Scientific Secrets to a Powerful Memory

by Peter M. Vishton

Memory is, without a doubt, the most powerful (and practical) tool of everyday life. By linking your past and your future to each other, memory gives you the power to plan, to reason, to perceive, and to understand. As long as thinking and insight are important in how we live our lives, memory will be critical as well. And the better your memory, the more information you’ll have at your immediate disposal and the better your thinking will be. Yet while all of us have an amazing capacity for memory, there are plenty of times when it seems to fail us. Why does this happen? And how can you fix it? This insight lies at the heart of this captivating course, Scientific Secrets for a Powerful Memory. In just six engaging and interactive lectures, you’ll explore the real research (not the fads) on how memory functions - and then apply these findings to help you make better use of the memory abilities you have. By tapping into a series of scientifically proven strategies, tricks, and techniques, and by practicing them through dynamic exercises led by Professor Vishton, you’ll emerge from the end of this short course with the ability to process information more effectively and to increase your chance of remembering almost anything you want.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Audiobook, Science, Self Help, Education

DVD

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[James]

Interesting, brief and very well presented.

[Alexander Velasquez]

The lecture series begins with an analogy: by knowing how a computer works, we know how to encode memory into a computer. So, by knowing how our brains work, we can know how to, more efficiently, encode memory into our brain. The method: imagery.

The first lecture discusses the major system: encoding numbers 0-9 into a series of consonants to create combinations of words and making them into images. This encodes long sequences of numbers into images, and one can afterwards decode them from their images back to their numbers.

The second lecture was my favorite - the Method of Loci. This gets us practice into making a "memory house" or a "memory palace" where we can store long lists into our brains more efficiently. Believe it or not, I am still able to remember most of the grocery list from this lecture even though I only listened to the lecture and grocery list one time. If you don't believe me, give it a shot for yourself; the Method of Loci works.

The third lecture discusses how our entire brains are responsible for memory storage, hence the importance of overall brain health. The fourth lecture discusses how to better remember information in school; instead of cramming and doing studying all at once, spreading out the same number of study hours from one cramming session into a series of smaller, spread out study sessions improves the amount of information stored while simultaneously reducing the amount of information forgotten.

The fifth lecture discusses the big three methods of keeping our brains in peak physical condition: exercise, sleep, and nutrition. Although, I really wished Vishton had discussed fasting and nootropics more, as both of those subjects have been trending in neuroscience.

The last lecture discusses the important differences between computers and our brains. While computers beat us at storing information (i.e. a list of presidents), brains have the creative edge, as they can form links between, say, the 16th President of the United States (Abraham Lincoln) and his relation to the Civil War. Also, you're not always going to have a list or all your research data in front of you when it's convenient, so it's best to always keep our memory in top condition.

For me, I was already familiar with most of the information above before I came to the lecture series. So, I was hoping for a little more. For someone who is new to the subject, this would serve as a fascinating, and very satisfactory, introduction into the world of memory.

[Ali Karimnejad]

اگر دنبال راهی هستین که یادتون بده "چطور دیگه جای دسته کلیدتون یادتون نره"، این دوره خیلی مفید نخواهد بود اما در غیر این صورت، حاوی نکات مفیدی راجع به ساختار مغز و نحوه عمکلرد حافظه انسانه که میتونه جالب باشه.

به شما ده تا کلمه، یا ده تا عدد میدن و میگن اینها رو بخاطر بسپر فردا ازت می‌پرسیم. یک وقت هم هست ده تا عکس نشونتون میدن. با آزمایش ثابت شده که مغز انسان به شکل اعجاب آوری در به خاطر سپردن تصاویر توانمندتر از اعداد یا کلمات یا اینطور چیزهاست. اینها البته همه به نحوه تکامل ما برمی‌گرده. اما نکته مهم این ماجرا که می‌تونه از منتظر تقویت حافظه مهم باشه اینه که بهتره سعی کنید چیزی رو که قراره حفظ کنید (مثل لغت زبان) تجسم کنید. ذهن شما تصاویر رو خیلی راحت تر به خاطر می‌سپره. تو این دوره دوتا راهکار هم پیشنهاد می‌ده که از طریق اون شما متوجه می‌شید چطور بعضی افراد مثلا با یک نگاه کوتاه می‌تونن 64 رقم اعشار رو سریع بخاطر بسپرن.

