How to develop a photographic memory 3/3

post by PhilosophicalSoul (LiamLaw) · 2024-02-08T09:22:07.918Z · LW · GW · 2 comments

Contents

  CHAPTER III: CONT'D
    (1) PALACE TO KINGDOM
      (a) PROBLEM-ORIENTATED APPROACH
      (b) DIGITAL MEMORY KINGDOM
    (2) TACHISTOSCOPIC TRAINING
    (3) CHILD-LIKE READING
  CHAPTER IV: APPLICATION
    (1) WHY PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY?
    (2) ESSENTIALS
      (a) FINDINGS 
      (b) QUERIES
    (3) AVOID THESE PITFALLS
  CHAPTER V: SOLAKIOS TECHNIQUE
    (1) STEPS
    (2) VISUAL AID
None
2 comments

Under advisement from @Algon [LW · GW] and @Seth Herd [LW · GW], I've included a TLDR:

  1. The actual photographic memory technique starts at [Chapter V].
  2. Early 'photographic memory' and results [Chapter III: Cont'd > (2) Tachisto...].
  3. Is this trio of posts overwhelming and difficult to remember? I've reduced it to the most important points in [Chapter IV: Application > (2) Essentials].
  4. Problems beyond my scope, or I hadn't the time to solve in the 'field of mnemonics' can be read in [Chapter IV: Application > (2) Essentials > (b) Queries].

I intend to code and freely distribute an app which can streamline the Solakios technique some point in the future. At present, I have only my prototype TM. You'll find that the technique itself is quite simple to understand, difficult to master.

Interestingly, Dr Charan Ranganath seems to have been inspired by my trio of posts. I have no way of knowing this, I can only guess and hope. He published his book "Why we Remember" shortly after I originally created this post. From what I've read of the preview, there's also anecdotes that use sentences and jargon I employed. Either way, pretty cool that my experimenting has been cemented by a more qualified individual.

CHAPTER III: CONT'D

I have discovered or been informed of additional techniques since we last spoke. It would make little sense to edit them into my previous post [LW · GW].

(1) PALACE TO KINGDOM

I devised the best possible version of a memory palace, inspired by @DirectedEvolution [LW · GW]. This technique is effective, even for complex concepts. I'll also point out a digital conception; primed for efficiency purposes.

(a) PROBLEM-ORIENTATED APPROACH

Memory palaces work because they 'hit the correct beats' (as in, they embrace the principles of memory discussed previously [LW · GW].) These beats can be amplified by the lessons learned from anecdotal evidence in this post [LW · GW]:

  1. The headings of scholarships (textbooks, articles, company memo's) must be mapped to the label given to each structure.
    E.g. criminal legislation would be mapped to a building called 'Prison'. 
  2. Personalising and 'coolifying' the room. 
    E.g. concepts are mapped to NPC's, typically authors from the book or celebrities from the article. They must discuss with and interrogate you.
  3. Logical flow that connects each structure.
    E.g. in your mind, it makes sense to walk from the poetry room to the literature room, then to the essay room to intertwine both. 
  4. Physical interactions that are problem-orientated.
    E.g. the Chemistry room is locked. The password is a chemical equation that must be typed into a flatscreen on the door.
  5. Associations that transform abstract concepts into relatable and tangible ones.
    E.g. if you're an architect, you might imagine a workspace with posters of Zaha Hadid, and a series of miniatures from different eras and styles. 
  6. Sensory experience.
    E.g. physically moving through rooms, smelling and touching different objects.
  7. Confidence is extremely important.
    E.g. being excited to 'enter the memory palace' each time you use it. Be gobsmacked at what you've built and impressed that everything you've learned is nearby. 

In essence, any memory palace or effective memory technique is problem-orientated. It requires you to interact in some way to solve a real problem. Everything else is flavour that makes the template more effective and efficient. 

For example, in the field of law I might create 'models' for the memory kingdom:

I have an 'Issue Room' to point out the legal question to the judge. For example, if the case deals with patents and artificial intelligence, I would extract: 'Should artificial intelligence be credited for patents?' Next, I'll move left into the 'Stance Room' and announce the legal position: 'Artificial intelligence fails the typical patent test, in that it is not human.' (Simplified for this post.) I'll walk adjacent, and justify my position with relevant legal rules. Next, I'll explain to the judge how those rules logically work to support my stance and resolve the issue. Last, I'll conclude with a powerful speech.

