How to Develop a Perfect Memory (12 page)

A few years ago, I spent a short time in Accra, the capital. Located on the coast, it represents a tiny part of the country, but I now have several lasting key images of Ghana. Every time I hear or read about it, I immediately associate the news with one of them. For example, a story on the BBC's World

Service about Bolgatanga in northern Ghana might remind me of the hotel I stayed at in Accra, 600 kilometres away. The image is quite irrelevant, of course, but it's enough to make me remember the story.

By contrast, I am not attentive to a news item on Liberia. There's no inher-ent reason why its affairs should be less interesting than those of Ghana. It's just that I've got nothing to go on. Until I have a key image of the country, Liberia will remain a word.

A DIET OF IMAGES

The ideal way to study geography would be to work your way around the

world, building up accurate mental pictures of every country as you go. Sadly, this rather grand approach to learning is beyond most people's means, and we have been obliged to adopt less costly methods of studying the planet.

For example, the first thing we do when we want to find out about a remote country is look it up in an atlas. Even though it's two-dimensional, the image on the page helps the brain to process the information. The country is no longer just a word; it has shape and size. Not much, but it's a start.

We endeavour to get our bearings from other sources as well, building up a portfolio of images from newspapers, magazines, and TV. A glossy Sunday

supplement full of gut-wrenching photographs of a drought in Sudan might provide us with our only image of the country. A TV drama on the battle for Goose Green might leave us with our only mental picture of the Falkland

Islands.

Sometimes our sole insight into a country or city is through the eyes of a filmmaker. Our images of Italy might come from
Death in Venice,
or
The
Italian Job. A
scene from
Out of Africa
could provide us with our one abiding picture of Kenya. Perhaps
The French Connection
is all we have ever seen of Marseilles.

Not surprisingly, we begin to forge crude associations between countries and their key national images. Mention Britain to a foreigner and they might well think of Big Ben. If I hear someone talking about Egypt, I immediately picture the pyramids. I am sure we all have key images for well-known countries: the United States, the Statue of Liberty; Australia, the Sydney Opera House; India, the Taj Mahal; France, the Eiffel Tower; Russia, Red Square; and so on.

However stereotyped and unfair these key images are, they serve a purpose.

An association flashes across our mind every time the country in question is mentioned. The problems start when the mind is a blank, void of all images.

Visual deficiency of this sort makes learning geography particularly

difficult. If we haven't visited a country, or read about it, or seen it on TV or in a film, how can we possibly be expected to remember facts about its capital, population, rivers, mountains, languages, religion, and culture? The brain craves mental imagery. Feed it!

A NEW METHOD FOR LEARNING

GEOGRAPHY

Next time you are faced with learning large amounts of information about unknown places (the plight of most geography students), by all means turn to your atlas, but you should also turn to your imagination. As I said in Chapter 2, it is the key to a perfect memory.

Someone tells you, for example, that the state capital of Idaho in the United States is Boise. You have never been there in your life and you have no images of the place, from books, magazines, TV, or films. The chances are you won't retain the information for long.

If, however, you use your imagination to create your own key image, based on simple associations suggested by the words themselves, the information is much more likely to stick.

To remember that Boise is the capital of Idaho, imagine an old lady called Ida (it's a very old-fashioned name) hoeing a flowerbed. A row of school boys are peering over her front wall, giggling behind her back.

Or take another example: you want to remember that the capital of South

Dakota is Pierre. This time, a key image of the state flashes across your mind: the famous rock sculptures, known as the Mount Rushmore Monument.

Perhaps you've seen it in a magazine or in a film. It's a vague recollection, but it's enough to form a backdrop for your own image, which you are about to create. Look at the word 'Pierre'. What does it suggest? Imagine a seaside pier jutting out from the rockface carvings.

MENTAL WAREHOUSES

On those occasions when key images spring to mind, you should always use them to set the scene, however distant or hazy they may be. If none are forthcoming, and you have to invent your own key image, you must be a little more resourceful in your choice of location. Try storing them all together in one place that has an unmistakenly American theme or feel to it.

The bar area from the TV series
Cheers
is currently a favourite 'mental warehouse' of mine. I have crammed it full of American facts that I can't deposit elsewhere. The old lady called Ida, for example, is now hoeing in the street, outside the bar window.

HOW TO REMEMBER THE STATES OF

AMERICA

Have a look at the following list of American states and their capitals.

Displayed like this, they look a fairly formidable prospect to learn. If you use your imagination, however, together with key images that you might already have of the places, it becomes a relatively easy task.

STATE

CAPITAL

STATE

CAPITAL

Alabama

Montgomery

Montana

Helena

Alaska

Juneau

Nebraska

Lincoln

Arizona

Phoenix

Nevada

Carson City

Arkansas

Little Rock

New Hampshire

Concord

California

Sacramento

New Jersey

Trenton

Colorado

Denver

New Mexico

Santa Fe

Connecticut

Hartford

New York

Albany

Delaware

Dover

North Carolina

Raleigh

Florida

Tallahassee

North Dakota

Bismarck

Georgia

Atlanta

Ohio

Columbus

Hawaii

Honolulu

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City

Idaho

Boise

Oregon

Salem

Illinois

Springfield

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg

Indiana

Indianapolis

Rhode Island

Providence

Iowa

Des Moines

South Carolina

Columbia

Kansas

Topeka

South Dakota

Pierre

Kentucky

Frankfort

Tennessee

Nashville

Louisiana

Baton Rouge

Texas

Austin

Maine

Augusta

Utah

Salt Lake City

Maryland

Annapolis

Vermont

Montpelier

Massachusetts

Boston

Virginia

Richmond

Michigan

Lansing

Washington

Olympia

Minnesota

St. Paul

West Virginia

Charleston

Mississippi

Jackson

Wisconsin

Madison

Missouri

Jefferson City

Wyoming

Cheyenne

Before you go any further, open a map of the United States. Console yourself by checking the whereabouts of the few states and capitals you already know.

