Notes on the linkedin learning courses on memory improvement and speed reading by Paul Nowak

Table of Contents

• Improving your memory
  • Memory principles
    • Repetition
    • Exaggeration
    • Chunking
    • Association
    • Pictures
  • Memory techniques
    • Using mnemonic devices
    • Note-taking techniques
    • Verbalization - using songs, rhymes, and alliteration
    • The story method
    • The link system
    • Memory palaces and the method of loci
    • Similar sound technique
  • Using the Mnemonic Peg System
    • Linking numbers to pictures
    • Memorizing ten items
    • Memorizing more than ten items
  • Situational methods
    • How to remember names
    • How to remember presentations
    • How to remember what you read
    • Remembering passwords
    • Remembering important dates
    • Remembering numbers
    • Remembering formulas
    • Remembering a to-do list
    • Memorize words in foreign languages
    • Memorizing speeches or scripts word for word
  • Own notes and links for spanish etc.
• Speed reading (non-fiction)

The short term memory can memorize about 7 (+/-2) items (Millers law).

Repetition: finding ways of repeating / rehearsing information. The foundation of improving memory.

• write down
• repeat it
• quiz yourself

If something is exaggerated / absurd / ridiculous it's easier to remember. Examples given: month of february has an "exaggerated" low number of days compared to the other months, which all have 30 or 31; celebrities in memorable outfits.

Can be used as a memorization technique.

Chunking a lot of singular items into easier to memorize groups.

Examples:

• chunking numbers, e.g. turning 3128575757 into 312-857-4747
• Categorizing a grocery list by areas of the store or type (dairy, meat, produce)

Making information meaningful.

Baker/baker paradox: Names are more easily forgotten than other associations (given a photo of a person with the information that his name is "Mr. Baker" is harder to remember than "this guy is a baker").

The information of the occupation "baker" has more associations (bakers hat, smells, food etc.) and is thus easier to remember.

Visual information (e.g. Face of a person) is much easier to remember than abstract information (e.g. name).

Memoization example (the example is of course made to be easily chunkable):

Remember the letters

X I B M P H D A C T M T V X

Chunk it into meaningful chunks or patterns with *associations" and imagine a picture or scene with it. As the scene is usually strange, it also uses the exaggeration technique.

• X ... X is the "canvas" (a pattern, not a chunk) - bookends to the story
• IBM (company, remember logo or just "IBM")
• PHD (doctorate, remember doctors hat)
• ACT (actor = costume)
• MTV (music television, logo)

"X At IBM there works a doctor who is also an actor on MTV X" or an Image of an IBM worker with a doctors hat studying at his desk for the ACT test while watching MTV.

-> short term memory "doubled" (remembering 14 items)

Examples:

• Sentences:
  • treble clef key note lines from bottom to top: "Every Good Boy Does Fine" (german (B is H): Ein Guter Hund Darf Fast Alles).
  • Order of mathematical operations:
    • Please (parenthesis)
    • Excuse (exponents)
    • My (multiplication)
    • Dear (division)
    • Aunt (addition)
    • Sally (subtraction)
• Physically
  • Knuckle mnemonic for days of month
• Images

To easily get mnemonics for common topics, search for keyword mnemonic or stichwort eselsbrücke.

Taking notes is a form of repetition (even without referring back to them later).

• Highlighting
• Make notes in margins
• Underline
• Use note taking app

Outlines are good for sequential information (historic dates etc.).

Another organized approach to note-taking for information that is not sequential that mimics more how the mind works: mind mapping, including colors and visuals. Good for topics that don't have a set order:

Example of this readme up to this point, generated using markmap (though pen and paper might be more effective):

Songs:

• "ABC" alphabet mnemonic song
• Text is easier to remember as a song
• Learning languages is more effective when singing the words than speaking them

This works by

• various forms of repetition (the song itself and its individual parts such as chorus, beats etc.)
• linking the melody to easily remembered emotions, e.g. a favorite song or a melody tied to a specific event

Other techniques:

• Rhymes (utilizes auditory memory strength)
• Alliteration ("Super Summer Sale"); Can help remembering names: "Tall Tim" or "Talkative Tim" (association + alliteration)

The human mind is wired to remember stories.

