Memory Techniques for Effective Learning

I have competed in learning. This phenomenon is called memory sports, and during a competition, we meet for a weekend where we're challenged in a decathlon. In ten different events, we have to take in different kinds of information, such as numbers, words, sounds, images, and so on. I became the Swedish memory champion three years in a row and reached the international title Grandmaster of Memory. One of the requirements for this is an event called One Hour Numbers. And for this, we receive a paper filled with just random digits, more than we could ever learn, and we get to stare at this for an hour. You understand how much fun we have during these weekends, right? Then we get a clean sheet of paper and a pen, and we have to fill down the exact order of as many as we can remember. And the slightest gap or mistake gives a lot of deduction, so we really have to be precise. And my best was to write down the exact order of these. 1,060 digits. Just above the 1,000 correct to become a grandmaster of memory. But is this really learning? Or simply an ability to memorize the order of pointless stuff? Is there practical use to recite stuff like this and become a grandmaster of memory? Apart from the obvious, want to come back to my place and see the diploma? No. Honestly, there isn't much use to this. What kind of learning do we really need in today's society where information is so close at hand? We don't have to be personal storage facilities of information. I'd even go... so far to say that memory isn't even that important. But there is something else behind this. A treasure of great importance that most people miss, even people who do this kind of training themselves, like a skeleton key that can help us show how we can use our brain in an optimal way, in a far wider sense than just memory. The important thing is understanding. Memory is just a consequence of understanding. It comes afterwards. If you understand something, you will also remember it. So, how can we understand something new in the best way possible? I'd say that's when we can have a real experience. If we're a part of a mountain climbing expedition, we learn so much. Everything from geography, physics, learning about groups. work ourselves and the brain connects this all together across labels of individual topics we learn in relation to many many other things but we can't experience everything we need to learn in order to learn history we can't travel back in time or to learn astronomy we can't normally travel up in space but we can learn these things anyway and I'd say the next best way to learn something is to have a simulated experience. And this is what happens when we visualize. When you form an inner image, it is, we actually trick the brain into believing it has experienced something. And with this, an inner image, the brain has understood something and many things will start to connect with this. So visualizing actually become a way of gaining control. over learning. We can actually start to engineer understanding in our own brain. And we'll practice this right now. I'll tell you how it works. We'll do a strategy right now called one image per page, which is actually an enhanced way of reading. And it works for all kinds of texts. So let's say you have an economic report of 30 pages. So let's say we should start on first page. But before you start, you choose an image. image for the page. And since it's economics, let's just go for a pile of dollar bills. So you try to visualize this and you make the image large 3D still image and see this in front of you. Some people think it's very vague because you might think you've seen something and then it's gone. Then you try again and so on. But the thing is visualization works like this for everyone, including me. But for this fragment of a second that you think you might have seen something, that's enough for the brain to create these connections that we need. So then, during reading the first page, we come back to this inner image of the pile of dollar bills during the reading. Then we come to the second page, let's choose a new image. Since it's still economics, let's go for a coin. Just a large 3D still image. We read, come back to this during the reading. And it's actually not that important which images we choose. It's the simultaneous visualizations that will do. The trick. So we read through next page of still economics, okay, a piggy bank. Let's see that in front of ourselves and move on like this. Then you might start to think it's you're running out of images. Still economics, but there's a cure for that. And that's you can always visualize a variation. So for the next page, let's go for again, a piggy bank, but see it cut in half, bang it out of chocolates. For the brain, this is an entirely new image. So you read, coming back to this image again and again. Next page, okay, that's a green piggy bank made of green plastic, stretched out, twisted around itself. Just choose something. And then during the reading, you come back to this. So next, mine might be an iron piggy bank on its hind leg, like a statue or something. You never need to run out of pictures. Then, after reading these 30 pages, you have a set of 30 images. And these images work like magnets. They draw information to them. They create like connection points in the brain, which information sticks to. So by just giving a hint of this image, you will recall a lot of what was on this page. This takes your learning abilities to a whole new level immediately. And you might have recognized this earlier from studying perhaps that sometimes you could remember a little bit of how a page looked like. If it was special columns or something. And immediately you can find the right information in the brain like this. Working with images, it's a little bit similar experience, but this works for every page and to a whole better, bigger extent. Thinking in images, it's actually like giving the brain folders, like on a computer. You know, this old way of learning when we just read something over and over again and hoping that we will learn something. That's actually like throwing documents into your computer without names, without locations, that sure, they're there, but you'll never find them at that moment when you really need them. It's the same thing for the brain. With the images, your brain will find its way to what you need. And this isn't really a new way for our brain to work, because have you ever read a book once and then seen it as a movie? Then one always gets disappointed, because we've seen flashes of images, even if we're not aware of it. They didn't match the movie, but perhaps we've seen glimpses of the main characters or some events or places in the book. And these images, these also, they form the actual magnets, the connections, points in the brain which the whole plot can