Linking up is a powerful way of making connections so you can remember short lists. This system is a very basic introduction to using your imagination to create links—even more basic than creating a story. Think of it as a way to incorporate a variety of memory principles and limber up your memory muscle, so you can apply these methods for even more elaborate systems. Linking is most appropriate for remembering short lists, from grocery lists to the subjects you want to cover in a meeting or speech.
Essentially, you help make your memories more memorable by using your mind proactively to make your memories more vivid through imagery and associations. Then, you either create a continuous narrative that links all of the images together in sequence, or you link a series of pairs of items like a chain, where you create a visual association between the first two items, then between the second and third item, the third and fourth, and so on. I call these the “continuous link system” and the “chain link system.” In either case, you use various memory-sharpening skills that increase recall. You might even close your eyes to cut out distractions, hone your concentration, and make the imagery more vivid when you first are learning to visualize, though as you become accustomed to creating images in your mind’s eye, you can do this anywhere, anytime.
According to memory expert Tony Buzan in his book Use Your Perfect Memory, the sharpening skills that improve memory include the following (which I have described in a little more detail):
Using the Five Senses—Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, and Taste, where the more fully you experience something, in reality or in your mind, the more it will come to mind in the future.
Movement: where you incorporate motion in your visualization—or move yourself.
Association: whereby you associate one thing with another to trigger a memory when you see or experience the association.
Sexuality: where a sexual association creates a stimulus that is more exciting and therefore more memorable.
Humor: where the experience of laughter and amusement makes the memory more pleasurable, and hence something you more want to remember.
Imagination: where you use your creativity to add oomph to your desired memory.
Number: where you group things together, as in chunking, to make memory easier.
Symbolism: where you associate things you want to remember with symbols that help you remember.
Color: where you make any imagery more vivid and hence more memorable.
Order and Sequence: where you arrange things into an order based on common characteristics, priority, numerical sequence, or other organizing principles.
Positive Images: where you emphasize the positive, because you are more apt to remember what’s pleasurable (as we learned earlier, we repress negative experiences because we don’t want to think about them).
Exaggeration: where you make things even bigger and grander than they are, so they stand out in your memory.
Absurdity: where you make something very crazy, bizarre, and outlandish to help it stand out in your mind.
Substitution: where you replace something you want to remember with something else you can remember even better, and then, through the power of association you recall what the substitution represents.
The reason these principles work, according to memory experts, is that you use both sides of your brain—both your left and right cortex. So you not only use a more analytical approach to remembering associated with your left cortex (such as chunking and rehearsing), but you tap into your more intuitive and holistic side with your right cortex as you create visual and sensual images. It’s like the difference between putting something you want to remember in a beautifully framed picture that stands out in your mind or into a file in a musty file cabinet that you have to burrow through to find that document again.
In the continuous link system, you create a narrative link for each item on the list in sequence.
To practice with this system, take any short list of things you want to remember, even very mundane items on a shopping list, create a series of associations for each item, and link those together into a sequence as you travel through time or space. For example, imagine you are taking a walk or driving in a car, and as you go along, you see each item. But more than that, use other principles of memory, such as exaggeration and absurdity, to make these images even more memorable. Some of the possible trips you might take as you make these link-ups include a walk in the park, a flower garden, or your neighborhood, or a drive through the country.
Then, as you go on this journey, you see the items you want to remember.
For example, here’s how you might apply the various memory principles with the following everyday shopping list: apples, eggs, soap, sugar, coffee, ice cream, paper cups, pie, bread, and fish.
Say you are going for a walk in the country. First you pass an apple tree, but these are not ordinary apples. You see they are colored with all the hues of the rainbow, and you suddenly hear them start singing.
As you look down, you see some very large eggs, the size of footballs, and you reach down and touch them. When you do, they start moving, by rolling around and bouncing up and down.
