How to learn to remember for a long time. How to remember a lot of information in a short time

Each person periodically faces the need to learn material of various content and volume. This is easy for some, but the vast majority of people face difficulties, not knowing how to quickly memorize a given amount of text.

The work of the human brain has not yet been 100% studied, we only know that we use a small part of the brain's abilities. The psychological processes that take place in the human mind are amenable to daily training. Memory and other mechanisms of consciousness can be developed to unprecedented heights. A strong memory will make it possible to achieve success in any area of human life, it will be needed in "everyday" life, study, and it will easily increase intellectual abilities.

To learn a text, artistic or scientific content, you will need constant memory training with exercises specially designed for this. Human memory is divided into visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile. It is the ability to memorize and store any amount of information.

Each type of memory develops differently in people. It is easier for someone to memorize the text by saying it out loud, and for someone, on the contrary, it is better absorbed after visualizing what has been read. Therefore, it is important to understand which type of memory is better developed in order to use it for memorization in the future.

The same information can be learned well in several ways. There are three ways to remember necessary material in short time.

Method of rational memorization;

It is based on the use of logical memory. In the process of rational memorization, the semantic and logical connection of the material with life experience is fixed in the mind. With rational memorization, there is an awareness of the read text and information is easier to perceive. This method helps to remember the material by heart, trains intellectual abilities and increases knowledge.

Method of mnemotechnical memorization;

This is the most interesting of the three. It helps to remember non-semantic information, due to processing into images and associative links. Mnemotechnical memorization is based on the life experience gained, translating the text into images familiar to the mind. This method helps to remember a large amount of material that does not carry a semantic load. It can be dates, phone numbers, names, addresses. It helps fight everyday forgetfulness by increasing the possibility of rote remembering what is happening.

mechanical memory method.

This method involves memorizing the material. It is considered ineffective and difficult to train, as it can fail at any moment, “falling out” of memory. With age, the ability to rote memorization deteriorates.

memorization techniques

To quickly assimilate the text, different memorization methods are used. One of the most effective methods of thoughtful reading. It is well suited for memorizing large and small volumes. This method is used by actors who, like no one else, need to know how to quickly memorize a text.

First, slowly and carefully read the text that needs to be remembered. Better to read it aloud. When reading, it is necessary to understand the main idea of the text, its main plot, so that you can remember it faster.
If the amount of material is large, we break it into semantic parts. Each part must be learned separately, finding in them the main words or phrases in meaning. This will help in the future, restore all the text in order.
After that, you need to rewrite the entire text, manually. This should be done slowly, delving into the essence of what is written.
After everything is rewritten, we retell what we remember. You need to remember the smallest details, based on keywords. If you can’t remember some moment, it’s better not to peep into the records, but try to do it yourself. You can only watch in case of emergency.
Further, we rewrite for the second time only what we remembered without prompting.
At the last stage, we carefully reread the text again and retell it. It's best to do this before bed.

This memorization method is suitable for learning text verbatim. It will help students, pupils of the school and everyone who needs to know how to learn a large amount of information in a short time. Theater and film actors use this method to remember their roles.

Tricks for quick memorization

There are some more simple but very effective tricks for memorizing the entire text, based on the nuances of how our brain works. For this you need:

Highlight the main points in the text with a bright marker;

This will allow you not to be distracted by the extra part of the text. Actors thus highlight their phrases in the script.

Sing words or text;

This is a non-standard memorization method. Having sung the material, he will better get into memory and it can be remembered faster.

You need to read until the meaning becomes completely clear;

It is very important to feel the feelings and emotions, if it is fiction, that the characters experience.

After reading, ask yourself questions about the content;
Read aloud with expression;
Write the text with the other hand;

If you are left-handed, write with your right, if you are right-handed, write with your left. This tricky way will make the brain spend more effort on analyzing all the written material.

Find a training partner;

Actors rehearse in pairs, it helps in the work. You can also ask a friend to test you on the knowledge of all the material. In a company, learning by heart is more interesting and much easier.

Record the text on the voice recorder;

Record the text on a recording device and listen to it during the day, while doing ordinary activities or during a trip. This will help you memorize a voluminous text without being distracted from other things and without wasting extra time.

Memory needs to be constantly trained. Remembering information consists of encoding it and sending it to a special part of the brain for further storage. If information is needed, it is easy to remember. When it is not used for a long time, the brain will remove it as unnecessary. Forgetting is inherent in a person, it happens after a certain time. This is a natural mechanism of the brain and it helps not to overload the brain with unnecessary information, and if it is not used, it disappears from memory over time.

