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Memory Guide > Newsletters > Issue 83 > Companion Podcast > Transcript

This is the second podcast for Memory & Mind, a companion program to the Memory Key Newsletter, a monthly newsletter put out by Memory Key dot com, a website devoted to providing information about memory and learning to help you achieve permanent memory improvement.

In this podcast, following on from the new articles I posted on the art of memory and memory champions, and the matters I discussed in my newsletter, I will be discussing the value and limitations of mnemonics, leading to a discussion of the importance of attention.

As I do from time to time, I recently received a request to sell a memory product on my website, and as is my habit, I checked out the site offering this wonderful product. Even for something as simple as link requests, I am very selective in what I choose to display on my site — I turn down most requests. I have thousands of external hyperlinks on my website, but most of them come from my own discoveries!

Anyway, I checked out the site, although the name of it had already given me a clue as to what I would find (sorry, I can’t give you the name, because my policy is only to mention by name products and people I approve of — partly for legal reasons, and partly because even bad publicity is publicity). As I suspected, the site promised vast mental prowess, all to be yours after just a few hours of training (all of which, it is implied, take little effort).

The memory improvement area has a number of these hyperbolic programs around. Like losing weight, and getting rich, improving your memory is something we’d all like to achieve, preferably without exerting or inconveniencing ourselves too much!

Like all of us, I wish it were true that you could change yourself and your life without inconvenience and with minimal expenditure of time or energy.

A novelist (Pagan Kennedy) wrote recently in the Boston Globe about the idea of a ‘memory pill’. This was a big idea in science fiction when I was growing up, in the wake of the famous planaria experiments. Planaria — flatworms — were taught a simple learning task (really simple — we’re talking flatworms here!), then chopped up and fed to other planaria, who then, supposedly, showed signs of improved learning.

This was of course hugely exciting, and spawned a number of scifi books that included the idea that in the future we’d be able to learn all sorts of complicated stuff simply by ingesting a pill. Unfortunately, it turned out to be wrong. The planaria experiment, if properly done, has never been replicated.

Recent times have, as Kennedy mentions, seen a resurgence of interest in the idea of a memory pill, but it’s no longer the simple take-this-and-you’ll-know-all-about-string-theory approach. We know now that memory is much more complex than this, and now all we hope for is something that will improve our ability to process information. Most particularly for those whose ability is already compromised by age or some other damaging factor.

But such a drug wouldn’t obviate the need to put time and energy into learning and thinking.

There are no techniques or strategies that will take away the need to apply yourself — to spend time, to spend energy (and brains use lots of energy), to apply attention — in order to acquire information. But there are techniques and strategies that will enable you to spend that time, energy, and attention, more efficiently, so that the amounts of time and energy are reduced.

I want to emphasize the need for attention. Some memory improvement (or speed reading) programs seem to imply that with the proper application of their unique program, you will simply … acquire … the necessary skills — there’s a paint-by-numbers feel about it all. If you paint this part here this lovely green, and this part indigo, and this part maroon, and so on, you will end up with a beautiful picture — all you have to do is stay within the lines and follow the simple instructions.

This may be true for the picture, but only because someone has drawn the picture first!

In the case of learning a cognitive skill, things are a little more complex. You can’t learn how to learn simply by ‘following the instructions’; you need to bring your mind to bear. And you can’t acquire information simply by following some automatic sequence of actions. Information, like life, is too messy for that.

Well, perhaps I should qualify that statement. There is a certain paint-by-numbers quality to learning and practicing mnemonic strategies (for those who are not sure what I mean by ‘mnemonic’ strategies, as opposed to memory strategies, check out the mnemonics section on my website). However, as I discuss in my new article on memory champions, people who have put years of hard work into practising mnemonic strategies that enable them to memorize screeds of meaningless material, such as random words and numbers, as well as more interesting (but still essentially arbitrary) information such as epic poems – well, they have certainly achieved their aim of being able to perform such tasks – but they haven’t become experts in anything other than the ability to learn meaningless material by rote. Their brains show none of the structural changes that develop in the brains of those who develop coherent, richly connected bodies of knowledge.

So, perhaps there is some aspect in which you can develop a particular cognitive skill by simply “following the numbers” (although not without effort! Or attention. Such people will have devoted thousands of hours to practicing their craft, and the use of strategies such as the method of loci certainly needs attention, as you search your mind for appropriate images and associations). However, to achieve more general memory improvement – memory improvement beyond the regurgitation of verbatim data – requires something more – it requires understanding. And understanding requires a whole different level of attention.

