00:00:00
So, you want to have an exceptional
00:00:02
memory. Being able to remember
00:00:03
everything and anything sounds like a
00:00:05
fictional superpower, but there really
00:00:07
are people who can memorize an insane
00:00:09
amount of information in just a few
00:00:11
seconds. I used to think they were
00:00:13
simply born with that ability until I
00:00:15
looked deeper and realized I was
00:00:17
completely wrong. And surprisingly, it
00:00:19
can be pretty simple. On my 17 years
00:00:21
learning journey to an Ivy League
00:00:22
school, I had to memorize thousands of
00:00:24
history facts, poems, formulas, and
00:00:27
countless English vocabulary words. And
00:00:29
behind all that was just me spending
00:00:31
endless hours often in frustration. My
00:00:34
grandma struggles with our hammers and
00:00:36
sometimes she doesn't even remember my
00:00:38
name. Memory is fascinating to some
00:00:41
degree is who we are. Now after years of
00:00:44
trials and errors and tons of research,
00:00:46
memory is no longer this mystery thing
00:00:48
to me anymore. In this video, we're
00:00:50
diving deep into the science of memory
00:00:52
and uncovering all the secrets behind
00:00:54
it. So, what we usually see on TV are
00:00:57
those people doing all sorts of cool
00:00:59
memory stuff like memorizing 100 random
00:01:02
dates and events or like in 30 seconds
00:01:04
they can recall an entire deck of cards.
00:01:06
They're called memory athletes and they
00:01:08
participate in memory sports just like
00:01:11
how Olympians often have genetic
00:01:13
advantages. We naturally wonders if
00:01:15
those memory athletes are born gifted.
00:01:18
In a 2017 study, scientists scanned the
00:01:20
brains of a group of worldclass memory
00:01:23
athletes. Their brain structures weren't
00:01:25
significantly different. What was
00:01:27
different was their connectivity. And to
00:01:29
see if these differences could be
00:01:30
trained, researchers split 51 ordinary
00:01:33
people into three groups to test their
00:01:35
ability to recall a list of words. One
00:01:38
trained with memory techniques,
00:01:39
specifically the memory palace. Another
00:01:41
used road memorization, which is the
00:01:43
memory technique that just repeating
00:01:45
something over and over again without
00:01:47
thinking. Five 25. And the third one had
00:01:50
no training at all. After just 40 days,
00:01:52
the memory technique group more than
00:01:54
doubled their recall ability from 26 to
00:01:57
62 words. The road to memorization group
00:02:00
improved by only 11 words and the no
00:02:02
training group barely improved. And 4
00:02:04
months later, the memory technique group
00:02:06
still retained their improvements. Brain
00:02:08
scans even showed their neural
00:02:10
connectivities had changed just like the
00:02:12
memory
00:02:13
athletes. I realized that I can develop
00:02:16
this super memory power by just
00:02:19
training. With that ability, it would
00:02:20
really allow me to learn anything
00:02:22
faster, absorb them faster, and then
00:02:24
retain them longer. So, after I did tons
00:02:27
of research, something very important
00:02:29
that I realized is being able to
00:02:31
remember things very fast and being able
00:02:34
to retain those information long term
00:02:36
and not forget them is actually very two
00:02:39
different things. So, first, let's look
00:02:41
into how to memorize things very fast.
00:02:44
So memory athletes, they don't
00:02:45
necessarily need to memorize things
00:02:48
they're given long term. Often they just
00:02:50
need to memorize things very quickly and
00:02:52
accurately. Usually how they get to that
00:02:54
point is through training something
00:02:56
called pneummonics. And there are many
00:02:58
many different types of pneummonics
00:03:00
techniques and they're suited for
00:03:01
different type of informations like
00:03:03
numbers, text, lists, pictures even. So
00:03:06
here are a couple very important and
00:03:08
popular ones. Memory plas also known as
00:03:11
the method of loi. You mentally walk
00:03:13
through a familiar space like your home,
00:03:15
placing items you want to remember in
00:03:18
specific locations. Later, you can walk
00:03:20
back through the space to retrieve the
00:03:22
information. Like, imagine placing your
00:03:24
grocery list into your home. Eggs on the
00:03:26
sofa, milk on the counter, bananas
00:03:28
hanging from your door. You can also do
00:03:30
this with any familiar items you have
00:03:33
like each body parts is information that
00:03:36
you want to remember. Acronyms. For
00:03:38
example, to remember the great lakes,
00:03:40
you take the first letter of each word
00:03:42
and turn it into a pronouncable word.