stick to. And we can follow the plot throughout the book. But the difference is that earlier we were dependent on the images that might spontaneously come up. Now we know we can create these by will and thus start to get control over learning. And this even goes deeper than that. We can even define learning right now. Because learning is when you create a connection between something new and something you already know. Have you ever experienced the Teflon brain syndrome? Yeah, that's when you try to read something, but the information just slips out just like water off a frying pan. It's so annoying because you see what's there on the page, but it won't come in. The reason for this is that the new information cannot connect to something that is yours. So I can actually vaccinate you against the Treflon brain syndrome right now. And that's when you're about to go into a new area, you should always start by reading short summaries. That's the trick for the brain. When you get a non-fiction book, you should never start at the top of page one, just reading. That's a waste of time. First, Google short summaries. Also study the table of contents and really give time for this. Because what happens then is the brain forms a kind of knowledge skeleton, I call it. It's a framework that then, when you go back to the first page and start to read, all these details have something to connect to. And it will quickly be flesh on the bones. Real understanding will come quick, and it will remain. So the principle is always going from the whole to the details, not the other way around. And this is simply because that's the only way our brain can form connections. So with these two strategies, one image per page, and creating knowledge skeleton, you have a powerful cocktail already that you can... Apply immediately and see results. And it works because an inner image, it's interesting, because an inner image is always your own. Even if you work with a suggestion image, that when you visualize, you see your own version of it. No one can visualize for you. And an inner image is actually the sum of... all your previous experiences at that very time and in that context. So it's like you actually take all of your previous experiences, pushing them forward towards this new in order to create the connection as fast as possible. So this was just a short introduction of what is possible when you start to use your brain in a much more efficient way, but then with a little bit of training there's actually no limit of how far you can take your own abilities. Recently, I gave a talk in Los Angeles, and what I did then, that I bought that day's edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. I read both these newspapers for about 90 minutes in total, and then during the talk, I gave the newspapers out and let two people in the audience test me simultaneously, back and forth, between these two. I could retell everything with full understanding, without mixing stuff up. even though English isn't my first language. So I've worked now for seven years, and I have yet to encounter a person who cannot learn this way of thinking by taking step-by-step instructions. I have three books out on Swedish's biggest publishing house, and I've worked with everyone from children in school. I mean, there, it's just so amazing. You see the smile that's starting to crack on the child of seeing that they've... done something that they never thought were possible for them. I mean, right there, their whole self-image is changing of what is possible for the next coming years and their whole life, if you get the glimpse of what's possible. And it's fun, the whole thing. And then also work with people in business, executives. You need to stay really sharp and want to have this extra edge against your competitors. But also with older people who feel great relief when you're able to trust your brain. After a little bit of training, they trust it more. So the point is that this works for everyone and all topics. In my latest book, written together with mathematician Per Sundin, we invented a new way to learn math, where it's not memorization of equations, but understanding real concepts. With fun visualizations, you go all the way from basic arithmetic rules up until... advanced high school level math in record time. In one of the exercises, you actually visualize a sleeping cow and how this cow is lifted up by a man. And this visualization takes about 10 minutes to do, and everyone can follow. And what they noticed afterwards, that all of a sudden, the people who've done this can... estimate values for sinus and cosinus for all possible angles right away. I mean, they're shocked themselves. But what they do, they take a look in their image, and the answer is right in front of them. So the thing is that new information has been connected to something they already know. The feeling of it is like you've installed an app in your brain which handles all mathematical thinking for you. But this is not about memorization, it's about understanding. And thinking in large three-dimensional still images, that was also how I learned all these numbers. So it's basically the same thing. And this you can learn in many other ways. You can use the old classical memory techniques, for example, when you... often create intrinsic stories with memory palaces involving all senses, seeing sexual violence stuff and all this. And that works fine. And most people have heard about this, but hardly anyone can actually use them because they're too mentally exhausting. It works fine for memorizing empty information such as decks of cards or random digits. But let's say we're at the advanced physics lectures. listening, and then have to take in everything that is being said, then we can't wander off into side stories and all crazy things. But the magic is, when you train your brain to visualize a large 3D still image, this way of thinking can be automatized. The brain picks it up and no new creative stuff is needed. The magnet effect is still there. So then you can sit at this lecture. listen to what is being said with full focus, still just see a three-dimensional image. I mean, we hear one thing and we see another. That works perfectly for the brain. That's what happens when we are watching TV, for example. We hear something, see something. So what we've done is that we've taken these old memory techniques and upgraded them into our day and age where understanding is the most important thing. And as a bonus, we still get an awesome memory, and that's quite good. So... But I just want to wish you have fun with this, of starting to gain control of your own learning, engineering, understanding. And I mean, it's such a tremendous feeling of freedom when you're able to trust your brain to do what you want it to do and beyond. My name is Mattias Ribbing, Grandmaster of Memory. Thank you.

