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Learn to Remember : Transform Your Memory Skills
A repertoire of ways to enhance memory - by training it to be more effective, and by following various tried and tested practical techniques and systems to combat forgetfulness by the six times current World Memory Champion.
Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
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About the author
Dominic O'Brien
50 books191 followersDominic O'Brien is a British mnemonist and an author of memory-related books. He is the eight time World Memory Champion.
He began developing his mnemonic techniques in 1987 when he saw Creighton Carvello memorize a pack of 52 playing cards in less than three minutes on the BBC television programme Record Breakers. In order to memorize numbers, O'Brien developed the mnemonic Dominic system, which is similar to the Major System.
He gives lectures, and has been seen on television programmes such as The Human Body.
Dominic O'Brien had an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for his 1 May 2002 feat of committing to memory a random sequence of 2808 playing cards (54 packs) after looking at each card only once. He was able to correctly recite their order, making only eight errors, four of which he immediately corrected when told he was wrong.
He began developing his mnemonic techniques in 1987 when he saw Creighton Carvello memorize a pack of 52 playing cards in less than three minutes on the BBC television programme Record Breakers. In order to memorize numbers, O'Brien developed the mnemonic Dominic system, which is similar to the Major System.
He gives lectures, and has been seen on television programmes such as The Human Body.
Dominic O'Brien had an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for his 1 May 2002 feat of committing to memory a random sequence of 2808 playing cards (54 packs) after looking at each card only once. He was able to correctly recite their order, making only eight errors, four of which he immediately corrected when told he was wrong.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 3, 2017
Hoping to reread and highlight some interesting memory techniques which I can try assimilate into my normal lifestyle. Well needed science-dose on the only part of my body that I exercise - my mind.
A great point that O'Brien made:
"Very few schools actually teach students how to learn."
A great point that O'Brien made:
"Very few schools actually teach students how to learn."
February 25, 2014
35 pages of information stretched out to 150 pages of mostly fluff. Very little research or useable advice. Disappointing.
February 4, 2025
Imaginația joacă un rol important în procesul de a învăța ceva. Iar făcând asta nu trebuie să fie neapărat plictisitor. Știam că pot să mă folosesc de forma cuvintelor sau sensul lor ca să le combin cu celelalte pentru a învăța mai repede, dar sincer acum o fac pentru că e distractiv.
De ex. ca să rețin bulevardul pe care stau mă gândesc la un căine lăpuș și îmi vine în minte mai repede Lăpușneanu decât dacă aș fi stat să îl caut în minte.
Fun fact dacă avem impresia că ne stă pe limbă e o practică mai bună să ne gândim la altceva decât să ne frustrăm că acel cuvânt nu iese la timp. Am dat semnalul printre rafturile creierului, iar el își face treaba să caute.
Încă o metodă faină e palatul memoriei sau metoda călătoriei, de exemplu dacă vrei să ții minte un discurs poți reține idei ca pe niște puncte din drumul tău spre acea locație sau un drum pe care îl știi foarte bine.
Am impresia despre mine că sunt un dezastru când vine vorba de învățat, pentru oamenii ca mine s-a inventat copiatul, însă cred că îți poți îmbunatăți încrederea în tine și relațiile cu ceilalți dacă îți aduci aminte aspecte din viața lor, dar și din a ta.
Faină carte, îi dau 4/5 pentru că m-a învățat cum să câștig la BlackJack.
De ex. ca să rețin bulevardul pe care stau mă gândesc la un căine lăpuș și îmi vine în minte mai repede Lăpușneanu decât dacă aș fi stat să îl caut în minte.
Fun fact dacă avem impresia că ne stă pe limbă e o practică mai bună să ne gândim la altceva decât să ne frustrăm că acel cuvânt nu iese la timp. Am dat semnalul printre rafturile creierului, iar el își face treaba să caute.
Încă o metodă faină e palatul memoriei sau metoda călătoriei, de exemplu dacă vrei să ții minte un discurs poți reține idei ca pe niște puncte din drumul tău spre acea locație sau un drum pe care îl știi foarte bine.
Am impresia despre mine că sunt un dezastru când vine vorba de învățat, pentru oamenii ca mine s-a inventat copiatul, însă cred că îți poți îmbunatăți încrederea în tine și relațiile cu ceilalți dacă îți aduci aminte aspecte din viața lor, dar și din a ta.
Faină carte, îi dau 4/5 pentru că m-a învățat cum să câștig la BlackJack.
January 5, 2024
Ca primă carte citită în 2024, a fost bună. Conține exerciții, pe care poți (și e recomandat) să le faci pentru a-ți îmbunătăți memoria. Idei cheie: odihna e importantă, exercițiul mintal este la fel de important ca cel fizic și poți "începe" să reții informații la orice vârstă.
September 14, 2016
I thought the book was very interesting. It seems equally balanced between historical fact, science, and practical tools. Some of his ideas are a little far out for me but I will definitely refer back to a good handful of his tools. Very nice commissioned art throughout. This book was given to me by my wife.
