Mnemonist
Encyclopedia
The title mnemonist refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Such individuals have also been described as possessing an eidetic memory
, although whether such abilities are innate behaviour or somehow learned appears contentious. Individuals famed as mnemonists have become subjects of scientific inquiry.
labs over the last century, and most have been found to use mnemonic devices. Currently, all memory champions at the World Memory Championships
, have said that they use mnemonic strategies, such as the method of loci
, to perform their memory feats.
Skilled memory theory was proposed by K. Anders Ericsson and Bill Chase to explain the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in memory expertise. Generally, short-term memory
has a capacity of seven items
,; however, in order to memorize long strings of unrelated information, this constraint must be overcome. Skilled memory theory involves three steps: meaningful encoding, retrieval structure, and speed-up.
that fall within the capacity of short term memory. Verbal reports of memory experts show a consistent grouping of three or four. A digit sequence 1-9-4-5, for example, can then be remembered as “the year World War Two ended.” Luria’s Solomon Shereshevsky used his synesthesia
to associate numbers and words as visual images or colors to encode the information presented to him. Other subjects studied have used previous knowledge such as racing times or historical information to encode new information. This is supported by studies that have shown that previous knowledge about a subject will increase one’s ability to remember it. Chess experts, for example, can memorize more pieces of a chess game in progress than a novice chess player. However, while there is some correlation between memory expertise and general intelligence
, as measured by either IQ or the general intelligence factor
, the two are by no means identical. Many memory experts have been shown to be average to above-average by these two measures, but not exceptional
Neuroimaging
studies have shown results that support the method of loci as the retrieval method in world-class memory performers. An fMRI recorded brain activity in memory experts and a control group as they were memorizing selected data. Previous studies have shown that teaching a control group the method of loci leads to changes in brain activation during memorization. Consistent with their use of the method of loci, memory experts had higher activity in the medial parietal cortex, retrospenial cortex, and right posterior hippocampus
; these brain areas have been linked to spatial memory and navigation
. These differences were observable even when the memory experts were trying to memorize stimuli, such as snowflakes, where they showed no superior ability to the control group.
for faces, may even be impaired.
Another piece of evidence of memory expertise as a learned ability is the fact that dedicated individuals can make exceptional memory gains when exposed to mnemonics and given a chance to practice. One subject, SF, a college student of average intelligence, was able to attain world-class memory performance after hundreds of hours of practice over two years. His memory, in fact, improved over 70 standard deviations and his digit span, or memory span
for digits, grew to 80 digits, which was higher than the digit span for all memory experts previously recorded . Similarly, adults of average intelligence taught encoding strategies also show large gains in memory performance. Finally, neuroimaging studies performed on memory experts and compared to a control group have found no systematic anatomical differences in the brain between memory experts and a control group. While it is true that there are activation differences between the brains of memory experts and a control group, these are due to the use of spatial techniques to form retrieval structures, not any structural differences.
. Unfortunately, many savants who have performed memory feats, such as Kim Peek and Daniel Tammet, have not been studied in a lab; they do claim to not need to use encoding strategies. A recent imaging study of savants found that there are activation differences between savants and typically developing individuals; these cannot be explained by the method of loci as mnemonic savants do not tend to use encoding strategies for their memory. Savants activated the right inferior occipital areas
of their brain, whereas control participants activated the left parietal region which is generally associated with attentional processes.
Eidetic memory
Eidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...
, although whether such abilities are innate behaviour or somehow learned appears contentious. Individuals famed as mnemonists have become subjects of scientific inquiry.
Structure of mnemonic skills
While the innateness of mnemonists’ skills is debated, the methods that mnemonists use to memorize are well-documented. Many mnemonists have been studied in psychologyPsychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
labs over the last century, and most have been found to use mnemonic devices. Currently, all memory champions at the World Memory Championships
World Memory Championships
The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of mental sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The Championship has taken place annually since 1991 and has been staged by various organisations...
