Associations: the Master Key to Memory

Everyone knows that all learning is based on memory.  Even at work, the more you remember, the easier will be your work.  Searching for information is done by Google, but remembering the information and applying the information have to be based on memory.  So it is important for us to have good memory.  Most people think that memory skills are difficult to learn and apply, in fact some even say that "I'm too old to remember" or "Age is catching up" to justify their forgetfulness. 

When people say, "I forgot", they didn't, what really happened was that they didn't remember it in the first place.  For human memories are infinite, we are not computers with limited memory.  How can you forget something that you didn't remember, originally?  So if you do remember something, how can you forget it? 

One of the fundamentals of a trained memory is Original Awareness.  Anything of which you are originally aware cannot be forgotten.     

So memory tools are all based on awareness.  All memory, whether trained or untrained, is based on association.  So the first rule of memory: You Can Remember Any New Piece of Information If It is Associated with Something that You Already Know or Remember. 

If you know how to consciously associate anything you want to remember to something that you already know, you'll have a trained memory.  It is as simple as that.  For example, few people knows the map of Italy, but if you have been told that Italy is shaped like a boot - the shape of Italy cannot be forgotten once that association was made. 

To strengthen your memory, In Order to Remember Any New Information, It Must Be Associated to Something You Already Know or Remember in Some Ridiculous Way.  The addition of 'in some ridiculous way' will force the Original Awareness that's necessary to remember anything, it will force you to form associations consciously.  Pictures are used in associations because visual is the most used sense for humans (in addition to hearing, touching, feeling, smell and taste).  

The one problem you have in Association is in making the association.  How can you associate something new to something you already know?  There are 4 tools to help you.  

1. Substitution. You need to picture one item instead of the other.  Like picture boot for Italy
2. Out of Proportion.  When you see things larger than life, you cannot erase it it. Like Italy for a Giant Boot.
3. Exaggeration.  Things that are overstated cannot be ignored, like Italy is made up of 'a few hundred millions of boots formed together.
4. Action.  An action is a moving picture and thus easier to remember.  To remember Italy, imagine it is made up of 'a few hundred millions boots thrown up in the sky'

Applying any of the above tools will help you to make the picture ridiculous. Understand that a logical picture is too vague to be registered in the mind, thus we need to dramatize and make things ridiculous for memory. 

Let's do a simple test.  The first 10 states of USA in alphabetical order are:

1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. Arizona
4. Arkansas
5. California
6. Colorado
7. Connecticut
8. Delaware
9. Florida
10. Georgia

So let's associate the 10 states to some ridiculous pictures:

1. Alabama - A big Album
2. Alaska - a big bowl of Laksa
3. Arizona - a Zone of Hot Sauna
4. Arkansas - a big Ark falling from the sky hitting a Car
5. California - big girl Kelly in a Phone (kelly-phone)
6. Colorado - Color a toe
7. Connecticut - connect and cut a piece of gigantic cloth
8. Delaware - Deli wear
9. Florida - Flora the
10. Georgia - George in a jar

To remember all the 10 states in alphabetical sequence, you need form linkages in their pictures.  Like:

• My big Album has a big bowl of Laksa, thrown in a Zone of hot Sauna.  Next to it I see a big Ark falling from the sky hitting a car. Kelly in that car is on the phone, she colors her toes, connect and cut a piece of cloth to make a Deli Wear, put in some flora to present to George in a jar!

Note that if you can remember the 10 states in the right order, you can recite them in a reverse order. That's the beauty of memory, once remembered, it is never forgotten.  Happy remembering!