Chapter 4: Methods of Developing Photographic Memory
“Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.” Elie Wiesel
Now we get to the section of this book that every one of us is really interested in – the methods of developing photographic memory skills. Don’t we all want to have the exceptional memory like the characters we have read about in books or watched on the screen?
The good news is that there are proven methods anyone can use to improve memory and achieve photographic memory. The trick is to increase the usage of our brain by implementing certain habits to help us take in more enjoyable information which we can easily retrieve later. As you may know, our brain is greatly underutilized; if we made use of more of the brain, you will be surprised at the things you will be able to do.
Developing a photographic memory is all about increasing your brain power; the ability to see something and recall it vividly is achievable by adapting certain habits and doing certain things consistently to strengthen your skills of memory and heighten brain power. These techniques required for improving memory are easy to adapt and will not require a lot of effort from you for success.
A photographic memory lets us look at some simple techniques for developing a photographic memory to improve, and you don’t need a whole lot of resources to invest in it. Taking the time to invest in memory enhancement is worth the time and effort, even if you may not manage to get to photographic memory levels. You can still improve a skill which will benefit you greatly both personally and professionally.
If you have ever been through a traumatic experience, you will agree that it is almost impossible to forget what happened. Have you ever asked yourself why that is? How come certain memories can be retrieved in such detail while others, however much you try, simply ‘disappear’?
The truth is that this all depends on how we have tuned our brains and how developed our memory skills are. You are able to remember certain things because of what is termed as sporadic eidetic or photographic memory and happens effortlessly with things that affect us profoundly. However, total photographic memory, like we have said earlier, is not achievable but you can improve memory through memory training.
To understand our ability for photographic memory, it will help if we briefly touch on the factors that contribute to our enabled improvement of memory. The good news is that there are three things which are integral for improved memory and it is only one that you cannot manipulate! They are: genetics, lifestyle, and training.
Before we get to the methods, let us look at four things you can do to better your memory anywhere, everyday, which do not require much effort:
Linking images to information and using the images to retrieve the information from memory is called visual association and is one of the oldest and most effective ways of improving memory. It means associating information with objects so that you can later use the images or objects to retrieve the information associated with them.
This is really about mental concentration and the ability to use it optimally. Mindfulness and meditative practices are very effective for improving focus to improve memory. You can use meditation or yoga to help you block distractions and heighten your concentration abilities.
An eidetic memory requires that you become very observant of the details of things happening around you so that the facts of the experience are retained in the brain. However, you do not want to overload your brain with extraneous information, you must filter and choose what is important enough to send to the brain for memory efficiency.
There is no better exercise for the brain than solving puzzles because it improves awareness and cognitive functions. The more puzzles you play the more your brain will activate memory skills to remember the moves and to make it easier to solve similar puzzles later.
Everyone has the ability to develop a photographic memory by using the right methods consistently to develop effective memory skills.
Memory Improvement Techniques for Beginners
Every day we get older, and our memory fails if we do not do anything to sharpen and invigorate it. Just think back to how much you could remember when you were younger especially; as a child it was a lot. Children aged around 13 and younger have been called language geniuses because of their remarkable abilities to learn any language and this ability is true for many other things.
As we grow older, we lose this effortless ability to memorize information and learn; information processing feels harder and slower and we cannot organize, process, and recall information as easily and quickly as we did as children .
The truth, however, is very different. It is not the brain slowing down or our memory failing us. It is us who fail our memory. Luckily, memory improvement is something that we can do at any time in our lives and we should be doing it.
There are various techniques and methods of memory improvement. For beginners, there are several techniques which are easy to learn and practice and there are others which are advanced and should wait until you have acclimatized yourself to the basic techniques.
Memory improvement for beginners are easy processes and strategies designed to ensure that the brain remains active and high performing. These also happen to be the requirements for good memory. We will share with you these techniques which you should make daily habits to fully benefit from them.
These mind improvement techniques will help you in so many ways for improved memory skills. Even though every individual may have slight variation for processing and organizing information, these techniques will generally lead to the same results for everyone.
Memory enhancing skills will put you back on the right track as far as mental concentration, focus, and observation skills are concerned. As we get older, most of us tend to derail the memory process unknowingly, by simply ignoring to consciously work on, keep active, and sharpen concentration, focus, and observatory skills. Memory improvement skills will help you to focus better in every experience whether conversation, reading, or in a lecture room.
