WEBVTT - What Is Super Memory (And How Do You Get It)? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.400 Hey, please take a second and leave us a review 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.279 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast. 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:07.480 Thanks a lot. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.800 Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio Hoe 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:17.080 Cham and today we're talking about super memory. There are 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.279 people out there that can memorize over one hundred thousand 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.239 digits of pie. Others can read a series of books 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.360 and then recite them by hears and still others can 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.880 remember what they did every single day of their lives, 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.760 some reportedly as far back to the day they were born. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.360 How are they able to do that? Is it a 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.320 superpower or is it something that anyone can learn to do. 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:44.960 We're going to talk to a couple of memory scientists 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.600 who are going to break down how memory works, what 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.040 are its limits, and whether being able to remember everything 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.560 is a gift or a curse. So get ready for 0:00:55.640 --> 0:01:06.520 a memorable episode about memory, one that you won't soon forget. Enjoy. Hey, everyone, 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.000 So there are some people out there with amazing memory. 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.160 For example, there's Akira Haragucci, who broke the world record 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.399 for memorizing and reciting the most digits of pie. You 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.640 know pie, It's that math number that goes three point 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.280 one four one, five, nine, two, six, five, three, five, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.240 eight nine, seventy nine three two, three, eight four, and 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.640 so on and so on. That's just twenty digits of it. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.080 But Akira Haragucci was able to memorize and recall one 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.399 hundred thousand digits of it, a record that to this 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:45.279 day is still unbroken. Then there's famous savant Kim Peak. 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.360 Peak was the inspiration for the character in the movie 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.080 rain Man. He could recide from memory over six thousand 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.560 books he had read, and he could tell you the 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.800 ZIP code and aera code of pretty much every city 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.880 in the United States. Now, I don't know about you, 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.080 but I'm a little forgetful sometimes. So the fact that 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.960 there are humans that can have this level of memory 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.400 is absolutely mind boggling to me. To learn more about 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.640 memory and how super memory works, I reached out to 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.919 an expert in the field, doctor Daniella Palombo. Doctor Palombo 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.600 is a professor at the University of British Columbia or UBC, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.520 who studies people with extraordinary memory. Now, before we got 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.120 started hearing that she works at UBC, there a memory 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:32.200 in my head. 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.799 I've been to the UBC a couple of times. 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:37.920 I think, yeah, nice campus. 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.720 I rememory of being there. I've been going skiing at night. 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.040 Oh yeah, probably app in Whistler. 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.600 Uh no, just above the city there's a ski slope. 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.239 Oh yeah, Well that's a good segue into our conversation 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:55.320 about memory. You were you out Cyprus or maybe. 0:02:55.160 --> 0:03:00.519 Gross gosh, it was a long time ago, and I've 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.480 been to about four hundred universities. 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:04.640 You didn't know I was going to grill your memory today. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.119 That did such detail a memory of us snowboarding down 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:10.840 a mountain in Vancouver mid night. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:11.720 Amazing? 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:14.919 Like I said, I would not be the poster child 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.440 for people with super memory. Okay, doctor Palumbo is going 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.119 to talk to us about super memory, memory athletes and 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.920 people who can remember every single day of their lives. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.040 But first I wanted to ask her a basic question. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.640 What do we know about our memory? Is it like 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.200 a computer hard drive that sits in one place in 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.640 our brain? Does it store things as files with holders 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.640 that we can just look up whenever we want. It 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.640 turns out there's a lot we don't know about how 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.880 memory works. First of all, I was curious to know 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:48.400 how does memory work? 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.240 Yeah, that's a very big question. So first, memory is 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.000 not just one thing. When we remember our past, we 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.240 can do so with different forms of remembering. So you 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:01.080 may have heard the our memory systems. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:03.920 Okay, The first thing to know about memory is that 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.640 there isn't one kind of memory. There are several types 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.160 of memory. The first kind is the kind that we 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:16.240 are most familiar with, called episodic memory or basically flashbacks. 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.920 Yeah, so episodic memory is our memory for specific events. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.080 So for example, if I asked you to remember your 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.920 first date, or if I asked you to remember something 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.320 unusual that happened to you, you'd be able to conjure 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.520 up details that are specific to that event, like where 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:35.920 you were sitting, what you were wearing, how you were 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.159 feeling at the time. So we can really sort of 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.280 it feels like we're reliving these events from our past, 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.520 like we're playing back a recording. And that's very different 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.520 from other forms of memory, like our semantic memory or 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.400 memory for facts knowing that Paris is the capital of France, 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.480 for example, or that Vancouver is in British Columbia. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.560 I see Episodic. 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.200 Memory and semantic memory a are part of a broader 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.520 sort of umbrella within our memory systems called declarative memory. 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:10.080 Some people refer to it as explicit memory. 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.960 So there are two basic types of memory. The first, 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:18.440 declarative memory is basically what you consciously remember, facts, things 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.680 that happen. You can bring them up in your brain 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.120 and think about them. The second type of memory is 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:28.120 the kind you remember unconsciously. It's what gets today call 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.360 ball knowledge. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.760 And that's another form of remembering called implicit memory. And so, 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.400 for example, do you play any instruments? 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:43.159 I do, Yeah, little piano, little guitar, great, there's some drums. 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.159 Okay, So when you sit down at the piano and 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.960 you start playing, that kind of just comes back to naturally, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.960 you don't necessarily remember every piano lesson you had, but 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.719 nonetheless you're able to perform that incredible feat of playing music. 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.240 Another example is the first time you learn to ride 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.000 a bike. Many of us don't remember that event, but 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.400 we can hop on a bike kind of at any age, 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:07.560 and we can ride. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.640 And you never forget, as they say, how to ride 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:09.960 a bike. 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.800 Yeah, that's exactly right. And so we think of that 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.240 as being a more implicit form of memory. So or 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.000 memory for how to do things. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:22.040 Yes, there are different kinds of memory. Another interesting thing 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.240 we know about memory is that it doesn't just sit 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.680 in one place in our brains. It's kind of all 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.800 over the place, depending on what you use it for. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.960 If it's your memory for how to physically do something 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.919 like ride a bike or the baseball, that memory is 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.200 in the motor areas of your brain, sort of across 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.000 the top of your brain. If it's your ability to 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:48.359 remember a song or remembering what something tastes or smells like, 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.680 then it's in your sensory cortex, which is closer to 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.120 the back of your head, kind of where the swirl 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.760 of your hair is. And if it's your vivid dream 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.240 type of memory or your memory of facts, scientists think 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.440 those are kind of diffused all over the brain. In 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.560 other words, there's no one central hard drive for story 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.520 memories in your brain. Okay, The last interesting thing doctor 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.480 Palombo says we know about memory came up when he 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.000 asked me if I remember the first date. 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:18.960 I ever went on. 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.840 I do not remember my first date, but I do 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.120 remember the first date I had with my spouse, So 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.800 I think that's yeah, that worked it right. 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.440 Yes, that is that is very good. That is very good. 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.120 Yeah. Ohether it's debated still whether it was a date 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:34.440 or not. 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:37.840 So I'm sure you have some good stories about that, 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.080 and I would imagine that if you and your partner 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.120 were to exchange details about that event, some of the 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.920 details you would be the same, and some you'd have 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.640 you have very different versions of what actually happened. And 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.120 that's fascinating. So one of the things that's kind of 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.960 interesting about memory is this idea that we playback events 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.600 like we're playing our memories back on a recorder. Memory 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.920 actually doesn't work this way at all, and in fact, 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.600 when we're remembering those events like the first time we 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.800 had a pomegranate, we're actually remembering a combination of what 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.840 actually happened and a bunch of other stuff. And that 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.000 other stuff is the general knowledge we have about the 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.800 world how events should work. We're filling in the blanks 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.760 of our memory, and what we ultimately remember is a 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:29.080 combination of these two things, what actually happened and the 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.960 inferences and generalizations we have about the world. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.400 I Meanan, we remember part of what happened, and part 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.199 of what we remember is what we think. 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.960 Happened exactly exactly, and it happens very seamlessly, so we 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.800 don't really realize that we're filling in the blanks this way. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.720 In other words, memories aren't perfect. They're kind of fuzzy, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.520 at least for most of us. Okay, now we're going 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.960 to get to super memory, because some people they remember 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.960 a lot and sometimes quite perfectly. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:02.640 Well, that brings me to the topic of people who 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.800 have super memory. Yeah, I guess I'm Christine. Some people, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.600 for example, are able to memorize, you know, one hundred 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.439 thousand digits of pie, or you know, he can memorize 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:14.800 the works of Shakespeare. 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.640 Yeah, it is such an interesting topic, and I guess 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.079 I'll start a little bit broad by saying that there 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.079 are many sort of types of superior memory. 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.040 According to doctor Palombo, there are two basic types of 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:32.160 super or superior memorizers. The first type are called memory athletes. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.440 In the second are people with something called highly superior 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:41.640 autobiographical memory, or h SAM. And in each of these 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.920 kinds of super memories there are surprising facts that tell 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.920 us a lot about how memory works in our brains 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.480 and how memory shapes who we are. So when we 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.160 come back, we'll tackle the first type of super memory, 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:58.160 memory athletes, and we'll talk about how maybe you can 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.080 become one. So stay with it, don't forget. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:02.480 We'll be right back. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.760 Hey, welcome back. We're not going to talk about the 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.400 first type of super or superior memory, which is a 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.680 kind found in memory athletes. As I mentioned before, one 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.920 of the most extreme examples of super memory are people 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:32.000 who can memorize the digits of pie. For example, there's 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:36.079 Akira Haraguchi, who memorized over one hundred thousand digits of it, 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.000 and he's not alone. According to the Pie World Ranking 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.360 List website, there are at least ten people who have 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.720 memorized over thirty thousand digits of it, including Paul HEARDing, 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.800 the US record holder, who is said to have memorized 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.720 thirty thousand, four hundred and forty eight digits of pie. 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.640 There's even an annual event called the World Memory Championships, 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.000 which which is like the Olympics of memory in it, 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.599 memory athletes compete in timed events like who can memorize 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.360 a random deck of cards the fastest, or who can 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.600 memorize the most random numbers in one hour. Last year, 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.960 in twenty twenty five, the overall winner was narranzul Ot 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.880 gon Uhlan, a sixteen year old girl from Mongolia, who 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:29.120 absolutely blew away her competition with an astonishing performance. She 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.240 was able to memorize a sequence of three thousand, six 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.120 hundred and twenty three random numbers in one hour. She 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.480 memorized a six thousand, six hundred and seventy two long 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.520 sequence of random ones and zeros in thirty minutes, and 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.640 it only took her twenty four point two seconds to 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.600 memorize the complete sequence of a shuffle deck of cards. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.200 I mean, I have a hard time remembering those six 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.720 verification digits they give you every time you have to 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.880 log in somewhere now and memorizing a ten digit phone 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.400 number these days, or get it. But here's the amazing 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:07.559 fact about memory athleticism. According to doctor Daniella Palombo, anyone 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:09.400 and be a memory athlete. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.840 And in fact, you can take a random selection of 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.760 people from the population and you can train them to 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:17.760 be memory athletes. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.160 Yes, anyone can train to be a memory athlete and 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.760 be able to memorize really long sequences of numbers or 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:30.600 playing cards, or names or objects. Remember Akira Haragucci, who 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.520 memorized one hundred thousand digits of pie. According to interviews, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.200 he was neither a prodigy growing up or even particularly 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.720 good at math. He just one day decided to start 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:45.560 training his memory. The same goes for Alex Mullett, the 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.959 first American to win the World Memory Championship, who went 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.720 on to win it three years in a row. He 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.440 never thought of himself as having a good memory, and 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.320 none of his friends or family growing up would say 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.000 that either. But one day he saw a ted talk 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.360 talk about memory athletes and he decided to try it. 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.000 He started to train himself, and initially, when he was 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.480 able to memorize a twenty item shopping list, he was 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.360 blowing away. Eventually he was able to do amazing things 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:19.120 like memorize twenty eight decks of randomly shuffled cards in 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.079 one hour. Now, I know what you're thinking. Surely these 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.720 people had a gift for memorizing things, right. I Mean, 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.400 it's true any one of us can learn to play basketball, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.280 but we can't all play in the NBA? 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:37.080 Can we? Is their research saying that anybody can get 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.480 to that level? Or is it sort of like playing 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.080 at the NBA you need inherent talent to sort of 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:43.560 make it to the NBA. 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.240 Based on the research that's done, researchers believe that the 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.160 best explanation for this type of superior memory is practice. 