MEMORIZATION
Three common ways of remembering are: repetition, association, and exaggeration. [4] An similar skill is outlining, and samples of various outlining styles can be found in Appendix 1.
Repetition is the key to long term memory. Physiologically, when brain cells are activated by the memory process, the nerve cell coating, known as the glial sheath, increases in thickness and becomes thicker and thicker with each repetition, strengthening the electrical pathway in brain that constitutes memory. In addition, when associations between parts of a thing remembered are formed, the nerve cell body sends out axon runners to other associated memory cells. These axon runners from one cell connect through synapses to dendrite runners on other cells. As the axon-dendrite pathway is used repetitiously, the surrounding glial cells become larger and more tightly wrapped around the electrically conductive axon-dendrite pathways, thereby transforming the memory from a short-term memory to a long-term memory. [5]
Memories of similar objects reside in nearby regions of the brain, while memories of exotic or exaggerated objects are farther away. By forming memories with creative and unusual associations, many more pathways are established, much like a spider weaving a bigger and bigger web, in which each part leads to the center by many interconnected pathways.
Memory links are also established when a variety of sensations and muscular activity are engaged. Indeed, some people seem to be more proficient at learning by either seeing, hearing or writing, but no one method can provide the more numerous pathways provided by all three in combination.
Memory is enhanced not only by repetition, but also by association and exaggeration of certain features of the object. Many memories are recalled as series of objects. For instance, a memory device to remember four common logical fallacies is a picture of the Earth, with the green continents and blue oceans, viewed from outer space with a flight of white geese circling around it. This image is used to recall the statement "geese circle every continent." The first letters of that statement (gcec) stand for the logic fallacies of generalization, circularities, either/or, and cause and effect. (These fallacies are discussed in detail in a later chapter.)
Size, also, seems to play a role in memorization. During the Middle Ages, memory contests were held annually. In one, the winner remembered one hundred thousand sequential items. [6] A time-proven memory method from the Middle Ages is association of abstract ideas to large objects. The objects used for trigger recall seem to need to be about the size of a human, so that, if we were blind, we could identify the object by touch. Large objects in the memory seem to engage muscular memory areas as well as sight memory areas in the brain and expand the memory web. For instance, remembering the points of a speech about a military battle might involving walking from one room to another in a familiar house. In the first room a ship's anchor is propped up in a corner, in the next room is a cannon, in the third room is a large telescope, and the in the fourth room is a horse. This sequence of anchor, cannon, telescope, horse might remind the speaker that the speech is about a ship being bombarded from the shore by a cannon; and that the cannon was captured when a scouting party saw the cannon through a telescope and sent for the cavalry.
Imagining numbers as objects in three-dimensional space is a very powerful way of remembering a series of numbers. This also seems to engage muscular memory. For instance, we might imagine block numbers for Pi, 3.1416. These numbered blocks should be about four inches high and one inch thick and should be imagined rotating in space about two feet to the front and about six inches above eye level. We can imagine them rotating slowly in a circle through an entire revolution. As they turn, we can mentally reach out and feel them with our fingers on every side. Such exercises, involving three-dimensional objects in space and muscles, allow the associated memory cells to form many, many more links than just a single glance at written numbers will form. Additional associations not only form more axon-dendrite connections, but also cause an increase in the surrounding glial sheath of the brain cell.
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