Everyone has a learning style which works best for them; of the three learning styles -auditory, kinesthetic, and visual, there is one which works best for you.  Learning. Some people learn or remember things better visually by reading and looking at pictures seeing pictures, others remember better what they listen to- audio, and the last category are those whose memory works best if they interact with the information-kinesthesis. You will memorize information better if you identify and organize information to your favored learning style.
Once we learn something and it is stored in the long-term memory it becomes something we know. It is knowledge that we understand and can be recalled and accessed by the brain whenever we need it. Associating new things with what you already know is a great trick to help you memorize things faster and for the long-term.
Association new information – an event or something you are reading to something you already know is a very effective memorization technique which quickly enables the brain to connect something new to information already mastered.
Grouping new information into chunks or clusters will make it easy to memorize it and remember later. It is a lot easier to grasp information if it is grouped into related bits as you would when filing documents or organizing folders on your computer.
Simple clustering is a great tool for beginners to train with and use for improving memory, however, there are more complex clustering methods such as PAO which are advanced. Grouping related information makes it efficient and effective for the brain to encode, classify, store, and find specific information.
You must consciously and actively want and work to capture as much information about an event, experience, or even a piece of literature that you want to remember. Engage your senses more for improved memory.
Incorporate as many senses as you can. Try to relate information regarding colors, textures, smells, as well as tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can help internalize it into the brain. Even if you learn visually, reading out loud what you wish to remember is very important even if it means rhythmically reciting.
For example, as you read, create or imagine images of what you are reading so that it is easy to remember. Depending on what new information you want to memorize, instead of reading silently why don’t you read out loud, smell things, touch things, and you will find that you can remember them better.
What many people do not know about the mind and memory is that you can never remember every single detail of what you see or recall every word from a science textbook. Good memory requires that you strip the information you want to retain to the bare minimum, the basic information. While focusing on the important things, you must also learn to discard the unnecessary information and memorize the things we need to commit to memory.
Cramming the mind with too much information is counterproductive for memory improvement and can easily overwhelm you.  Trying to learn so much makes it difficult to understand or recall the information. Isolate the basic information and memorize that so that it becomes the blueprint or plan of the information you want to retain.
Mnemonic devices refers to tools which can be used for remembering information; they are simple clues or tricks which are effective for triggering a quick recall of information. Mnemonics are simply learning tools designed for memory enhancement and can be an idea, association such as acronyms, or pattern of words.
There are various forms of mnemonic devices and we have already touched briefly on some aspects of it like visualization. The following are leading memory aiding devices:
We have already learned that one of the best ways to retain and recall information is by associating it with something you already know. Visual imagery is a leading device to use for remembering information. If you are not good at remembering names and do not want to forget the name of your brother’s new girlfriend ‘Lily,’ simply link her name to ‘water lilies’ the flower and it will be much easier to remember.
The best way and probably the one used by many in music class to learn the treble staff was by making an easily remembered sentence from the letters of the scale. E-very G-ood B- oy D-eserves F-avor is probably familiar to you. The good news is that you can still use this trick to remember information.
Another common phrasing or sentencing in grade school was used for mastering the names and order of planets:
M-ost V-illagers E-mploy M-any J-unior S-ervants U-nder N-o P-ayment where the first letters represent: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, respectively.
This trick is loosely related to what you do with sentencing but is the use of the first letter of each word to create a shortcut to the information. An acronym is a word built from the first letters of several words from a sentence or piece of information which makes it easier to recall the information.
Rhyming is probably the oldest memorizing tool you know; it was used to help you learn things in nursery and is one of the most effective mnemonic devices. Turning information into a simple rhyme, poem, or song not only makes it exciting to sing or recite but also makes it easy to remember .
Music is effective for memorization because it provides an organized structure for information which is easy to recall and repeat; that is why it is easier to remember the words of a song than the words of Winston Churchill’s speeches. This is also why the adverts on TV are accompanied by jingles. They are catchy and easy to remember and when you sing it you remember the product or service advertised (association).
Utilize humor by making the things you would like to remember funny, amusing, and entertaining in some way. You can even create an interesting funny story or joke about this information that will make it stand out in your mind.
Organized information is easily stored and retrieved by the brain. Organize information you are keen to remember in such a way that you can easily recall it by for example grouping related information.
