In 2006, I introduced a new discipline to the World Memory Championships: Abstract Images. It’s a perfect test of someone’s memory. Performing well requires no language skills, maths ability, or verbal reasoning – it’s a memory “leveller”, if you like, a pure test of memory agility, using the power of the imagination. Given 15 minutes, competitors must memorize as many black-and-white abstract shapes, presented in rows of five, as possible, in sequence. Once the 15 minutes are up, they are given a sheet showing the same images, but in a new order. They have to number the images on this second sheet to reflect the original position of each image.
I approach the challenge by looking at the images one by one and finding the first and fastest visual associations I can. Take a look at the following first row of five images. What do you “see”?
1 A goat’s head
2 A garden gnome
3 An oversized jockey riding a squirrel
4 A rabbit
5 A bat in flight
Once I have my associations I use them to create a story that helps me to memorize the correct order of the images. For example, I imagine a goat pecking at a garden gnome and, as he does so, a racing squirrel rushes by. The squirrel jumps over the rabbit, which is eating a bat.
I then place this mini-story at the first stage of the journey I reserve for abstract images (the first stage of my images journey is my back garden) to indicate that these were the images in the first row of five. Then, I memorize the next row of five images in exactly the same way, and place it in my predetermined journey at the second stage – around my garden shed. The journey preserves the order of the rows, while each story I create preserves the order of the images within each row. Here’s a sample second row (this time I haven’t numbered the images – this is because they aren’t numbered in the Championships round, so it’s more true to life):
What objects do the images conjure up in your mind’s eye?
From left to right I see a funny little alien, a poodle looking up, someone praying, a big-nosed man in a strange hat, and a deer with short antlers. So, I imagine an alien opening the door to my garden shed, which is guarded by a poodle. Inside I see a man praying for mercy. He’s being held captive by the guy in a hat. Nailed up on the shed wall is the head of a deer with short antlers.
Here are the same two rows of images, but in a different order:
By replaying the scene from my back garden I know that the original order for the images in the row above is: 4, 3, 2, 5, 1.
Cover the opposite page. Can you recall the original order for the images from row two?
In these examples, I’ve given you my associations, but of course different associations may have seemed more obvious to you. Each time the challenge is to find an association as quickly as possible and to work each one quickly into a memorable story. This provides a great way to hone your imagination and association skills. Try the exercise on the following page for yourself.
Have a go at memorizing the three rows of abstract images in step 1, below. You have 5 minutes (set a timer to alert you when the time is up). Then, cover step 1 and try to restore the jumbled-up images in step 2 to their original order. Recalling two complete rows in the correct order is good; all three is excellent.
MEMORIZE THE IMAGES
2 REORDER THE IMAGES