, have said that they use mnemonic strategies, such as the method of loci
Method of loci
The method of loci , also called the memory palace, is a mnemonic device introduced in ancient Roman rhetorical treatises . It relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish, order and recollect memorial content...
, to perform their memory feats.
Skilled memory theory was proposed by K. Anders Ericsson and Bill Chase to explain the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in memory expertise. Generally, short-term memory
Short-term memory
Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory is believed to be in the order of seconds. A commonly cited capacity is 7 ± 2 elements...
has a capacity of seven items
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was published in 1956 by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Princeton University's Department of Psychology in Psychological...
,; however, in order to memorize long strings of unrelated information, this constraint must be overcome. Skilled memory theory involves three steps: meaningful encoding, retrieval structure, and speed-up.
Encoding
In encoding, information is encoded in terms of knowledge structures through meaningful associations. This may initially involve breaking down long lists into more manageable chunksChunking (psychology)
Chunking, in psychology, is a phenomenon whereby individuals group responses when performing a memory task. Tests where individuals can illustrate "chunking" commonly include serial and free recall, as these both require the individual to reproduce items that he or she had previously been...
that fall within the capacity of short term memory. Verbal reports of memory experts show a consistent grouping of three or four. A digit sequence 1-9-4-5, for example, can then be remembered as “the year World War Two ended.” Luria’s Solomon Shereshevsky used his synesthesia
Synesthesia
Synesthesia , from the ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation," is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
to associate numbers and words as visual images or colors to encode the information presented to him. Other subjects studied have used previous knowledge such as racing times or historical information to encode new information. This is supported by studies that have shown that previous knowledge about a subject will increase one’s ability to remember it. Chess experts, for example, can memorize more pieces of a chess game in progress than a novice chess player. However, while there is some correlation between memory expertise and general intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
, as measured by either IQ or the general intelligence factor
General intelligence factor
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...
, the two are by no means identical. Many memory experts have been shown to be average to above-average by these two measures, but not exceptional
Retrieval
The next step is to create a retrieval structure by which the associations can be recalled. It serves the function of storing retrieval cues without having to use short term memory. It is used to preserve the order of items to be remembered. Verbal reports of memory experts show two prominent methods of retrieving information: hierarchical nodes and the method of loci. Retrieval structures are hierarchically organized and can be thought of as nodes that are activated when information is retrieved. Verbal reports have shown that memory experts have different retrieval structures. One expert clustered digits into groups, groups into supergroups, and supergroups into clusters of supergroups. However, by far the most common method of retrieval structure is the method of loci .Method of Loci
The method of loci is “the use of an orderly arrangement of locations into which one could place the images of things or people that are to be remembered.” The encoding process happens in three step. First, an architectural area, such as the houses on a street, must be memorized. Second, each item to be remembered must be associated with a separate image. Finally, this set of images can be distributed in a “locus,” or place within the architectural area in a pre-determined order. Then, as one tries to recall the information, the mnemonists simply has to “walk” down the street, see each symbol, and recall the associated information. An example of mnemonists who used this is Solomon Shereshevsky; he would use Gorky Street, a street he lived on during his life. When he read, each word would form a graphic image. He would then place this image in a place along the street; later, when he needed to recall the information, he would simply “stroll” down the street again to recall the necessary information.Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/pharmacology of the brain...
studies have shown results that support the method of loci as the retrieval method in world-class memory performers. An fMRI recorded brain activity in memory experts and a control group as they were memorizing selected data. Previous studies have shown that teaching a control group the method of loci leads to changes in brain activation during memorization. Consistent with their use of the method of loci, memory experts had higher activity in the medial parietal cortex, retrospenial cortex, and right posterior hippocampus
Hippocampus
The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in...
; these brain areas have been linked to spatial memory and navigation
Spatial memory
In cognitive psychology and neuroscience, spatial memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one's environment and its spatial orientation. For example, a person's spatial memory is required in order to navigate around a familiar city, just as a rat's spatial memory is...
