Comment by zoba | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zoba | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to know more about remembering things that I don't put forth effort to remember. Does anyone know about this?

For example my mom asked who the angry chef on TV is and somehow I immediately knew "Gordon Ramsay!" even though I don't have cable TV, never purposely worked on remembering his name, and am generally terrible at remembering names. Being able to remember things without trying is what most folks would really want when considering improving their memory.

I have found success with methods that call for imagining a 3d space and placing objects in that space and using it to recall things... However, designing such a space takes time/effort which is difficult when you're trying to learn and comprehend stuff on the fly.

I do wonder if it is a memory issue or a recall issue here...perhaps I actually know the information but can't access it as necessary.

Even worse...

Daniel L. Schacter, in "The Seven Sins Of Memory" quotes Tatiana Cooley, US Memory Champion, as saying "I'm incredibly absent minded, I live by Post-its".

So the thing is ... trained recall doesn't necessarily help your "prospective memory", your "remembering to do things".

Your average technical person probably can recall a massive amount of stuff, based on association, about things that interest them. Trained memory works similarly and similarly has the problem that memories don't pop-up when you need them but rather when you make an effort.

The book touches on this. Basically, the human brain is biased towards novelty. It's much more likely to remember something if it's unique or interesting or different -- if it stands out.

The book's title, Moonwalking with Einstein, is one such example. Gordon Ramsey is probably another: there are lots of chefs out there, but if you see a chef screaming at people in his kitchen, it's probably going to stick with you, consciously or otherwise.

This is exactly my question. These techniques seem great for memorising (with effort) certain pieces of structured data that you know you'll need to recall later.

However, what about the things you don't realise you'll need to recall, or for things that you don't actively trying to memorise.

Basically - does it improve your 'base' memory, or are they just tricks you can use in certain cases.

Based on my understanding from the book, it's just a tool to memorize certain information. It wouldn't improve your everyday memory by much, if at all.

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