Ready To Smoke A Telephone?

The bizarre is easier to remember

How well did you do in last week’s test? 

You were given 10 unassociated items to remember sequentially: 
1) carpet, 2) paper 3) tumbler 4) bed 5) fish 6) chair 7) telephone 8) cigarette 9) keyboard and 10) shoe.
 
A score of 5 or more would be a good one. If you scored less, or want to score a 10, try the Link Method, which boils down to associating the first item with the second, the second to the third, and so on. Make your association as ridiculous, absurd and illogical as possible and most importantly, see the pictures in your mind’s eye.

Now let’s create some ridiculous images to link these items.

Create a picture of (1) a carpet, in your mind. Any carpet, perhaps one from your own home. Then link it to (2) paper. Perhaps you could picture a carpet made of paper. See yourself walking on it and hear the paper crinkle underfoot. (A piece of paper lying on a carpet is not ridiculous enough; you will not remember it.)

Now link paper to (3) tumbler. Perhaps you see yourself sitting inside a giant tumbler or see it pouring paper instead of water. Pick whichever seems most ridiculous to you. Remember, you must see the picture.

Next, make an association between tumbler and (4) bed. A tumbler lying on a bed would be too logical. So picture yourself sleeping inside the large tumbler instead of the bed, or perhaps the bed balanced on top of the giant tumbler.

Then you could see a giant (5) fish sleeping in your bed or a bed made of a giant fish. Then the gigantic fish sitting on a (6) chair. And you sitting on the dialing keys of a huge (7) telephone. Perhaps you”re smoking a telephone instead of a (8) cigarette? Or smoking a (9) shoe? Or stubbing out a lit cigarette into a shoe-shaped ash-tray? And finally, see yourself wearing (10) keyboards instead of (9) shoes or a large shoe with keys, on which you are typing.

That’s it. If you have actually ‘seen’ these mental pictures in your mind’s eye, then you will have no trouble remembering the 10 items in sequence.

Since we”re brought up to think logically and I”m asking you to think illogically, you might find it difficult at first. But after some practice, you will have no problem at all in creating ridiculous pictures.
 
Some Simple Rules

• Visualise items out of proportion, very large, even gigantic.
• Whenever possible, picture items in action. Unfortunately we remember violent and embarrassing events better than the pleasant ones. Anyone who has been in an accident or been acutely embarrassed doesn’t need memory training to recall the experience. So try to get violent or shocking action into your images.
• Exaggerate the amount of items, like millions of cigarettes flying out of the telephone. If you had also seen them lit and burning your face you would have had both action and exaggeration.
• Switch your items, simply picturing one item instead of another i.e. smoking a shoe instead of a cigarette.

What you have memorised will be easily retrievable for hours or days. You will also be able to recall the list backwards with no extra effort.

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Thought for the Week

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us”
Oscar Wilde
Irish Playwright
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times