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How to Memorize Anything (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

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  Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lutha and I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses
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  a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
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  matter where in the world they live. Think of an event in your life
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  that you remember very well. You can think of any memory as long as
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  it is clear. Think back, where were you, who were you with,
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  what time was it? Can you smell anything, taste anything? Why
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  do you think you remember this event so well? Memory is strange. Sometimes
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  a person might remember something that is extremely important to them. At other times,
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  she may remember a fact that does not matter at all. It may
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  be difficult to learn something she wants to remember, like an English vocabulary word,
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  But this does not always have to be the case. There are actually
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  special methods that you can use to improve your memory. Today's Spotlight is on
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  how to use your memory to remember anything. No one's memory is perfect.
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  What a person remembers can be unreliable. Even the most intelligent people forget things.
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  This does not mean a person has a bad memory. It means he's
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  not using his mind to his advantage. The brain has two kinds of memory.
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  The first is short term or working memory. This kind of memory is
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  useful for a very short time. Experts say you can store four sets of
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  information in your short term memory at the same time. Information in short term
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  memory will last about twenty to thirty seconds or less, then it disappears.
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  The second kind of memory is long term memory. Long term memory is what
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  people usually think of when they say they have memorized something. Memories in the
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  long term memory stay a person can remember them again and again. These are
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  memories like the names of people you know, how to do a task,
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  or memories from a special event from a long time ago. The trick of
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  remembering is moving information from short term to long term memory. No one knows
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  exactly how this happens, but scientists do have theories. Richard Mose is a
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  writer at HowStuffWorks dot com. He writes that going from one kind of memory
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  to the other is all about attention. You must focus on particular things.
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  To properly create a memory, you must first be paying attention. You cannot
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  pay attention to everything all the time, so most of what you see every
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  day is filtered out. Only some information passes into your conscious awareness. How
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  you pay attention to information maybe the most important part of how much of it
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  you actually remember. People also member things that are similar to what they already
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  know. This is because of the structure of the brain. Most of the
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  brain is made of cells called neurons. When we learn something different, neurons
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  connect to each other. When these neurons stay connected, it forms a memory.
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  The more connections a memory has, the stronger it will be. For
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  example, think of a person you know. When you think of that person,
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  the same neurons become active in your brain every time. Memories can also
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  link to other memories, making them stronger still. This is why memories with
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  multiple senses last longer. For example, a memory where you experienced something by
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  hearing, tasting, and smelling may be very strong because you used more sense
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  in the experience. These memories connect different parts of the brain. Think of
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  the person you just remembered. Do you remember what their laugh sounds like?
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  Do you remember the sound of their voice. Finally, we make memories when
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  we have repeated experiences. Each time we do the same thing, our brains
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  make new connections. Scientists say our neurons activate or fire. Richard Mose uses
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  practicing music as an example. If you play a piece of music over and
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  over certain cells in your brain fire repeatedly in a certain order. This makes
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  it easier to repeat this firing later on. The result you get better at
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  playing music. You can play it faster with fewer mistakes. Practice it long
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  enough, and you will play it perfectly. Practicing or repeating information is one
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  of the most popular methods of remembering. If a person has vocabulary cards,
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  they are probably using this method. But this is not always the best way
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  to memorize. There are many methods which use the other ways we remember,
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  or combine them. Another memorization method is called a pneumonic device. One well
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  known pneumonic device is called an acronym. Acronyms are helpful in memorizing words.
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  To create an acronym, find a list of words you would like to memorize.
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  It is usually helpful if there is something similar about them. Then take
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  the first letter from each word, organize those letters into a word phrase.
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  You have now made an acronym. Each letter in the final word stands in
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  for another word, So to memorize many words, you only have to remember
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  one. One famous acronym for learning English conjunctions is fanboys. The F stands
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  in for the word four. A stands for and the rest stand for nor,
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  but or yet and so. Acronyms work because they make the information simple.
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  Another memorization method is visualization. In visualization, you think of an image
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  or picture that represents the thing you are trying to remember. For example,
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  imagine a person is trying to remember the name Melanie. He might think of
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  a picture. In the picture, a woman is holding a melan fruit.
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  She is crushing the melan with her knee. The sound of the two images
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  will remind him of the name Melanie. The image is also very strange.
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  It is easier for the mind to remember unusual things. Visualization works because it
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  makes the foreign information into something familiar. One of the most interesting pneumonic devices
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  is called the method of Losie. It is also called a memory palace.
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  To create a memory palace, a person must think of a familiar area,
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  like a house or a street. Then she must imagine a journey through that
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  space. In the journey, she stops at different familiar areas. In each
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  of these areas, she places an item. The item must have something to
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  do with the thing she is trying to remember. Melanie Pinola is a writer
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  and mental athlete. She competes with others to remember long lists of numbers or
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  words. She wrote about the memory palace technique for lifehacker dot com. For
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  everyday use, the memory palace is helpful for remembering a list of things.
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  Start a journey, beginning at a place you know very well, like your
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  home. Begin at your door. If you want to remember a grocery list,
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  imagine the items you need. Imagine a container of milk overflowing on your
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  doorstep. When you get inside, perhaps two giant stakes attack you in your
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  doorway. Continue to your living room to find pretzels dancing on the rug.
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  Again. The more movement, strange experiences, and senses you put into your
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  memory palace, the better for your memorization. This may seem like a lot
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  of work creating more information than the person needs to memorize, but the method
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  of LOSI is actually a way of hacking the brain. To remember something,
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  the brain needs a network of information. Without this network, the memory will
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  fade quickly. The method of LOSI creates a new network. It uses multiple
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  senses, and then it attaches the network to something familiar. This way,
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  what you are trying to remember enters the long term memory. There are many
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  more pneumonic devices, but most memory methods involve one of these three steps.
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  Make it simple. Visualize it, that is, imagine you can see it
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  in your mind. Connect the information to something you already know. If you
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  can master these simple tips, you will be able to remember huge amounts of
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  information. What will you memorize now? Do you have any special ways you
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  remember things? What are they? Will you try a new method? You
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  can leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.
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  You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The
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  writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer was miccio Ozaki. The
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  voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes
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  were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called how
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  to Memorize Anything. Visit our website to download our free official app for Android
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  and Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight
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  program. Goodbye,