Memory Methods

Thanks. THose tips got my time down.

i use visual for my whole cube and muscle memory (tapping the cube)/visual for orientation. ive gotten up to 3 cubes multiblind in 15 minutes easily with my memory method. but it seems to be weak compared to story or journey methods. ive recently switched to a story method for centers for 4x4 just making up the letter combination words as i go, and its gotten me faster. I just want to know is there a barrier for visual memory for multiblind or bigcube blind? Im also very much looking into megaminx blind, i just have to find communicators that work very well for mainly edges.

I can't BLD solve yet but I can memorize the cube pretty fast (like 2 mins) I use a memory palace. Search it on google 'cause it take too long to explain.
But basically you have a room that you know very well (like my bedroom) and you can place stuff in it (in your head, not in real life) so when you visit it in your head, you can recall the stuff you put in there.
In my memory palace (which currently is my whole house) i made my sister's room into my rubik's room, I put all my algs and stuff in there. In that room I have an object that represents each cubie on the cube itself, so when memorizing I look at the cube going from left to right, starting on the U face, then F, R, B, L, and finally D.
Each cube is represented by an object, so I simply place a number on the object, that way I know that the Red White and Blue corner appeared first, on the UBL face.

You should memorise in a linear order like that, it won't help.

Hey, i am new to blding, and i know how to solve it and everything

It is only my memory technique that i need to get down.

I tried memorising the pieces in a raw way (eg: RU LD BR UB would become ruldbrub) but i cannot memorise the entire cube.

I have thought of a method similar to stefan pochmanns.

If he says banana ( yellow green) then green yellow would be banana inverted or banana2.

I would use this and the roman rooms method combined.

Scramble: (not a real one) L2, T perm, L2 with white on top and green of front.

I see that it is yellow red so i do chips and ketchup (eg: yellow blue would be chips drenched in water)

if it was red yellow i would say chips and ketchup inverted (upside down)

I've got an idea for edge permutation memorization. Don't know if it's new but it's a modification of the letter pair system (by Chris Hardwick I think?). I'm not gonna talk about how I came up with the idea, but here's what it is in general (works mainly for M2 and freestyle 3-cycle):

Assign a consonant and a vowel to each of the 22 stickers (so each sticker has two 'things' assigned to it). When I say vowel, I don't mean only AEIOU (because there wouldn't be 22 vowels anyway, unless it's some other language, I don't know). So to make up all 22 of them, I thought of assigning monosyllabic 'sounds' e.g. -an, -ang, -am, -ar, etc. Or you could also come up with more retarded sounding ones if it helps you memorize more easily, e.g. -oop, -urf. So when you memorize in pairs (good for both 3-cycle and M2), you memorize about 5-6 'words' everytime. I think the worst case scenario for M2 is 6 2-cycles, and that would be 8 words, which I don't think is a lot. (Though I'd rather do 3 2-edge-swap algorithms in this case.)

An example for an even cycle would be: ban murf la foop gay. Or something like that, hope you get the idea.

Why I think it could potentially be better than the letter pair system:
1. You don't have to come up with an image for every single pair of letters, you're just creating words on the fly.
2. I came up with this idea for BLD not multiBLD, so whatever you memorize should only go into your short term memory, and images, in my opinon, take too long to first imagine then memorize then process. For these words, you would just say them out loud to yourself while you're memorizing and then keep repeating them like a mantra over and over again. This works very well for me. The words don't go into my memory at all, I just keep repeating them so that they become some sort of tongue muscle memory and I just hear what my mouth says (I'm not consciously saying them, my mouth is) when I need to recall.
3. I think it's easier to remember words that don't exist than words that exist, in the sense that non-existent words would leave a deeper impression, at least for me, dunno if it's the same for everyone.

Please give your opinions on this idea, or link me to a thread that's already discussed this idea. I haven't come up with a full system myself yet, I just wanted to get more opinions before I started working on it.

Edit: Oh and obviously it works for corners as well, and you can use the exact same lettering scheme you've used for edges

Here's my amazing idea for old pochmann corners. I just started and I suck at BLD and I can consistently memo sub-30seconds corners only and several times sub-15. Most of the time, it's recognizing and finding pieces. With this system, I won't be surprised if some people can memo corners in 5 seconds. Hopefully after practicing for a few more weeks I can average sub-15 for memo.
Here it is:
Define each position with a consonant. I use B C D F G L M N
if the target sticker is facing U/D, let the vowel be A. if the target sticker is facing B/F, let the vowel be I. if the target sticker is facing L/R, let the vowel be O. Just sound out everything as you go along the memo.