August 18, 2020
Rather than offering a review of this book, I'm just going to type up notes that I took while reading:
Theta brain waves are the most memory-friendly. You must relax the brain in order to stimulate these waves. Try meditation for 10 minutes each day.
Exercise (15 minutes QD) the brain by trying to recall what you've seen, heard, learned during the day.
The more you work on recall, the easier it'll be. The first day try remembering 5 things, the next day 10 things, the third day 20 things.
The memory methods of the ancient: 1.) imagination--transforming new info into image; 2.) association--connecting images to what's already known; 3.) location--anchoring the association in our mind in physical places.
"Locus-based memory systems work because the location is fixed, so that we can always walk ourselves mentally back though the same places to pick up the various pieces of information that we deposited there." (book quote)
We cannot fully concentrate on more than one thing simultaneously. Practice focusing your concentration by participating in a meditation exercise every day.
Revision and repetition: try the "rule of five," whereby you repeat the key points of an article (for example) after one hour, then a day later, a week later, two weeks later, a month, etc.
"Every time we recall a piece of information, the route to it becomes strengthened..."
Memory and health: 1.) exercise--get the blood flowing through your brain; 2.) eat the leaves of Ginkgo Biloba tree; 3.) eat foods rich in vitamins A, C, E. Eat plenty of bananas, red peppers, spinach, oranges, oily fish (folic acid, essential fatty acids), etc.
Incorporate all five senses into your memory technique for a more favorable recollection.
Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne: 1.) Acronym--"homes" for the five great lakes; 2.) extended acronym--"Every good boy does fine" (music); 3.) rhyme--"Thirty days hath September..."
Theta brain waves are the most memory-friendly. You must relax the brain in order to stimulate these waves. Try meditation for 10 minutes each day.
Exercise (15 minutes QD) the brain by trying to recall what you've seen, heard, learned during the day.
The more you work on recall, the easier it'll be. The first day try remembering 5 things, the next day 10 things, the third day 20 things.
The memory methods of the ancient: 1.) imagination--transforming new info into image; 2.) association--connecting images to what's already known; 3.) location--anchoring the association in our mind in physical places.
"Locus-based memory systems work because the location is fixed, so that we can always walk ourselves mentally back though the same places to pick up the various pieces of information that we deposited there." (book quote)
We cannot fully concentrate on more than one thing simultaneously. Practice focusing your concentration by participating in a meditation exercise every day.
Revision and repetition: try the "rule of five," whereby you repeat the key points of an article (for example) after one hour, then a day later, a week later, two weeks later, a month, etc.
"Every time we recall a piece of information, the route to it becomes strengthened..."
Memory and health: 1.) exercise--get the blood flowing through your brain; 2.) eat the leaves of Ginkgo Biloba tree; 3.) eat foods rich in vitamins A, C, E. Eat plenty of bananas, red peppers, spinach, oranges, oily fish (folic acid, essential fatty acids), etc.
Incorporate all five senses into your memory technique for a more favorable recollection.
Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne: 1.) Acronym--"homes" for the five great lakes; 2.) extended acronym--"Every good boy does fine" (music); 3.) rhyme--"Thirty days hath September..."
July 20, 2023
Learn to Remember was something of a disappointment, although, on the whole, it was an interesting little book.
The problem is that it is written for people who make a hobby (or a profession, if that is possible) of participating in tournaments that test memory. The author is a veteran of this kind of competition, having won several of these. He gives us several of his techniques for improving memory and provides small exercises to practice each one of them.
Luckily for me, I don’t participate in any memory-testing sports of this type and don’t plan on taking it up, because my mind doesn’t relate well to most of these memory tricks. He suggests several ways of attaching something you want to remember – a number, a face, an item on your grocery list, for example – to something else, say a numeric code, a letter of the alphabet, a location you would find on a walk through your neighborhood, or something like that to help you remember it. These are probably good tricks, but my mind would be no better at remembering the codes or locations, and I would never think up the things he uses to relate the items from his lists to the locations or letters.
A generous portion of the book is taken up with the history of memory and a brief explanation of how your brain works to remember things. I have read a lot of this before in books on brain science and evolutionary biology, but the explanation here is simple, brief, and reasonably easy to understand.
There is also a very brief section near the end on speed-reading and why the author thinks it is a good idea.
The problem is that it is written for people who make a hobby (or a profession, if that is possible) of participating in tournaments that test memory. The author is a veteran of this kind of competition, having won several of these. He gives us several of his techniques for improving memory and provides small exercises to practice each one of them.
Luckily for me, I don’t participate in any memory-testing sports of this type and don’t plan on taking it up, because my mind doesn’t relate well to most of these memory tricks. He suggests several ways of attaching something you want to remember – a number, a face, an item on your grocery list, for example – to something else, say a numeric code, a letter of the alphabet, a location you would find on a walk through your neighborhood, or something like that to help you remember it. These are probably good tricks, but my mind would be no better at remembering the codes or locations, and I would never think up the things he uses to relate the items from his lists to the locations or letters.
