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How to Train Your Brain and Boost Your Memory Like a USAMemory Champion

Here's a little secret you might never have guessed: The people who can accomplish incredible mnemonic featslike memorizing the order of a shuffled deck of cards or hundreds of random numbers in minutes don't havephotographic memories. They have normal brains like you and, yes, me. This past weekend I competed in the15th annual USA Memory Championshipan olympiad of sorts where "mental athletes" test their power of recall.Lucky for me, I learned a few tricks from the reigning champ for the second year in a row, Nelson Dellis. Here arethe techniques Nelson taught me that you can start incorporating into your everyday life to make your memorystronger.

Memory Techniques Anyone Can LearnAlthough my memory is fine in general, I have to admit, I'm horrible with names. I am so bad that I forget aperson's name before he even finishes saying itit's like I don't even want to hear it. After oneconversation/training session with Nelson, however, I was able to remember dozens of strangers' names in acouple of minutes.

Nelson, a 28-year-old former software developer turned "mnemonic mountaineer," was an average student inschool with, he says, an average memory. When his grandmother Josephine started losing her memoryandmemory of himto Alzheimer's disease, he was prompted to learn more about improving memory. Now he hastwo national memory competition wins under his belt and the record for memorizing 303 random numbers in fiveminutes (beating his record last year of 248 numbers). His message is that anyone can do it. It's all in the trainingand technique.

My Memory Training Boot CampMy boot camp for this event started two weeks before the competition. I received two bottles of brainstrong DHAsupplements (from the event's sponsors), a t-shirt, a training manual, and a list of the events, which included: a15-minute memorization of 117 names and faces, 5-minute memorization of 500 numbers, 15-minutememorization of a 50-line unpublished poem, and 5-minute memorization of a shuffled deck of cards. I seriously

had no idea what I was getting into.

"How's your memory?" Nelson asked, at the start of our training conversation. Um, ok. I guess?

When I flipped to this frightening grid of the 500 random digits (there are 25 rows of 20 numbers), which I wassupposed to be able to memorize in 5 minutes, I nearly fell off my chair:

Make a Picture and Anchor It Somewhere

That grid of numbers was the most intimidating part, but in my training session with Nelson he taught me how tolook at it so it was slightly less intimidating. (I have to admit, I only decided to do the numbers event at the lastminute, on a whim.) There are two steps, basically, for all memory challenges, whether you're in a strange mentalsport/hobby or trying to remember where you parked your car:

1. Turn abstract, boring things that the brain doesn't like to remember and can't really latch onto (like namesand numbers) into more visual ones.

2. Find a place to store or anchor mental images where you're more likely to remember themin your"memory palace," a.k.a., in the journey method.

So, for example, for remembering names and faces, he said to take a name like Nelson and try to turn it into apicture by associating it with a famous person like Nelson Mandela (step 1). Then for step 2, find a prominentplace on that person to anchor it, for example on his biggish noseso imagine Nelson Mandela crawled up insidehis nose. The more vivid, grotesque, sexual, or unusual, the better.

For the name, don't look at how the name is spelled, but how it sounds. Break it up into syllables and turn it intopictures. (If you didn't know a Nelson, you could think Nel is like kneeling and son is like the sun, so someonekneeling or a knee pointing at the sun.)

A prominent place (or peg or anchor) could be a piece of clothing, an eye, mustache, or whatever stands out toyou on that person.

During the competition, one of the photos had a guy named Neil with sunglasses on and I thought of Neil Gaiman,the science fiction/fantasy/graphic artist, so I drew skulls on his sunglasses, which helped me remember hisname. In another photo there was a girl named Laurie, like the snotty-nosed one I knew in grade school, so Iimagined a tissue box underneath her nose. I think I got those two names right, at least.

My brainstrong Boot Camp manual suggests Joe might be Sloppy Joe for the image and if the person Joe'sanchor is a mole on his face you could imagine licking a Sloppy Joe off of Joe's mole. Gross.

In truth, the more exaggerated and absurd the better (I had to tap into my inner, secret, lurid side sometimes.) Andthe more personal the associations, the better, too.

In sum: When you meet someone: Catch and say her name, make a picture out of the syllables of her name andplace that picture onto whatever anchor/feature you've chosen for that person. The next time you see that person,you'll see that image in that feature and remember her name, instantly. (Just don't blurt out what prominent featureyou've chosen to remember her by or the image you've made up, and try not to stare at the feature!)

Kevin Spacey Fencing Doughnuts with a Sneaker on My Couch

For remembering lots of digits and random cards, the same fundamental techniques (make abstract things morevisual and anchor it somewhere) still apply, but stronger techniques and systems are also needed.

