Memorization

[Leonidas]

But then I discovered alcohol and women ...

That was my major also!

I always said I bombed out of college the first time because after my Freshman year I changed my major to alcoholism and sexual deviancy. They gave grades, but no credit toward graduation.

 

[mathjak107]

Nords - I'm the exact same way. I have sort of a photographic memory, so if someone writes down a phone number for me, I usually never have to see it again.

i have a pornographic memory

 

[Rambler]

Think of the years of entertainment you can give to your grandkids. My poetic recitation ability is limited to "There was a young man from Nantucket..."

I wish there was some way to make money from phone numbers, account numbers, and license-plate numbers. If I use a number three or four times it's stuck in my brain for years, including just about every phone number we've ever owned since I was in elementary school and several car plates that were turned in decades ago. Unfortunately our kid seems to be cursed with the same involuntary-memory trick, but spouse enjoys being able to use us as mobile phone directories.

Thats the way I am. I cannot recall what I ate for breakfast or particulars of our wedding or anything of that nature, but if you asked me my long-dead grandmother's phone number or the license plate number of the car I learned to drive in, I could tell you without even thinking about it. I guess the way that some of us remember things or the types of things we can recall are different by individual.

 

[Texas Proud]

Just a question to the people who can remember names and/or phone numbers forever..... are you good at math?

I ask this because a long time ago I saw a PBS show which talked about memory.. they said there were five kinds of memory... don't remember what they are... but, they said that there seemed to be a particular place in the brain for names and numbers... but that if people have a problem with this area of memory they usually were very good at math.... I happen to be very good at math and crap and names and phone numbers... so I was wondering if the opposite is true...

 

[CitricAcid]

I have that exact type of memory, remembering license plates and phone numbers and home addresses, as well as statistics to almost any sports wealth of knowledge out there. (I mean come on, where else can you get such an expanse of numbers/memory) I am also very good at Math, it's kind of my thing, so maybe it does have something to do with the method in which we learn/memorize.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

There was a story about Henry Ford. Someone interviewed Henry Ford and asked him many facts about the USA, names of Presidents, etc, and Ford failed the test miserably. This flabbergasted the interviewer. Good old Henry Ford seemed amused by the exasperation. When the interviewer mused how such an important man didn't know facts a fair number of children in the US did, Ford told him that some of the smartest people in the world worked at Ford, and they were only a phone call away, and that meant HE didn't NEED to know such things..........

Andrew Carnegie always maintained that the secret of his business success lay not in his own genius as a maker of steel, but in his ability to select the proper person for the job to be done. He was one of the first industrialists to hire scientists for research, and he suggested for his own epitaph, “Here lies a man who was able to surround himself with men far cleverer than himself.”

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

with all the carnegie librarians, surely someone more clever corrected "cleverer" before he was quoted.

 

[kaudrey]

Just a question to the people who can remember names and/or phone numbers forever..... are you good at math?

I ask this because a long time ago I saw a PBS show which talked about memory.. they said there were five kinds of memory... don't remember what they are... but, they said that there seemed to be a particular place in the brain for names and numbers... but that if people have a problem with this area of memory they usually were very good at math.... I happen to be very good at math and crap and names and phone numbers... so I was wondering if the opposite is true...

I majored in Finance and crunch #s all day, so I guess you could say I am good at math. Although, I would argue that my sister and my father, both engineers, are better at it than me (I always hated calculus).

 

[kaudrey]

You might have "hyperthymestic syndrome."

I had to look that one up, but...no, I don't have that.

 

[kaudrey]

I was watching a TV college course on psyc.... they said very few people have a 'photograhic memory'.... they said the test was to have them spell something backward that they have as a photograph.... so in other words, you could spell photograph and hpargotohp at about the same speed.... if you can not, then it is not photographic...

Thanks Texas - no, I can't do that. That's why I said "sort of". I remember things by where they are on a page, or in relation to other things. I can recall things by picturing where they are on a page. I'd know where I saw it in relation to other things, then be able to "see" the words in my head.

I don't know what you would call that.