Many times, we read or study thing which we then quickly forget. Unless you go out of your way to retain information, there is a high likelihood that you will forget after a short time. Repetition is a powerful tool for the brain to capture and store meaningful information. By repeating information, the brain registers it as important and will store and make it accessible when you want it.
For best results, it is said that rehearsing, revisiting, or reviewing information one or two days after first getting exposed to it works best for spaced repetition. It is thought that the brain pays less attention to information in short learning intervals, therefore, repeating the information over a longer period rather than frequently makes the brain retain information better and for longer.
Repetition is effective for combat forgetting and for boosting memory skills and to achieve efficiency, you should consider the following:
  1. For repetition to work, you must reach an optimal level of repetition.
  2. While it is helpful for memorization, it has also been found that forgetting can be a result of both too much repletion as well as not enough of it.
  3. Spacing the repetition exercises is very important.
  4. The frequency of pauses between repetitions as well as the length will be determined by the information volume and the complexity.
  5. Always go for the most appropriate and effective repetition strategies for the respective information. For example, there are repetitions which work better for numbers than words.
  6. Logic is preferable to mechanical repetition, as is active repetition as opposed to passive.
The forgetting curve proves that the chances of recalling new information that comes to us is significantly reduced if we do not revise or revisit it. Repetition is the most efficient way to help you learn and remember information easily, whether in class, a second language, etc. The Spaced Repetition System is the way to do it-begin with short intervals or spaces of acquiring information then revisiting then increase the space if you are able to recall the information successfully. However, you need to make it challenging for the information to be kept in the long-term memory.
Repetition or periodic reviews will help you in strides by making learning easier and remembering faster.
When you are having difficulty recalling a particular word or factual issue, you can assist yourself by giving related details of the word, name, or fact. Other ways that are practical to cue include:
When you’re trying to remember a long list of tasks, it can help to categorize the items in groups, just as you would to recall a phone number. This strategy focuses on organizing and association building, and helps to extend the ability of our short-term memory by grouping information together instead of trying to remember each piece of information on its own. For instance :
If your grocery list has fifteen items, you can group the items by category, such as dairy, produce, canned goods, and frozen foods.
Yes! As much as we are in the digital age, pen to paper, literally, is one of the best ways of quickly improving memory. These days most of us, especially in the classroom or lecture setting, type information into laptops and tabs but it is bad for memorization.
Writing by hand is good because the brain cells’ reticular activating system (RAS), are stimulated as we write which makes the brain pay more attention to what you are doing, thus making the encoding and storage of the information written more effective.
Researchers at Princeton University and UCLA deduced that students who took hand written notes were also better active listeners compared to typists and were also better at identifying important concepts. Princeton University Psychology Professor Pam Mueller said of those who used laptops to take notes, “In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand,”
Writing makes the brain a lot more active and attentive to everything you write compared to typing, which research has shown to lead to transcription rather than your own interpretation or record of the information you are getting. Remember, we have already said that you need to organize information in such a way that best works for you; reframing information as is the case when taking notes by hand is a more effective way of learning.
It has long been known that the best way of learning is to teach the same thing to another. When you analyze this adage, you will find that it is a variation of repetition of information and we already know that the more you repeat information the better your chances of committing it to long-term memory.
Whether you instruct someone else about what you know actively or pretend to be teaching, you will achieve enhanced memory if you consistently do it. Teaching others speeds up the learning and remembering because the process requires preparation and, therefore, puts you in the mindset to master and have the right knowledge about what you want to teach. In the process of preparing to teach, you will be learning.
Teaching other people what you know is a great way of solidifying the information in your brain. By interpreting the information in your own way to teach helps your brain to understand and encode the information much better .
Most people who have a good memory have said that teaching what they know is a powerful tool for improving memory; explain the information in detail and, as you do this, it is inscribed further in your memory to easily remember later. If you cannot do a full-length teaching session, mentioning it also works because, however briefly you revisit it, your mind will run through the whole set of related information as you had captured it.
This technique has also been called The Protégé Effect and is the same reason why teachers will often ask their students to explain, or teach something that has previously been taught or read. A study published in the Journal of Science Education and Technology in 2009 proved this point and found that students who taught spent more time reading the information they were to teach and thus learned it more extensively.
Experience and research underlines the fact that it is better to learn in bits rather than overloading your brain with information. This point complements the fact recommended of learning the basics of the information you want to memorize. Louisiana State University’s Center for Academic Success recommends setting aside between half an hour to fifty minutes for new information.
