Memory Champion: Applied Project 1
How many times a day do we say, or hear someone else say, “I have a horrible memory”? This is a common statement, however, oftentimes it is not that we have a poor memory, but rather, that we are not intentionally and efficiently encoding memory. Memory champions are individuals with extraordinary memory and retention abilities. These individuals compete worldwide, memorizing large quantities of words, numbers, names, and faces in a short period of time. Although we may not all be able to become memory champions, we can take note of their memory and encoding techniques.
Over the past five weeks I have applied memory techniques in an attempt to memorize a set of words. The list of words is complied of 25 Spanish words, varying in difficulty, familiarity to me, and similarity to one another. I developed this list by first choosing a few of my favorite Spanish words, or words that had a personal significance to me (for example, my major and favorite animal). Then, I asked two of my friends to tell me a few of their favorite words in Spanish. Finally, I added additional words chosen randomly from broad “categories,” such as foods, locations, etc. Representation of nouns, verbs, and both singular and plural words were included in the final list.
Below is a list of the 25 Spanish words used in this project with their English translation.
1. Flores — flowers
2. Biblioteca — library
3. Sacapuntas — pencil sharpener
4. Zapatos — shoes
5. Psicología — psychology
6. Madera — wood
7. Cachuate — peanut
8. Ducharse — to shower
9. Sangre — blood
10. Jirafa — giraffe
11. Mapache — racoon
12. Pintura — painting
13. Azucar — sugar
14. Ceja — eyebrow
15. Reloj — clock
16. Alucinado — hallucination
17. Paraguas — umbrella
18. Uvas — grapes
19. Hola — hello
20. Botella — bottle
21. Iglesia — church
22. Entrenar — to train
23. Pasaje — ticket
24. Habitación — room
25. Discoteca — club
I decided to review the list of words for two minutes and then record as many words as I could remember every Monday. Additionally, Tuesday-Thursday I would review the list for one minute, however, I would not test myself or record any words. I reviewed (encoded) and recorded (retrieved) the words in the same room every day in order to apply context-dependent memory. Context-dependent memory is the concept that we remember information better when we encode and retrieve the information in the same location. Smith & Vela define context by stating, “‘Context’ refers to that which surrounds a target, whether the surrounding is spatial, temporal, or meaningful in nature” (Smith & Vela, 2001). Moreover, our context directly aids in memory retention. “In brief, target information can be retrieved by using context information as a retrieval cue” (Isarida & Isarida, 2014). This quote depicts the relationship between memory and our environment, by highlighting how our physical location can serve as a retrieval cue for memory, because when we encode the information we are also encoding our environment.
Aside from applying context-dependent memory, I also utilized the mnemonic memory technique of visualization as well as organizational encoding. Weeks 1–3 I applied used mnemonic visualization by attempting to mentally visualize the image of the original list of words in my mind’s eye as I was recording them. There is support for mnemonic visualization specifically in the context of words and language as stated in Kordjazi’s article, “Visualization can be an aid in vocabulary learning” (Kordjazi, 2014). Mnemonic strategies are often associated with memory champions, and this was observed in a study conducted researching the functional brain network of memory champions. The study included 23 memory champions as well as well as individuals from the general population who served as a control group. The researchers conducted a fMRI of all participants at their resting state as well as when they were actively encoding information using mnemonic strategies. “We demonstrate that, in a group of naive controls, functional connectivity changes induced by 6 weeks of mnemonic training were correlated with the network organization that distinguishes athletes from controls.” In this way, the study concluded that mnemonic memory techniques had a direct positive impact on the control group, producing a similarity with memory champions’ brain connectivity (Dressler et al, 2017).
The second memory technique I used for the last two weeks of my project was organizational encoding. This strategy involves categorizing and creating associations among information based on their relationship or similarity to one another. “…organizational processing results in the encoding of associations among list words by leading subjects to think about the stimulus words in relation to one another. This relational information can include word-to-word associations and associations that emerge when words share a common category label” (Klein & Loftus, 1988). For example, in my project I created groupings between words that are directly related such as foods: uvas (grapes) cacahuete(peanut) or locations: biblioteca (library) and iglesia (church). However, I also categorized words based off of personal associations such as two of my friend’s favorite Spanish words: madera (wood) and zapatos (shoes). Wood and shoes have no relation to one another outside of the association I created among them because of my friend. Organizational encoding is beneficial for not only encoding, but also retrieval; since there is a personal connection or association, this can serve as a retrieval cue. “Similarly, there is substantial reason to see organization as a process that encompasses both encoding and retrieval” (McBride & Dwyer, 1985). Klein and Loftus support this notion that the associations and category labels created during organizational encoding become retrieval cues for individuals.
With the application of these techniques, I made significant improvement throughout the five weeks. The first week I recorded 14 words, the second week I recorded 16, the third 19, the fourth 21, and the fifth week I recorded all 25 words. Each week I recorded between two and four additional words. There was a linear and positive correlation between the number of words recorded and number of weeks, as depicted in the chart below.
There were also distinct patterns in which words I remembered. Over the course of the five weeks I was much more likely to remember words which were similar to one another or had a personal significance to me. In the graph below, the green represents words I remembered all five weeks, the blue words I remembered four of the five weeks, yellow are words I remembered three out of the five weeks, pink/red are words I remembered two out of the five weeks, and black was the word I only remembered the final week. The majority of the green words (which were the ones I remembered all five weeks) were categorized in some form, either they were similar to another word or were personally significant to me. For example, biblioteca and library are both locations, jirafa and mapache are both animals, and psicología and pintura are associated with my personal life. This suggests that organizational encoding was more more successful for me than the visualization approach. Additionally, I remembered a higher quantity of words the weeks when I used organizational encoding in comparison to visualization. However, this is not a clear indicator that organizational encoding was more effective, because I was much more familiar with the words by weeks four and five (when I used organizational encoding) than in weeks one-three (when I used visualization).