In each of these five (5) rooms, I'll apply the aforementioned lessons. The 'Conclusion Room' might have a portrait of Harvey Spectre to motivate me, and a television with Martin Luther King giving a speech. In the 'Rule Room', I'll have the victims who I know by face and name. They'll tell me how they were the example used for a new legal rule. I can talk to them and understand how the rule works. This goes on, and on. 

The more problem-orientated it is, the more effective it is. The quicker a model or template you have, the less awkward it'll feel when you introduce your brain to new information. Using the memory palace, or any new technique, will always feel like putting on a tight shoe at first. Too often have I seen people say: 'This technique doesn't work for me,' or 'This technique takes too long.' In most cases, they lack persistence and mistake growing pains for ineffectiveness. 

(b) DIGITAL MEMORY KINGDOM

You don't have to digitise. This should be a launching pad for those of you struggling to imagine a room. Once you've got comfortable with memory kingdoms, you should be able to imagine without any visual aids. 

I think it's self-explanatory how one could code a digital memory kingdom. However, for the less tech savvy, I'll quickly summarise how I did it:

  1. I use Affinity Publisher, Roblox Studio (judge me all you want, but it works) and sometimes those POV GoPro videos which walk through a historical site. Any design program which helps you imagine, and map concepts will do. 
  2. Next, I extract concepts from the textbook or article and map them onto objects I can physically see in the digital room.
  3. Last, do a trial run in which you interact with the mapped concepts. Generate permanency, and familiarity.

Usually, I only need to do this once to make the information stick. I don't need to open up the software again unless the concept is particularly complex, or needs to be revised.

(2) TACHISTOSCOPIC TRAINING

Tachistoscopic training / flash recognition training is a feasible vision of the Dark Room Technique introduced in my previous post [LW · GW] (again, credit to @Richard_Kennaway [LW · GW] for showing it to me).[1] Dr Renshaw claimed his readers achieved twelve hundred (1200) to fourteen hundred (1400) words per minute using this technique.[2] This is disputed, and extensive testing has been inconclusive.[3] Although, it seems learners with already poor reading ability exposed to images at 0.25/s will experience no gains.[4]

However, it bore success when tested among military pilots. It trained them to identify types of planes, allegedly improving recall by two (2) or three (3) times.[5] Importantly, the images can't be projected so fast that your brain can't consciously recognise it. At first, your brain must be shown images with consistent fonts, spacing and margin; training it to recognise subconsciously. Overtime, the shutter speed can be increased.[6]

The technique is applied as follows (the mechanical explanation can be found here):

  1. A device that can project stimulus or images into view is used; 
  2. Typically, the subject is seated with a tight lens over both eyes; 
  3. The shutter speed of the projector as well as the 'focal point' can be adjusted; 
  4. The subject gives oral feedback on what was seen, afterwards.

The subjects' answers are either compared against expected answers or measured abstractly. Tachistoscopes are apparently still used today to guide marketing strategies; a subject exposed to images at rapid speeds will only be able to recall what stood out the most.[7] Unfortunately, there's little other information on this (that which I have found is crippled by obscurantism).

I am confident that a group of subjects (>100) exposed to an upgraded tachistoscope would remedy the issues discovered in Renshaw's study.[8] Improvements include:

  1. Using TTS to announce images and concepts for audible feedback.
  2.  Multiple choice / analytical questions attached to each image requiring a response from the user. Wrong input will result in the flashcard showing up later. 
  3. An algorithm tailored to the colours, shapes and spaces that stand out most. The programme alters the presentation based on what is most effective, overtime. 
  4. I'm calling this sequential encoding. Instead of reducing a concept to a smaller version, let's do it in reverse. Let's start with training the brain to recognise trios of symbols. Later, we fill them with complex information (More on this in [Chapter V] since the concept is foundational to Solakios). This post [LW · GW] touched loosely on the potential of symbology used in this way. Namely, it allows the expression of complex information in a greater variety of ways than linear sentences.

(3) CHILD-LIKE READING

Inspired by this post [LW · GW] and designed to resolve many issues typically associated with study techniques; here [LW · GW], here [LW · GW], and here. 