The center says that reading for less than 30 minutes is not enough to retain information effectively and more than 50 minutes is too much information for efficient brain absorption in a session. After one reading or information ingestion session, you are supposed to take a break of at least 10 minutes before you resume. Short learning sessions with cues like note cards, hand written, makes it easier to learn especially for difficult concepts.
Changing and mixing up memory improvement techniques has been proven to work better than relying on one and is something you should try, especially to inject new knowledge about something you already know.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led by Pablo A. Clink, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, have discovered that when learning new motor skills, switching up the way you learn can help you grasp it faster.
Memory and how it works is still a journey of discovery and we still have a lot to know about how the brain works vis a vis memory. None the less, there are several simple tools and tricks which have been tested and proven to work for improving memory, and it is those we have shared here and recommend for beginners who are getting on the path to a photographic memory. If you start practicing one or a combination of these memory improvement techniques, you will notice a big difference in how you will be able to heighten brain and memory functioning and will learn more.
You can’t recall something that you never learned before, and you can’t learn something, encode it into your brain, if you don’t pay enough attention to it. It takes a few seconds of intense focus for your memory to process information. If you can be easily distracted, pick a place that is quiet where there will be no interruptions.
Cognitive training is based on the fact that the brain can change due to experiences it undergoes. This training offers improvement in cognitive functioning which increases the capacity of working memory and improves cognitive skills and functions in clinical populations with deficiencies in working memory. It focuses on attention, processing speed, neurofeedback, dual-tasking, and training perceptually.
Cognitive training has been shown to improve cognitive abilities for up to half a decade. In one experiment, the aim was to prove that cognitive training increases the cognitive functions in older adults by using three types of training (memory, reasoning, and processing speed). It was revealed that improving cognitive ability was not only maintained over time but had a positive transfer effect on daily functionality. So, these results show that each type of cognitive training can produce immediate and lasting improvements in each kind of cognitive ability, therefore confirming that training can be beneficial to improving memory.
The Improvement in Memory with Plasticity-based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) study by the American Geriatrics Society in 2009 demonstrated that cognitive training designed to improve accuracy and hearing speed led to better performance for memory and hearing.
Two cognitive training methods are:
  1. Strategy training is used to help individuals remember increasing amounts of information of a certain type. It involves the teaching of approaches that are effective to encoding, maintaining, and recalling from the working memory. The main aim of strategy training is increasing performance in tasks that require information retention. Studies have strongly supported the notion that the amount of information remembered can be increased by rehearsing it aloud, a story with stimuli being told or use of imagery to make stimuli stand out. Strategy training has been used in kids with Down syndrome and also in older adult populations.
  2. Core training involves repetition of working memory tasks that are demanding. Some core training programs include a combination of several tasks with widely varying types of stimulus. The variety of exercises increases the chance that some combination of the tasks on training will produce the desired gains that are related to training. A goal of cognitive training is to influence the ease and success of cognitive performance in one’s day to day life. Core training reduces the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and improves the quality of life involving patients suffering from illnesses such as sclerosis and schizophrenia.
The manner in which a training study is conducted could affect the outcomes or prospection of the outcomes. Expectancy and effects of effort happen when the experimenter subconsciously influences the participants to perform a desired outcome. One form of expectancy bias relates to the effects of placebo, which is the mindset that training should have an influence that is positive on cognition. A control group may assist in eliminating this bias because this group would not expect to benefit from the training provided. At times, researchers generalize their results, which can be off the mark and incorrect.
Psychopharmacology and its relation to memory
Epinephrine, also called adrenaline, has been associated with enhancement of memory in both humans and animals. The present evidence suggests consolidation of memory in particular, appears to be enhanced by administering epinephrine. However, epinephrine also interacts with the level of arousal during the time of encoding memory and has resulted in improvement of low arousing object recognition in rats.
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is essential, possibly regulated by glucose levels, which works on improving working memory when at increased levels in synapses.
Advanced methods and techniques for memory improvement
As you have seen, there are a lot of simple memory techniques which are recommended for beginners who want to start on memory improvement or for people who simply want to exercise the brain and keep their memory sharp. On the other hand, advanced memory techniques are for memorization of more complex information than the shopping list.