• Try to remember a specific set of details in the form of a story (and exaggerate!) like the PHD at IBM acting on MTV.

Linking one item to another (memory chain). For remembering sequential things (a speech or a process).

Example (unrelated items, so not a real-world example):

1. pen
2. shoe
3. book
4. airplane
5. eyeglasses
6. fish
7. coffee
8. printer

Link pen and shoes and the other items using exageration - the images don't have to make sense, and it's even better if they don't:

1. Having pens as shoes (linking pens and shoes)
2. A book walking around in giant shoes
3. An airplane with an opened book as wings
4. An airplane wearing giant eyeglasses
5. A fish wearing eyeglasses
6. A pond made of coffee with overactive fish jumping in and out
7. A printer using hot, steaming, smelling coffee as ink

Now we have just one less "item" to remember, but we can remember them as memorable images instead of words or mundane things. The order of the items in the individual pairs most often derive from the context in real world applications of the technique.

Loci is the plural of locus (=place).

• visualize a familiar place or even a familiar walking route outside
• visualize a series of locations in a specific order within that place, in a logical order. Pieces of furniture can also serve as a location. Example: building door -> mailbox -> staircase -> front door -> hallway -> bathroom (toilet) -> bathroom (sink) -> kitchen table (eat some nuts) -> kitchen (get some water) -> living room desk (check mail) -> living room couch (relax) -> bedroom
• Place each item you need to remember at one of these places (in the correct order if order is important); visualize and exaggerate!
• rehearse the order several times

Multiple memory places can be used for different things.

Used to remember the meaning of unfamiliar words (pretty much what I automatically do for learning spanish)

Examples:

• claustrophobia. Claus => santa claus => imagine santa claus afraid of tight chimneys.
• Belonephobia (fear of sharp objects) => imagine a balloon ("belon") is afraid to be pierced by a sharp knife
• Anthrophobia (fear of people) => an Ant being afraid of being stepped on by People

Each number gets pegged (tied) to a visual.

1 - pencil 2 - swan 3 - McDonalds 4 - chair 5 - hook 6 - cherry 7 - lightning bolt 8 - racetrack 9 - balloon 10 - silverware and plate

Example: list of 10 ordered items

1. bread
2. milk
3. tomatoes
4. soda
5. turkey
6. chips
7. strawberries
8. deodorant
9. cucumber
10. cereal

Memorization:

For each item, come up with a visual that includes the number symbol and the list item (the stranger / exaggerated the better; also remember smells and tastes where applicable).

1. a pencil in a hotdog bun
2. a swan swimming in a lake of milk
3. a burger where the bun is two tomato halves
4. a chair with legs made out of soda bottles
5. a pirate with hooks as hands trying to cut a turkey
6. disgusting, cherry flavored chips
7. a tasty, strawberry colored lightning bolt
8. a sweaty race driver using deodorant
9. a cucumber shaped blimp
10. a posh person trying to eat cereal with fork and spoon on a plate

For memorizing more than 10 items, it's best to have a theme for each group of 10 mnemonic items and utilize the existing items from 1-10. The "theme" of each 10-number group is like an additional item.

Example (let's say the 10 items above were items 11-20):

• 1-10: the common mnemonics (pen to silverware with plate); no special theme for these as these are the basics
• 11-20: black oil 21) a pencil that leaks black oil lying on a loaf of bread and soaking it 22) a swan covered in oil swimming on a lake of milk, leaking oil in the milk 23) a disgusting burger made of 2 large tomato halves with oil leaking out between them 24) a chair with legs made of soda bottles standing in a pool of oil and shaking precariously
• 21-30: ...

Learning this system takes effort and time but gets easier in the long run.

1. Pay attention when being introduced and repeat the name immediately
2. Quiz yourself (when the person walks away and later that day)
3. Make a connection to the name. Link the name to someone with the same name you know or to a famous person and picture them standing next to that person (visualization and location)
4. Connect your first impression with the name, possibly using alliteration or rhymes. "Blue-Tie Bob", "Dancing David" and repeat it
5. any other of the techniques discussed

• Don't try to remember it verbatim
• Chunk the presentation into parts / talking points
• Numeric peg system, method of loci / memory palace (organize topics in an ordered list first)
• Rehearse (repetition)

If you don't know what to expect, you have to read slowly.

