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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,