00:03:44
Homes, each letter stands for one lake.
00:03:46
A croos text or sentence mononics. It
00:03:49
means you can make up sentences or silly
00:03:51
ones. For example, to remember the
00:03:53
planets in order, you may say, "My very
00:03:56
educated mother just served us nachos."
00:04:00
Each first letter stands for each
00:04:02
planet. Rhymes and songs. Putting
00:04:04
information into a rhyme or melody is
00:04:06
another technique. For example, A B C D
00:04:11
E F G Hopefully you noticed how I was
00:04:14
writing and illustrating using my iPad
00:04:17
throughout this video. It felt pretty
00:04:18
seamless, right? That's thanks to the
00:04:20
sponsor of this video, Paperlike. Back
00:04:22
in college, I almost exclusively used my
00:04:25
iPad to study. These days, I use it all
00:04:27
the time for reading, researching, and
00:04:30
storyboarding for my videos. When I
00:04:32
first got my iPad, there was a bit of
00:04:34
learning curve. It can feel a bit
00:04:36
awkward using the iPo pencil to write on
00:04:39
the glass screen, especially if you
00:04:41
loved physical notebooks like I do.
00:04:44
That's why Paperlike is so awesome. It's
00:04:46
a screen protector with Nanodoc
00:04:48
technology that makes your iPad screen
00:04:51
feels like real paper. So when I write
00:04:53
on it, I get the satisfying feeling
00:04:55
back. And if you do any kind of digital
00:04:57
art like I do, you will love the
00:04:59
texture. It's like drawing on premium
00:05:01
art paper. It really gives you the
00:05:03
control and precision you need. Writing
00:05:05
on my iPad now is just way more
00:05:07
comfortable, especially for long hours.
00:05:09
It's definitely a worthwhile upgrade.
00:05:10
Plus, Paperlike actually offers a 100
00:05:13
day satisfaction guarantee. So, I highly
00:05:16
recommend checking it out. Link is in
00:05:17
the description. And a huge thank you to
00:05:19
Paperlike for sponsoring this video.
00:05:21
Chunking. Breaking down a long list, a
00:05:23
paragraph, or numbers into smaller, more
00:05:26
manageable parts. For example, we
00:05:27
usually remembering a phone number like
00:05:29
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 instead of trying to
00:05:34
remember the whole thing all at once.
00:05:36
Every one of those sounds like a lot of
00:05:38
work, right? And honestly, my first
00:05:40
reaction after learned about all those
00:05:42
techniques is that I might need to spend
00:05:44
more time to came up with the
00:05:47
associations and using the technique
00:05:49
than just trying to memorize them
00:05:51
straight up. So the key idea is really
00:05:54
that you need to train yourself with a
00:05:56
system or a few systems so you're so
00:05:59
familiar with them and your brain
00:06:01
already have those association and
00:06:03
connectivity built in. At this point you
00:06:05
probably wonder like what is this
00:06:07
connectivity thing? So here's a little
00:06:08
brain science 101. So before I never
00:06:11
really thought about how memory works. I
00:06:14
had this vague idea based on my own
00:06:16
experience with remembering things. I
00:06:18
kind of thought our brain is like a hard
00:06:20
drive. Whenever we learned something
00:06:22
new, it was like dragging a new file
00:06:25
into storage and forget would mean that
00:06:27
the memory file would just disappear
00:06:29
somehow. Turns out I was completely
00:06:31
wrong. Our brain is made up of neurons.