Child-like reading requires that you layer new information in a dramatic and sensory-overloaded coat. Be warned, I'm entering experimental epistemic territory here (partially influenced by research from my previous (2) posts):

  1. Listen to music tailored to learning (growing inquiries into the effect brown noise has on tinnitus, and positive evidence that white noise helps with ADHD).[9]
  2. 'Why do children seem to learn better than adults?'. A study found that children learn and remember more because they make less assumptions (among other things).[10] In essence, all information is relevant until the goal is presented. They also don't narrow their perception based on at face value patterns. Instead, they start with a general scope, then particularise to goals after.
  3. Recite your day in a quick four (4) - six (6) minute slideshow before sleep. Remind yourself what was important; carefully instructing it to revisit those fragments, and store them in long term memory during REM.[11] Doing this regularly will improve recall (some studies from daily journalling correlate this claim).[12] Unsurprisingly, children do this intuitively. Miniscule events to adults tend to be halogenic nightmares to children, able to vividly recall every moment at breakfast.[13]
  4. Fabricate imagery from sentences you read. It'll be awkward at first, so read slower until you can conjure more quickly (doing this also helps you avoid the comprehension curve [LW · GW]). Again, children do this intuitively but it's a muscle adults seem to loose.  I call this meaningful reading (touched on by this post [LW · GW]) and claim that by occupying your mind with visualisation, you're discouraging it from worrying about the day; 'Who fed the dog?', 'I have to wake up early tomorrow.' [14]
  5. You can improve meaningful reading further by coupling it with recursive sampling, intuition flooding, immersive and incremental reading [LW · GW]. Summarily, skim over a variety of different material from the same field, both audio and visual. Write down rough beginner ideas and refine them later when you've got a more nuanced understanding of the topic.

I claim here that when learning, you should aspire to incorporate the aforementioned points. The goal is to improve your quality of reading by approaching it as if it's brand new, flourishing with ideas you're excited to learn, that each have the potential to completely change your life. When I pretend to be a child, expecting a story of adventure, I can delude myself into learning extremely boring information. My mind has conjured up fantastical imagery from long-winded paragraphs. I also seem to be able to handle analytical questions better, since I've dabbled in different areas of the same field. Just before bed, I revisit all these checkpoints and awake with a nostalgia for them in the morning (probably works for the same reasons chunking does).[15]

Tangentially, I claim that adopting a Sherlock Holmes mentality can be an effective memory heuristic in daily conversations. Instead of letting your ego run awry, let every word from the opposing person be a missing clue to your personal life. Their ordinarily boring tales about their dead-end job become important in solving the mystery of life. 

Essentially, seeing events as an ongoing roleplay entices your brain to remember them. Saying this now reminds me of a movie called 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'. The viewer is left wondering whether the protagonist is a psychotic daydreamer or has genuinely flown over a volcano while standing on a plane. Either way, it's unforgettable.

CHAPTER IV: APPLICATION

This is here for posterity, and so that I don't get annoyed with myself for excluding details which may motivate future mnemonics. I apologize for any confusion caused.

(1) WHY PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY?

In my previous post, @ChristianKl [LW · GW] raised a valid point. Paraphrased: 'What's the purpose of mnemonics? High performers rarely, if ever, credit it with their success?'. The answers to this question fall squarely under the meaning of this chapter's heading:

  1. I started this trio of posts to give people hope. Specifically, that we can compete with artificial intelligence [LW · GW]. Arguably, AI is only 'smarter' because it has a greater cesspool of knowledge to draw conclusions from and make comparisons about. I can't claim to know exactly what intuitive, or comprehension skills will be gained from regularly applying my Solakios technique. I can only share how it works, and hope that in my experimentation (and now LessWrong's), something good comes from it. Actual scientific and reliable data to show its effectiveness is a long way off.
  2. I believe that high performers wouldn't credit their success to memory because to them it's intuitive. How do you know you lack something if you've always been using it? I think it's fair to assume that several Chess world champions have excellent, near photographic memory.[16] Nikola Tesla and other famous figures had a photographic memory as well (though the evidence for this is scarce).[17]
  3. Above all else, I'll at least help you spend more time on analytical thinking, and logically ordering your ideas instead of using it all on memorisation.