One of the requirements for this is an event called One Hour Numbers. And for this, we receive a paper filled with just random digits, more than we could ever learn, and we get to stare at this for an hour. You understand how much fun we have during these weekends, right? Then we get a clean sheet of paper and a pen, and we have to fill down the exact order of as many as we can remember. And the slightest gap or mistake gives a lot of deduction, so we really have to be precise.

And my best was to write down the exact order of these. 1,060 digits. Just above the 1,000 correct to become a grandmaster of memory. But is this really learning? Or simply an ability to memorize the order of pointless stuff?

Is there practical use to recite stuff like this and become a grandmaster of memory? Apart from the obvious, want to come back to my place and see the diploma? No.

Honestly, there isn't much use to this. What kind of learning do we really need in today's society where information is so close at hand? We don't have to be personal storage facilities of information. I'd even go...

so far to say that memory isn't even that important. But there is something else behind this. A treasure of great importance that most people miss, even people who do this kind of training themselves, like a skeleton key that can help us show how we can use our brain in an optimal way, in a far wider sense than just memory. The important thing is understanding.

Memory is just a consequence of understanding. It comes afterwards. If you understand something, you will also remember it. So, how can we understand something new in the best way possible? I'd say that's when we can have a real experience.

If we're a part of a mountain climbing expedition, we learn so much. Everything from geography, physics, learning about groups. work ourselves and the brain connects this all together across labels of individual topics we learn in relation to many many other things but we can't experience everything we need to learn in order to learn history we can't travel back in time or to learn astronomy we can't normally travel up in space but we can learn these things anyway and I'd say the next best way to learn something is to have a simulated experience. And this is what happens when we visualize.

When you form an inner image, it is, we actually trick the brain into believing it has experienced something. And with this, an inner image, the brain has understood something and many things will start to connect with this. So visualizing actually become a way of gaining control.

over learning. We can actually start to engineer understanding in our own brain. And we'll practice this right now.