We’re still a long way from understanding exactly what attention is and how it works – attention is indeed revealing itself to be nearly as elusive as that other slippery concept – consciousness! But, as I discuss in my new article on the Art of Memory, our ancestors, who had, after all, a great need for memory (given the shortage of books), had a deep understanding of the practical principles for building a well-stocked memory, and I believe several of their principles were specifically designed to entrain attention.

Perhaps it was also partly for this reason, and not simply because of their greater memorability, that they also regarded it as very important that memories (and do note that I am talking about information you read in books, not personal memories) should be tagged with strong emotion and personal connections, involving as many senses as possible. This approach can be contrasted with the bloodless mechanics of modern versions of similar mnemonic methods.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that according to Carruthers, the, sometimes complex, mnemotechnics were not so much to enable medieval scholars to memorize vast screeds of text ("memorize" in the sense we tend to use it - i.e., learn "by heart", word for word), but to remember the gist - what the texts were about, the narrative flow, etc. In fact, they thought rather poorly of the ability to simply regurgitate a text – what was valued was the ability to connect a text with another – to come up with a new way of understanding or interpreting a text – to use a familiar text to shed light on a new problem.

But let’s get back to attention. As I say, we still don’t understand a lot about attention, least of all how to ensure we are applying it. I think it is solely for that reason that memory improvement advice doesn’t put more emphasis on attention. We deal with what we can, which is eminently reasonable. But as practical memory users, we should all be aware of how utterly crucial attention is. It’s no coincidence that discussions of famous geniuses so often remark on the extraordinary powers of concentration they have. I believe so-called savants are also blessed with extraordinary powers of concentration, which is surely a significant factor in their accomplishments.

Perhaps we don't know a lot about how to entrain attention, but it is worth spending time thinking about your own experiences of being in a state of great concentration. Try and work out the conditions in which you have achieved this, because it is quite an individual thing.

Music, for example, can be an aid to concentration or a distraction. Musicians usually find music a distraction (unless of course the idea is to concentrate on the music!), because they can’t help but attend to the music. The rest of us are more able to use music as “background”, but of course it does depend on the nature of the music. Some music is more non-intrusive than others. Research suggests that whether music is helpful depends on three factors: the type of music; the type of memory or learning task; and the individual themselves. Personally, I generally play the same CDs over and over (familiarity means it’s easier to ‘tune them out’), but which ones I play depends on what I’m doing. Routine work gets my more interesting vocals – ones where the lyrics are amusing. Less routine work gets standard vocals. Work that really requires concentration gets instrumental music, and when I need intense concentration, I don’t play anything at all.

As well as working out what conditions help you concentrate, you should also dwell on what it feels like to be in that state. You will find it much easier to achieve a state of concentration if you have a very clear idea what it feels like.

It may be that you have little experience of being in a state of concentration, and little idea what it feels like. In that case, I would advise you to practice some meditational technique – which doesn’t have to be meditation per se. I discussed this in a recent newsletter.

In my blog, I mentioned a recent theory that mental immaturity, meaning a "child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge", was on the rise. The theorist suggested that this was occurring because of the increasing need for adults to keep learning and keep changing, because of the instability in the labor market and the need to keep up with technology. But while from this point of view this is clearly a good thing, there is, of course, a downside. Among the negative consequences he cited a shorter attention span. I’m not so sure a short attention span is a consequence of mental immaturity. Children can have great powers of concentration and can attend to particular things for considerable periods of time. Indeed, the major thing my partner and I have noticed in terms of the effects of the passage of time on cognitive function, is a lessening of our childhood abilities in this regard.

Having seen children in a Montessori environment, I would go so far to suggest that the reason it might be thought that children have short attention spans is because the standard education system inhibits their natural powers of concentration. And not only the education system – the whole environment in which we live, with its emphasis on haste, multitasking, and multiple and constant conflicting demands for attention. Which is, I suggest, the real reason for shorter attention spans in both adults and children. Perhaps the first thing many need to do if they want to train themselves to improve their powers of concentration, is remove much of the demands for attention from their environment, at least for part of the day. And note that these demands can be both external and internal – such as those little voices telling you of all the other things you should be doing!

Well, that’s all from me this month. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. References and a transcript can be found on my website.

References

The Proust pill by Pagan Kennedy, June 25, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/06/25/the_proust_pill/

the Art of Memory http://www.memory-key.com/Mnemonics/aom.htm

exceptional memorizers: http://www.memory-key.com/NatureofMemory/champs.htm

Carruthers, Mary. 1990. The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521429730/ref%3Dpd%5Fsim%5Fbooks/103-4041346-6304613

Meditation and the brain
http://www.memory-key.com/newsletters/issue_70.htm

Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising, June 23, 2006
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/06/23/immature_hum.html?category=human&guid=20060623110030