این دوره اطلاعاتی راجع به تاثیر خواب و ورزش بر مغز و حافظه به شما می‌ده. و اینکه اصلا حافظه مربوط به کدام بخش مغز میشه (جواب: تمام مغز. به طرز جالب توجهی، حافظه شما در سرتاسر مغز شما پراکنده است. هیچ ناحیه بخصوصی وجود نداره که با آسیب رسیدن به اون قسمت خاص، حافظه شما کامل از بین بره). اینکه اطلاعات چطور در مغز ذخیره می‌شن (از حافظه کوتاه مدت به حافظه بلند مدت) و تفاوت حافظه ما با حافظه کامپیوتره چیه.

حافظه قوی فقط در بخاطر آوردن مسائل اهمیت نداره. حافظه قوی بخش مهمی از تفکر انسان رو شکل میده. بدون توانایی در ذهن داشتن همزمان چندین موضوع ، توان تفکر ما به شدت آسیب خواهد دید. شما نمی‌تونید برای هر چیزی دائما به کتاب‌ها یا گوگل مراجعه کنید تا یک فرمول، یا معنی یک لغت یا هر چیز دیگه رو به یاد بیارید. این کار تمرکز شما رو نابود می‌کنه. خیلی چیزا لازمه همزمان در حافظه حی و حاضر باشه. باید حواسمون باشه که متاسفانه به خاطر شکل جدید زندگی، حافظه ما بسیار ضعیف‌تر از گذشتگانمون هست و لازمه برای ارتقای اون تلاش کنیم.

این دوره با توجه به حجم کمی که داره می‌تونه نقطه شروع خوبی برای آشنایی با عملکرد حافظه باشه، هرچند برای خود من بیشتر نکات آشنا بود و جسته‌گریخته در جاهای مختلف خونده بودم اما به اعتبارشون شک داشتم و از این جهت کمک خوبی بهم کرد.

[Chad Schultz]

Extremely short (3hr). There's some information on how memories are stored (and forgotten), and some strategies on how to remember things, chiefly random digits.
This book didn't have to be so short. Lots of material to cover.
Not bad, but mostly useful to people who want to intensively practice memory techniques.

[Kelsey Brown]

I thought it was interesting that a book (or lecture, I guess) about improving memory starts out asking you to memorize an entire system of converting numbers to sounds/letters. Luckily, the rest of the lectures weren't as frustrating.

This was a short introduction to memory, but I think it's a good start for anyone wanting to know more about how memory works in our brains.

[Ashish Tiwari]

A really good primer for someone who wants to understand not just about memory techniques, but more about what memory is and how it's a product of linkages in your brain. Author also covers basic fundamentals of your own well-being. I also loved his warm writing style with clarity at its core. Definitely check it out if you want to start from some engaging point on your memory quest

[Teo]

2015.11.18–2015.11.18

Contents

Vishton PM (2012) (6 x 00:30) Scientific Secrets for a Powerful Memory

1. Your Amazing Prehistoric Memory
2. Encoding Information with Images
3. Maximizing Short- and Long-Term Memory
4. Why and When We Forget
5. Keeping Your Whole Brain in Peak Condition
6. Human Memory is Reconstruction, Not Replay

[Marc]

Interesting, but would probably make workshop than a lecture.

[Nolan]

I’m gonna check out the major system at somepoint

I believe memory is limitless

I will use location and kwik method to remember things like I learned in the past

[Andrey]

very short, shallow, and not so much new for me

[Ken Reid]

I was going for 2* till the last section which was most useful.

[Mathew]

Not a whole lot of content, but the memory exercises and tools are interesting.

[SpiritualKungFu]

Some interesting techniques that I'll probably never use.

[Sara]

The book cleared up a lot of my misconceptions about memory and had great advice. The major system and method of loci really work well.

[Shahzaib]

Author's main focus is on explaining the process of memory formation, storing and recalling. I can see how this will help but makes the title misleading. The secrets are in a 30 minutes lecture, rest being more theoretical. A small and useful read for a Sunday evening.

[DogfacePonySoldier]

I don't really remember the material. I just remember some mnemonics.