Memory hack Derren Brown teaches the method of loci Big Think

Memory hack Method of loci Watch the newest video from Big Think a https 3A 2F 2Fbigth ink 2FNewVideo a Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos a https 3A 2F 2Fbigth ink 2FEdge a ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Psychological illusionist Derren Brown shares some of his go-to methods for quick and simple memorization including the famous method of loci One way to easily recall to-do lists is to attach tasks to the items you encounter along a walk you know well like your route home from the subway station By linking a bizarre and memorable image to something we want to recall later we make it easier to memorize Brown also reveals his party trick for remembering the names of new people you meet ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DERREN BROWN Derren Brown began his UK television career in December 2000 with a series of specials called Mind Control In the UK his name is now pretty much synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation Amongst a varied and notorious TV career Derren has played Russian Roulette live convinced middle-managers to commit armed robbery led the nation in a s ance stuck viewers at home to their sofas successfully predicted the National Lottery motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30 000 feet hypnotised a man to assassinate Stephen Fry and created a zombie apocalypse for an unsuspecting participant after seemingly ending the world He has also written several best-selling books and has toured with eight sell-out one-man stage shows Read Derren Brown's latest book Happy Why More or Less Everything Is Fine a https 3A 2F 2Famzn to 2F38PpE2i a ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT DERREN BROWN We all think we re terrible at remembering things we all complain we can t remember faces or remember names We can remember faces often but we can t remember names at a party and we all think we have terrible memories So the reality is I think we sort of imagine maybe that some people just have amazing memories and we have images of Meryl Streep who can supposedly just photo read her script I think these things don t really quite exist in the way we imagined that they do All memory techniques are based on the idea of working with what the mind already does which is forming memorable connections between bits of information so we lock them together So for example to give you a practical example everything like everything great goes back to the Greeks This is an ancient Greek technique it s called the Loci system and you can use this if you need to remember any long list of things I use this at night if I need to remember stuff I ve got to do the next day but I m too tired to write them down So here s what you do it sounds like a lot of work but it isn t once you get your head around it Have a walk that you know around an area that you can create in your mind very easily so it could be your street it could be the walk from the subway station to your house or whatever And all you need along that area are a few set points that you can remember without having to think about it because you know there s always a zebra crossing there there s a post box mailbox I m probably using quite English expressions here there s a certain store there s a bush whatever just things that you re very familiar with Say the first thing you ve got to remember is I have to take my suit to the dry cleaners and I ve got to do that tomorrow so you have to make a bizarre image of that thing Say a suit that is so clean it s sort of gleaming bright white that you can barely look at it and you attach that to this image of the mailbox so you imagine someone has dressed up the mailbox in a gleaming white suit or is trying to stuff it in but the light is shining out of the little slot whatever you just make a bizarre image that links the two and then you forget about it you don t need to think about it And then the next thing you do at the next location and the next thing you do at the next location and so on And as long as you ve made those images as bizarre and ridiculous as I m making them sound which is what s important all you do the next day is you just mentally walk down that route again and you go why is there a white suit Oh yeah I ve got to take my suit in And then the next one maybe is you know you had to call your mother and what is it It s a big shrub by the side of the road so there s your mother in there waving a telephone from the shrub and there s branches and leaves caught up in her hair whatever just a silly image that you don t forget So they would do this and the bigger your area of locations are the better I did this with the history of art I used to read To read the full transcript go to a https 3A 2F 2Fbigthink com 2Fvideos 2Fmemory-hack a

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