 

[Khan]

Just a question to the people who can remember names and/or phone numbers forever..... are you good at math?

I ask this because a long time ago I saw a PBS show which talked about memory.. they said there were five kinds of memory... don't remember what they are... but, they said that there seemed to be a particular place in the brain for names and numbers... but that if people have a problem with this area of memory they usually were very good at math.... I happen to be very good at math and crap and names and phone numbers... so I was wondering if the opposite is true...

I'm good at math and remembering numbers; I have great difficulty remembering names.

 

[mickeyd]

When I was a basic trainee in the Army many moons ago, we were required to memorize the General Orders and the Code of Conduct and I recall being quizzed on it at random times~ "Private, what is the 2nd General Order?". I still remember most of them, as well as the C of C. I'm sure others will recall this mental exercise also.

General Order 2 To walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert and observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing.

U.S. Army Hawk Home Page

 

[Texas Proud]

Thanks Texas - no, I can't do that. That's why I said "sort of". I remember things by where they are on a page, or in relation to other things. I can recall things by picturing where they are on a page. I'd know where I saw it in relation to other things, then be able to "see" the words in my head.

I don't know what you would call that.

I don't know.... I have a friend who is VERY smart who can do the same thing.... he will say... it is around page XXX on the right side at the top.... he can not remember the exact wording, but the location so he can look it up...

I have that a little... I can kind of remember reading or hearing something about whatever... and when someone hits a few key words or phrases, I can go find it in my memory.... sometimes the problem is finding it without those triggers.... not anywhere near as good...

 

[Nords]

You might have "hyperthymestic syndrome."

Well, I can't remember every detail of my life, but I seem to remember more details about mine than most remember about theirs. I wasn't sure so I showed spouse the Wikipedia description and asked if she thought it applied to me or our daughter. Her feedback was "Oh gawd yes now get away from me you freaks."

And yes, we're very good at math. Spouse took more courses than I did, though.

I always believed (and still believe) that the important point is understanding the theory behind something and its implications.

I'll bet you were that guy in all my math & physics & engineering classes who was always deriving the formulae when he needed them instead of memorizing them...

The longest thing I ever memorized verbatim (and certainly one Nords can appreciate) was the poem "The Laws of the Navy" which begins

My personal stumbling block has always been "Take heed what you say of your seniors..."

I can also recite the seven immediate actions for a nuclear reactor scram casualty, and I occasionally even used to entertain spouse or my shipmates by waking up from nightmares screaming out the orders.

But now all of that hard-earned knowledge is only good for [-]boring[/-] entertaining our families with sea stories.

I have great difficulty remembering names.

I've been afflicted with the same syndrome, but in my case it stems from a [-]lot of alcohol[/-] lack of interest rather than a lack of ability. When I focus (or when it suddenly becomes very important to remember that information) I can do it.

It's theorized that much of "senior moments" or "CRS Syndrome" is caused by a lack of interest/attention rather than by aging or mental decline.

 

[Khan]

Originally Posted by Khan
I have great difficulty remembering names.
I've been afflicted with the same syndrome, but in my case it stems from a lot of alcohol lack of interest rather than a lack of ability. When I focus (or when it suddenly becomes very important to remember that information) I can do it.

It's theorized that much of "senior moments" or "CRS Syndrome" is caused by a lack of interest/attention rather than by aging or mental decline. __________________

About a year after my retirement I attended a retirement lunch. There were about 100 people there and I remembered the names of 5 or so.

While working I had the same difficulty: I had to recall (and connect) names, faces, physical locations, job descriptions, professional relationships... It was difficult and fatiguing.

 

[WanderALot]

I can remember numbers, but have almost no memory of my childhood and since a few years back I have trouble remembering whether I did something earlier in the day! My sense of direction has also gone downhill since I was a kid.

I *still* remember the license plate of my friends old car from 1992 which I probably saw less than < 5 times. I'm decent with math so maybe my brain is just wired better for numbers.