References
Dresler, M., Shirer, W. R., Konrad, B. N., Müller, N. C., Wagner, I. C., Fernández, G., & Greicius, M. D. (2017). Mnemonic training reshapes brain networks to support superior memory. Neuron, 93(5), 1227–1235.
Isarida, T., & Isarida, T. K. (2014). Environmental context-dependent memory. Advances in experimental psychology research, 115–151.
Klein, S. B., & Loftus, J. (1988). The nature of self-referent encoding: The contributions of elaborative and organizational processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.55.1.5
Kordjazi, Z. (2014). The Effect of Visual Mnemonic Support Practice on the Reading Comprehension of Psychology Texts. European Online Journal Of Natural And Social Sciences, 3(4), pp. 840–848. Retrieved from https://european-science.com/eojnss/article/view/557
McBride, S., & Dwyer, F. (1985). Organizational Chunking and Postquestions in Facilitating Student Ability to Profit from Visualized Instruction. The Journal of Experimental Education, 53(3), 148–155. Retrieved February 18, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20151591
Smith, S. M., & Vela, E. (2001). Environmental context-dependent memory: A review and meta-analysis. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 8(2), 203–220.
Appendix A: Journal Entries
Week 1:
Today was my first day of the Memory Champion project. I remembered 14 words today: Flores, biblioteca, mapache, cacahuete, zapatos, iglesia, sacapuntas, jirafa, psicología, hola, uvas, discoteca, pintura, and madera. When I was recording the words I applied a visualization memory strategy. I tried to record the words in the order of the original list by visualizing the list in my mind. I thought that by replicating the order of the words I would be able to remember more words as replicating the order could provide me with a visual cue to remember maximal words. I was surprised how many words I was able to remember the first week, I thought it might be closer to 10 rather than 14.
Week 2:
This week I remembered 16 words, which is two more than the previous week. The words I recorded this week are the following: Flores, paraguas, iglesia, biblioteca, mapache, hola, zapatos, pintura, jirafa, entrenar, psicología, discoteca, alucinado, madera, botella, and sangre. Paraguas, entrenar, alucinado, sangre and botella were five new words I recorded, however, I failed to remember cacahuete, uvas, and sacapuntas. I used the visualization memory technique again this week, attempting to write the words in the same order as the original list. Although I remembered five additional words, I forgot three words from the previous week, therefore I don’t feel that I have made any significant progress. My goal is to build upon the previous weeks by consistently remembering words from the week before, and adding additional words every week. Forgetting three words from the past week may reflect that I am not necessarily storing this information, but rather, taking in information as though it is new.
Week 3:
It is now the third week of my Memory Champion project, and I remembered 19 words this week, three more than last week. The words recorded this week were: Biblioteca, cacahuete, paraguas, pintura, sangre, alucinado, mapache, jirafa, iglesia, madera, reloj, ceja, psicología, pasaje, uvas, botella, entrenar, flores, and discoteca. I did not record hola and zapatos, two words which I did the previous week, however, I recorded reloj, ceja, pasaje, cacahuete, and uvas, five new words. This week I only forgot two words, and I remembered five additional, which is improvement from last week, however, it is not very significant. I applied the visualization memory technique again this week, because I wanted to see how many words I would remember in comparison to the past two weeks, when I applied the same memory strategy.
Week 4:
This week I remembered 21 words, which is two more than last week, and only four away from remembering the whole list. The words I recorded were: Paraguas, hola, biblioteca, iglesia, madera, zapatos, mapache, jirafa, pintura, botella, entrenar, ceja, reloj, cacahuete, uvas, discoteca, psicología, sangre, habitación, alucinado, and ducharse. I did not record two words which were recorded the previous week: flores and pasaje. However, I recorded habitación, ducharse, hola and zapatos, four new words, two of them being words I had never recorded before. Additionally, this week I used a new memory technique, organizational encoding. Organizational encoding involves categorizing and creating relationships among information. In this case, when I was reviewing words and recording them I specifically created categories to group words together, hoping to make it easier to retrieve the words. I believe this memory technique worked better than visualization, as I was able to successful group together multiple words: biblioteca and iglesia (both locations), madera and zapatos (my friend’s favorite Spanish words), mapache and jirafa (both animals), botella and entrenar (both associated with exercise), and cacahuate and uvas (both foods). I believe this was a more successful memory technique as organizational encoding allows for a personal element to the data, which makes it more significant and easier to remember. Additionally, this week was the first week where I used organizational encoding, and I recorded the highest number of words. However, it is important to consider that I have been reviewing the words for the past four weeks, therefore that could be an explanation for the quantity of words remembered this week as well.
Week 5:
This was the final week of my Memory Champion project, and I successfully recorded all 25 words. I used the organizational encoding by creating categories or pairs that I associated based on my relationship with the word, or the common relationship between the words. This was the first week I recorded the word azúcar, I recorded four additional words compared to the previous week, and I did not forget any words. As a reflect on the data and my experience in recording words over the past five weeks, I believe using organizational encoding for this type of memory retrieval is the best approach. Quantitatively, the data supports this statement, however, it is also difficult to say whether that is based on the memory technique used or simply because each week I became more familiar with the words as I was exposed to them more and more each week. However, as I reflect on my personal experience of remembering the words each week I found it much easier to remember the words when they were grouped with similar words or relationships, rather than when I was trying to recreate a visual image of the list of words.