The technique everyone used is the Dominic System, invented by memory champ Dominic O'Brien, whichbasically translates numbers to letters. We turn digits into two-letter initials for people and associated actions andobjects, so we can better visualize them. So, for example, the number 0, because it is round, is an O, and sinceit's at the start gets the two-letter translation OO. Many people use Ozzy Osbourne as their person for that number0, the action could be biting the head off a bat, and the object a bat. It's easier to remember Ozzy Osbourne bitingthe head off a bat than a 0 in a sea of numbers.

But for the system to work, you have to make it personal, so for memorizing the deck of cards, for each of the 52cards I had to create a person with an action and object. The Jack of Hearts became my husband frying eggs andthe object was eggs in a pan. The King of Spades (KS) was Kevin Spacey (which I thought worked out well

initials-wise), lighting a cigarette, and the object was a lighter. Edward Scissorhands (ES) was trimming hedges,and the object was hedges.

And then you need to find a familiar place to store the information. We've noted how previous memory championshave built a memory palace to peg information in familiar places or loci. It's the same technique Nelson taught me.In my memory palace, I walked through my house, starting at my front door, and placed these familiar people ornumbers on my furniture.

The system enables you to memorize three cards at a time quickly. Imagine the person of the first card doing theaction of the person on the second card with the object of the person on the third card. Flipping three cards up, Isaw Audrey Hepburn (Queen of Diamonds) taking a bath (5 of Hearts) with a pirate sword (Jack of Spades) on mycouch. Scooby Doo (Six of Diamonds) playing the cello (6 of Spades) with a dumbbell (Ace of Spades) on mykitchen counter. And Nicholas Cage (9 of Clubs) yodeling (3 of Diamonds) with Batman's grapple gun (4 of Clubs)on my entertainment center. Ok, that's not so weird.

It takes a heck of a time to set up and practice, but it also stretches your brain and when you practice putting thecards together, it really does make you think creatively (Kevin Spacey trimming hedges with Edward Scissorhandsknife-hands and a hobbit ring?). I was impressed with how fast the memory champs could go through a deck ofcards (Nelson has the record for remembering the order of a deck in a minute and three seconds.)

Your Memory Training Boot CampFor everyday use, the memory palace is helpful for remembering a list or sequence of things. Start a journeybeginning at a place you're very familiar with, say, your home, starting with your doorstep. So for a grocery list, theexample goes, imagine a container of milk overflowing on your doorstep, and when you get inside, perhaps twogiant steaks attacking you in your foyer. Continue to your living room to find pretzels dancing on your rug.

Again, the more animation, exaggerations, and senses you can put into your memory palace or journey, the betterfor your memorization. And the more you strengthen your memory and keep practicing to sharpen your brain, thebetter your chances of fighting off Alzheimer's disease.

If you don't think you're a visual person, incorporate other senses: sounds, smells, touch. In everyday life, paymore attention to how things look and sound and feel, which might improve your visualization skills. Start lookingmore at things and paying more attention. (I confess, pure lack of attention is probably why I always forgotpeople's names and faces!)

If you really want to train like a memory champ, try this great name remembering game, download Memoriad(Windows) competition training software (it's pretty serious), and lurk in the Mnemotechnics forums. And perhapswe will see you at the memory championship next year!

Updated to add: Nelson and the other mental athletes, including a team of kickass high school kids from Hershey,PA, make it look easy, but becoming a memory champ takes serious training and practice. Most of my hourstraining were spent just developing the cards system and working out the numbers system, which in the endwasn't a great one (because I was short on time, instead of coming up with 100 people to memorize for each digit,like I was supposed to, I used 10 characters, from They Might Be Giant's Here Come The 123's videos. Bad idea.On each number, I was stuck in a video loop singing in my head for too long). At home I could do about half adeck of cards in five minutes, but at the competition, dazed and distracted, I only got about half that. I did nameabout a third of the faces right, thanks to practicing with that fun name game I mentioned above obsessively. Inthe end, I ranked 36 out of 46 of all the mental athletes who had come to competeperhaps not bad for someonewho would never have dreamed of entering such a thing before and who had only trained for a few hours over aweek. As Joshua Foer's training-to-champ story suggests too, there's hopeif you train like a world-class mentalathlete.

How to Train Your Brain and Boost Your Memory Like a USA Memory ChampionMemory Techniques Anyone Can LearnMy Memory Training Boot CampMake a Picture and Anchor It SomewhereKevin Spacey Fencing Doughnuts with a Sneaker on My Couch

Your Memory Training Boot Camp