In any case, I think the validity of 'photographic memory' being dependent on its ability to produce success is misguided. I suspect this is due to a widespread misunderstanding of memory. Even the term 'photographic memory' is confused for 'eidetic memory'. I don't think our goal with improving memory should be to 'make more money' (this is not what ChristianKI was claiming either, I just think it's important to address here). The goal should be to reinvent our conception of the term, and to rebut the presumption that memory just is, and can't be changed. 

I like @sortega [LW · GW]'s conception in this post [LW · GW]: 'In some philosophical sense we are what we remember, and we will have a hard time deciding who is who...'

We should aim to remember so that when we rationalise, the sources from which our premises stem are, at the very least, accurate. Humans will be held to a higher standard as living among artificial intelligence becomes commonplace. I will do my part in reaching this standard through experimenting with mnemonics. 'Be a fool who wishes to learn rather than one who refuses to ask. He who dares to ask will not stray.'

(2) ESSENTIALS

Here I summarise the framework I've built for mnemonics over the last three (3) posts. Down below, I've put careful effort into developing and consolidating the existing body of mnemonics on LessWrong.

(a) FINDINGS 

See this as a final overview of what makes a good study and mnemonics technique as well as the 'thoughts I had' before coming up with photographic memory: Solakios technique.

(b) QUERIES

Let's hope others can finish what I started with some of these more difficult questions:

  1. Do human beings remember dangerous symbols more than others?[22] Could we figure out a system composed only of icons that trigger fight-or-flight responses; radioactive logo, claw marks, stop sign. 
  2. Is there a way to actively use old neural pathways to store new information?[23]Is the overlap more confusing than it is beneficial in remembering?
  3. Can lucid dreamers improve recall by interacting with memory in their dreams?[24]
  4. Are plagiarism detectors worth using to 'quality audit' study notes, testing whether they are personal & unique enough to be recognised as important by the brain?
  5. Comprehensive questions of: 'To what degree can AI aid in the memory process?' is it worth coding a virtual teacher to nod at you when you're learning new concepts? What about coding it to ask you questions? (I've yet to find studies on this). 
  6. Were the Egyptians onto something with hieroglyphics? Why did analogue systems like letters and numbers win out in the end (broken education system)?
  7. Have we tried learning/reading things in our periphery and improving our external vision? What about formatting books and articles only in a middle column, or having a paragraph on the left, and on the right but nothing in the middle?
  8. Does psyching yourself up during learning help? I re-reference the article on why cringe memories stay longer, and the effect of adrenaline on memory.[25]
  9. Is there a way we can consciously decide (other than brute force techniques) to store information in long-term / short-term memory? I wonder here how effective @sortega [LW · GW]'s cyborg memory hierarchy [LW · GW] might be on that intention.
  10. Could using an eyepatch or virtual reality headset simulate the tachistoscope for daily experiences; going to buy coffee, talking to friends? What would the effect on your eyesight be? Do we even want to remember these events?

