The mind and methods of a Memory Champion | Boris Nikolai Konrad | TEDxStrijp

ooh a few things that he or she has got a really good memory please raise your hand okay I do admit at this point it was rather unfair question nevertheless I find it quite interesting that really few people are really content in their memory I also think it's getting worse and worse more and more people let their partner's name be tattooed on their bodies but is of course mostly due to miss comprehension of course you know far more often where Yuki is then you forget it just no one will praise you for it it's easy to say well you have a memory like a sieve if it's once missing but no one would say eh you brought your keys again today that's five in a row right how amazing is that you should be on TV now that's not really going to happen and if you for example want to perform memory on TV you need to do quite a bit more I have the pleasure nowadays to do that quite a few times and also in our memory championships the competition is quite fierce I see when I say memory championships I still look in quite some puzzled faces what is it it's Alexei Olympic Games just with no muscles it's actually not that far off you have got a mental decade-long ten different disciplines we compete in like memorizing names and faces historic dates but also digits or playing cards for example you've got the numbers marathon where we get one hour of memorization time to memorize as many digits in order as possible followed by two hours to write down from memory what we can remember voluntarily and the word record for that stands at more than 3000 digits and today I would like to take all of you on a journey into the mind of these memory champions you will explore and try out yourself one of the methods used by them and learn how it might work because quite often when I am allowed to perform memory for example I get one question which is Boris can you tell me when did you realize you have the skill I sometimes like to answer all that simple but when I studied that radioactive spider bit me since then I can do that also read minds fly and breathe fire obviously that's nonsense I can't fly what I mean is of course I never like realized I had a skill it's something I learned and this is actually a really important message I would like to start with a great memory is achievable and actually easy to learn and I got in contact with memory training when I was a student it helped me a big deal at college at university study two masters courses in the time of one with distinction still having time for extracurricular activities enjoying myself a lot but I also started to wonder is actually true everyone can use that or do you need some talent or maybe even a specific brain maybe at this point I would like to ask you to raise your hands to do two fists like this maybe hold it together in front of your chest and look down on that place what you do see now is an easy and simple model of your brain yeah so the size is quite quite correct it's real volume fits quite nicely so it's nice to see something kickin left and right well that's the different story what this tells us of course is that the room we've got up here we make quite good use of so learning cannot implies that the brain is growing and growing please fold your hands now like this the course this reminds us that learning actually means that we build new connections in our brain existing neurons nerve cells in our brain new connections whenever we learn and so interesting thing is they try to always do that when they're active at the same time when two neurons active at the same time to try to connect it's part of you at Eric Kandel got the Nobel Prize for and what we know is the famous saying fire together wire together keeps that in mind because we will come back to that because I first would like you to introduce you to the brains of the memory champions because during a PhD I had the pleasure to study these how do you do that you use the famous MRI machine so you don't need to harm anybody but you can have a look at brains on the outside and actually there is some reason to assume to find something because there's a pretty famous study you might know from London where as I investigated using MRI the brains of London taxi drivers what does that have to do with memory quite a bit because to be a taxi driver in London you need a really good memory of the map of London and a lot of landmarks hotels restaurants and so on and indeed the scientists found out that in London taxi drivers a specific part of the brain specific part of the hippocampus well-known for spatial navigation and map memory is enlarged it's bigger than in other Forks so we assumed well memory champions can memorise even more than the taxi drivers so we should also find something there right but you can already get it that was not the case anatomically by structures the brain of a memory champion and that of which controls does not differ gets more exciting if you look closer because then you see that in terms of connectivity how brain regions are connected in the brain of your memory champions there is a difference because it's no more connected and also you see far more activity when a memory champion tries to memorize something and then if I ask you memory champion well how do you do that yeah I get the answer you got for me before well I learned how to do it using memory techniques and to introduce them to you I brought this model I like it a lot it shows you in the roof the memory and the memory should be supported like in the house roof here by the pillows representing different mnemonic techniques but its memory techniques but they all have the same foundation they are all based on the same principle of visual thinking sinking in images if you sink in images you can engage activate more brain regions and by that make more connections and by that learn better I know that still sounds rather theoretical and maybe you've heard about it but never