Example:

memo: Ba Di Go No Fa La

execution: J1 perm; R:Y perm; F:J1 perm; F':Y perm; Y perm; D2 R2:J2 perm.

@wuqiong: I've also had this idea before, for M2 edge stickers. But that means 11-12 words to memorize most of the time (for edges), for ease of memorization these words have to make sense to you (and ba di go no fa la doesn't really make sense to me), and that's how I came up with my idea (the one above yours). But that idea is modified to suit the English-speaking community, here's my original, original idea that you might like since you know Chinese.

I'm came up with the idea because I know Chinese (and there has to be an advantage for knowing an Asian language, because its structure is very different from Western languages), so my original idea for M2 edges was this: for every edge piece assign a consonant (sheng1 mu3) and for stickers on UDFB assign a group of vowels (yun4 mu3), and for stickers on LR assign another group of vowels. I'll explain the 'group of vowels' thing later.

And here's the powerful part about knowing Chinese: you can almost always form a sentence that makes sense (not a lot of sense, but yeah, at least there's some sense) without a lot of thinking because each word can have 4 'sounds' (actually 5, including 'no sound'). And what makes this system even more powerful is, you can choose almost any word you like with the 'group of vowels' 'function'. Here's an example:

Group of vowels 1: anything that starts with a, o, e
E.g. a, an, ang, ai, ao, o, ou, ong, e, en, eng, er, etc.

Group of vowels 2: anything that starts with i, u, v (yeah v means u with 2 dots above)
E.g. i, ia, iao, iang, ian, u, uo, ua, v, ve, etc.

Get the idea? And you can adapt this for corners! Say I group a, e for UD; i, u for BF; o, v for LR, this isn't very good grouping but it's just an example. Your 'ba di go no fa la' instantly becomes 'ba du gou nong fei le' (and I came up with this right here, right now), it means 'made the poisonous dog fat' (ba3 du2 gou3 nong4 fei2 le0), if you get what I mean. See the flexibility? Give your comments on this system.

For my meomrization I assign each corner a number and make a cycle, its straightforward. But on the edges, I give each one a letter and memorize in 3's. person, verb, person. It's very usefull.

Blah:

You've made it so much more creative! Perhaps I'll be creative and do that for multi. Right now, my system is simply fast and has little thinking for one or two cubes.
I just sound out everything and go. The memo is as fast as recognizing the pieces. (I'm quite slow now, 15-40 seconds, but after I get more familar, sub-10 memo for corners only should be quite easy.) I plan to memo corners last and do them first, so I can quickly do them and forget them.

I actually modified this idea from my idea for turbo edges orientation (which I gave up on). In that system: A = 2 edge correct; I = first right, 2nd wrong; O = 1st wrong, 2nd right; U = both wrong.

so I make one syllable random sounds (I was going to make a PAO word list for all the cases.) Buffer was UF. So CAF would have been a U cw perm for me.
Now, I going to make a list of images for M2 edges. That's not going so well...

Thanks Wuqiong Actually it's one of the best sentences I've ever came up with I laughed at it for quite a while, and I just smile randomly even now when the image comes to my mind. Anyway I've never implemented the method before simply because I'm too lazy to familiarize myself with the letters (right now I still use visual + tapping), you can be the first to try and tell me if it's useful for multiBLD!

And I see how it can be slow for normal BLD. I know how your current idea can be fast for normal BLD because I do just about the same thing, but I do 3OP for corners so for permutation I just memorize 8 corners in Chinese numbers (being monosyllabic helps a lot), and I take about 5-6 seconds (I actually timed it). So I think your goal of 10s for stickers is quite reasonable and fully achievable in the near future. If it helps motivate you, I started this Chinese number for memo thing only more than a week ago

Maybe I should introduce this to the Chinese speedcubing community in Mainland China, Taiwan and HK (I speak Cantonese too and I think it'll work for Cantonese) Any Chinese speedcubing forums you know of?

blah said:

and I take about 5-6 seconds (I actually timed it).

Click to expand...

Including CO memo, or just CP? I sucked when I used to use 3 cycle. My best memo was like 35seconds. It could be as long as 2 min if I’m stuck on the really hard CO.
I really like Old Pochmann. It’s so easy compared to 3OP, I think.

