Tendency #2—Primacy and Recency

One of the most common patterns we see on this baseline quiz is called primacy and recency. This means that with a bunch of information to remember, your brain will naturally be effective with the information at the beginning and the end, while struggling in the middle. Again, it doesn't mean you're broken—primacy and recency is just natural tendency.

Understanding these tendencies leads us to our most basic recall improvement principle: chunking. It simply means that you will automatically improve your brain's ability to recall if you will break things into bite-sized pieces. If you would have seen the baseline quiz like this:

• a unicorn

• an electrical outlet

• a tricycle

• a truck

• a hand

• a can of beer

• a hockey stick

• a spider

• a baseball

• a dime

• chopsticks

• a rose

• a black cat

• gold

• a dollar sign

• a driver's license

• a wizard

• a golf green

• a sauna

• a dartboard

Your performance would have improved. Why? More beginnings and more ends! Just this one concept can be a huge help for your brain. When you learn anything, take it in bite-sized chunks as much as possible. That's bite-sized chunks of information and bite-sized chunks of time. Even with this book, I recommend you read no more than one chapter at a time. When you finish a chapter, take a moment to review what was covered, in writing or at least in your mind. Take a quick stretch break, grab a drink of water, get your mind off of the book for a few minutes. Then and only then come back to reading. You'll get way more out of it.

Okay, now that we've got your baseline score and a baseline understanding of how your brain operates naturally, let's supercharge it. In the next two chapters, you're going to learn how to speak the language of your brain, mentally organize information of all kinds, and improve your recall for any number of applications. Let's go!

Chapter 2: Learn to Speak the Language of Your Memory!

Overview

Did you know that your memory has a language? We touched on it in the introduction, when we talked about "what you see is what you get." The language of your memory (and every other function of your brain) is images. One of the other default settings of your learning capacity that can be harnessed is your brain's powerful tendency and ability to see images. The more you can visualize information, the easier it is to recall.

Some good news is that you already think in images. You may not have realized it consciously, but you do. If I asked you to recall 50 things about your living room right now, what would you do? That's right, you would just see a mental image of your living room! By doing so, you'd be able to recall tons of detail, even though you've never memorized your living room. Learn to trust that ability—we're going to start developing it right now.

Let's redo that baseline test, only with a small twist.

1. unicorn

2. electrical outlet

3. tricycle

4. truck

5. hand

6. beer

7. hockey stick

8. spider

9. baseball

10. dime

Let me just pause for a moment to let you review in your mind the images you just created, and remind you to see these images as clearly and vividly as you can. Moving on:

11. chopsticks

12. roses

13. black cat

14. gold

15. dollar sign

16. candles

17. wizard

18. golf green

19. sauna

20. dartboard

Okay, two twists: We broke it up, and now we've got numbers. This "unicorn list" is the same baseline test we start all of our memory training workshops with, and here's what we find. Seeing/knowing the numbers with each item can, all by itself, create an association that's beneficial. See it? Most of the numbers do have a logical connection with the item that represents them —1 and unicorn, 3 and tricycle, 12 (a dozen) roses. In fact, the technique you're learning right now is called basic association, and it's a valid technique to begin with. Infinitely more valuable, however, is when you create a vivid image of each item in your mind. Even without a logical association (for example #15 is a stretch, #17 is really a stretch, and there is none at all for #19), the image is what your brain needs. So you'll take the test again, but first follow the simple directions. You're going to walk through the exact same 20 items, but this time you're going to see the images in your mind as vividly and clearly as you can. Let me emphasize: See the images as vividly and clearly as you can. Don't just say "ya, I got it." Just take a few seconds with each one, then take the test on page 20. See these images in your mind, and study for no more than three minutes.

See a brilliant white unicorn with his 1 horn.

See the beige electrical outlet with its 2 slots.

See the red tricycle with its 3 black rubber wheels and a 3-year-old kid on it.

See the truck with its 4 wheels, its 4 doors, and the for sale sign in the window.

See your hand with its 5 fingers.

See that 6-pack of beer (you choose your favorite brand).

See the wooden hockey stick shaped like a 7.

See that big black spider with its 8 legs.

See that round baseball being tossed around by the 9 players on the field for 9 innings.

See that 10 cents, the thin, silver, shiny dime.

Let me just pause for a moment to let you review in your mind the images you just created, and remind you to see these images as clearly and vividly as you can. Moving on:

See those thin chopsticks that look like the number 11 being pulled out of their wrapper.

See those 12 beautiful red roses in a bouquet.

See that black cat on Friday the 13th.