I think a lot of this has to be hereditary. My dad has at least as good of a number based memory as me and a much better general memory. He's also very good at doing math in his head.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

my memory for names is plain awful, even though i've tried, at times, to improve that. yet i know another person who can remember most names upon entering a room full of new people. based on my observation of myself and that person, i've developed a theory of a direct relationship between the ability to remember a person's name and your capacity to give a rat's ass what someone thinks of you. the more you need their approval, the better you'll remember their name.

i'm so bad with this that it is embarrassing, well, at least for my friends who try to introduce me around. me? i don't notice until they complain. i can be casually introduced to someone and then a week later meet them again and i'll have no idea that i ever met them before. i don't think it's early alzheimer's because i've no other symptoms. more likely either they didn't interest me or i was satisfactorily amused by my own thoughts alone.

on the other hand, if i do get into good conversation with someone and then run into them years later, i might not remember right away what they look like but i will remember their voice and pattern of thought & speech.

from dealing with my mom's alzheimer's, it seems to me that the longest lasting or embedded memories are emotion-based or at least that there is some kind of relationship between memory and emotion. it often made me do a double-take. for instance, when my buddy died, mom had already deteriorated to the point that she had forgotten how to construct most sentences and needed help dressing and feeding herself. but when i shared my sad news, my mother showed sympathy for me by reaching out to hold me and said "your friend from colorado." he was my friend from california but wow, she'd only met him a few times. she hadn't seen him in years. he wasn't part of her long term memory but i was and my life was and she stayed connected to that even while disease ravaged her physical memory.

there were a number of instances like that which made me think that memory was more a matter of hard drive and less a product of ram. that it stored best when associated with emotion and that somehow emotion was not isolated in the brain but that it was more body-based, that maybe it stores in the heart. and once a memory finds its way there, it is hard to forget.

 

[aaronc879]

The only thing I can think of that I memorized in school that I still remember know is my multiplication tables. It's amazing to me how many grown adults can't multiply two 1 digit numbers together in their heads.
My short-term memory is horrendous. If someone leaves their number on my voicemail I have to replay it at least 4 or 5 times to get the whole number.

 

[Dudester]

I can still recite many parts of these passages, but I am not sure what benefit academically it gave me as a student. Does anyone know of any benefits that I may have come to me because I was required to do this or is it just a quaint old educational activity?

Years ago, I read an article somewhere that addressed this point. To the best of my recollection, memorizing poems was supposed to be a "fun" activity, at least more fun, say, than memorizing the multiplication tables. According to the article, many people remember these poems late into life and reciting the poems evoked fond memories of their schooldays.

I personally didn't find memorizing poems to be fun and generally completely forgot the poem the nanosecond I completed the test in which I was supposed to regurgitate the poem.

BTW, I have always had sort of a dilettante's interest in history and have noted, at least in Western history, that if one is not born into high aristocratic circles or is not a military man, then the surest road to career advancement is mastery of one's language. Memorization of poems would doubtless help achieve this mastery.

I had a friend, long since gone, who was a professor of mechanical engineering. He once told me that the language portion of the SAT is a better predictor of success in mechanical engineering than the math portion. Perhaps memorizing poems is more important than it seems at first blush.

 

[W2R]

I had a friend, long since gone, who was a professor of mechanical engineering. He once told me that the language portion of the SAT is a better predictor of success in mechanical engineering than the math portion. Perhaps memorizing poems is more important than it seems at first blush.

That's interesting. I remember that back in engineering school, I remarked there was a pretty clear divide between two types of engineering students. There were those that were in engineering because they had a knack for it and really couldn't do much else. Then there were those who were more like a Renaissance Man, having abilities and accomplishments in many areas but preferring engineering because it was challenging.

For example, one of my pals in the latter category won a regional piano competition, wrote published poems and news articles, and ran a small business on the side, and still managed to get decent grades in our EE classes and perfect SAT's. Another pal couldn't write a cogent paragraph with correct grammar or spelling to save his life, didn't have any language aptitude to speak of, and didn't know much past his integral tables.

They got about the same grade point average, but I always figured the more focused guy would do better in engineering because he wouldn't stray from his goals. Sounds like that isn't the case.