Tony Buzan on Memory
Apr 21st, 2008 by Linda Naiman
Tony Buzan, the UK-based inventor of Mind Maps, says “When you train your memory and train your imagination, there is a remarkable increase in concentration, study skills and creativity, while at the same time raising your IQ.” At the American Creativity Assoc Conference in Singapore, he asked us to write down the nine planets that orbit our Solar System in sequential order from the sun. Most people in the audience got the answer wrong. He then gave us a visual mnemonic to help us remember the sequence:
Imagine the sun. Feel the heat. Next to the sun is a little thermometer. It is measuring the sun, as it gets hotter. The Mercury is rising. The thermometer explodes, and little balls of mercury fall on the ground. Standing next to them is a gorgeous little goddess. She is Venus, with v-shaped cleavage, She picks up a little bit of mercury and throws it. Gravity pulls it back to Earth, and it lands in front of where you live, making a crater. Your next door neighbour is an angry, war-like little man, who is eating a Mars bar. He is furious about all the earth in his garden. Just in time, striding down the street, 100ft tall, with a J of hair on his forehead, is the king of the gods, Jupiter. You look up at Jupiter and on his massive chest, in a big white T-shirt, in enormous capital letters, is the word SUN (standing for Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) ? and sitting on Jupiter?s head is a tiny Walt Disney dog: Pluto.
Memory works with images, locations, connections. Buzan says the prime language of our brain is imagery, not words, and that when we make associations using images, memory becomes creativity.
I’ve always loved these kind of techniques, not only because they help you memorize facts but because you have a chance to exercise your creativity. It’s great to read about how a master at this does it!