The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Setup
While researching an article on the US Memory Championships, writer Joshua Foer was equally dubious and intrigued by one contestant’s claim that even an average memory, if used properly, could win the contest. After a year of memory training, under the tutelage of the world’s top memory athletes, he won the competition. Foer uses a live demonstration to show that there’s much more room in our brains than we imagine. Using skills he learned on his extraordinary odyssey, he shows the science of memory and teaches us how we can all learn to remember more.
Speakers
Memory champs aren’t who you think they are (and you could be one too)
When science journalist Joshua Foer investigated the minds of competitors at the United States Memory Championship, he expected the people performing seemingly miraculous feats of memory to be the savants of our time. Instead of off-the-chart IQs, though, he discovered ordinary people who devoted a lot of time to a specific skill. And what researchers later discovered about the brains of memory champs probably isn’t what you expect:
Cognitive abilities and brain structures weren’t that different in memory champs. Rather, memory champs were tapping in to regions of the brain associated with visual and spatial memory.
How your brain can trick you, and vice-versa
All our brains are trained — without us realizing it — to better remember certain things through tricks and associations, says Joshua Foer. But that can lead us, ironically, to not remember other things as well. Foer gets the audience involved to demonstrate how these tricks work and how memory champs take advantage of them:
The Baker/baker paradox
Why is it that if you tell someone to remember a man named Baker, they’re less likely to remember that same person than if you tell them that the man is a baker by trade? Psychologists call this question the Baker/baker paradox, and it’s rooted in a psychological principle called elaborative encoding.
Memory Association 101
It’s easier to remember that someone is a baker than if they’re named Baker because of elaborative encoding — most of us already have a memory association with bakers, but not Bakers. Joshua Foer says this technique of elaborative encoding, turning Bakers into bakers, is fundamental to tackling feats of memory.
How to build your own memory palace
Modern-day memory champs aren’t trailblazing new memory techniques, says Joshua Foer. They’re learning the same spatial and visual techniques that have been in use for millennia. Foer demonstrates, with eager audience participation, a powerful (and ancient) memory technique called the memory palace:
It all leads back to visual and spatial associations, says Foer. When you picture a familiar place and insert new information into it, the familiar place acts as a crutch to support a new memory in your mind.
Learn More
Additional Information
Resources
“Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” by Joshua Foer
Explore More
Health
From the Supreme Court's ruling on abortion rights to public health's role in addressing gun violence to the devastating human toll of the war in Ukraine, this year's Aspen Id...
In America, millions of people struggle with mental health including depression, anxiety, and more — all further exacerbated by living through a pandemic. The National Allianc...
What do Sherlock Holmes and an internist have in common? Meet Lisa Sanders, the doctor reimagining the way medical mysteries are diagnosed. She explains why providers struggl...
The "Great Resignation" has impacted nursing and created a healthcare crisis for us all. What can be done to drive real change and create a supportive work environment where n...
From the "War on Cancer" to the "Cancer Moonshot", extraordinary progress continues to be made in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. Research is driving life-...
In the wake of transformative biopharmaceutical innovation and breakthroughs, Americans need a health care system that ensures these life-saving breakthroughs reach all patien...
A silent epidemic of chronic illnesses, including autoimmune disease, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and long COVID, afflicts tens of millions of Americans. Best-sellin...
Achieving vaccine equity requires authentically communicating with and listening to all communities. As healthcare leaders, we must go where the community is to hear their sto...
Health workers often face grueling working conditions. They regularly confront trauma, work long hours, are exposed to physical danger, and must keep pace with the demands of...
Today's kids are coming of age against a backdrop of political, social, technological, and economic upheaval. While these circumstances are shaping a precocious generation tha...
From blockchain to back to school and virus-hunting to bridging divides, speakers at the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival addressed issues in a new kind of world—one touched, and cha...
For people with post-traumatic stress disorder, therapy assisted by the drug MDMA may provide lasting relief, with a new way of seeing their trauma and themselves. Rachel Yehu...
Monkeypox has now been declared a public health emergency in the US and a global emergency by the World Health Organization. What do we know about this virus and the current o...
On a weekly basis, 32 million Americans spend 2 hours at one of 30,000 laundromats across the country. What if that time and space could be used to meet people where they are...
After two devastating years fighting the pandemic, how do we rebuild and support stronger health care and public health workforces? Dave Chokshi, who helped lead New York Cit...
Soon, we may be able to visualize any biological process in the human body, at any scale, in real time. Here’s what it will take to get there. Presented by Chan Zuckerberg Ini...
Our changing climate represents one of the greatest challenges to health for the 21st century. Though all of humankind is at risk, communities with weak health and public heal...
