Ancient shorthand mnemonics
Although the achievements of ancient Romans in memory theory were not as good as those of ancient Greeks, they paid more attention to practical application. The ancient Romans invented many memory methods, the most famous of which was Roman family law.
In ancient Rome, the elders of the Senate needed to quote classics and memorize a lot of data for speeches and debates. At that time, there was neither paper nor pen, so it was not convenient to record. At the same time, we should think that even for the convenience of recording, a speaker with a manuscript is obviously more attractive than a speaker who can make a long speech without a manuscript. Therefore, an orator must be eloquent and remember a lot of code, data and other content in order to be invincible. As a result, they slowly explored a set of memory methods that can accurately and massively memorize data.
So, how do they remember? The Romans noticed that the furnishings, furniture and many utensils in their homes were generally fixed in one place. If we use them as a medium to imagine what we want to remember and everything, isn't it possible to remember the content as long as we think of the object? In addition, because it is my home, I am familiar with the placement of items, and the order will not be chaotic. So as long as you think back in order, the order of memory content will not be confused. This not only solves the problem of memorizing, but also solves the double problem of memorizing in order, killing two birds with one stone!
For example, an orator will debate with three people at the same time the next day, and he will prepare different materials for everyone. How can he remember the material without hitting the wrong target? He thought about his family. When he came in, there was a table and a bed behind the door. In this way, he imagined the door, table and bed respectively. The first one is thin, the second one is fat, and the third one is very tall. He began to imagine, the door and the thin man: XXX, a thin man, can squeeze in through my door, and he never needs me to open the door when he comes to my house; Table and fat man: so-and-so, so fat, just sitting on my table, I crushed it, I imagined the click and the pain of fat man screaming; The third tall man and bed: so-and-so is very tall, lying on my bed with his feet exposed.
For another example, the layout of the Roman family is like this: there are two big pillars at the door and a big lion pattern on the door. Entering the room, there is a sculpture on the left, next to a potted flower, and there is a sofa on the left of the flower. There is a table in front of the sofa with wine glasses and bowls on it.
The host will go out and buy the following things: buy a pair of slippers, sharpen a sword, buy a slave, prune vines, clean helmets, talk to children and so on. How to remember? It is enough to relate the items to be purchased according to the order of home placement.
Two pillars in front of the door, slippers and sharpening swords: imagine a pillar covered with slippers of various colors. When you want to wear it, take a pair casually; The other pillar is specially used for sharpening knives. If the sword is not fast, it will be sharpened, so when I see the pillar, I think it is time to sharpen the sword.
Lions and slaves: the newly bought slaves are very capable of taming lions. Imagine the thrilling scene when they fight.
Flower and helmet polishing: I use flowers to polish my helmet, which is very bright, so I like to use flowers to polish my helmet. Flowers are used to polish my helmet.
Talking with children on the sofa: Generally speaking, talking with children is carried out on the sofa.
So that he can remember the order of going home.
The advantage of Roman family law is that you can remember what you want and remember it in order. The coding method, mailbox method and place coding method mentioned in many books today are the continuation and development of Roman family law.
The memory methods of ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks worshipped memory very much, believing that memory was the embodiment of the goddess Nimosin. Nimosin is the most beautiful of all goddesses. Zeus spent the longest time with her, spending nine days together in kuya. As a result, she gave birth to nine muses, who were in charge of love poems, epics, hymns, dances, comedies, tragedies, music, history and astronomy. In the eyes of the Greeks, injecting vitality (Zeus) into memory (Nimosin) will produce creativity and wisdom. The special term mnemonics, which we now call mnemonics, evolved from the name of the goddess Nimosin.
The ancient Greeks believed that the basic principle of the method to improve memory was that if you want to remember something, you should relate it to what you know or repair, and rely on your imagination. This is actually what we call association today, but at that time it was more called imagination.
Nine associative elements in memory methods;
1, color. The brighter and richer the color, the higher the memory efficiency. Just using colors will make you remember deeply.
Memory has improved.
2. imagine. Imagination is the source of your memory. The more vivid you imagine, the easier it is to remember. Includes the following aspects:
A. exaggeration: the bigger the things to remember, the better.
B, shrink: If you can clearly imagine things as tiny, you can firmly remember them.
C. absurdity: the more bizarre and ridiculous the imagination, the deeper the impression, so the stronger the memory.
3. Rhythm: The more rhythmic things there are in a memory image, the richer the types of rhythm, and the more natural it is for that image to enter the memory. Just as we dance to music now, some body movements will be made naturally with music.
4, dynamic: try to make the images in the brain move, moving things are easier to remember than static things.
6. Sex: Sex is one of the strongest motivations of human beings. In this respect, associating with things to be remembered will also help to remember.
7. Order and organization. Remember, it is not enough to rely solely on imagination. You should also classify them in a certain order and order.
Other categories should be packaged, and it is convenient to extract them. Otherwise, chaos will be chaotic.
8. coding. In order to remember things in a certain order, you can remember them according to pre-programmed numbers or other fixed order.
That is, the digital coding method we commonly use now.
9, three-dimensional sense. The comprehensive use of color, movement and other three-dimensional elements gives the content to be remembered a full three-dimensional sense, which is much easier to remember than a simple plane and two-dimensional feeling.
In fact, these memory principles and methods of the ancient Greeks are similar to the methods of using left and right brain memory materials at the same time. We know that the left brain is responsible for logical thinking, language, calculation, sorting and analysis, while the right brain is responsible for imagination, color, stereo, space and rhythm. If we fully mobilize the functions of the left and right brains and participate in memory, it is easy to remember what we have learned. Although the ancient Greeks did not have our scientific theory today, they were exposed to scientific methods and principles to improve their memory. The ancient Greeks and Romans had unconsciously applied these scientific memory methods.
Today, we are still using the fast memory method called memory secret in that era. These shorthand methods can really improve the memory effect. Many fast memory methods popular in today's society are the continuation and extension of these principles and methods.