No no no, you crazy? If I take only 5 secs for CO and CP then my total memo for the cube would be like sub-15 -.-" I average 1 min for memorizing the entire cube. I spend a lot of time on the edges because I don't have numbers for them, I just tap. I'm planning to do M2 in the future but at the moment I'm still doing 4-step 3-cycle. Lazy to switch 'cause I hate being slow again (Not that I'm very fast now, but yeah, average.)

i do not get the roman rooms concept.

i have no method for memorizing at all, and ive gotten to 4/5 mutliblind by very minor mistakes. But, its very unreliable, and i cant seem to grasp another method clear enough to adjust to my liking for full use

fanwuq said:

Here's my amazing idea for old pochmann corners. I just started and I suck at BLD and I can consistently memo sub-30seconds corners only and several times sub-15. Most of the time, it's recognizing and finding pieces. With this system, I won't be surprised if some people can memo corners in 5 seconds. Hopefully after practicing for a few more weeks I can average sub-15 for memo.
Here it is:
Define each position with a consonant. I use B C D F G L M N
if the target sticker is facing U/D, let the vowel be A. if the target sticker is facing B/F, let the vowel be I. if the target sticker is facing L/R, let the vowel be O. Just sound out everything as you go along the memo.

Example:

memo: Ba Di Go No Fa La

execution: J1 perm; R:Y perm; F:J1 perm; F':Y perm; Y perm; D2 R2:J2 perm.

Click to expand...

Thats quite interesting, i like it! I tried it a little bit I cant seem to really remember it for long time. I get them mixed up if I stop repeating them. But its very very promising, i will try working on it more. hmmm. Advantage to this is that the translation from image to execution with this is almost instant for me. Right away I can locate the target sticker with ease. Also the memorization is incredibly fast. I've been struggling with the memory part a little though

^^ hey, i use that!

thanks wuqiong!

badmephisto said:

fanwuq said:

Here's my amazing idea for old pochmann corners. I just started and I suck at BLD and I can consistently memo sub-30seconds corners only and several times sub-15. Most of the time, it's recognizing and finding pieces. With this system, I won't be surprised if some people can memo corners in 5 seconds. Hopefully after practicing for a few more weeks I can average sub-15 for memo.
Here it is:
Define each position with a consonant. I use B C D F G L M N
if the target sticker is facing U/D, let the vowel be A. if the target sticker is facing B/F, let the vowel be I. if the target sticker is facing L/R, let the vowel be O. Just sound out everything as you go along the memo.

Example:

memo: Ba Di Go No Fa La

execution: J1 perm; R:Y perm; F:J1 perm; F':Y perm; Y perm; D2 R2:J2 perm.

Click to expand...

Thats quite interesting, i like it! I tried it a little bit I cant seem to really remember it for long time. I get them mixed up if I stop repeating them. But its very very promising, i will try working on it more. hmmm. Advantage to this is that the translation from image to execution with this is almost instant for me. Right away I can locate the target sticker with ease. Also the memorization is incredibly fast. I've been struggling with the memory part a little though

Click to expand...

Same with me! I think the trick is to come up with consonants that do not sound very much alike. Much of the time, you can form some 2 syllable words. However, sometimes (very rarely), it does become some sort of tongue twister. Sometimes, if the sound is easy, I can remember for maybe half an hour, but if it's a tongue twister, I forget as soon as I finish the cube. Usually, I can still recall it after about 2min after the solve. The really great and weird thing for me is that when I memo like this, I unconsciously do visual memo at the same time (which I have trouble doing just by itself.) That serves as an extra check to make sure the memo. Several times, I repeat a sound and realizes that it doesn't feel right, so I followed my visual memory and that solved the cube.

Thanks, everyone! I’m glad that people are adopting this method! I think this is very fast for people during just one cube or multiBLD’s less than 4 cubes who do not have amazing memories. I’m also using this for edges. I’ve tried it for a while and kept on failing using it for M2, but today, I’ve stickered a new cube (only the edges), and that helped very much with my concentration; I’m pretty sure the memo was under 1min, which is nice for first day. I’m going to train with this cube until I get a very high accuracy and decent speed, then move on to whole cube.

fanwuq said:

Same with me! I think the trick is to come up with consonants that do not sound very much alike. Much of the time, you can form some 2 syllable words. However, sometimes (very rarely), it does become some sort of tongue twister. Sometimes, if the sound is easy, I can remember for maybe half an hour, but if it's a tongue twister, I forget as soon as I finish the cube. Usually, I can still recall it after about 2min after the solve. The really great and weird thing for me is that when I memo like this, I unconsciously do visual memo at the same time (which I have trouble doing just by itself.) That serves as an extra check to make sure the memo. Several times, I repeat a sound and realizes that it doesn't feel right, so I followed my visual memory and that solved the cube.