I'll tell you how it works. We'll do a strategy right now called one image per page, which is actually an enhanced way of reading. And it works for all kinds of texts.

So let's say you have an economic report of 30 pages. So let's say we should start on first page. But before you start, you choose an image.

image for the page. And since it's economics, let's just go for a pile of dollar bills. So you try to visualize this and you make the image large 3D still image and see this in front of you.

Some people think it's very vague because you might think you've seen something and then it's gone. Then you try again and so on. But the thing is visualization works like this for everyone, including me. But for this fragment of a second that you think you might have seen something, that's enough for the brain to create these connections that we need.

So then, during reading the first page, we come back to this inner image of the pile of dollar bills during the reading. Then we come to the second page, let's choose a new image. Since it's still economics, let's go for a coin. Just a large 3D still image.

We read, come back to this during the reading. And it's actually not that important which images we choose. It's the simultaneous visualizations that will do.

The trick. So we read through next page of still economics, okay, a piggy bank. Let's see that in front of ourselves and move on like this. Then you might start to think it's you're running out of images.

Still economics, but there's a cure for that. And that's you can always visualize a variation. So for the next page, let's go for again, a piggy bank, but see it cut in half, bang it out of chocolates.

For the brain, this is an entirely new image. So you read, coming back to this image again and again. Next page, okay, that's a green piggy bank made of green plastic, stretched out, twisted around itself.

Just choose something. And then during the reading, you come back to this. So next, mine might be an iron piggy bank on its hind leg, like a statue or something. You never need to run out of pictures.

Then, after reading these 30 pages, you have a set of 30 images. And these images work like magnets. They draw information to them.

They create like connection points in the brain, which information sticks to. So by just giving a hint of this image, you will recall a lot of what was on this page. This takes your learning abilities to a whole new level immediately. And you might have recognized this earlier from studying perhaps that sometimes you could remember a little bit of how a page looked like.

If it was special columns or something. And immediately you can find the right information in the brain like this. Working with images, it's a little bit similar experience, but this works for every page and to a whole better, bigger extent. Thinking in images, it's actually like giving the brain folders, like on a computer.

You know, this old way of learning when we just read something over and over again and hoping that we will learn something. That's actually like throwing documents into your computer without names, without locations, that sure, they're there, but you'll never find them at that moment when you really need them. It's the same thing for the brain.

With the images, your brain will find its way to what you need. And this isn't really a new way for our brain to work, because have you ever read a book once and then seen it as a movie? Then one always gets disappointed, because we've seen flashes of images, even if we're not aware of it. They didn't match the movie, but perhaps we've seen glimpses of the main characters or some events or places in the book.

And these images, these also, they form the actual magnets, the connections, points in the brain which the whole plot can stick to. And we can follow the plot throughout the book. But the difference is that earlier we were dependent on the images that might spontaneously come up.

Now we know we can create these by will and thus start to get control over learning. And this even goes deeper than that. We can even define learning right now. Because learning is when you create a connection between something new and something you already know.

Have you ever experienced the Teflon brain syndrome? Yeah, that's when you try to read something, but the information just slips out just like water off a frying pan. It's so annoying because you see what's there on the page, but it won't come in. The reason for this is that the new information cannot connect to something that is yours. So I can actually vaccinate you against the Treflon brain syndrome right now.

And that's when you're about to go into a new area, you should always start by reading short summaries. That's the trick for the brain. When you get a non-fiction book, you should never start at the top of page one, just reading.

That's a waste of time. First, Google short summaries. Also study the table of contents and really give time for this.

Because what happens then is the brain forms a kind of knowledge skeleton, I call it. It's a framework that then, when you go back to the first page and start to read, all these details have something to connect to. And it will quickly be flesh on the bones.

Real understanding will come quick, and it will remain. So the principle is always going from the whole to the details, not the other way around. And this is simply because that's the only way our brain can form connections. So with these two strategies, one image per page, and creating knowledge skeleton, you have a powerful cocktail already that you can...