experienced it therefore I would really like to try it out with you and for that I would like to show you the first pillow the message of those sigh I wonder could you please raise your hand if you don't need to explain it but have heard the term message of low side before not very many maybe memory palace it's a similar concept a little bit more or just the idea that you picture a set of locations like a way or a journey and that you put images on the different locations to later retrieve them does it sound familiar still in the minority but actually that's already quite a nice summary our memory is really good in storing spatial locations and in making associations well let's maybe test it briefly and you could think of the front door of your house or your apartment wherever you live try to see it then try to picture opening it and looking inside well quite a few close the door right away should have cleaned up before that's okay but I think you get what I mean you have a quite good impression I know in my place first the wardrobes the best room the living room I don't know exactly how many tiles are there in the best room but I know the big things quite well but I never learned that on purpose but my brain stored it by itself and the amazing thing is not that you know your apartment but what you can do is it but since we're all different different places and we're too big of a group we have to walk now I would like to introduce you to the buddy list the Buddy list is a list of 10 locations we are now going to memorize together and for that I'd like to invite you to set up once more please stand up ones for me and please join me in we have to memorize 10 locations we start at the bottom of the feet please join these feet and number one then maybe little squirt just little wonder knees are in number two then the size is number three I include the pocket of my jeans assign a bursary further up the bottom the bottom is number four can you raise your hand please your hand has five fingers can you put it on your belly please are you on belly first location is the belly number one where the feet to is a nice 3si for the bottom five of the belly six is the chest seven the shoulders eight is the throat nine the mouse ten are the eyes five for the belly six chest seven the shoulders eight this road lines a mouse and ten hours the eyes okay have a seat that was quite easy wasn't it I would have to say wow great performance but that would be a lie anyone can do this why is it so simple of course we know how the body looks like nevertheless these locations were still a bit random I could also have picked mouth and nose but since he already made sense it's really easy to remember it and yet again the great thing is what you can do with it because now I have a test for you and now I want you to memorize a list of 20 totally random words in order of course using memory technique using the body list we have got 20 words so you already know we have got 10 locations we put two words at each location and very important we already know the order so the locations we go through in order so the first words go to the feet Zenda knees and so on how to connect the words to the location well by images by visual thinking again of course and so I stress about images here you can include other senses as well like do you hear some saying smell something you feel something include all senses in this and even though it feels a bit weird please join me on it because then you can join us journey and experience at yourself the first two words we want to remember other words moss and cow and for that I have to do something with a faint so maybe a picture I put my shoes away and the socks the left with little hike through a moss a picture how it feels like how it looks like how it smells and while I wonder who is this boss I suddenly meet a cow there's a cow standing and maybe chewing on the moss so I walk in the mosques there's a cow chewing on it I go on and from all the walking I get a bit tired and maybe have a little rest on a tree stump that is there and the moment I sit down suddenly from the side that comes the Queen of England and has a seat on my lap but she's really noble so in front underneath that is totally ludicrous but you can picture it and that's what it's all about it before I realised what's happening maybe offer her as a seed she takes out a bell and loudly rings the bell so on the knees remember Queen and Bell we go on the next location sasai please feel your side getting really really warm really hot you wonder why you grab in your pocket and you see there it's a light bulb in your pocket and it is on that's why you say I got so war I mean you wonder why it's not in a socket but it's really on there suddenly comes a bull running towards you and eats the bulb so I've got the bulb making my side warm at the ball come and eat sit next location button exactly so maybe your picture you're tired in the morning maybe little hangover you go to the bathroom and see in the mirror your bottom and you get shocked because you realize there's a freshly made tattoo on it not again laser removal of the unicorn cost me a fortune it's getting worse because this tattoo nicely shows Peter Pan eating a hamburger for that you will now remember Peter and hamburger forever on your pattern first location see hands it's the belly so in front of your belly you see a bear and maybe he takes his hand his porn tries to hit you but the only scratches you're leaving a lie so bear and line for the belly number one where's the feed we're in the moss we meet the cow on the knees there's a queen ringing a bell in my pocket I have two lightbulb bullet comes and eats it the bulb goes on so it's white was one my bottom the tattoo of Peter Pan eating is a hamburger it's a belly the bear leavings line it's a chest maybe feel a little tickling because you look down and see on your chest there's like a miniature horse and someone is mad riding it a met rider on a miniature horse