A generous portion of the book is taken up with the history of memory and a brief explanation of how your brain works to remember things. I have read a lot of this before in books on brain science and evolutionary biology, but the explanation here is simple, brief, and reasonably easy to understand.
There is also a very brief section near the end on speed-reading and why the author thinks it is a good idea.
January 27, 2024
"Dacă ne amintim tot ce-am făcut vreodată, nu vom fi și mai stresați? ... Secretul este să nu mai percepem aceste cerințe externe ca factori de presiune, ci ca aspecte ale mediului înconjurător. Sunt forțe externe care nu-și pot pune amprenta asupra respectului și a conștiinței noastre de sine decât dacă le îngăduim. ... Nu aspectele pe care le înțelegem ne provoacă stres, ci cele pe care nu le înțelegem."
August 6, 2018
The book is quite easy to read and comprehend. Of course It has to be read repeatedly and mainly practiced because of the exercises that are at the end of the book in order to improve and boost your memory.
April 28, 2022
Techniques of memorising approaches have been exposed in a way similar to an Olympic champion sharing own exercising to convince an average in achieving definitely the same olympic result.
Easy reading, picturesque arranged text.
Easy reading, picturesque arranged text.
October 5, 2020
Great book with lots of historical information about the world of mnemonics and the many uses of vivid visualizations as a memory technique that leverages the human brain for maximum effect.
February 22, 2022
So viel nützliches Wissen on Sachen Gedächtnistraining. 20 Jahre alt, aber kein bißchen weniger wertvoll.
November 29, 2023
Very useful, will definitely read again. The book is filled with easy exercises for memory improvement.
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April 14, 2025Dacă citești așa ceva și ai deja câteva examene la activ, consider că e o pierdere de timp.
Oricum multe tehnici sunt de toceală.
I-aș da un 2/5.
Oricum multe tehnici sunt de toceală.
I-aș da un 2/5.
May 14, 2025
Puțin cam prea "pentru profesionisti". Am reținut câteva exerciții.
December 25, 2025
Conține multe sfaturi utile, antrenarea memoriei și jocuri pe care sa le joci pentru a o dezvolta.
May 7, 2012
This book could be summed up in a magazine article, but since they opted for a much lengthier approach were forced to load it with filler. All the tricks were used: generous page margins, comfortable line spacing, clip art, big font, more clip art.
Rent this from the library and skip straight to the chapter on the DOMINIC method. It's actually a pretty witty and insightful way to memorize things.
Basically it boils down to assigning numbers, 0-99, a set of images in your brain and to then think of little pictures and stories to recall a long series of data. His tips are very original and he covers a few different scenarios on how you can translate varying scenarios in your mind to help improve your accuracy. Definitely interesting, but certainly not enough information for an entire book.
If this was a magazine article it would be 4 stars, really good, but as a book it's just okay.
Rent this from the library and skip straight to the chapter on the DOMINIC method. It's actually a pretty witty and insightful way to memorize things.
Basically it boils down to assigning numbers, 0-99, a set of images in your brain and to then think of little pictures and stories to recall a long series of data. His tips are very original and he covers a few different scenarios on how you can translate varying scenarios in your mind to help improve your accuracy. Definitely interesting, but certainly not enough information for an entire book.
If this was a magazine article it would be 4 stars, really good, but as a book it's just okay.
May 29, 2011
Use Your Perfect Memory is a much better book.
June 16, 2015
A decent read on memory techniques. I am re-reading it again this year and attempting to implement some of the basic techniques.
October 31, 2017
Lovely illustrations
September 20, 2018
"Under normal, healthy circumstances, the ability to recall our long-term memories does not change throughout our lives (although our short-term memory may show some depreciation). This is because the levels of RNA (which controls the manufacture of proteins in brain cells, resulting in larger synapses and better consolidation of memories) increases in our brain as we age.
In fact, many scientists now believe that social stereotyping is one of the factors that may contribute to forgetfulness in older people. Because we expect that our memory will deteriorate as we get older, we unconsciously place greater significance on the items or occasions that we actually do forget in daily life (while in youthfulness we used to simply let such instances of forgetfulness wash over us). This in turn makes us anxious that we are becoming old and less mentally agile. Of course, anxiety really does impair our powers of memory, so as soon as we become worried about aging and loss of memory we may indeed become the archetypal "forgetful grandparent", in a self-fulfilling prophecy."
In fact, many scientists now believe that social stereotyping is one of the factors that may contribute to forgetfulness in older people. Because we expect that our memory will deteriorate as we get older, we unconsciously place greater significance on the items or occasions that we actually do forget in daily life (while in youthfulness we used to simply let such instances of forgetfulness wash over us). This in turn makes us anxious that we are becoming old and less mentally agile. Of course, anxiety really does impair our powers of memory, so as soon as we become worried about aging and loss of memory we may indeed become the archetypal "forgetful grandparent", in a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews