Memory hack: Derren Brown teaches the method of loci | Big Think

Memory hack: Method of loci
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Psychological illusionist Derren Brown shares some of his go-to methods for quick and simple memorization, including the famous method of loci.

One way to easily recall to-do lists is to attach tasks to the items you encounter along a walk you know well, like your route home from the subway station. By linking a bizarre and memorable image to something we want to recall later, we make it easier to memorize.

Brown also reveals his party trick for remembering the names of new people you meet.
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DERREN BROWN:

Derren Brown began his UK television career in December 2000 with a series of specials called Mind Control. In the UK, his name is now pretty much synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation. Amongst a varied and notorious TV career, Derren has played Russian Roulette live, convinced middle-managers to commit armed robbery, led the nation in a séance, stuck viewers at home to their sofas, successfully predicted the National Lottery, motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30,000 feet, hypnotised a man to assassinate Stephen Fry, and created a zombie apocalypse for an unsuspecting participant after seemingly ending the world. He has also written several best-selling books and has toured with eight sell-out one-man stage shows.

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TRANSCRIPT:

DERREN BROWN: We all think we’re terrible at remembering things, we all complain we can’t remember faces or remember names. We can remember faces often but we can’t remember names at a party and we all think we have terrible memories. So, the reality is I think we sort of imagine maybe that some people just have amazing memories and we have images of Meryl Streep who can supposedly just photo read her script. I think these things don’t really quite exist in the way we imagined that they do. All memory techniques are based on the idea of working with what the mind already does, which is forming memorable connections between bits of information so we lock them together. So, for example, to give you a practical example, everything like everything great goes back to the Greeks. This is an ancient Greek technique it’s called the Loci system and you can use this if you need to remember any long list of things. I use this at night if I need to remember stuff I’ve got to do the next day but I’m too tired to write them down. So, here’s what you do: it sounds like a lot of work but it isn’t once you get your head around it. Have a walk that you know around an area that you can create in your mind very easily, so it could be your street, it could be the walk from the subway station to your house or whatever. And all you need along that area are a few set points that you can remember without having to think about it because you know there’s always a zebra crossing there, there’s a post box, mailbox, I’m probably using quite English expressions here, there’s a certain store, there’s a bush whatever just things that you’re very familiar with. Say the first thing you’ve got to remember is I have to take my suit to the dry cleaners and I’ve got to do that tomorrow so you have to make a bizarre image of that thing. Say a suit that is so clean it’s sort of gleaming bright white that you can barely look at it and you attach that to this image of the mailbox so you imagine someone has dressed up the mailbox in a gleaming white suit or is trying to stuff it in but the light is shining out of the little slot, whatever, you just make a bizarre image that links the two and then you forget about it you don’t need to think about it. And then the next thing you do at the next location and the next thing you do at the next location and so on. And as long as you’ve made those images as bizarre and ridiculous as I’m making them sound, which is what’s important, all you do the next day is you just mentally walk down that route again and you go why is there a white suit? Oh yeah I’ve got to take my suit in. And then the next one maybe is, you know, you had to call your mother and what is it? It’s a big shrub by the side of the road so there’s your mother in there waving a telephone from the shrub and there’s branches and leaves caught up in her hair whatever just a silly image that you don’t forget. So, they would do this and the bigger your area of locations are the better. I did this with the history of art I used to read...

[chestbuster]

Great, now all I have to do is remember all this advice..

[ShawnRavenfire]

I used to do this when I did stand-up comedy. If I had a really long list of one-liners to remember, I'd mentally connect each one to a different part of the room, a table, a stage light, or an article of clothing I was wearing. Then I could just scan the room and deliver the jokes rapid-fire.

[VonPete]

I tend to find that the more I practice memory techniques the easier it becomes to remember lists of stuff, which is good because memory techniques are bloody tedious.

[tracymiller]

Thanks for the fun and informative video about memory palaces. I have hundreds that I use for different purposes. I've used houses, apartments, and dorms I've lived in, schools, parks, neighborhoods, workplaces, and even movies and TV episodes as memory palaces. I used them to memorize Pi to about 5, 600 places, and have used them in the Long-Term Memory events of the USA Memory Championship, which I've competed in 4 times, finishing as high as 3rd place in this year's competition.

[fergalcussen]

Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein" details how he became a champion mnemonist using this technique.

[AntonioFerreira-mxer]

That method is called memory palace, very ancient very popular in the renaissance

[SPACETVnet]

Great now every time I post a letter I'm going to think I have to take my suit to the dry cleaners. Thanks Derren!

[UTubeSL]

The reason people think you are charming and clever, Derren, is that you are 🙂

[Parzec]

This technique (also known as Memory Palace or Roman Rooms) is great for all people who don't have aphantasia.

[j.e.]

Every time I walk by the Lincoln Center library I remember Derren & his show instead of other things :) Who needs the shops anyway :)

[gholamaladib]

Method of loci is my favorite way to memorize something, because this way is very helpful for me

[Ziziwai]

I assumed it’d be too difficult for me to use this method, but I’ve just realized that I’ve basically done this subconsciously before on my walk while listening to music.

I often get very introspective on my walks, and certain songs end up imprinting themselves in my memory when I pass by those specific areas. Albeit this only works because of my introspective nature and the fact that my route is the same every time, and remembering songs is way different than committing bits of information to memory.

[jimmyko]

I’ve only used this method once as an experiment and it worked.

I usually use repetition to memorise things that are boring.

Interesting things I remember with no effort.

I’m starting higher education in the next few years as a mature student, I love the subject but I’m preparing myself to use these methods.

[blaisemennia]

wow this is such great advice. Now i need a video on how to remember advice

[SamuraiSloth]

Does anyone else do this involuntarily? I've done this for as long as I can remember, almost subconsciously.

[whatsupdate]

This stuff never works for me. I tried it in a Medschool interview to remember one of my interviewers names. His name was best so I associated with my best friend. So I was talking to his wife at the reception and she asked who I interviewed with. I said Dr Friend. Yea I’m hopeless with this stuff.

[bitmagic]

Derren Brown my man! I love this guy, his new York show a few months ago was enchanting. Unfortunately memory palaces don't work so well for me :p I have a good memory but the feats he can accomplish with this are beyond my depth.

[BetoGames]

"low key method" in the subtitles 😂

[selfelements]

A Walk To Remember. "I'll remember, it was late afternoon..." lol

[alo]

This seems great for those that jog through every street in their neighborhood for miles and miles.