is going around your chest and already this location is coverage so we can go onto the shoulder maybe have a look on your shoulder look down on your shoulder now it's on your shoulder you see little Pope how cute the queen is already here it's a great event so let's welcome the Pope and he's eating pizza so Pope is sitting on my shoulder eating pizza we go onto this road bit more difficult the words are key and chef so maybe you picture someone tickling you with a key on your throat you see oh it's a chef that's interesting maybe you wanted to raise your appetite so so you feel is the cold key so I'm just tickling you with a key or keys on your throat a chef that's it next one is more easy the words are love and Eiffel Tower it's a mouse so I picture kiss of course it reminds me of love and where could it be more romantic set add or maybe on top of the Eiffel Tower I close my mind forget everything around me don't even realize how one of the many pickpockets steals my wallet and the moment I opened my eyes the tense location I see a book flying towards me and shout get that guy arrested for book and the rest it's the ice the book flies towards me I get this guy arrested first location was a belly the bear leaves a line on the chest there is a met rider on the shoulders that hits a pope eating pizza my throat it tickles whiskey's who does it the chef it's a mouse as a kiss for laugh and I have the tower I opened the eyes again I see the book and get that person arrested what do you need to do to remember these 20 words well of course you've gots a buddy list so we need to start down there and try to think what was as a feat and no it's not my turn is your turn so shout in as loud as you can which word so it's a feat we have please we well in the pocket I have see oh it's on there sir Oh was it autumn to tattoo of meat eggs are amber great it's a belly's I see there on the chest that rider great someone on the shoulder Oh eating something tickets at sprouts gee chef wait it's a mouse oh I thought our eye opens the eye since easy and get it wow that's that's quite well yeah please go ahead because it's 20 random words you just rush in Ollie and or use something really difficult and not just said you could also go backwards like I could sing what was at the eyes oh yes great I can ask individual items like what came like after Pope Pizza great what came before bell quick so you even can exactly go to the individual items so it's really strong normally you cannot use it with memory and of course in the short period of time I didn't change your brain right and it's really strong because if you look at this words once again they don't make any sense either just totally random information or is it does anyone see anything hidden in there if I say geography yeah here the mumbling here there congratulations all of you just memorized correctly the 10 biggest metropolis of Europe in order by number of inhabitants let's look again so the biggest one Moss and cow is Moscow great the Queen lives in London the bulb what was was above it's a tricky one it's on right about this on the board comes eating it is on bow Istanbul yeah it's a bit tricky society one dress is easier Peter hamburger Petersburg Berlin Metro riders Madrid hopeless in Rome THF Kiev with Paris and Bucharest sets the ten biggest metropolises of Europe you just memorize in order and if you take one final moment you like contemplate Buffy is done why this works many people might say well now I need to remember it so much more like in first locations Zen's images and the stories and then even what it means so that's quite a lot isn't it a lot more I need to remember and yes it's true it is but because you do that you engage so many more brain regions so many more different memory systems that you put so many more connections that is well well worth it and of course if you really want to apply it you need some training like you just got in contact with this mess for his first time in one of my studies I had the pleasure to had students who practice that for six weeks 30 minutes a day six weeks thirty minutes a day that's not nothing it's quite a bit but it's not too much either and that was enough to more than double on average in tasks like memory remembering names words or digits in their memory performance in just six weeks 30 minutes a day and again these were not the champions these were just average students sometimes because then one day well the Western need it nowadays I can look up so much stuff online or people saying isn't it now like this thing of understanding of comprehension is that an issue I think it's not because if you have it in memory you can start to understand that it doesn't build understanding it doesn't build comprehension that's correct but it enables it of course you have it any memories and and also if you can look up stuff it means if you don't have any memory you cannot connect other stuff to it if it's a new memory you can more and more networks more and more connections you can also build ideas coming up from it and therefore I profited highly from it I hope I could convince using something to it it's maybe even a bit of fun I would like to ask you to invite you to try it out maybe see later if you still remember the words because it's not just short-term memory you will know it for a long time and try using it because it's really great tool it's really beneficial and if you liked it share it inspire other people maybe you know someone who learns let me show you the video lets them know that is the stuff and have them giving it a go because it's really worth it in my opinion it's an idea worth remembering thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 130,327

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Netherlands, Social Science, Brain, Memory, Neuroscience, Productivity, Psychology, Self improvement, Visualization

Id: t76N00urDlU

Length: 18min 32sec (1112 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 21 2016