Most of the advanced memory techniques in use today are either variations on one technique or a combination of more than one technique to make memorization even more efficient and effective, for instance, someone memorizing thousands of square roots will need variations and combinations to succeed. Let us look at the most advanced techniques for memorizing information.
Advanced Memory Improving Technique s
Method 1: The Major System
The major system involves converting numbers into letters and will require that you memorize the links between numbers from 0 to 9 and the letters they link to, and it is the most used technique for mastering numbers and numbers sequences. Basically, this memory technique is translating numbers into sounds so that you can easily remember the numbers from the sounds you converted them to.
As most of us will attest, remembering numbers is not easy; the more the digits in a number the higher the level of difficulty remembering. The trick, however, is mastering the basics of the technique. Once you do, you will be able to remember any number and can even use the system effectively to remember non-numeral information. The reason why this system is so effective is that instead of remembering numbers you will simply remember the sounds you have linked to. So, the Major System is a phonetic-number system for aiding numbers memorization and is used for remembering playing cards as well.
The system is related to other numbers memorization techniques like the Ben System and the Dominic System. Several variations of this system have been developed over the years such that the ‘standard’ Major system is usually a reference to a variation which is thought to have been developed by Aimé Paris or Francis Fauvel Gouraud and popularized by Harry Lorayne. The point here is that, this system is very flexible and is often unique to the individual using it because people tend to customize it to fit their capabilities and needs, so much so that the common one used in memory competition today is different from the ‘standard.’
However, the name is thought to have come from a Major Beniowski, whom some people have attributed the invention of the technique to.
Creating a code for your Major System
As indicated above, this system has been in use for hundreds of years and, in that time, has developed and morphed into different variations. You can match sounds to digits various ways as long as your code is consistent. In the modern version of the Major System, each number is usually associated with one or more consonant sounds as follows:
In the version commonly used today, the consonants w, h, and y are ignored as well as vowels. However, they can be used as filler to create sensible words from the resulting consonants formed .
Example of the most common phonetic code:
Number
Associated Consonants
Mnemonic
0
Soft c, s, z
z is the first letter in zero and the letters have a similar sound
1
t, d,
d & t have one down stroke and sound similar (some variant systems include "th")
2
n
n has two down strokes and looks something like "2" on its side
3
m
m looks like a 3 turned to look down and has three down strokes
4
r
last letter of four, also 4 and R are almost mirror images of each other
5
l
L is 50 in Roman numbers
6
soft ch, soft g, sh, j, zh
a script j has a lower loop / g is almost a 6 flipped over
7
Hard c, hard ch, k, q, qu, capital K
capital K "contains" two sevens facing opposite sides
8
f, v
Script f resembles a figure-8. V sounds similar. (some variant systems include th)
9
p, b,
p is a mirror-image 9. b sounds similar and looks like a 9 turned 90 degrees
Unassigned
Vowel sounds, w,h,y
These can be used as fillers without changing a word's number valu e
For this system to be effective, consistency in using pre-made images is required as opposed to creating images on the spot. You should develop an image for every number between 0-9 and 00-99 to be successful. More advanced users develop images for 000-999.
The Major System can also be combined with other methods such as the Peg System for memorizing lists and can also help with generating memory pegs. This system, with practice, will easily help you to effortlessly remember numerical sequences like dates, years, or telephone numbers.
Major System memory image example:
Satellite​ S = 0​ 0
Satellite​ Vowel, ignored.​ 0
Satellite​ t = 1​ 01
Satellite​ Vowel, ignored.​ 01
Satellite​ ll = 5, no double letter​ 015
Satellite​ Vowel, ignored.​ 015
Satellite​ t = 1​ 0151
Satellite​ Vowel, ignored.​ 015 1
Uses of the major system
This technique is applicable in many areas of our life where numbers are concerned such as:
Method 2: The Memory Palace
The memory palace is one of the oldest methods and the foremost used for improving memory and is effective for anyone who wants a photographic memory. It is also called the Method of Loci and dates back centuries; it is mentioned in the works of the great Roman thinker and orator, Cicero, who used it himself for his speeches.
Memorizing things in detail is quite the task and this method uses the brain’s setup to make it easy to store and recall any information. The brain will not easily store every information you give it because there are some form of information which the brain is averse to storing. With the memory palace, you can transform information that is hard to remember into something the brain will easily retrieve.
