M2M — Week 3–Card Memorisation
This month I aim to complete the first two challenges of my year-long Month to Mastery (M2M) accelerated learning program. These are:
- memorise the order of a shuffled deck of playing cards in under four minutes
- complete one continuous set of 100 push-ups
In this post, I’ll be breaking down my methodology, learnings and attempts from Week 3 of the card memorisation challenge. In case you missed them, you can view my post from Week 1 (where I introduce the challenge) & Week 2.
Recap — My Second Full Deck Memorisation Attempt
On Day 15, I recorded my second full-deck memorisation attempt. Here’s the condensed video:
As covered in my previous post, it took me 9:13 minutes to memorise the deck and a further 17:16 minutes for recall, with 48 out of 52 cards correct.
I have 15 days remaining to cut 5:13 minutes from my memorisation time. Let’s go.
16.12.19 — Day 16 — Moonwalking with Einstein
Today I thought it would be beneficial to complement the time I spend practising to memorise cards with a better understanding of the theory and research behind improving our memories. Therefore, I began the Audiobook ‘Moonwalking With Einstein’, in which Josh Foer provides an overview of the history, science and philosophy of memory while documenting his year-long sprint from memory virgin to 2006 USA Memory Champion.
I’m hoping to find ways to incorporate new methods for improving my memorisation and recall. Although it’s still early days, the book has already reinforced the following crucial point:
Extraordinary memories are made, not born
As external methods for transcribing, storing and accessing information were created, memory has become decreasingly important. Whereas previously it was critical to the survival of humans to memorise which plants were safe to eat and interpret meteorological cues in times of planting and harvest, nowadays we often turn to Google before even thinking about the question or problem ourselves.
Predictably, as with any other skill we no longer use, we have become worse at memorising information. But not because we are anatomically less able to do so than our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Or even the Romans. We simply no longer use appropriate systems for encoding and remembering.
As we have covered, developing an exceptional memory means perfecting three skills:
- Internalising and mentally navigating detailed spatial maps of well-known locations → e.g. Memory Palace
- Imagining memorable and vivid images that link information to places in those locations; and
- Encoding abstract information into visualisable objects for use in the previous skill → e.g. the number ‘1’ could be visualised as a thin man leaning on a windowsill
Through effective chunking, encoding and deliberate practice, it is possible to go from having an average memory to having an extraordinary one. After all, that’s the process Josh followed to go from novice(!) to national memory champion in a single year.
There’s hope for us all.
17.12.19 — Day 17 — Memorisation Attempt 3
I’ve started to increase the rate at which I film myself memorising cards for a touch of extra motivation. After all, no one enjoys seeing themselves fail on camera. Also, by recording myself, I can focus wholly on the attempt and use the footage later to analyse and correct any repeated mistakes I am making.
Here’s my latest attempt:
I did not have time for video editing this time so full video only I’m afraid. I would not recommend you watch it in its entirety…
We separate the process into 3 parts. Timings refer to full-length video.
1. Memorisation — 6:54 minutes
starts at 00:51minutes and ends at 07:45 minutes.
It took me 6:54 minutes to memorise the deck, an improvement of 2:19 minutes from last week.
Making big jumps like this Similarly to my previous attempt, The metronome was set for higher speed but I wasted some time at the end checking the first few cards of the deck to jolt my memory.
2. Recall — 23:27 minutes
Woah… that’s a lot of minutes…
In all honesty, during the final 10 minutes of the recall phase, I had to take an (educated) guess regarding the placement of certain cards. I was mainly going off instinct and vague encoded memories rather than a clear 3-card PAO image in a specific location. This could be a result of:
- I’m still adapting to the faster speed (better); or
- There remains some instances in my PAO system that are too banal and therefore easily forgettable (worse)
3. Simultaneously flipping both decks
Surprisingly, I only made 3 mistakes, getting 49/52 cards correct. Maybe my brain subconsciously remembered more than I first thought…
18.12.19 — Day 18 — Rest Day
19.12.19 — Day 19 — Circus Inside a Restaurant?
I’ve begun visualising increasingly weirder things. Today I went for lunch with my parents at a great dim sum place in Soho called Yuautcha. When planning my journey using Citymapper, I saw that the closest station to Yuautcha is Oxford Circus. Instead of trying to remember the name of the station (which I constantly forget), I visualised a circus being performed inside the restaurant, with all performers wearing white oxford shirts. I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget it now.
