You know, it’s not just the freaks of nature that can have photographic memory! Have you been amazed to see and hear about stories of incredible people who are able to accurately draw a whole city landscape after viewing the scene just once. Or those who are able to recite whole volumes of literature or remember huge strings of numbers.
So can you imagine what it would be like if you were able to develop these same abilities yourself? It would totally change your life and open up a whole new world of possibilities. Below I have outlined three techniques you can use to begin developing your photographic memory. Don’t forget, this is not something that you will necessarily master straight away, so don’t give up, just keep practicing and give your brain time to master these new skills.
The ‘link’ system is usually the first aid used with all sorts of memory work. This is particularly useful for memorizing lists of data or numbers. So, lets say if you have a long shopping list to remember, try to get all the words and try to make it into mental scenario out of it. Example, if you are given a list of things – pink, shirt, cat, slippers, ironing and flowers, make a picture out of this by thinking of CAT wearing a SHIRT printed with FLOWERS and so on. When you reach the last item, try to link it to the first. This short mental film will help you to remember effectively and quickly.
The second method used is the peg system which is another good way for memorizing lists. It works by pre-memorizing a list of words that are easy to associate with the numbers they represent (#1-gun, #2-zoo, #3-tree, #4-door, #5-hive etc). Those objects form the “pegs” of the system. Then in the future, to rapidly memorize a list of arbitrary objects, each one is associated with the appropriate peg. If you were trying to remember the following list: keys, wallet, phone, laptop and trash you would imagine your keys being fired out of a gun (#1), your wallet being eaten by lions in the zoo (#2) etc.
The ‘major’ system is a bit like the peg system in that you are converting a list of numbers into consonant sounds and then into words by adding vowels. This works because it is much easier to remember words than numbers, words are able to be associated with feelings and visuals.
It’s not impossible to master a photographic memory, but it does require consistent effort and practice. But if you keep it up, you will be surprised and very pleased with how much your memory improves.
The above outline only touches on how to improve memory. For more information and resources, check out Michelle Rudge’s blog at How To Develop A Photographic Memory.