Basically, the memory palace is about compartmentalizing the information your brain ingests in a way that you can easily remember and is done in four steps.
Well, this does not mean the real thing but a layout for storing information. A memory palace is best if it is a space you are familiar with like your house; think of the different rooms.
What do you want to remember? Associate and link the information you want to remember with an image you will not forget. This is the visual association mentioned earlier.
Once you have the images you have the associative images you are comfortable with, you want to go back to your palace and store them. Store the images in the palace in a way that you can easily retrace and remember by selecting a route through the palace.
The final thing in this method is to take a mental stroll through your memory palace to reaffirm the route and inscribe to memory where the different images are stored.
As Cicero asserted, mental imagery is one of the most effective ways of memorizing information and certainly improving memory. We shall discuss this method in great detail in a later chapter.
Method 3: The Memory Peg System
The memory peg system is generally similar to the memory palace except that the former does not associate information to physical images like the latter. This method utilizes numerical rhymes known as memory pegs which gives it its name.
The peg system was invented by Henry Herdson and is based on mentally associating two objects, usually an object to a number, and the common way of doing it is to match an object or word to a number that rhymes with it, which are the pegs. This system works best for people with strong auditory senses.
This method is even stronger when multiple pegs are used which minimizes the likelihood of forgetting. For those with stronger visual memory, a number can be matched to an image or shape .
Example:
Number
Peg
1
Gun
2
Shoe
3
Tree
4
Floor
5
Dive
This method works best for things one wants to remember for a short period such as a grocery list. The good thing about it is that a peg list can be memorized once and reused. Once the numbers have been associated or linked to specific items such as those on a shopping list, you will later walk through the list mentally to recall the rhymes to identify the respective items.
The human brain finds it a lot easier to memorize rhymes because it is easy to memorize by sound association, that is why children love and find it easy to master nursery rhymes. With this system, you first create a rhyming peg as in the table above: One = Gun, Two = Shoe, Three = Tree, Four = Floor etc. After that, form visual images of the objects as in the table below:
Associating/Linking item
Identifying/Recalling
1-    Onions (imagine shooting onions from/with a gun)
What was the gun shooting?
2-     Shoe polish (imagine cleaning your shoes)
What do I use to clean shoes?
3-     Apples (imagine fruits on a tree)
Which fruit was hanging on a tree?
4-    Carpet cleaner (imagine stepping on the carpet with dirt)
Do I want to make my carpet dirty?
Here again, just like with memory palace, you will need to walk through the numbers, link back to the rhyming object or word, and identify by questioning the rhyme as you had imagined or pictured mentally earlier .
Ideally, this method is about using the memory template to fit your own preferences as far as the rhymes and objects to match them to. You do not necessarily have to use as done here or as you have seen elsewhere. Memory improvement is about what works for you.
Like the loci or method palace methods, the Peg systems works by reminding you of what to remember by enabling direct retrieval of information. Just like the palace, the pegs can be used over and over again to memorize information because the brain has the remarkable capacity to distinguish between the same pegs being used severally for memorizing different sets of information.
Using different memory pegs together makes the process more flexible and effective; you can use number rhymes, shapes, or letters. Different sets of memory pegs also help to decrease interference or mix up of information to be remembered. Combine it with other methods such as the memory palace for efficacy and to absorb more information of varying types.
Method 4: The Dominic System
This system is christened after its creator and, 8-times winner of the world memory championships, Dominic O’Brien. He devised his own variation of the Major System which became the Dominic System and uses a specific set of numbers and letters pairings and requires learning before you can use it effectively.
The Dominic mnemonic system is a person-action (PA) system which encodes 4 digits at a time, converted into compound images of a person and an action. It is effective for memorizing long sequence numbers and will require you to convert the numbers into letters and then associate the letters with people and actions which you can easily remember. Dominic recommended assigning numbers to images based on first association, for example, if you want to use Ronald Reagan, you may choose to assign him two for having served two-terms as President.
This is the digit-letter association or code Dominic O'Brien used:
Mnemonic​ A​ B​ C​ D​ E​ S​ G​ H​ N​ O
Number​ 1​ 2​ 3​ 4​ 5​ 6​ 7​ 8​ 9​ 0
Accordingly, the number 56 will be "ES" which will then be associated with an image whose name or an attribute can be abbreviated as “ES” for example Edward Snowden.