As they do this, you discover they are bouncing on a large, white bar of soap, which is shaped like a boat, so you start laughing because you think it’s so funny. Then, as it floats off, you see nearby a lake made of white sugar, a truly absurd picture, and next to it you hear the sound of a bubbling brook, and it is the color of coffee. But is it? You reach down to dip your finger in the brook, and as you touch it, you smell the sweet coffee, which makes you hungry. So you reach out and grab a big, round ball of ice cream that is hanging from the trees like a ball of fruit.
As you pull each ball off the tree, you put it in a huge, spinning paper cup in front of you. Then, to test your aim, you step away, and pick up some pies and throw them at the cup, so you will win a reward—a great, big teddy bear made of bread. And after you make several successful throws you get the first prize—a gigantic fish that you can frame to show what a great catch you made.
In short, you have made a series of associations that link the items on your list together, using the many principles that help to make a powerful memory.
Okay, now that you understand the basic principles through reading the fantasy, without looking back at the original list or the fantasy, see how many items you can remember. You can use that number as a baseline when you try your own lists, create your own linked associations using these principles, and then try to remember even longer lists.
HOW MUCH CAN YOU REMEMBER? (Write down as many items as you can from the shopping list.) | |
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Now, start creating your own lists. These can be random lists of anything, or pick out some items on a list you really want to remember.
Once you have selected your items, create your own fantasies using the above memory principles, making them as vivid and creative as possible. Afterwards, test yourself again and see how many items on your list you remembered. Additionally, check how many you remembered in the proper order. In some cases, just remembering the items is sufficient, but sometimes, such as when you are giving a speech, you want to remember the precise order, so you link different sections of it to a path through your house.
You can also turn this process into a game you play with others, which makes improving your memory even more fun—and memorable. Here’s how.
Decide how many items you want to remember (7 is a good starting point, but you can work your way up to 10 or more pretty quickly). Then, each person creates a list on a card on a sheet of paper or index card. Now mix up the lists and give each person a list other than their own.
Each person will now read his/her list aloud in turn, allowing about 10 seconds between items, so each person can create their own fantasy associations with that image. After the person has read his/her complete list, everyone else will write down as many items on the list as they can remember in the next minute or two.
When everyone has finished, read the list aloud again, and each person other than the person reading the list gets 2 points for each item correctly remembered in the correct order, 1 point for each item remembered but out of order, and loses 1 point for each item that doesn’t belong on the list.
Go around the group so everyone has a chance to be the reader. At the end, total the scores for each round, and the person with the highest score wins.
As a variation in play, after the reader reads the whole list and players write down the words they can remember, each person in turn relates his or her fantasy for those words—which can help everyone in developing their imagination. You might even vote on who has created the most imaginative story, with the winner for each round being the person who has gotten the most votes. The overall winner is the person who has won the most rounds.
In the chain link system, as described by numerous memory experts, including Kenneth L. Higbee in his book Your Memory: How It Work & How to Improve It, you create a series of short image associations that link each item in the list to the previous item, rather than crafting a continuous narrative. This system is also ideal for remembering all of the items in order.
The way the process works is you create a visual image for each item in the list and then you associate the image for one item with the next item on the list. We can use the same list as above: apples, eggs, soap, sugar, coffee, ice cream, paper cups, pie, bread, and fish.
You might create the following chain link of associations, incorporating the principles described above to make the imagery dramatic and memorable.
To associate apples and eggs, imagine the apples falling from a tree in an orchard and landing on top of a line of eggs, with a big SPLAT!
To associate eggs and soap, imagine someone throwing eggs at some bars of soap, which are targets in a competition.
To associate soap and sugar, imagine a small boy using a bar of soap in a bathtub, when he sees a big monster made of sugar.
To associate sugar with coffee, imagine the big sugar monster striding forward through a river of brown coffee.
And so on. The imagery for each association doesn’t have to carry over from each paired link in the chain, although it can, such as in the case of the image of the sugar monster in both paired associations.
Have fun making these associations. You also can play the same game described above with the chained links, instead of using continuous links.