00:06:35
The basic unit that communicate through
00:06:38
chemicals and electrical signals. Every
00:06:41
thought, every movement or any new
00:06:44
experience involves neuron fires. So
00:06:46
what are memories? A memory is actually
00:06:49
a connection between neurons. So when we
00:06:52
learn or experience something, specific
00:06:55
neuron circuits will be activated. Even
00:06:58
though we're learning new information,
00:06:59
we don't usually form brand new
00:07:01
connections. We strengthening existing
00:07:03
ones. And the more we revisit a memory,
00:07:05
the stronger that pathways become. And
00:07:07
that's why if we train our brain to
00:07:09
build very strong neural pathways and
00:07:12
create a system that new informations
00:07:14
can be easily associated with them, we
00:07:17
can memorize things really quickly. Like
00:07:19
if you've already built memory palaces
00:07:21
multiple times. So when you're given new
00:07:24
information, your brain can just quickly
00:07:25
come up with another memory palace and
00:07:27
came up with those associations to make
00:07:30
things easier to memorize. And depending
00:07:32
on the type of information that you need
00:07:34
to memorize, you can use a combinations
00:07:36
of a few of those techniques. For
00:07:38
example, you can first use chunking to
00:07:40
break the things down and turn each
00:07:42
chunk into acronyms to make them even
00:07:44
more memorable. Now, let's look at how
00:07:47
we can make information stick longterm
00:07:49
and never forget about them. For that,
00:07:51
we need to understand how forgetting
00:07:54
works and why we forget in the first
00:07:56
place. For a long time, we all thought
00:07:58
forgetting is this passive process that
00:08:01
it kind of just fades away over time.
00:08:04
It's like a failure for our
00:08:06
memorization. But now scientists have
00:08:08
discovered that forgetting is actually
00:08:11
its own very active process. We already
00:08:13
know that memories are connections
00:08:15
between neurons in our brain. And thanks
00:08:17
to the transparent of zebra fish's
00:08:20
brain, scientists will be able to see
00:08:22
forgetting happens in real time. In this
00:08:24
image, yellow dots shows new
00:08:25
connections, which are new memories
00:08:27
being formed. But at the same time, blue
00:08:30
dots showed old connections
00:08:32
disappearing. It's like the brain is
00:08:34
clearing out old information to make
00:08:36
room for the new. So, how do we make
00:08:38
sure the stuff that we actually want to
00:08:41
remember doesn't get cleared out. And it
00:08:43
all comes down to strengthening your
00:08:45
memory connections. We all know the
00:08:47
feeling that something is just on the
00:08:50
right tip of our tongue. This happened
00:08:52
to me most often when I was like in an
00:08:55
exam. I look at a question and I was
00:08:57
like, "Haha, I know this." However, when
00:08:59
I'm actually trying to answer it, I just
00:09:01
couldn't think about what it really is.
00:09:03
When we're in a conversation and we're
00:09:05
trying to say someone's name and you
00:09:07
know you know it, you're like, "Ah, that
00:09:09
guy with the hair, what is his name?
00:09:11
What is his name? Start with a J or
00:09:13
whatever." And the moment you hear the
00:09:15
answer, you're like, "Ha, yes, that's
00:09:16
it. I definitely knew it." And when
00:09:18
those things happened, that's because of
00:09:20
the information is actually in your
00:09:22
brain. It's not forgotten. You just
00:09:24
failed to retrieve it because it's a
00:09:26
weak memory pathway for you to retrieve
00:09:28
it. And the key is every time you
00:09:30
retrieve that information, it actually
00:09:32
streng memory pathway or just like
00:09:35
carving a road in the forest. The more
00:09:38
you walk on the path, the clearer and
00:09:40
easier it becomes. So, we really just
00:09:42
need to do two things. Retrieve and
00:09:44
repeat. And that leads us to two of the
00:09:47
most powerful techniques for memorizing
00:09:50
things long term. Active recall and
00:09:52
spaced repetition. I definitely talked
00:09:54
about them a lot on my channel, but I
00:09:56
still want to quickly give them an
00:09:58
introduction, share a little bit
00:09:59
background of them from a science
00:10:01
perspective because I think they're so
00:10:03
powerful and understanding why they
00:10:06
works is going to be so helpful. Active
00:10:08
recall basically just means instead of
00:10:10
passively reading notes, test yourself.