I’m beginning to notice more and more instances in my daily life where these associations are improving my ability to remember.
For some reason, I never seem to remember which way to turn the tap in my kitchen to get hot/cold water. Although I’m convinced it changes almost daily, I find it hard to believe there’s a mischievous plumber who sneaks into my home every day just to mess with me.
After some serious investigative work, I’ve concluded that turning the tap to the left = cold water. Here’s how I remember that now:
I’ve associated the Labour Party (a left-wing party) with the cold water due to their general poor general election results (cold performance).
Sure, I’ll admit these are both minor things to commit to memory. But aren’t those the ones we forget the most?
20.12.19 — Day 20 — Reaching a plateau
Since my attempt on Day 17, I seem to have reached a plateau. I’ve tried several memorisation attempts daily since then, but I have been unable to recall more than 35–40 cards correctly. In times like these, I find it helpful to fall back on the words of Bruce Lee for guidance:
“There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.”
— Bruce Lee
Although it may be considered a little dramatic for a card memorisation challenge, the message holds. Progress is not always linear. And instead of giving up when reaching a plateau or a dip, it is crucial to push through and reach new, greater goals.
Tomorrow, I will try some new techniques and adapt my Memory Palace — PAO system.
21.12.19 — Day 21 — Interaction is key
I think I’ve solved the problem that’s been holding my progress back.
Up to now, as I place the 3-card PAO images within my memory palace, I vary between:
- Having them interact with their environment, and
- Placing them in the locations, with no interaction.
In several cases, instead of choosing ahead of time an object in each location for the PAO image to interact with, I have simply chosen locations on their own. Then, as I memorise the PAO instance, I attempt to link it to one of the objects in that location. Big mistake. Predictably, with several options to consider each time, I often don’t have time to do so.
For example, at my second memory palace location, I usually imagine the person (P) doing action (A) with object (O) in front of the house’s front door.
However, no matter how vivid and unique the PAO image I created was, as a consequence of it not interacting with the environment, nothing is linking it to that specific location in the house.
So when it came time to recall the deck, even when I could recall the PAO instance clearly, I was having the additional difficulty of placing them at the correct stage in the memory palace.
In the example of the hallway above, I’m now using the painting in the hallway as the object for the PAO instance to interact with. In many cases, that translated to the Person (P) doing Action (A) while looking at a painting of the Object (O) on the wall.
I believe this approach will greatly improve my memorisation and recall. Let’s see in the next few days.
22.12.19 — Day 22 — Video Memorisation Attempt no4 — Breakthrough!
Time for my latest video attempt!
As usual, I’ve trimmed it down and sped up the boring parts. Full video (on Youtube) can be found here.
The process can be separated into 3 parts. Timings refer to full-length video
1. Memorisation
starts at 00:58 and ends at 07:20
It took me 6:22 minutes to memorise the deck, an improvement of 32 seconds from last time.
2. Recall
starts at 07:41 mins and ends at 19:59 mins
It took me 12:18 minutes to recall the order of the deck. That is a decrease of 11:09 minutes from last time! This is the metric I’m most pleased about, as it shows that during recall, I’m now able to remember the PAO instances and locations more clearly.
Also, as you can see in the video, I’ve begun using a new method when laying out the cards on the table, grouping them in their respective PAO instances. This has been surprisingly helpful, making it a lot clearer to see which cards are missing.
3. Simultaneously flipping both decks
starts at 20:30 mins and finishes at 22:49 mins
I managed to (yet again..) get 48/52 cards correct!
The perfect recall continues to elude me, unfortunately. However, I am encouraged because I was simply careless this time, rather than confusing distinct cards.
There were two instances where I swapped the order of two cards when placing them on the table. In one of the cases, I incorrectly recalled Harry Potter (P) praying (A) on a surfboard (O) in the bathroom, when I had memorised Harry Potter (P) surfing (A) on a cross (O).
There are still little details to correct, but I feel I’ve reached a turning point.
That brings Week 3 to a close. I now have ten days to cut a further 2:22 minutes.
Bring. It. On.
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