Thanks, everyone! I’m glad that people are adopting this method! I think this is very fast for people during just one cube or multiBLD’s less than 4 cubes who do not have amazing memories. I’m also using this for edges. I’ve tried it for a while and kept on failing using it for M2, but today, I’ve stickered a new cube (only the edges), and that helped very much with my concentration; I’m pretty sure the memo was under 1min, which is nice for first day. I’m going to train with this cube until I get a very high accuracy and decent speed, then move on to whole cube.

Click to expand...

Aah, I see you're approaching BLD the same way I did: first attack the corners, then the edges, so that your next full solve will improve dramatically Just as a guide for you, my corners were ~40 and my edges ~1:10 before I went on to a full solve, and my PB leaped from 3:xx to 1:xx instantly So maybe you wanna use my times as a guideline or something

By the way, your memo method can be used for multiBLD, as I mentioned my modification some posts back. Too bad only works for Chinese, but I don't see why someone can't modify it again to make it work for English, or any other language for that matter.

blah said:

fanwuq said:

Same with me! I think the trick is to come up with consonants that do not sound very much alike. Much of the time, you can form some 2 syllable words. However, sometimes (very rarely), it does become some sort of tongue twister. Sometimes, if the sound is easy, I can remember for maybe half an hour, but if it's a tongue twister, I forget as soon as I finish the cube. Usually, I can still recall it after about 2min after the solve. The really great and weird thing for me is that when I memo like this, I unconsciously do visual memo at the same time (which I have trouble doing just by itself.) That serves as an extra check to make sure the memo. Several times, I repeat a sound and realizes that it doesn't feel right, so I followed my visual memory and that solved the cube.

Thanks, everyone! I’m glad that people are adopting this method! I think this is very fast for people during just one cube or multiBLD’s less than 4 cubes who do not have amazing memories. I’m also using this for edges. I’ve tried it for a while and kept on failing using it for M2, but today, I’ve stickered a new cube (only the edges), and that helped very much with my concentration; I’m pretty sure the memo was under 1min, which is nice for first day. I’m going to train with this cube until I get a very high accuracy and decent speed, then move on to whole cube.

Click to expand...

Aah, I see you're approaching BLD the same way I did: first attack the corners, then the edges, so that your next full solve will improve dramatically Just as a guide for you, my corners were ~40 and my edges ~1:10 before I went on to a full solve, and my PB leaped from 3:xx to 1:xx instantly So maybe you wanna use my times as a guideline or something

By the way, your memo method can be used for multiBLD, as I mentioned my modification some posts back. Too bad only works for Chinese, but I don't see why someone can't modify it again to make it work for English, or any other language for that matter.

Click to expand...

I just made an English list of noun/verb that are very similar to the sounds that I plan to use for edges and make a story with them...

fanwuq said:

Here's my amazing idea for old pochmann corners. I just started and I suck at BLD and I can consistently memo sub-30seconds corners only and several times sub-15. Most of the time, it's recognizing and finding pieces. With this system, I won't be surprised if some people can memo corners in 5 seconds. Hopefully after practicing for a few more weeks I can average sub-15 for memo.
Here it is:
Define each position with a consonant. I use B C D F G L M N
if the target sticker is facing U/D, let the vowel be A. if the target sticker is facing B/F, let the vowel be I. if the target sticker is facing L/R, let the vowel be O. Just sound out everything as you go along the memo.

Example:

memo: Ba Di Go No Fa La

execution: J1 perm; R:Y perm; F:J1 perm; F':Y perm; Y perm; D2 R2:J2 perm.

Click to expand...

This method sounds really interesting fanwuq, I'm going to give this a try in the morning, it sound faster to memo than a story method which I am trying to use. how do you do your edges?

edit - I've been messing with this and had an idea, what about making a full sensical word instead of just a consanant and a vowel? Do this on the fly, rather than assigning each sticker a word, that way you can try and make the sentence make some sort of sense.

eg your Ba Di Go No Fa La could be - Bath Dive Going Nowhere Fat Lass (that's much easier to remember)

edit - I've been playing with this some more, (I use P instead of fanwuq's N)

Pa Li Ma Ga Ci Bo Da - Patch Linford's Manhood Gash, Cinky Boner Dad
Fi Ca Bo Po Ma Go Lo Fi - Find (the) Cat Bones (in the) Poop, Magic Gophers Long Fingers

as you can see it's a combination of fanwuq and blah's chinese methods and it seems to work for me. This could also work on the edges, I might try that another time, at the moment I just do this >

corners - one sentence
edges - story method with letter pair images

what do you think?