(3) AVOID THESE PITFALLS

  1. I disagree with DirectedEvolution in this post [LW · GW]. I don't think that it's beneficial to put on a rosy lens and selectively decide what information might be useful beforehand (it's probably better to avoid wasting your time highlighting notes). While potentially useful for multiple choice exams, it is not useful for higher order essays or real-life scenarios. This is for the same reasons I outlined earlier about why children tend to remember better than adults.
  2. I agree with DirectedEvolution in this post [LW · GW]. Rather than reading chapters sequentially, each dependent on the previous one, you should aim to pair recursive sampling with many different chapters. In other words, get your feet wet with Chapter 1, 6 and 9 that cover different areas across three (3) days. Then, on day four (4), go through chapter 1 and 2. On day five (5), revise chapter 6 and begin 7. With this, our 'Jenga tower' doesn't collapse if you didn't understand the previous chapter. Our mind is given time to rest between different concepts, and I think our that our brains tend to adapt better when introduced to different kinds of information simultaneously and then blending it all together later.
  3. @Brendan Long [LW · GW] identified a common issue [LW(p) · GW(p)] experienced by people in high stress situations (so most of us) when trying to remember something. Data that is semantically or numerically similar tends to confuse our mind; it hurries, and stores a birthday on the wrong date, or our ego will credit ourselves or a friend with an idea that belonged to someone else. This is called the source-monitoring error. This can be rectified by spacing the learning. Either with different concepts or flashcards between the two (2) being confused, or with more days before repetition. As suggested by @bvbvbvbvbvbvbvbvbvbvbv [LW · GW] , there's also the twenty (20) rules to formulating knowledge [LW(p) · GW(p)] which mitigates negative iterations of overriding memory. I also cite this post [LW · GW] which may help in some scenarios.
  4. We forget negative, unhappy memories far faster than positive ones.[26] I don't know if there's a distinction between PTSD, trauma and ordinary stress that effects learning (too much disagreement in the psych community). To be safe, I'd recommend inducing happy, ambitious emotions during learning as far as possible.  There's a great book called 'The Stress Code' which gives (I think) the best scientific analysis of how to engineer stress to be a net gain in difficult environments. 
  5. Try to avoid the expert trap [LW · GW]. New information is not going to try hug you in its default form. It's not a caring mother, or a wayside tavernkeeper. You have to fight to turn it into clay, then tear your hands open to get it to kneel. Building on what I've explained in this post, you should assume the role of an explorer, a young child or Sherlock Holmes when looking at information for the first time. Once you've converted it into your mnemonics technique, embrace it akin to a confident Nikola Tesla or Akira Haraguchi. Last, be a critical teacher at the end, maximising your improvement and recall. Be willing and patient when teaching others, and harsh and rigorous with yourself.  
  6. Tangentially, avoid making your learning too personal. If it's incomprehensible to a teacher, or a friend, what point is your knowledge? In solo professions, and personal enlightenment it's probably okay. But if you're working with teams of people, or professions that require streamlined networks of communication, you can't be an enigma that remembers all but has no idea how to share it. As @Paweł Sysiak [LW · GW] says: 'Learning is about finding knowledge that is in close contact with how we anticipate it should show up in reality.'

CHAPTER V: SOLAKIOS TECHNIQUE

We're finally here. I synthesise all of the techniques and innovations discussed throughout this trio of posts into one (1) process that (to my knowledge) is the only feasible recreation of photographic memory that isn't genetically inherited and could potentially be tested in a controlled environment. 

Instead of cross-referencing endlessly with previous concepts and posts I've made, I'm just going to straight up list how to remember things quicker, and for far longer than you've ever experienced (hopefully). After, I'll clarify with visual representations. Lend me some rope here since it's difficult to describe something I have no references for other than the work I alone have done.