00:10:13
Use flashcards, quizzes, or just grab a
00:10:16
blank sheet of paper and write on
00:10:17
everything you remembered. Then check
00:10:19
what you got right. And remember,
00:10:20
struggle is good. The harder it feels to
00:10:23
remember something, the more it
00:10:24
strengthen that memory. Just repeating
00:10:26
something over and over again isn't
00:10:28
enough. That's still short-term memory.
00:10:30
The real memorization happens when you
00:10:32
recall it after some time has passed.
00:10:34
And number two, spaced repetition. After
00:10:36
we just learned some new information, we
00:10:38
will roughly likely forget about 50% of
00:10:41
it by the end of the day. And within a
00:10:43
week we almost forget 90% of that
00:10:46
information. So this is known as the
00:10:48
forgetting curve. Our brain naturally
00:10:49
drop information over time. Please note
00:10:51
we're saying forgetting here but it
00:10:54
doesn't mean that information is not in
00:10:56
our brain as we mentioned. It's just we
00:10:58
failed to retrieve that information. It
00:11:00
probably still somewhere in there. We
00:11:02
just have a hard time to recall it. And
00:11:05
every time we reveal that information
00:11:07
the memory got strengthened. So next
00:11:09
time when we are trying to remember that
00:11:11
information the forgetting curves
00:11:13
actually slows down. Review materials at
00:11:15
the right intervals if we keep doing
00:11:17
this our brain will just lock that
00:11:19
information longterm and we barely need
00:11:21
to do any review and we can never forget
00:11:23
about it. It's worth noting that
00:11:25
different from the memory athletes, a
00:11:27
handful of people have been diagnosed
00:11:29
with a brain disease called HSAM which
00:11:32
caused them to memorize unusual level of
00:11:35
details in their lives and they almost
00:11:37
can't forget anything and it's not as
00:11:39
amazing at it sound. For example, when
00:11:42
encountering a date, these people can
00:11:44
often forced reexperiencing part of that
00:11:47
memory in great details, which you can
00:11:49
imagine can be very disruptive, make it
00:11:52
very hard for them to focus on the
00:11:54
present. So now, after I took a moment
00:11:56
to appreciate that I have the ability to
00:11:58
forget, okay, after we learned all those
00:12:01
different techniques, it can be a little
00:12:03
bit overwhelming, I would admit, cuz
00:12:05
that's how I originally felt when I
00:12:06
first did all the research for this
00:12:08
video. But it becomes pretty easy for me
00:12:11
to understand approach them after I
00:12:13
learned how memory is being formed.
00:12:16
There are three steps of memory
00:12:18
formation. Encoding, storage and
00:12:20
retrieval. The first step is encoding.
00:12:22
Whenever we experience something, we
00:12:24
take in sensoring information like
00:12:26
taste, smell, what we see, what we hear
00:12:30
and our brain gathers all that
00:12:32
information and then make a little
00:12:34
package of memory and form that in our
00:12:37
hippocampus. Encoding is the process by
00:12:39
which the details of our experience
00:12:41
converted into a format that our brain
00:12:44
can store it aka the connections of
00:12:46
neurons. And this is where most of the
00:12:48
pneummonics techniques come in. Familiar
00:12:51
stuff that know like pictures, sounds or
00:12:54
patterns used to make the encoding
00:12:55
process stronger and faster. And once
00:12:57
the information is encoded, it's stored
00:13:00
all over our brain. Our brain organizes
00:13:02
and returns this information ready to be
00:13:04
retrieved later. And the final step is
00:13:07
retrieval, which is the brain caused
00:13:09
information, whether consciously or
00:13:11
unconsciously. Usually, we need a
00:13:13
trigger to recall a memory. It's like
00:13:14
when you smell something and takes you
00:13:16
back to an event. Just to summarize
00:13:18
quickly, if we want to memorize a large
00:13:20
amount of information quickly and
00:13:23
remember them long term, first we should
00:13:25
use different pneummonic techniques like
00:13:27
chunking or memory palace to encode
00:13:29
those information quickly, accurately
00:13:31
and also make them easier to retrieve
00:13:34
later. Then if we want to remember the
00:13:36
information long term, then we want to
00:13:38
use active recall or space repetition to
00:13:41
strengthen our ability to uh retrieve
00:13:44
those information. So we can access the
00:13:46
information whenever we want. So now I
00:13:49
actually know that I can train myself to
00:13:52
have a good memory with those powerful
00:13:55
techniques. However, there are just
00:13:58
still so much work that we need to do.
