Memory Expert Answers Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

Nelson Dellis, five-time USA Memory Champion, answers the internet's burning questions about memory. How come it's easier to remember Taylor Swift lyrics than psychics formulas? How do you remember lines over night? Is there a correlation between exercise and memory? What is a memory palace? Nelson answers all these questions and much more!


Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Ben Dewey
Editor: Jeremy Smolik
Expert: Nelson Dellis

Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Producer: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Associate Producer: Samantha Vélez
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Camera Operator: Rahil Ashruff

Sound: Jeff Gaumer
Production Assistant: Patrick Sargent

Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Paul Tael


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[NelsonDellis]

Thanks WIRED for having me on this episode! Enjoy!

[TonyP_Yes-its-Me]

My memory is terrible, so I started watching this, and then I realized that I had already seen it, and forgotten.

[Omar-wqdz]

I've never heard of a memory champion or coach before. I like how Wired can find experts at topics nobody really knows or thinks about

[jopo]

It would have been great if he introduced himself as "the 4 time memory champion, no wait, 5 time."

[oduckett]

Nelson: Sleep is super important for memory
Me, at 1:05 AM: ok, ok, I get it

[taldarim]

I love how he just doesn't answer questions but gives us little presentation of more or less each question. I would definitely want to see more of this guy! 😊

[mickcollins]

I love how he answered questions in a way that made us more likely to retain the info. He knows that just saying words won't yield much retention, but pictures and stories will last longer in our memories and will link us to the information he was trying to impart.

Well played, memory guy.

[ritalhossam]

Some notes for me to get back to:
3:27 linking method
4:31 first letter method
5:34 memory palace
9:56 adrenaline technique
15:06 how to get things into ur long term memory

[duststorm]

In high school I used to draw in every class, and most of the teachers overlooked it because while I draw, I listen. When the tests came around, I always associated the lesson with the part of the drawing that I had been working on at the time, and it was simple enough that I was a straight-A student without studying.

[bushidobrown]

"Bear Grylls peeing on a thong in your highschool bedroom" isnt a sentence I thought I'd ever hear

[shadowslashful]

I was so confused about the memory palace thing until he did the example with the countries and I'm 99% sure I can recall that at any time now! So helpful, def using that!

[davidfadul]

If this guy forgets your name then you know he did it on purpose 😂

[Paytonrifley]

I used to doodle a lot in class and during lectures and lessons, I got in trouble for it a lot. When I topk tests I would rememeber what I had drawn on certain pages of my notes and immediately would recall what my teacher was talking about while I was doodling that thing, and often remember the answer. Super weird 😂

[jaredwalpole]

I loved this episode. I didn't realize I was unconsciously doing a lot of these already. My go to method for acing tests in school was to study using spaced repetition or interleaving but while I was studying I would listen to the same song on repeat. Then when I needed to recall everything I was studying I would just sing the song in my head and I could recall almost everything, a lot of times the pages eidetically.

[DevonThornton]

Its crazy that by actually making the lists MORE complex and adding MORE to remember, you actually remember it better. The list of countries, he added not only an item related to each, but added an arbitrary item on his desk too. The deck of cards, hes adding a second thing to remember to each card. Fascinating

[BIOS]

0:18 if lack of sleep cause memory loss then how TF people are becoming Doctors? I mean it takes so much toll on body to be a doctor

[brettturner]

Yep, linking totally works. Many years ago I used linking to pass the knowledge test to be a taxi driver. To pass the test I was given a long, random list of streets in my town and I had to remember an adjoining one for each. Pass mark was something like 90%. I learned the whole A-Z in two weeks and passed first time which was unheard of. I have a totally average memory. It's a brilliant way to learn long lists and I still use it to this day. (PS Probably fortunately for everyone I never became a taxi driver, I drove one limo for a school prom and decided it wasn't for me!)

[ruffsnap]

I think some people just naturally have a knack for this kind of stuff.

At 4:27 with the 5-item grocery list, I've heard before of people using stories to remember each item, or even assigning a different word based on each first letter and things like that, but honestly I'd forget the order of the story, parts of the story, etc. I'd really have to sit and run it over and over and over in my brain. And with a 5 item list, it'd honestly just be easier for me to remember the 5 words.

[mikotagayuna]

Schoolteachers tend to be very good at remembering your names because they tend to process your presence in the form of a seat plan's grid. I remeber being greeted by one of my former elementary school teachers who knew my name decades later and promptly embarassing myself trying to remember hers.

[bleuumscarlett]

Another way I learned to remember peoples' names when meeting them is simply to repeat it after they introduce themselves. Like "hi, i'm Alex" "Hi Alex, i'm Sarah" "hello Sarah. Nice to meet you too." Or something. Just make sure you repeat it early in the conversation, 1) it'll be less awkward to use it later and 2) if you misunderstood the name, you're corrected straight away