Confuse of unfamiliar people because you do not remember their faces? Unable to keep in the head, as the word “palliative” is written? It is not possible to capture the metro scheme in the memory, and you now and then choose the wrong transition? Visual memory is guilty of everything. How to “pump” her?
Not everyone can boast of good memory. But, like most skills, it lends itself to training with the exercise system.
1.Divide pictures into elements
It is easier to remember part than the whole: if it is difficult for you to save a scheme or picture in your memory, you can divide it into several elements and remember each of them.
For example, students studying Chinese hieroglyphs usually complain of difficulties in remembering them. However, this happens only until they master a certain set of “keys” and “phonetics”. These categories include a limited number of graphic signs, which consists of most hieroglyphs. So, by reducing tens of thousands of hieroglyphs to a pair of “keys” and “phonetics”, you can remember written signs much faster.
The principle of division is suitable in most life situations. Let’s say you want to remember the image of a person. First, list what he is dressed in: jacket, jeans, sneakers. Now go to each piece of clothing separately: its white sneakers with three longitudinal blue stripes and gray laces.
2. Decide puzzles for attentiveness
Remember the tasks in children’s magazines “Find 10 differences”? Such puzzles are useful not only for children, but also for adults, as this is a powerful training of visual memory. Comparing two pictures that are inconsistent from each other, your brain learns to the details.
At the same time, the puzzles “which item in the figure is located closer, and which – further” is taught to build a geometric perspective. Visual memory, which is responsible for the correct perception of space and composition, during such training is especially active.
3.Develop synesthesia
How this building sounds? And what is the taste of this shade? This is more than just a game: connecting visual elements with sounds, smells and tactile sensations, you make the brain create complex associations. Later they will help to find the necessary information in memory. Synesthesia allows visual images to “root” deeper into the brain and forces the nervous structures of one sensory system to activate the structures of another.
Perhaps you are already using the principle of synesthesia in everyday life to facilitate memorization. For example, the metro branches are associated with a specific color, and not all passengers remember their main names. In addition, creating unusual associations, you develop creative thinking – gifted musicians, writers and artists successfully own this skill.
4. Draw complex ornaments
Images and objects with a complex structure, which is not amenable to a logical description, are most difficult to remember. For example, many tourists are easily oriented in New York or St. Petersburg, but are lost in Moscow or Madrid-the last cities are lacking in regular layout.
To develop memory, it is recommended to perform the following exercise. Take a photo of a chippe or malachite chip. Now try to draw on a separate sheet of paper all its patterns and veins. This is not an easy task. Then postpone the pattern and original and try to portray the stone from memory. Do not spare time: if the first drawing is far from perfect, repeat the exercise several more times.
5.Remember the images as a sequence of words
Many who fail visual memory are distinguished by an excellent ability to memorize words. If it is difficult for you to keep the person’s face in your memory, try to remember his most detailed verbal description. For example: “He has wide gray-blue eyes with heavy eyelids and dense eyebrows. The nose is slightly snub, with freckles. He wears black frame glasses “.
Verbalization retains in verbal descriptions the details elusive from visual memory. When you pronounce the recorded phrase, the brain involuntarily represents the image – and you recall the image of a person faster.
6. Remember objects and details more often
The brain does not remember the details if you do not set such a task before it. You just met on the street of an old acquaintance and stopped talking a little. Now that you are going further, try to remember: what he was dressed in, how he gestured. What did the street look behind him? By focusing on details, you train access mechanisms to your own memory. However, beware of false memories: back and check.