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« If you lose interest in everything, you lose your memory» Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet, thinker and naturalist).

For each role, the actor has to memorize a large amount of text, while, unlike a TV presenter or teacher, he does not have the opportunity to look at the notes.

But, of course, it is not only useful for actors to strengthen and develop memory, but it will only benefit any person to master the skills of memorizing a large amount of information.

There are a great many methods and exercises for the development of human abilities. So, leader and founder educational portal 4brain - Evgeny Buyanov, on the pages of his project, has collected the most significant and interesting methods for developing various mental skills in a person, and all for the sake of one important goal: "in our time on the Internet it is difficult to find something worthwhile: what you can read and then tell your grandchildren in old age; what can be learned to make the world a better place; which will make us a little wiser and more tolerant”. By walking along you can find a large number of useful, exciting tricks, rules and techniques aimed at increasing the level of memory development and the ability to purposefully memorize. The whole methodology of learning how to memorize, presented on this site is very simple and accessible to everyone.

The more you learn about the ability of memory, the easier it will be for you to communicate with it in the “same language”, which means that you will understand each other for many years, while remaining “true friends”.

So, do not rush to start exercising right away. To begin with, let's decide what kind of memory is best developed for you.

So, Napoleon, possessed, motor memory(we all remember his phenomenal memory for names). The person who has acoustic memory, you need to hear what he teaches. And this suggests that the best option for him is to memorize aloud. A pillar of memory for people visual perception, is a deliberate arrangement of keywords (coloring, drawing, diagrams).

It is also important to determine when choosing a method for memorizing text:

What type of text (what complexity, topics)
How detailed do you need to remember it?
For how long

So, let's, in order to once and for all identify your type of memory, we will conduct one test with you. It's called "Memory type test". For this you need three sheets of paper, necessarily numbered.

Read aloud the words:

Lamp
Pear
Map
Rain
Goose
Hoop
Dog
Sheet
Newspaper

Write down what you remember on the first sheet.

Now read the words to yourself, and be sure to imagine these items:

Teapot
Airplane
Butterfly
Legs
Horse
Board
Candle
Bread
Book
A bike
Moon

Again write down what you remember using sheet #2.

Now read the words and "write" them in the air:

Hare
Skis
Samovar
Axe
A boat
Drive
Mystery
Chair
Biscuit

Write down everything you can remember on the third sheet.

Now the conclusions: if there are more matches on sheet No. 1, you have an auditory memory. On sheet No. 2 - visual memory, on sheet No. 3 - kinesthetic.

Techniques for quickly memorizing text

« Remembering is the same as understanding, and the more you understand, the more you see the good" Maksim Gorky.

Each professional of the "speech" profession has his own tricks, the secrets of quickly memorizing huge amounts of information or text.

In the book "245 Simple Exercises According to the Stanislavsky System" Elvira Sarabyan reveals to us the veil of these secrets.

And here are just some of the excerpts from this fascinating book:

The text instantly "pops up" in memory, if you take the pose that was taken in the theater, in makeup and costume ... that is, you need to enter the desired image. In general, you got the idea!
Also, the book is filled with all sorts of actionable tips, including reading the material aloud. And it is desirable only to repeat the part that is the least memorized. Don't forget to take breaks and rest.
Be sure to train figurative abilities (there is even such a method “Mnemonics (method of associations)”, read all about this technique at.

Now let's play a game "Katena" for the development of creative thinking, described in Harry Lorraine book "Supermemory". You can play both alone and in a company. The rules are very simple. Take any two words. It is necessary to take them as a chain of association words (that is, there must be at least something in common between the words, or vice versa).

Example: Clock and Cloud.

Decision: Clock - Time - Day - Sun - Sky - Cloud.

Come up with your own associations, develop creative thinking. And be sure take the lesson "".

You may have already heard about "Method of Cicero" or is it also called "road method" to memorize a sequence of words. To use the method, it is necessary to prepare the "road" (a matrix of images) in advance.

And the essence of it is this: you must take the first word and create an association with the first image of your matrix. And so it is with every word. And the process of "remembering" the words will work for you when you mentally reproduce the image corresponding to the given word.

