Trick we can all use to boost memory in just six weeks
IMAGINE if, when you walk around the supermarket, you could remember each item you need perfectly. Or, faced with a speech to make, you can remember every point with ease.
These aren’t mere pipe dreams – as scientists have found that anyone can develop a memory of world-beating proportions in just six weeks using a simple technique.
Known as ‘loci training’, it is done by learning to visualise a map or journey, and then assigning things to be memorised to landmarks on your route.
Experts have found astonishing results – in one study, ordinary people who learned this method could almost match the performance of world memory champions.
The research, published in the journal Neuron, found trainees could recall 62 words from a list of 72 within 20 minutes of learning them. This is only nine words behind the top-ranking performers for memory in the world – known as ‘memory athletes’ – and 35 more than a normal person could expect to remember.
The researchers, based at Stanford University in California and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, found the loci tactic helped people to learn more than three times the number of additional words than other types of memory training.
Brain scans showed that, even four months later, their brains had changed to be more like the experts and they could still remember 22 extra words than before.
This change was seen in the medial prefrontal cortex, known to be active when individuals relate new facts to pre-existing knowledge, and the right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, involved in efforts to learn strategically.
The loci method is thought to work as it uses the logical left side of the brain for navigation and the creative right side to visualise landmarks. Lead author Martin Dresler, assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, said: ‘Once you are familiar with these strategies and know how to apply them, you can keep your performance high without much training.’