and episodic memory.
Types of Human Memory: Diagram by Luke Mastin
The first technique I want to start out with is remembering names. This will have an impact on all aspects of our social life. It is a fundamental building block for establishing relationships, both business and personal.
Remembering Names
Three Things You Need to Remember Anything
A place to put the information (a peg, a hook, mental file folder, etc.)
A vivid picture of what you want to remember
Mental glue holding the picture on the peg (action! action! action!)
This video does a good job at explaining the principles of this technique.
This is a great site to get practice using this technique.
1. FOCUS – The first step is being focused. It sounds obvious, but surprisingly most people aren’t focused when hearing a person’s name for the first time. Think about it, how many times have you shaken hands with someone as they told you their name while you were off in neverneverland thinking about something else? You need to focus. That is honestly half the battle. Tell yourself mentally, before you meet a person, “what is this person’s name?” or “I WANT to know this person’s name”; it makes a world of a difference.
2. PREPARE – Once you are in the right mindset to learn a person’s name, you need to analyze them. Pick out the most distinguishing feature you notice immediately from their face: curly hair, cute dimple, acne, big forehead, buck teeth, scar, etc. (obviously keep this information to yourself!). This step can be extremely easy or extremely hard, depending on the person. If someone has a unique feature that is obvious, then you can latch on to it quickly. Others who have generic faces or nothing special going on, it can be hard to find something. But, something is ALWAYS there. All it takes is a bit of practice in order to get better at picking out those things quicker. With time, it will become second nature.
3. LISTEN – Next, almost as important as the first. Listen! Make sure when you ask for the name, you actually hear it and understand it in the first place. Another common mistake when learning a person’s name is that when one asks for the person’s name it’s actually neither properly heard nor understood. You need to be adamant about making sure you’ve heard the person’s name properly. So, if you didn’t get the name the first time, ASK FOR IT AGAIN! What’s the big deal about asking for it once, twice, or even three times more? It’s probably more embarrassing to forget a person’s name entirely. Also, I’ve learned not to be embarrassed when asking foreign people for their name numerous times (I even ask for them to repeat it to me slowly and phonetically). I figure, they know their name isn’t common and that a lot of people have trouble with it, so whats the big deal? I want to know your name!
4. NAME TO IMAGE – Finally, once you’ve heard the name, you need to process it. You first need to convert the name into an image, and then associate it with the distinguishing feature you picked out in step 2. There are numerous ways to turn a name into an image. The most important piece of advice I can give is to go with the image that strikes you first, without thinking. To come up with an image, the easiest is to go with a mental image of someone you know that has the same name (famous actor, friend, family, cartoon, etc.). Another way to come up with an image is to break down the name into things that it sounds like (ex: Steve sounds like “stove” or Jessica kind of sounds like “sickle”). It doesn’t have to match the name to a T, it only needs to be enough to trigger the name.
5. ASSOCIATION /Action – Once you have your image for the name, you need to associate it to the distinguishing feature from step 2. To associate one thing with the other, you need to create a mental image that connects the two things. Try to make the connection as vivid as possible (violence, humor, erotica, bizarreness are the best kind of memorable things). Use all the senses. Try using sound, color, or even smell!