. These differences were observable even when the memory experts were trying to memorize stimuli, such as snowflakes, where they showed no superior ability to the control group.
Speed Up
The final step in skilled memory theory is speed up. With practice, encoding and retrieval operations can be sped up dramatically. As a result, storage of information can then be performed within a few seconds. Indeed, one confounding factor in the study of memory is that the subjects often improve from day-to-day as they are tested over and over.Innate vs Learned
The innateness of expert performance in the memory field has been studied thoroughly by many scientists; it is a matter which has still not been definitively resolved.Evidence for Memory Expertise as a Learned Skill
Much evidence exists which points towards memory expertise as a learned skill which can only be learned through hours of deliberate practice. Anecdotally, the performers in the World Memory Championships all deny any ability of a photographic memory; rather, these experts have averaged 10 years practicing their encoding strategies. Another piece of evidence which points away from an innate superiority of memory is the specificity of memory expertise in memorists. For example, though memory experts have an exceptional ability to remember digits, their ability to remember unrelated items which are more difficult to encode, such as symbols or snowflakes, is the same as that of an average person. The same holds true for memory experts in other fields: studies of mental calculators and chess experts show the same specificity for superior memory. In some cases, other types of memory, such as visual memoryVisual memory
Visual memory describes the relationship between perceptual processing and the encoding, storage and retrieval of the resulting neural representations. Visual memory occurs over a broad time range spanning from eye movements to years in order to visually navigate to a previously visited location...
for faces, may even be impaired.
Another piece of evidence of memory expertise as a learned ability is the fact that dedicated individuals can make exceptional memory gains when exposed to mnemonics and given a chance to practice. One subject, SF, a college student of average intelligence, was able to attain world-class memory performance after hundreds of hours of practice over two years. His memory, in fact, improved over 70 standard deviations and his digit span, or memory span
Memory span
In psychology and neuroscience, memory span is the longest list of items that a person can repeat back in correct order immediately after presentation on 50% of all trials. Items may include words, numbers, or letters. The task is known as digit span when numbers are used. Memory span is a common...
for digits, grew to 80 digits, which was higher than the digit span for all memory experts previously recorded . Similarly, adults of average intelligence taught encoding strategies also show large gains in memory performance. Finally, neuroimaging studies performed on memory experts and compared to a control group have found no systematic anatomical differences in the brain between memory experts and a control group. While it is true that there are activation differences between the brains of memory experts and a control group, these are due to the use of spatial techniques to form retrieval structures, not any structural differences.
Evidence for Memory Expertise as an Innate Ability
Much of the evidence for innate superiority of memory is anecdotal and is therefore rejected by scientists who have moved toward accepting only reproducible studies as evidence for elite performance. There have been exceptions, however, that do not fit skilled memory theory as proposed by Chase and Ericsson. Synesthetes, for example, show a memory advantage for material that induces their synesthesia over a control group. This advantage tends to be in retention of new information rather than learning. However, synesthetes are likely to have some brain differences which give them an innate advantage when it comes to memory Yaro, C., & Ward, J. (2007). Searching for Shereshevskii: What is superior about the memory of synaesthetes?. Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology, 60(5), 681-695.. Another group which may have some innate memory advantage are autistic savantsSavant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
. Unfortunately, many savants who have performed memory feats, such as Kim Peek and Daniel Tammet, have not been studied in a lab; they do claim to not need to use encoding strategies. A recent imaging study of savants found that there are activation differences between savants and typically developing individuals; these cannot be explained by the method of loci as mnemonic savants do not tend to use encoding strategies for their memory. Savants activated the right inferior occipital areas
Occipital lobe
The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area 17, commonly called V1...
of their brain, whereas control participants activated the left parietal region which is generally associated with attentional processes.