00:14:00
No matter how good my memory is, I will
00:14:02
still just forget things sometimes. It's
00:14:04
just so much easier to put a reminder on
00:14:07
my phone's calendar. Growing up, I was
00:14:09
asked to memorize so much information
00:14:11
for all the tasks throughout my learning
00:14:14
journey. and most of it it's already
00:14:16
gone by at this point. However, what I
00:14:18
remembered is all the allnighters I
00:14:20
pulled for preparing those exams trying
00:14:23
to cram and stuff all the information
00:14:25
into my head. The pain I still remember
00:14:27
very clearly. So, I couldn't help but
00:14:29
wonder in a world with technology does
00:14:31
it still matter if we have a good memory
00:14:34
and is testing someone memorizing things
00:14:36
still a good way to assess students? The
00:14:40
answer is yes. study consistently shows
00:14:42
that if someone have a better working
00:14:44
memory, which is the ability to hold
00:14:47
information in mind and manipulate them,
00:14:49
they're likely smarter. Especially in
00:14:52
fluid intelligence, which is the ability
00:14:54
to reason and solve novel problems. I
00:14:56
was very surprised I found out this
00:14:57
because I always thought memorization,
00:15:00
this general concept, is more related to
00:15:03
like literature or histories cuz we were
00:15:06
asked to memorize a lot of things. And I
00:15:08
think that's because I always had kind
00:15:11
of a wrong idea for memory and more
00:15:13
specifically for working memory. So what
00:15:16
exactly is working memory? So for the
00:15:17
longest time, scientists thought we have
00:15:19
two type of memories. Short-term memory
00:15:21
and long-term memory. Shortterm memories
00:15:23
allows us to perform tasks like you tell
00:15:26
me a phone number and I can dial it. It
00:15:29
lasts for seconds to minutes and has
00:15:31
limited capacity typically holding
00:15:34
around four to seven items. And
00:15:36
long-term memory stores information that
00:15:38
last a long period of time. That's how
00:15:40
we get to access over past experience,
00:15:43
skills, and knowledges. Long-term memory
00:15:45
can be retained for like weeks, months,
00:15:47
or even a lifetime. But memories aren't
00:15:50
that simple. It's actually very, very
00:15:52
complicated. So, here we have working
00:15:54
memory, which is a system that allows
00:15:57
you to briefly hold information in your
00:15:59
mind and manipulate it. It's essential
00:16:01
for tasks like learning and reasoning.
00:16:03
Working memory builds on short-term
00:16:05
memory by processing information and it
00:16:08
can potentially be transferred to
00:16:09
long-term memory. And the good news is
00:16:11
that we can improve our working memory
00:16:14
and by guess what? Practicing all the
00:16:16
memory techniques that we just discussed
00:16:18
earlier in the video. Isn't it so
00:16:20
awesome? Not only they can help us
00:16:22
memorize things better, but also can
00:16:24
boost our intelligence and make us
00:16:26
smarter. Just to clarify, I don't have
00:16:28
any like professional training on the
00:16:31
pneumatics or memorization techniques. I
00:16:33
realized what I've been doing for years,
00:16:35
like lots of time when I'm trying to
00:16:37
memorize a large amount of information,
00:16:39
I've been using those techniques without
00:16:41
even realize what I was doing. I
00:16:43
definitely do a lot of chunking and I
00:16:45
try to came up with fun like songs or
00:16:48
like fun ways to memorize them so makes
00:16:50
them easier. However, most of the stuff
00:16:52
we were asked to memorize in the
00:16:55
classroom setting were definitely not
00:16:56
designed to train our working memories
00:16:59
using memory techniques. A lots of
00:17:01
students end up just trying to memorize
00:17:03
those things by force and often get very
00:17:06
frustrated by the amount of volume and
00:17:09
the time that needs to be invested in
00:17:11
wrote learning which is basically means
00:17:13
that you repeat something over and over
00:17:15
again without even thinking about it
00:17:17
until you memorize it. It's been the
00:17:19
traditional teaching method for
00:17:21
centuries. However, over the past couple
00:17:23
decades, road learning has been
00:17:24
criticized a lot for exactly the reasons
00:17:27
I mentioned and experienced. It really
00:17:30
takes the fun out of learning. There's
00:17:32
no bridge between old concepts or new
00:17:35
concepts. It does not promote critical
00:17:37
thinking. It does not even promote
00:17:39
thinking sometimes. As an active
00:17:40
learner, we definitely should avoid
00:17:42
doing a lot of road learning because
00:17:44
it's definitely not as effective and it
00:17:47
makes things boring. Of course,
00:17:49
interesting from a brain health
00:17:51
perspective, it's actually good for us.
