Motivation and Inspiration

[Joël]

Hello,

In my search for finding interesting ways to memorize, I found this video on youtube. Check it out, I think it's pretty amazing. I hope it motivates/inspires people here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X-xl7_hdWZo

- Jo?l.

[Joël]

Hey, it's me again...

I just finished preparing a set of Persons and Verbs to associate all the pieces with, and I prepared a journey with about 20 locations (from my home to the train station)... The edges memorisation looked something like:

George Bush was flying (yet, I literly had Air Force one in my backyard)
Marco Borsato (Dutch singer) was screaming, making a lot of noise
My dad was partying (I can't forget that, that's very much unlike him)
My boss was eating coockies
Matt Walter was doing nothing (end of cycle, parity)

It's still kind of awkward to convert all the information, but I hope to practice this more.. bye!!..

- Jo?l.

[AvGalen]

Great video, but I think it was part of a bigger video that explained it in a little more detail. Some of the comments made the video a lot clearer. Apparantly he has 1 person, 1 verb and 1 object associated with every card. He makes sentences using the person for the 1st card, the verb for the 2nd and the object for the 3rd.

I have just started learning blindfolded and everyone seems to use stories/pictures. For me it seems easier to just remember positions for the orientation and numbers for the permutation. (Macky's cycle method) I don't think I could make up a story in a reasonable amount of time.

Any other tips for memorization?

[Joël]

Originally posted by AvGalen@Mar 2 2007, 07:42 PM
Great video, but I think it was part of a bigger video that explained it in a little more detail. Some of the comments made the video a lot clearer. Apparantly he has 1 person, 1 verb and 1 object associated with every card. He makes sentences using the person for the 1st card, the verb for the 2nd and the object for the 3rd.

I have just started learning blindfolded and everyone seems to use stories/pictures. For me it seems easier to just remember positions for the orientation and numbers for the permutation. (Macky's cycle method) I don't think I could make up a story in a reasonable amount of time.

Any other tips for memorization?

Hi Arnoud,

To be clear about this, I didn't post this so people would understand what type of method he uses. I just wanted to show that some people can memorise extraordinary amounts of information using the right method.

About making the 'stories' in a short time: This guy memorises a deck of cards in under a minute, with about 32 seconds being his personal best. To memorise 52 cards in 32 seconds, means about .61 seconds per card :).

I am sure with good practice and a good method, converting the information to stories will be very easy. (well, at least I hope so, because I am going to try).

- Jo?l.

[pjk]

I can't watch the video since I am on dial-up. I will go watch it later at the college, thanks for sharing.

[tenderchkn]

That technique works, but it doesn't have to be some sort of story, or location, especially in the context of blindfold cubing. You can use any set of 12 (or 20 if you prefer) arbitrary terms that you can easily associate and convert to numerical values.

I use playing cards to memorize the cube - Ace to Queen is 1 to 12. Instead of using numbers, I assign something for each rank. For example, a jack is a fishing hook, a four is a sailboat, a three is a crab. So a 11, 4, 3 cycle is "fishing on a boat for crabs", memorized as a single unit, instead of three separate numbers. Human beings, on average, can memorize 7 plus or minus 2 units of information, so the more you can squeeze into each unit, the more you can fit into your short-term memory.

[AvGalen]

Could you explain "7 plus or minus 2 units"?

0.61 seconds per card would mean (12+8)*0.61 = 12.5 seconds for memorizing using a Pochman method. Cards are easier because you have to twist the cube during memorisation.

If you compare this to Matyas Kuti starting after only 25 seconds, it seems he is almost as fast.

[Joël]

Originally posted by AvGalen@Mar 5 2007, 09:51 AM
Could you explain "7 plus or minus 2 units"?

0.61 seconds per card would mean (12+8)*0.61 = 12.5 seconds for memorizing using a Pochman method. Cards are easier because you have to twist the cube during memorisation.

If you compare this to Matyas Kuti starting after only 25 seconds, it seems he is almost as fast.

I believe he reached for his BLD after 25, but he actually pulled it down after 27 or so...

Anyway, I know John Louis, who is also a grandmaster in memory, predicted humans can memorise a rubik's cube succesfully in under 20 seconds, with a good method.

- Jo?l.

[AvGalen]

Tyson/Leyan Lo once claimed 15+45 would be possible for memo+execution, so maybe we will get a sub-1 solve eventually. 1.06 has already been done during an average(http://www.speedcubing.com/records/r..._333_av10.html)

[tenderchkn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_term_memory

Read the section on the capacity of short term memory.

But anything meaningful, no matter how much information it contains within it, can be compressed into a unit.

For example, if you were to memorize the following letters: L, C, D, F, B, I, C, I, A, N, A, V, Y - it would take you a lot longer to memorize them individually than if you condense them into LCD, FBI, CIA, NAVY. It becomes four units as opposed to 13.