Here are some more effective ways that allow you to qualitatively, and most importantly, quickly remember the material (be it a verse, a role or a report):

After reading the text, highlight the main, main idea in it.
Pay attention to the details as you read the text.
Draw parallels with what you already know
Be sure to set yourself internal settings for memorization - actively work both with yourself and with the text. Learn only with desire
Small volume of texts, it is most effective to memorize before going to bed
Divide voluminous (large) information into parts, do not try to master everything in one day
Associate memorization of material with phenomena well known to you (music, colors, numbers)
Stimulate yourself, reward your work (delicious lunch, long-awaited purchase)
If you have to memorize a foreign text, be sure to first make an accurate translation of it.
Everything is complicated, try to simplify as much as possible
Comprehensive use of various senses
Try to cover as many words as possible with your eyes (develop peripheral vision). For this, they are used, including.
Read, learn only with a fresh mind
Work with text in comfortable conditions (good lighting, no external stimuli)
Get enough sleep (thereby you will significantly increase the performance of your memory)

There is another very effective method fast memorization of text - with the help of pictograms(that is, resorting to the help of graphic images). Its principle is exactly the same as in the road method. The picture you drew is a way to quickly reproduce the desired words or sentences.

That's all for today. Load your memory, because as Napoleon I said: « A head without memory is like a fortress without a garrison». If you are interested in the development of thinking more globally, pay attention to the course.

Dear friends, we will be very happy if you share with us not only your impressions of the material presented by our team, but most importantly, the results of your efforts. By this we will make sure once again that our work is not in vain. Please leave your feedback and comments in the line below.

Good luck and have a great memory!

Whatever methods of memorization a person chooses, there are universal conditions that will improve the efficiency of the process. For example:

Memorize meaningfully. The matter becomes more complicated if we are talking about information that is not interesting or important to us. In this case, we need to decide why exactly we need to learn it, what advantages we will get in the future, and still focus on the essence of the material.
Many are also interested in the question of what time is best to learn the material. Here everything is individual, you need to take into account your biorhythms and schedule of the day. For some, a brisk morning is most suitable, for some it is the time before lunch, and for some it is most productive in the evening or even at night.
It is important to create the right conditions. They are also individual: someone requires absolute silence, someone will like calm music. What definitely does not contribute to memorization is the endless vibrations of the phone from incoming messages and calls that are not on business. Therefore, if possible, distractions can be turned off for a while.

To remember the text well, it is important for a person to be sufficiently rested, do not experience acute feelings of hunger and thirst.
Good health is also an important condition for remembering.

Classic cramming

This approach has been used by hundreds of generations of pupils and students who are interested in how to better remember what they read for the exam. It consists in the endless repetition of the same material until it nevertheless remains in memory. This method makes sense.

Repetition is truly the mother of learning. But usually the information squeezed into memory in this way is eroded from it immediately after the need disappears.

In addition, this approach takes a huge amount of time and energy.

Thinking out loud

To memorize information more effectively, you can voice it. There are a couple of tricks here:

Read the text aloud to yourself.
Read the text aloud to someone else.
Record the text read aloud on the recorder and listen to it many times in a row. The method is good because at this time you can do other things - for example, clean the house. This is a good memory aid.
You can even record the text on the recorder and leave the recording, going to bed. Some people claim that this method is quite effective.
It is believed that information is remembered a little better if you pronounce it out loud in raised tones, in other words, shout it out. In this case, it is better to use daytime for learning, because shouting your historical report at night can frighten impressionable neighbors.

retell

Highly effective method, especially if you force someone to act as a listener. When we speak in front of someone, we try to peep less, select words more intensively, thus stimulating memory.

If it was not possible to recruit someone as a listener, you can create such an effect using your own image in the mirror.

Or just exploit the hopeless situation of a domestic hamster. The main thing is the effect of the audience.

take notes

The boring lecturers who insist that students take notes of their speeches are actually right.

When information is not only perceived by ear, but also rewritten, it is remembered much better. Since visual and even motor memory is also connected.

Structure

If the text itself is not structured, it is very important to break it into parts, at least mentally, while learning.

If the material to be memorized is large, it is recommended to divide it into parts, and learn each of them in a new environment.

Reproduce the situation

Those who want to know how to better remember information will be surprised how much this advice helps.

When trying to remember something important, sometimes it is enough to recall the atmosphere in which this knowledge was received.

For example: the atmosphere in the room, the people who were nearby, smells.

