I have a question for the people that are very good with images. Do you sub vocalize the image before you form it? I currently audio loop 4 single syllable letter pairs in my head and then picture it in 1 or 2 loci depending on the event. This is an improvement from going an image at a time, but some mnemonists say that sub vocalization slows you down and that I should get rid of it. Visually reading the cube without sub vocalizing at all feels very weird for me right now and I am slow at it, but I had a similar feeling with look ahead and that is very important. What are your thoughts?
Good question!
However, I feel that vocalisation mostly uses the phonological loop of memory and is relatively short-term. But it depends what you're trying to memorize...
Although vocalization sometimes helps, I personally feel that I'm at the stage where I don't need it. But that may be because I've done so much practice. In particular, I've been focusing on the actual
visualisation of the images rather than the
vocalisation of the letter pairs (in the early stages at least.) However, for example with +-centers on the 555bf I use short-term memory and more of the 'vocalisation' rather than the imagery in order to memorize these bits. So I guess it depends what you're trying to do.
These examples apply to me, but I'm not too sure about the top pros such as Marcell, Dan, Oleg etc. I.e:
333bf = more vocalisation for corners , more imagery for edges (depending how fast you are...)
444bf = " " " ", more imagery for wings and centers...
555bf, more vocalisation for +-centers and corners, more imagery for everything else.
But I'd recommend reading up on the
Working Memory Model (Baddely and Hitch) because this has helped me immensely. Manipulate how your mind processes information and use more visual information in your memo, for example.