The key to unlocking the infinite memory potential of the brain

The journey of scientific research to find ways to help you turn your brain into an unlimited memory card.

Methods to help you remember better

'There is a day to work with iron and metal' is an idiom used to remind us of studying, cultivating knowledge in life. However, not everyone understands, grinding an iron rod also needs the correct method to have the best needle but in the shortest time.

Learning is similar. Mocking up the day and night lights are not sure to help you remember all the huge knowledge of mankind. At the same time, this will waste you a lot of time and miss the experiences of youth.

Some of the following methods will help you remember effectively without spending too much time and effort. These are the keys that help you open the infinite potential of the brain.

Originating from the inspiration genius memory .

In the sixteenth century, an Italian Catholic monk, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), shocked the world with the ability to remember people.Within a short period of time, Ricci was able to learn to read Chinese fluently - something even many native Chinese people could not do.

In particular, Ricci was able to overcome extremely difficult language tests, including many complex idioms, proverbs, or classical texts.

Matteo Ricci in ancient Chinese clothes

The story of Matteo Ricci later became an inspiration for modern-day brain sciences. The special case of this monk shows that the potential of the brain is extremely large and of course, this problem becomes the subject of research of many experts.

. to research to find the most time-saving learning method .

Based on that story, scientists are now embarking on studying the memory and endless possibilities of the human brain.

Researchers from University College London have partnered with Ed Cooke (English writer with the nickname of Master of Memory) to co-design an educational application called Memrise , based on a number of recording principles Remember the information of the brain.

The human brain contains endless possibilities

To make it easier to design this program, the research team organized a small competition to select the best methods to enhance the brain's ability to remember information. Many memory experts from all over the world have been invited to become contestants to assist researchers to realize the main purpose of this competition.

Competition rules are very simple. The jury will give the candidates a list of 80 words and give each person an hour to memorize the list from there.

To add appeal to the competition, these 80 words will not be written in English but in Lithuanian - a language with very complex vocabulary and accompanying meaning of English words. After a week, the contestants will be called back and check their memory ability.

There were a lot of candidates showing their hopelessness and many people went to sleep after the test of the word list was not released for long. Even more people continue to motivate themselves with cakes and coffee, but that is not enough to prevent discouragement from appearing on their faces.

This proves that even scientists have encountered many difficulties in transforming memorization theory in real life.

But besides, there are many contestants who are very excited and fulfill the requirements of the competition very well. Through observation, the team found the common characteristics of these contestants: Instead of focusing exclusively on a technique to learn, they tend to use a combination of different strategies.

So what are these effective tactics? After synthesizing, the experts re-listed the following:

Firstly, the more wrong the more you remember, the better you study. The basic content of this method is to test your knowledge many times. This will help you to memorize a long knowledge that you just received.

In particular, despite the meaning of the words that Lithuanian needs to memorize in English, some contestants decide not to use it but will guess it for themselves. Of course, the wrong guessing rate is huge. However, after that, they re-examined the meaning and remembering these words became very simple.

If you want to remember long, remember it, don't be afraid to guess wrong, bad score!

Based on this method, the team has come up with a new idea in improving memory ability.If you add a bit of difficulty to what you need to remember, you will have a greater concentration and this will help knowledge 'root' more firmly in brain memory.

Second, try to classify the knowledge you need to learn. This is also a method chosen by many candidates. Based on some common vocabulary features, the contestants will classify 80 words into different groups. For example, we will have a group of words that refer to animals, groups of words for people or groups of nouns, verbs, adjectives .

With the above trick, just remember the main topic and the meaning of classifying the groups of contestants can remember exactly all 80 words.

In other words, this method is like eating an excellent cake. Instead of eating a big one, you will feel more delicious and easier to eat if you sip small pieces of cake.

Eating a piece is always better and harder to swallow than eating a big cake

Third, when you find it hard to remember, find ways to tell stories or write poems . The essence of this method is to sequence knowledge into a content story.

This approach is particularly effective in the above competition. In fact, giving yourself a string of words that can help activate synapses causes 'memory' inside each of us.

Imaginary stories will make knowledge much more vivid

For example, there is a female contestant who has successfully built a story of 80 words to memorize. She pictured herself in a room and there was a ' lova ' (bed). Next, she imagined her lover was also there, sitting on a bench and eating bread. Just like that, she drew a story with the contribution of all 80 words from the list.

Let your imagination fly away when studying

Going back to history, it was also discovered that this was the method that allowed monk Matteo Ricci to learn Chinese language quickly, and at the same time the way Ed Cooke won the competition. master of memory '.

Are you ready to open the door of your brain's potential?

* The article is based on the views of David Robson, a prestigious writer in the field of BBC psychiatry, evolution and linguistics.