Music to help

It is difficult for many of us to remember the lyrics, but the songs, once you hear them a couple of times, are immediately remembered and sung repeatedly. You can go to the trick, and, learning the text, do not read it aloud, but sing it, optimally - using your favorite melody.

Move

Many people like to memorize material not to sit at the table, but to be in motion - for example, walking around the room in circles.

Think figuratively, select associations

This advice applies to more than just love poems. You can find an association with anything if you use various features - for example, colors, shapes, sizes, and similar sounds. It is possible and necessary to come up with abbreviations that are easy to remember, and small but interesting stories - about anything, even about engines or screw installations.

mourn

It sounds strange, but there is a point of view that information in a negative tone is remembered much better.

Starting to study the material, you need to tune in to a melancholy mood

For example, listen to sad music or remember the failures of the day.

The main thing is not to overdo it - learning the material, sobbing over printouts, is not very convenient.

Go out into nature

There are studies that show that people remember much better when learning something in the environment of nature.

This is a great excuse to get outside and get some fresh air once again for those who want to learn how to assimilate a large amount of information.

Looking at beautiful photographs of landscapes can also be an alternative.

Aerobatics

This is the method used by professional memorizers. It is generally accepted that its author is the famous orator of antiquity - Cicero (although there are other versions). It is also called the room system. It consists in the following: the elements of information that need to be remembered are placed in a certain order in a place that is familiar to us. They say that this is exactly what Cicero did: he walked around his own house and presented certain units of performance in it. When each item in the house corresponds to a unit of information that is important to remember, it is easy to recall the familiar environment if necessary. So, the data corresponding to it.

However, it is very important to follow the sequence of items. You need to connect objects in the room and elements of information using associations.

Conclusion

Even if everyone blames a person for having a girl's memory, he is quite capable of remembering a text of any complexity and volume. The only question is how much time and effort it will take. However, if you train your memory, it becomes more and more pliable and enduring, and texts that were previously given with difficulty, a person begins to click like nuts.

Ekaterina Dodonova

Business coach, blogger, memory and speed reading instructor. Founder of the educational project iq230

1. Understand

Very often people try to memorize unfamiliar words and phrases without even understanding their meaning. Perhaps this is enough for a few days, say, to pass an exam. Unless, of course, the lecturer asks to explain what you mean by ablation and what are the signs of those same chromosomal aberrations from the first ticket.

The brain perfectly remembers words connected associatively. He discards incomprehensible letter combinations like garbage, not wanting to waste time on them.

For this reason, most people have difficulty learning. A strange-sounding word does not evoke native and understandable pictures to the heart.

Therefore, for better memorization, you must first parse and understand all new terms. Try to feel the word and associate it in your imagination with familiar concepts.

2. Come up with an association

The presence of fantasy is one of the most powerful tools for remembering information. Mnemonics greatly facilitate the process of memorizing important reports, presentations, texts, including those in foreign languages, due to artificial associations.

Take the word "Monday". What frames are running on your internal screen? It could be the morning, terrible traffic jams, a thought pulsing in my head, a day on the calendar, a page in my childhood diary, or a buzzing office anthill. What do you see?

To make associative connections strong and durable, you can use the five-finger rule. Each finger has its own association, filled with one or another content.

Fingers	Association
Large	"Raisin". Original, absurd, absurd
Pointing	"Emotions". Use only positive
Average	"About yourself beloved." Feel free to associate the object of memorization with yourself
Nameless	"Feel". Connect the senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, tactile sensations
Little finger	"In move". Make your subject move. The brain remembers information faster in dynamics

Thus, the necessary information will be imprinted in your memory at once at all levels of feelings, which will allow you to use it for a long time.

3. Fool the magic number 7 ± 2

The famous American psychologist George Miller found that short-term human memory cannot remember and repeat more than 7 ± 2 elements. The mode of constant information overload reduces this number to 5 ± 2.

Nevertheless, there is a simple way to deceive the laws of short-term memory: the use of the method of stories, which involves the logical linking of disparate memory objects into one chain. You can get a funny, incredible and completely impossible in real life story. The main thing is that with it you can remember more than 15 elements at a time.

As conceived by the director in the next scene, you should swim in a pool filled to the brim with semolina. Yes, just imagine this madness in bright colors. Feel with your skin how semolina sticks to your skin. How hard it is to swim in this warm liquid, although the porridge is not too thick. As in the air it smells of milk, butter and childhood.

