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