Long numbers are clustered into four digits with the first two representing a person and the next two being an action. The first 2 digits refer to a personality, and the second two digits represent an action.
So from the code above, 1133 could mean :
Andre Agassi – tennis
Charlie Chaplin – swinging a walking stick
So, 1133 or 3311 could mean:
Andre Agassi swinging a walking stick or Charlie Chaplin playing tennis respectively.
This system is more effective compared to the Major System because of the replacement of words with images of people or notable personalities; the brain registers faces and people better than words which makes it easier to remember the mental images as used in the Dominic system compared to words. The Dominic system enables you to memorize blocks of four numbers at once, which means more information in that small cluster.
Method 5: Person-Action-Object (PAO) System
PAO is an advanced technique for memory improvement and was originally an invention of counters. The method worked by associating a card with a real royal personality – Kings, Queens, Princes of the time. The PAO system as we know it today was modified by Joshua Foer to be used for numbers. It is popular with participants at memory competitions and is commonly used for memorizing random numbers and playing cards.
This system is a variation of the Dominic system; whereas the Dominic system is based around grouping together four numbers at a time, the PAO system can handle six. It does this by separating out the action and the object. So, whereas the Dominic system has pair one = the person, and pair two = performing the action, the PAO system uses: pair one = the person, pair two = the action, pair three = the object. For example, if you had 159153 (AE NA EC) you would have Albert Einstein, standing on the moon, playing Eric Clapton’s guitar.
The numbers to be memorized are clustered in 2 or 3 digits and then transferred to the Memory Palace. This mix of memory enhancing methods is what makes it an advanced system. The two-digit cluster commits 6 numbers to a memory palace while the three digit cluster does the same for 9 numbers.
Tips for PAO memorization :
  1. Do not have imagery of very small objects or those that are too big.
  2. Use actions that are distinctly distinguishable. Avoid the obvious, so, instead of Lance Armstrong cycling, have him falling off the bicycle or running.
  3. Internalize and master your PAO list before you memorize any number so that it is ingrained in your brain so that when you spot one element it will effortlessly and quickly bring related ones to the fore.
  4. Do not use clothes for your imagery because of the commonality of garment usage i.e. using a tie for one male character is not unique because almost all males wear and can be associated with a tie. If you have to, it must be a unique item of clothing.
How it works :
The common PAO system is to convert 2-digit numbers into a series of three visual images of a person, an action, and an object.
The three parts, person, action, and object complement one another to make memorable markers. You can also cluster PAO in threes so that the person is represented by the first number, an action the second number, and an object by the third.
Example 1: 6 digit clustering
202212
Then cluster each 6-digit segment into twos:
20-22-12
20; becomes the person
22; becomes the action
12; the objec t
Lance Armstrong → Cycling → Flag of France
Example 2: 12-digit clustering
181955165513 would be clustered in 6s and then in 2s:
18-19-55-16-55-13
PAO 1: 18- person, 19- action, 55- object
PAO 2: 16- person, 55- action, 13- object
Each cluster image is transferred to a memory palace/loci i.e.
Locus 1: 15-16-33 becomes Lance Armstrong→ Cycling → Flag of France
Locus 2: 16-33-15 becomes Charlie Chaplin → High top hat → Walking stick
PAO is great for chunking/clustering and every personality picked can be used to memorize a lot of things. Additionally, you can combine PAO with other systems like memory palace and different chunking systems like Dominique and Major Systems.
Method 6: Military/Dark Room Method
Like the name says, this method is supposedly used by the military and intelligence services to train memory improvement amongst their ranks. The method is also referred to as dark room because it involves being in darkness as part of the memory improvement training.
The truth is that there has been no confirmation by the military if they use this system or not. Nonetheless, since it is out there and there are people who believe it works, it is worth a try.
Here is how it works:
We shall end this chapter after that overview of the six commonly used advanced methods of memorization. It would be wise for beginners to pick these up after getting acclimatized with the simpler memory techniques discussed under the techniques for beginners. Since some of the simpler techniques are incorporated in the advanced methods, such as visualization, you will find it a bit easier to understand and use the advanced techniques.
More importantly, the trick for mastering any of the advanced techniques is simply to practice, understanding the overall technique, and starting with a mastery of the basics then rehearsing the method over and over is the proven way of success. You are free to do more research of the methods on your own and to create and customize them in the best way to make it easy and effective for you to use.
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