4. Repeat correctly

Our brain can be programmed - it's a scientific fact. It requires awareness and daily work in the chosen direction. Therefore, if you have firmly decided that it is extremely important for you to learn English in six months, then the brain has already tuned in to intensive memorization. But in addition to regular training, regular repetition of the material covered is also important.

Use certain time intervals for the best memorization: repeat the material immediately after learning, then after 15-20 minutes, after 6-8 hours (preferably before bedtime) and the last time after a week.

5. Tune in

Perhaps there is nothing worse when a person thinks about himself in negative terms: “I will never cope with this”, “It is impossible for me to remember this”, “I will not be able to learn such a difficult report”. Use only positive affirmations when programming your brain for work and results.

Tune in correctly, tell yourself: “I remember!”, “I have a good memory. I will remember”, “I will remember and easily retell in my own words in two hours”. Customize yourself. The resource state of the brain is your area of responsibility.

Knowing the five secrets of memory, you can easily learn to memorize really complex and versatile materials. In addition, there are many interesting and natural ways for a person to train memory and consolidate the necessary memory objects, which Ekaterina Dodonova also talks about in detail in her book.

Happy reading and have a great memory!

Corbis/Fotosa.ru

Agree, in an attempt to learn twenty French words or speech for the defense of a diploma, or the theory of driving, we usually resort to classical methods: put a book under the pillow, reread the same paragraph until bloody tears, seal the entire living space with stupid pieces of paper. Often they are all useless. But the science of memorization is far from exhausted by them. Yes, that's science! “Don’t give up and think that it’s your memory that is bad,” says Mark Sheed, coach, author of the Productivity Lessons blog. - Initially, the input data for everyone is more or less the same. The secret is to learn how to memorize by choosing a technique that is right for you.” I have selected a few of the best interesting ways I recommend trying them all!

How to improve memory?

1. Write letters. A study conducted in 2008 at the University of Kyoto showed that if, before starting cramming, for 15-20 minutes, remember and write down your sad thoughts and the smallest troubles that have occurred recently, the effectiveness of your studies will increase dramatically. The fact is that we a priori remember everything negative very well. And all the information that comes immediately after the epistolary outpourings, the brain, by inertia, will perceive it as “bad”, which means it will reliably fix it. Not the most fun method, but it really works.

2. Protect the environment. It turns out that the tradition of domestic students to prepare for exams in the country is very wise. Three years ago, psychologists from the University of Michigan found that contemplation of nature increases cognitive function by as much as 20%. By the way, it is not necessary to go to this very nature, you can just look at the photos for 5-10 minutes.

3. Scream louder. Words are remembered 10% better if they are shouted out. It sounds stupid, but thanks to this method, I learned almost half of the Russian-Spanish dictionary. It is not necessary, of course, to yell at the whole house “cat!”, “Walk!”. It is enough to pronounce each word loudly and clearly several times.

4. Be expressive. Another tip for learners of difficult languages: sign all the words and phrases you are learning. Literally: if you learn the conjugation of the verb "jump" - jump. And if you need to learn a dialogue or a complex phrase, act out a skit. You will see, everything will be remembered amazingly quickly.

5. Listen to yourself. After learning some information, say it into the recorder. And when you fall asleep, quietly turn on this record - you need to sleep under it. This is amazing effective way in order to reinforce already familiar, but poorly remembered things.

6. Don't sit still. Learn poems, textbooks, and reports as you circle the room. The fact is that walking activates the work of the brain, and your ability to memorize increases significantly.

7. Change the environment. If you need to study for two exams (or meetings) in one evening, do it in different rooms. The information that we remember under different circumstances is not mixed up in our heads.

8. Throw out the words. A super way to learn a large amount of continuous text, for example, the words of a song or a report. Rewrite this text, leaving only the first letter of each word, and learn it by trying to remember these words. Naturally, at first you will have to look into the original, but in the end it will be enough for you to look at the truncated version and the text will instantly pop up in your memory. It is very convenient to take such a cheat sheet with you.

9. Sleep more. The longer you sleep after you have learned something, the better you will remember this information in the morning. And sleepless nights, on the contrary, significantly impair memory. I want all students to read this and take note. It is better to sleep a couple of hours before the exam than to try to learn more "a couple of tickets."

10. Go in for sports! A lot of research has been done on this topic, and everything has been confirmed: aerobic exercise improves cerebral circulation and memory. Get busy or before you sit down for books: you can memorize at least “Eugene Onegin”. Or at least the first stanza.