Famous Mnemonists
- Creighton CarvelloCreighton CarvelloCreighton Carvello was a British mnemonist. Carvello was born in Patna, India but lived in the UK from 1949 until his death. His first World Record for memory was in 1979 when he recited the first 15,186 places of Pi....
- Ben PridmoreBen Pridmore-Achievements:Pridmore is the 2009 World Memory Champion, a title he also won in 2004 and 2008. From Derby in the United Kingdom, Pridmore achieved this by winning a 10-discipline competition, the World Memory Championship, which has taken place every year since 1991.He held the official world...
- Harry LorayneHarry LorayneHarry Lorayne is an American magician and a memory-training specialist and writer who was once called "The Yoda of Memory Training" by Time magazine. He is well known for his mnemonic demonstrations and has appeared on numerous television shown including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...
- Dominic O'BrienDominic O'BrienDominic O'Brien is a British mnemonist and an author of memory related books. He is the eight time world memory champion and works as a trainer for Peak Performance Training....
- Rajan MahadevanRajan MahadevanRajan Srinivasan Mahadevan is a numerically gifted memorist born in Madras, India in 1957. Rajan moved to Mangalore in 1959. He discovered his exceptional ability to memorize numbers at the very young age of 4 during a party hosted by his family...
- Kim PeekKim PeekLaurence Kim Peek was an American savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social difficulties, possibly resulting from a developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt,...
, the real-life inspiration for the character of Raymond in the film Rain ManRain ManRain Man is a 1988 drama film written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and directed by Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son,... - Shass PollakShass PollakShas Pollak were Jewish mnemonists who, according to the 1917 report of George Stratton in the Psychological Review, memorized the exact layout of words in more than 5,000 pages of the 12 books of the standard edition of the Babylonian Talmud. Stratton's report consists of accounts of and comments...
- S.V. Shereshevskii, from AR Luria's The Mind of a Mnemonist
- Daniel TammetDaniel TammetDaniel Tammet is a British writer. His best selling 2006 memoir, Born On A Blue Day, about his life with high-functioning autism and savant syndrome, was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association.Tammet's second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was named one of...
, autistic savant. Tammet memorised and recited piPi' is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formulae in mathematics, science, and engineering involve , which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants...
to 22,514 places in five hours to raise money for the National Society for EpilepsyNational Society for EpilepsyThe Epilepsy Society is the largest medical charity in the field of epilepsy in the United Kingdom, providing services for people with epilepsy for over 100 years...
on Pi DayPi DayPi Day is a holiday commemorating the mathematical constant π . Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 , since 3, 1 and 4 are the three most significant digits of π in the decimal form...
, 2004. - Ed CookeEd Cooke (author)Edward "Ed" Cooke is a British writer and author of Remember, Remember: Learn the Stuff You Thought You Never Could. He is also a Grand Master of Memory and the co-founder of Memrise, a free online educational platform that uses memory techniques to optimise learning...
- Wang FengWang Feng (mnemonist)Wang Feng is a Chinese mnemonist. On December 5, 2010 he won the 19th World Memory Championships in Guangzhou, China with a record score of 9486 points, taking him to the top of the world rankings....
- Johannes MallowJohannes MallowJohannes Mallow is a German memory sportsman.He studies Communication Technology at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg....
- Brad Williams
- Ramón Campayo
- Srivatsan Rajagopalan
- Shraman N L
See also
- Funes the MemoriousFunes the Memorious"Funes the Memorious" is a fantasy short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. First published in La Nación in June 1942, it appeared in the 1944 anthology Ficciones, part two . The first English translation appeared in 1954 in Avon Modern Writing No. 2...
- Hafiz (Qur'an)
- Mental calculatorMental calculatorMental calculators are people with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation, such as multiplying large numbers or factoring large numbers...
- Memory sportMemory sportMemory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, is a competition in which participants attempt to memorize the most information that they can then present back, under certain guidelines...