Apply immediately and see results. And it works because an inner image, it's interesting, because an inner image is always your own. Even if you work with a suggestion image, that when you visualize, you see your own version of it. No one can visualize for you.

And an inner image is actually the sum of... all your previous experiences at that very time and in that context. So it's like you actually take all of your previous experiences, pushing them forward towards this new in order to create the connection as fast as possible. So this was just a short introduction of what is possible when you start to use your brain in a much more efficient way, but then with a little bit of training there's actually no limit of how far you can take your own abilities. Recently, I gave a talk in Los Angeles, and what I did then, that I bought that day's edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.

I read both these newspapers for about 90 minutes in total, and then during the talk, I gave the newspapers out and let two people in the audience test me simultaneously, back and forth, between these two. I could retell everything with full understanding, without mixing stuff up. even though English isn't my first language. So I've worked now for seven years, and I have yet to encounter a person who cannot learn this way of thinking by taking step-by-step instructions. I have three books out on Swedish's biggest publishing house, and I've worked with everyone from children in school.

I mean, there, it's just so amazing. You see the smile that's starting to crack on the child of seeing that they've... done something that they never thought were possible for them. I mean, right there, their whole self-image is changing of what is possible for the next coming years and their whole life, if you get the glimpse of what's possible.

And it's fun, the whole thing. And then also work with people in business, executives. You need to stay really sharp and want to have this extra edge against your competitors. But also with older people who feel great relief when you're able to trust your brain. After a little bit of training, they trust it more.

So the point is that this works for everyone and all topics. In my latest book, written together with mathematician Per Sundin, we invented a new way to learn math, where it's not memorization of equations, but understanding real concepts. With fun visualizations, you go all the way from basic arithmetic rules up until... advanced high school level math in record time.

In one of the exercises, you actually visualize a sleeping cow and how this cow is lifted up by a man. And this visualization takes about 10 minutes to do, and everyone can follow. And what they noticed afterwards, that all of a sudden, the people who've done this can...

estimate values for sinus and cosinus for all possible angles right away. I mean, they're shocked themselves. But what they do, they take a look in their image, and the answer is right in front of them.

So the thing is that new information has been connected to something they already know. The feeling of it is like you've installed an app in your brain which handles all mathematical thinking for you. But this is not about memorization, it's about understanding. And thinking in large three-dimensional still images, that was also how I learned all these numbers.

So it's basically the same thing. And this you can learn in many other ways. You can use the old classical memory techniques, for example, when you...

often create intrinsic stories with memory palaces involving all senses, seeing sexual violence stuff and all this. And that works fine. And most people have heard about this, but hardly anyone can actually use them because they're too mentally exhausting.

It works fine for memorizing empty information such as decks of cards or random digits. But let's say we're at the advanced physics lectures. listening, and then have to take in everything that is being said, then we can't wander off into side stories and all crazy things.

But the magic is, when you train your brain to visualize a large 3D still image, this way of thinking can be automatized. The brain picks it up and no new creative stuff is needed. The magnet effect is still there.

So then you can sit at this lecture. listen to what is being said with full focus, still just see a three-dimensional image. I mean, we hear one thing and we see another.

That works perfectly for the brain. That's what happens when we are watching TV, for example. We hear something, see something.

So what we've done is that we've taken these old memory techniques and upgraded them into our day and age where understanding is the most important thing. And as a bonus, we still get an awesome memory, and that's quite good. So... But I just want to wish you have fun with this, of starting to gain control of your own learning, engineering, understanding.

And I mean, it's such a tremendous feeling of freedom when you're able to trust your brain to do what you want it to do and beyond. My name is Mattias Ribbing, Grandmaster of Memory. Thank you.

Transcript for:Memory Techniques for Effective Learning

Transcript for:
Memory Techniques for Effective Learning