The secret of Sherlock’s mind palace has been busted wide open, as researchers have devised a way to save you the panic of forgetting something; and all you need is sheer willpower and practice. According to Science Daily, scientists from Nueron have come up with a technique that can double your memory just after 40 days of daily 30-minute training sessions!
They concluded that after four months, the people were able to recall twice the amount of information without any additional training and their performance remained consistently high.
The participants were given a word list of 72 terms and were asked to remember as many as possible. Before the training, the participants recalled an average of 26 words while after training, they recalled an average of 62.
Study author Martin Dresler, who is an Assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience at Radboud University Medical Center said in an interview,
“After training we massively increased performance on memory tests. Not only can you induce a behavioral change, the training also induces similar brain connectivity patterns as those seen in memory athletes.”
Yes, you read that right! You can also be as good as memory athletes, the people who are able to memorize the order of a deck of cards within seconds and can retain hundreds of names and faces without a hitch!
The scanned results of the brain connectivity pattern of the people undergoing the 40-day memory training was the same as these X-Men, which means that they were nearly as good as the memory athletes in terms of processing the recalled information.
The connections were the result of an increased usage of loci training, where items and lists are associated with a memorable or revered place in a person’s actual life, just like the mind palace used by Sherlock Holmes. The users mentally navigate the places, and since they put the words, lists, names on strategic spots, they can recall and find the cues as they “wander” through it. According to the neuron study, this strategic training results in the greatest amount of recall, meaning you will never have to face the embarrassment of forgetting an important date, name, or appointment again!
The method of loci training used in this study is available here
Im getting deck cards now 😉