Remedy with multiple reading process:

• preview: read introduction and conclusion
• overview: read all headings (or first sentence of each paragraph) and bolded words
• read: read all the material

This also results in 3 repetitions, even if not complete.

• Take notes during reading

Take a phrase that can be easily remembered and use the first letters of each word and include punctuation.

Example: "How in hell should I remember a password with 13 characters?" becomes "HihsIrapw13c?"

• Draw dates in a timeline with colors and pictures (visual memory).
• Rhyme / alliterations
• Use the numeric peg system in combination with the memory palace system

• Group the digits, see chunking.
• Turn smaller numbers into time (e.g. 12:25 instead of 1225)
• Make up a sentence where each word length is the number of a digit (I don't think that is worth it)

Make operators part of the mnemonic peg system, e.g. division is 2 floors of a house with one item in the top and the other in the second floor, subtraction is one item taking away something from another item, X is a street intersection, "()" is hugging etc.

Rehearse the formula by making a story of the pictures.

Memory palace or numeric peg system, nothing new here.

Think of word or sound that sounds similar, visualize combinations of words, e.g. "matar" in spanish sounds similar to "martern" (torture) in german. English example: "Barco" (boat in spanish) sounds like "bark", so imagine a barking dog on a boat. "Capello" (hat in italian): imagine a Cap made of jello.

• Repetition
• Rehearsing
• Walk and talk (light exercise like walking helps memory when rehearsing)
• Chunk lines into logical parts
• Take a short nap immediately after memorizing a chunk
• "Practical" memory palace technique: practice chunks of lines in the correct chunk order in different places of your home, e.g. first chunk: hallway, second chunk: bathroom, third chunk: kitchen etc.

Spanish stuff (learn vocab with songs):

https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEB&search_query=songs+for+learning+spanish+advanced

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgsJVsAFpk&list=PL2RLDc3Akk8snxqxgWYaQIRPNIJSf-Yvo

As many of the speed reading techniques discussed are apparently refuted as of 2022 (e.g. subvocalization is actually a good thing for comprehension, ~ 500 words seems to be the max. reading speed for most people, tracing words with the finger does not really improve anything) here are just notes what actually seem to make sense from the course.

• 3-step reading process:
  1. Preview: read the introduction and conclusion of a chapter, or first sentence of each paragraph it's a short text (e.g. magazine article); if there's no defined intro / conclusion, read the first and last few paragraphs instead; if there are exercises at the end of a chapter, make sure to read those too.
  2. Overview: read all headlines and bold / emphasized words / titles of diagrams (find the most important concepts)
  3. Read: Read the material with the knowledge acquired in the previous steps
• Read the first part, e.g. sentence of a paragraph / paragraph of a chapter / chapter of a book slower, as it often contains the gist of it, than the rest of it quicker. Slow down again at the last sentence / paragrapgh / chapter as it often contains a conclusion
• Read and recall exercise: take a quick note after each paragraph to get into the mindset of retaining the information ("what did I just read?")
• Use the memory prinicples discussed above: repeat, visualize, exagegerate, associate, chunk
• When reading an unknown word (e.g. a technical term), finish the paragraph without it (if possible without an understanding of the term), and look it up afterwards. Use the similar sound technique discussed above to memorize it.
• 80/20 principle: 80 percent of the results come from 20% of the causes; in reading, this would e.g. mean only use steps 1 and 2 of the 3-step reading process and only do the full reading if necessary
• Use the Preview and overview step for whole books too: read the back and table of contents, then the introduction and conclusion of every chapter to cover the central concepts of the whole book. Read or skip what is worth the time. Exercise: do this for a new book each day.
• When a diagram is referenced in the text, look at the diagram immediately (not after finishing the paragraph). Continue reading and then have another look whenever it's referenced again and, if necessary, after the unit referencing it (duh).
• Use fixation points (e.g. beginning, middle and end of the line) to reduce eye movement and train recognition of groups of words

Exercises:

Read for 20 minutes focusing on strong comprehension, mark / remember the point where you stopped. Then go through the same material in 10 minutes. This might enhance the reading speed of the comprehension phase.