You've got a rough idea, perhaps, that New York is on the east coast and that Florida is further south. Stay with the coastline and take a wander. Try to orientate yourself by noticing where certain states are in relation to others. Do they border mountains, lakes, seas, other countries?

Make a note of any associations that spring to mind during this preliminary stroll. What key images are sparked off by the names on the map? New York, the Statue of Liberty perhaps; Arizona, The Grand Canyon; Kansas, the OK

Corral; Nevada, the gambling halls; Florida, Disneyworld.

If you can't picture any, give your imagination a free rein. Let the words themselves suggest associations. It doesn't matter how bizarre your images are: the more unusual, the better. Is there any link between Helena and Montana? I happen to know someone called Helena. My key image is of her playing the card game Montana red dog (Helena/Montana). I can also imagine a fey-looking Santa Claus wearing a brand new Mexican sombrero (Santa Fe/New

Mexico). My girlfriend Caroline is riding a Raleigh bicycle, heading north (Raleigh/North Carolina). And so on.

Once you have loosened up, it's time to concentrate on the list itself. Here is how I memorize some of the states and their capitals:

Jackson, capital of Mississippi

I have a good key image of the Mississippi river, so I imagine Michael Jackson trying to wade across it, struggling against the strong flow.

Frankfort, capital of Kentucky

No key images of Kentucky state spring to mind. I do, however, immediately think of fried chicken and frankfurters. I therefore create my own key image of Colonel Saunders tucking into a hot dog. I imagine his perpetrating this trai-torous act in a Kentucky Fried Chicken shop next door to the
Cheers
bar.

Albany, capital of New York

The Statue of Liberty is hard to beat as a key image of New York. I picture her with 'auburn' coloured hair. It doesn't matter if the association produces an imperfect match. 'Auburn' sounds sufficiently like 'Albany' to remind me of the name.

Tallahassee, capital of Florida

When I hear the name Florida, I always think of Disneyworld, which provides me with an excellent key image. I imagine a very 'tall' model of the dog Lassie erected at the main entrance to the theme park. Again, the phonetic

approximation of 'tall' and 'Lassie' is a sufficient reminder of the capital.

Austin, capital of Texas

I have a number of key images when I think of Texas: rocket launching at Cape Canaveral, the Houston Astrodome, J. R. Ewing's house, all of which make good locations. Austin makes me think of an Austin Maxi. I imagine a group of astronauts being taken to the space shuttle in a battered old Austin car, put-putting its way across the tarmac to the launch pad. (I also think of Austin Mitchell, the Labour MP. Perhaps he is wielding a Texas chainsaw in the

Cheers
bar...)

Juneau, capital of Alaska

TV news footage of the Exxon Valdiz oil disaster left me with a number of lasting key images of Alaska's polluted coastline. Juneau reminds me of the actress June Whitfield. I imagine her helping to mop up some oil on the shore.

Again, 'June' is a sufficient reminder of Juneau.

FADE TO GREY

Don't be worried about cramming your head full of bizarre images. Mnemonics of this sort are servants, and can be hired or fired at will. Their sole purpose is to act as aides-memoires until the information has been properly absorbed, at which point they will fade away, leaving the data firmly in place. Facts will soon be rolling off the tongue without a moment's thought: Boston

Massachusetts; Phoenix, Arizona; Washington, D.C. You certainly won't have to keep referring back to your galaxy of strange images.

USING A JOURNEY TO REMEMBER GROUPS OF

COUNTRIES

South America

You are told to learn the capitals and population of all thirteen countries in South America. Unfortunately, you have very little knowledge of any of them, so ready-made key images are thin on the ground. Time is also short, and this is how you are presented with the information:

COUNTRY

CAPITAL

COUNTRY

CAPITAL

Argentina

Buenos Aires

Guyana

Georgetow

Brazil

Brasilia

Paraguay

Asuncion

Bolivia

Sucre

Peru

Lima

Chile

Santiago

Suriname

Paramaribo

Colombia

Bogota

Uraguay

Montevide

Ecuador

Quito

Venezuela

Caracas

French Guiana

Cayenne

Faced with this sort of problem, you could do what you did with unfamiliar American states: form your own key images based on word association and

place them all in a mental warehouse. One place, however, is likely to get a bit congested. A more efficient alternative is to store them using a simple journey.

Step 1:

Choose a familiar journey with thirteen stages, but this time try to make it a loop. In other words, you want to end up where you started, having travelled round a small circuit. The journey might be around a park or just around the block.

Step 2:

Have a look at your atlas. If you start with Venezuela at the top of South America, it is possible to work your way around all the countries going clockwise: Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Uruguay,

Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and finally Paraguay, which is in the middle.

Step 3:

Look at each country and let the name suggest an artificial key image to you.

Stay with the first association that comes to mind, however strange it may be, and don't worry if they are only rough approximations. This is what I imagine: Venezuela

Venison

Guyana

Guy Fawkes

Suriname

Schoolmaster (Sir) with a nan bread on his

French Guiana

Guy Fawkes wearing a beret

Brazil

Brazil nuts

Uruguay

Corned beef (Fray Bentos)

Argentina

Silver (argent)

Chile

Chilli peppers

Bolivia

Bowl of liver

Peru