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.120 That's not to say that innate abilities or curiosities are 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.640 not at play. So, for example, if there are individual 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:05.480 different in one's interest in organizing information, this might help 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.199 use those strategies to remember leader I see. So we're 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:11.800 still working out the details. 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.960 According to doctor Palumbo, there's even been studies of the 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.880 brains of memory athletes to check whether there's something special 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.400 about them, and it turns out there isn't. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.320 There's a really interesting study that was done a few 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.640 years ago where they took a group of people who 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.600 would fall into this category or so, these memory athletes, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.280 and they scan their brains, and then they took a 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.080 group of individuals who are not memory athletes and train 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.320 them up. So the one finding is that when you 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.840 look at the brains of people with superior memory, the 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.680 structure of their brains, they don't look different from other 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.280 individuals who are not superior. 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.240 Memorizers, really huh. 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.560 But when you look at the function of their brains, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.600 so how their brains activate when they're doing a task 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.760 or when they're at rest, then you see differences between 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.920 individuals who have superior memory and those who do. 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.480 Not what are these differences in functionalities. 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.320 What we tend to see is that the way these 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.600 brain regions are talking to each other looks different. In 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.680 people with superior memory, the connections between brain regions are 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.080 often they're more tightly connected. They're kind of talking to 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:30.440 each other more. And if you train everyday people like 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.200 yourself or me to engage in these strategies for hours 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.920 and hours, then you see a similar pattern of functional 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:45.200 differences to those superior memory. And so that points us 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.040 to the importance of training. It's not to say that 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.680 inateabilities are not at all at play. We don't know 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.520 for sure, but it certainly points to evidence that training 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:55.840 is part of the story. 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.120 Yes, you could train yourself to potentially play the NBA 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.920 of memory athletics if you wanted to. The only caveat 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.080 is that memory athletes have to train a. 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.360 Lot, They have to put in a lot of effort. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.040 But you can get them trained up, and so you 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.440 could be trained. For example, you refer to yourself as 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.360 being somewhat forgetful, but I bet if you put in 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.480 the time, you would actually impress us all. 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:25.600 What I would have to remember it to practice. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:27.720 That's right, Yes, that's the first step. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.560 Okay, so what is this training that you have to 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:36.080 do to become a super memory athlete. According to doctor Palombo, 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:42.600 the training involves learning and practicing mnemonic strategies or memorizing tricks. 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.560 So what we know about these types of individuals that 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.440 they are actually using strategies to remember a lot of 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:56.000 information very quickly. And so, for example, many use a 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.320 strategy you call the method of low SI. So imagine 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:03.080 a memory appet needs to memorize long string of digits, 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.640 which is quite difficult. So what they'll do is they'll 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.560 take those digits and they'll associate them with some form 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:15.080 of imagery. So maybe the digit io is associated with 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.679 an image of a tiger, and so they'll build this 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.800 image associations because images are easier to remember than strings 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.639 of digits. They'll take those images and they will place 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.320 them in a familiar space in their mind's eyes. So, 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.040 for example, somebody might picture their home and all the 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.960 rooms in their home, and they will place the images 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.280 in different rooms, and they'll form a pathway in their 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.960 mind's eye as they're visiting the different rooms in their house. 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:46.240 Let's say this is a well known method for memorizing 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.680 things Let's say you want to memorize a random sequence 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:55.800 of words like key, woman, kangaroo, hair dryer, dinosaur. Those 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.480 words are a little hard to memorize on their own, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.720 so you might instead picture your house or the house 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.160 you grew up in, and then imagine yourself walking through 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.639 that familiar space and finding each of the items in 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.680 a different spot. For example, I walked in the front door, 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.600 and I saw a key right next to the entrance. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:17.919 Then I went into the living room and so a 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.040 woman standing there. Then I walked to the kitchen and 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.760 saw a kangaroo, and so on and so on. And 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.520 now imagine extending that walk around your house, adding more 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.919 things to remember in every corner. You can now remember 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.720 long sequences of information, and this works because you're essentially 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.000 associating the things you want to remember do something familiar. 