00:17:53
for old people, scientists discovered
00:17:55
that road memorization is good for their
00:17:58
brain health and their memory functions.
00:18:01
So I guess what I'm trying to say is
00:18:02
that for brain health, doing some sort
00:18:06
of memorization is way better than doing
00:18:09
nothing. It's exactly like for our
00:18:11
physical health like taking a 10 minutes
00:18:14
walk. It's significantly beneficial for
00:18:16
your health compared to you just do no
00:18:18
exercise at all. Of course, it would be
00:18:20
better if you do other form of exercise
00:18:23
like strength training, cardio, etc. In
00:18:25
our case, for our memory functions is of
00:18:28
course the techniques we discussed in
00:18:30
this video. My grandma is suffering from
00:18:33
Alzheimer's, a disease that slowly
00:18:35
destroys memory and thinking skills and
00:18:38
it actually affects millions of people.
00:18:41
So, it really makes me think about what
00:18:42
can we do to prevent it and maintain and
00:18:45
improve our brain health. So lifestyle
00:18:48
is a huge part include eating healthy,
00:18:50
regular exercises, getting enough sleep,
00:18:53
managing stress and protecting your head
00:18:55
from trauma. And these are the things
00:18:56
that we should always always prioritize
00:18:58
in our lives. And besides that, as I
00:19:00
mentioned earlier, it's important to
00:19:03
challenge your brain like doing some
00:19:05
sort of cognitive exercise for your
00:19:07
brain like reading, learning new skills,
00:19:10
memorizing, and even puzzles and games.
00:19:12
My grandma unfortunately she barely
00:19:15
remember any recent events. She will ask
00:19:18
me the same question over and over
00:19:20
again. Sometimes she forget to eat and
00:19:22
even not remembering my name. It's very
00:19:25
sad and I miss her so much. However, she
00:19:30
still remembers some of the meaningful
00:19:32
moments when she was younger when I was
00:19:35
a kid and that just makes me feel memory
00:19:38
is such an fascinating thing and
00:19:41
interestingly that makes me feel like I
00:19:43
still get to spend time with her and
00:19:46
actually speak to a younger version of
00:19:49
her. It's a very strange feeling. Memory
00:19:52
is such a fascinating thing and if you
00:19:54
really think about it, it's who we are.
00:19:57
It's how we know how to walk, what our
00:19:59
favorite foods are, and who our loved
00:20:01
ones. The ability to use memory to
00:20:03
generate new ideas, to create, and to
00:20:05
problem solve. That's what drives
00:20:08
creativity and meaning in life. Memory
00:20:10
is not just about recalling facts. It's
00:20:12
also about the present and using what we
00:20:15
learn to shape the
00:20:17
future. Well, thank you so much for
00:20:19
watching this video. Um, if you like
00:20:21
this format where I kind of deep dive
00:20:25
into a topic about learning science or
00:20:28
learning technology, please let me know
00:20:30
because I'm trying to experiment with
00:20:33
different video ideas and formats. I had
00:20:36
a lot of fun making this. Share any
00:20:38
thoughts and ask any questions in the
00:20:40
comment section. Consider subscribe.
00:20:42
Have a wonderful day. I will see you
00:20:44
next time. Bye-bye.
00:20:47
[Music]