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.199 At The idea is that you're linking kind of arbitrary 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.639 information that doesn't mean a lot to an individual to 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:52.560 something that's more personally relevant. So picturing your house, for example, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.159 is something that is personally connected to you. And we 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.840 also know that people do best somewhat better at remembering 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:04.200 spatial information or visual information, so rich images or rich 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.679 spatial scene is maybe somewhat easier to remember than a 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:08.679 string of digits. 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:13.199 I see. Put it in context that my brain likes yeah. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:13.680 Yes. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.159 And another way to remember things more easily is to 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.240 make the things you're trying to remember more about you. 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.520 And so there's another phenomenon called the self reference effect. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.239 This is separate from superior memory. This pertains to all 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.000 of us. We tend to remember information better when it's 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.920 self referential. And so if we are learning, let's say 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.280 we show up at a lab and they present us 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.200 a list of words, and later we're tested. The words 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.320 that are personally meaningful to us are the words that 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.720 we're going to tend to remember better from that list 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:48.960 than the ones that don't have kind of a personal 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.920 attachment to them. So, if I give you a list 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.600 of traits and a memory test, and some of those 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:59.640 traits resonate with you, so it could be funny, or 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.879 it could be the word dad, or it could be 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:08.040 the word partner, et cetera, and my professor, those words 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.200 were going to remember better than words that don't have 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:13.960 kind of a personal connection to us. And that's called 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:15.200 the self reference effect. 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.280 Oh I see, Yeah, we're all a little narcissistic. 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:19.800 That's right, exactly. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:19.959 It. 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:26.160 So those are memory tricks that memory athletes use. They're more, 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.840 of course, but the idea is that if you use 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.560 them enough and you practice enough, then you could also 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:37.520 become a memory athlete and memorize potentially thousands of digits 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.600 of pie. Now what's interesting about memory athletes is that 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.200 it really is athletic. You have to train for it, 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.120 you get better over time, and if you don't use it, 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:49.600 you lose it. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.199 And so a lot of these individuals will participate in 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.600 these kind of memory championships. Yeah, and before they even 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.680 get there, they're doing a lot with the memory to prepare, 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.159 just like any type of athlete, but prepare for an 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.639 important game. And they do this over and over again. 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.920 They'll practice and it takes hours and hours of training. 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:15.200 So by the time they get to these memory championships, 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:18.320 they're very well prepared to remember a lot of information 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:19.080 really quickly. 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.040 It's interesting that you paid the analogy to athletes and 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.560 that they have to train and prepare for events, meaning 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.439 like if they stop or they'll train, then they won't 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:31.000 perform or remember as much. 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.480 Yeah, they actually have to engage in what's called maintenance, 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.000 so they have to keep at it. It's not just 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.280 sort of one and done you train for you know, 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.879 one hundred hours. They actually have to, you know, train 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.840 every day or often to keep up those skills. 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:50.200 Okay, so here's a quick recap so far. Memory athletes 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.960 are one type of super memory, and it's something anyone 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.280 can learn to do. It's about picking the right mnemonic 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.480 device that works for you, then scaling that up, and 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.520 then keep on training. Even you can get to the 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.359 point where you can memorize incredibly long sequences of random 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:11.399 numbers or words or playing cards. And a big trick 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:13.760 is to find ways to make what you're trying to 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.560 remember relevant to you, which brings us to the second 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.160 type of super memory. Imagine that you could remember not 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:23.920 just some things that are relevant to you, but you 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.919 could remember everything that happens to you. And now, I 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.560 imagine what would happen if you couldn't turn it off 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.879 with your head explode. Would it be a gift or 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:35.920 a curse. When we come back, we'll get to that 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:40.680 type of super memory, assuming we don't forget. So stay 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:58.640 with us. We'll be right back. Hey, you remember, Welcome back. 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:03.080 We're talking about memory. And so far we talked about 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.359 one kind of super memory, which is the one found 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.360 in memory athletes. As we learn from doctor DANIELA. Palumbo, 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.320