(1) STEPS

  1. Compile a recognisable set of symbology. As in, take question words like, ''What', 'Where', 'How', 'Why', 'When', and transform them into iterations of 'W'. Similarly, 'Discuss', 'Describe', 'Determine' would be iterations of 'D' (I can guess which of the three (3) the icon represents based on the other symbols 'D' is surrounded by). Articles like 'the', and 'a' must also be substituted by simple icons. 
  2. For the rest of the sentence that isn't merely a question word or an article, you have to get more creative using what I'll call primal imagery. Primal imagery refers to iconography that is universally recognised, or at least unforgettable in your social circles (like inside jokes or memes). For example, if I show two (2) glue sticks to an American, they might see it as the twin towers. If I show a cube to a Muslim, it might remind them of Mecca. You'll have to trial-and-error here until you've created a set of symbology that can be reoriented for any kind of information. Once done with this, use an editor app to colour these red. 
  3. Now, we begin sequential encoding (explained earlier). Examine any paragraph you wish to remember. Above it, write or type a question that (a) is simple, (b) synthesises the key idea of the paragraph, and (c) implicitly contains the answer. For (c) you can ask ChatGPT to help, use memos created by other people online, or consult with experts/lecturers on what the essence of the material is. Obviously, this is more difficult depending on your situation and varies with niche topics. But with practice, your skill with writing questions will come.
  4. Repeat the previous step with the entire article, or chapter. Depends on how much you can stomach really, and what your usual endurance is with learning. At the end of each session, you should have a list of questions.
  5. Substitute each question for three (3) sets of three (3) symbols (from the set of symbology you created in step 1 and 2). This rule might have to be broken for complex questions but ideally, keep things compact. After, you should have a numbered list. To the right of each number is a trio of red trios, all coloured in red. There should be enough spaces below each heading and between each trio for a cardboard border (if you're going digital, just separate them into different flashcards). For viewing purposes, each trio should be surrounded by a black border. You can either make a cardboard cutout (from the Dark Room technique) or design it in software like Affinity Publisher. 
  6. Place these flashcards on a flat surface, inside one of those old virtual reality headsets, or on your screen. Make sure your room is pitch black and that you can either instantaneously adjust screen brightness from zero (0) to one hundred (100) or turn a spotlight on and off.
  7. Let your eyes adjust to the page in the darkness. Then, using the same timing and principles behind tachistoscopic training, quickly brighten the screen, or turn on the spotlight on those trios for a second or less. 
  8. Repeat this with each question, finishing within ten (10) minutes or less. After, take ten (10) minutes to recall each trio and the question they reflect, and the subsequent answer hidden in that question (it helps if there's a logical connection between the trio you've chosen in that they reflect a story in themselves). Consider (borrowing from Cornell and Feynmann here) whether you can use a better combination of symbols or express the paragraph in a simpler way. As you're going through this, remember child-like reading and the problem orientated approach. 
  9. Arguably, that's all you need. Before tests, or for brief reminders prior to work, you should be able to skim these 'redlists' and recall mass swathes of information. However, if you've found this to be ineffective (or inadequate for more complex information), the next step is to map these sets to items in your memory kingdom (explained earlier). Since the icons should already be memorable, and easy to imagine, it's a simple process of throwing them into a blank room in your mind. I'd recommend having different rooms for different chapters though, you might trip over a childhood memory from a soccer ball in one corner, and land in a physics equation tied to an abacus on the floor in the other.
  10. After step 7, or 9 (depending what route you're going with), you can improve your comprehension rate and saturate your memory by teaching others or yourself. You can also combine this with active rehearsal. Overtime, you'll find that these symbol sets become intuitive, and you don't need to do tedious sequential encoding to get to the answer, you'll just skip that and get to the answer. I have no idea how the mind does this, it seems to format it for efficiency reasons. 

Now, in my experience, I'll confess two (2) things:

  1. Sometimes with really complex and longwinded information, I've had to use the sponging, and Sirianni-Soul technique first. Only after, could I make comprehensible questions with Solakios. 
  2. I've also noticed sometimes a decrease in comprehension. You'll notice upon application that remembering becomes so astoundingly vivid and quick that your mind struggles to insert the building blocks that connect it all. It's really important to keep things in context, and step 10 helps with this. 

There are probably ways to improve this. Heck, some even come to mind now. However, I've already veered far into what I think is good faith experimental pioneering and being aware that you could be wrong. Any further claims would be negligent. 

(2) VISUAL AID

Step 1 above. I used the Arthurian legend of the word for my 'The' and 'A'. Yours might be different. To me, I'll always think of The Sword as Excalibur in comparison to any other, which just is a sword. This is a unique example of primal imagery. 

Step 2-5 above. I could've removed the face with the tongue and simply left the symbol for 'D'. I'd know what it represented based on the symbols that came after. I left it here for the purposes of this demonstration. This process is finetuning your symbology set, and you'll encounter it often to make memorising as efficient as possible. 

The car represents 'liability' since I believe universally, people see car crash and think 'Accident' > 'Insurance' > 'Liability'. Notice also how I've tried to keep colours, spacing, and geometry consistent and precise. Not only so that your mind builds familiarity with it, but so that sentence conversion is a quick process. Last, I excluded 'of' because again, context will tell you what this question means. I don't think there's a linguistic difference between '(3) three types of liability' and '(3) three types liability'.

Steps 6-10 can be done in Anki, similar programs or in real life. I don't believe there's a need to demonstrate it you with pictures. 

Depending on interactions with this post, I might do a part two that deals with more technical neurology, further testing with sample groups, chemistry (nootropics, health, sleep) and uncovering how previous generations of humanity dealt with mnemonics (e.g. Francis Bacon's scientific method). 

  1. ^

    J Bormuth, C Aker Is the Tachistoscope a Worthwhile Teaching Tool? Jan. 1961 International Literacy Association.

  2. ^

    J Brown Teaching Reading With The Tachistoscope Winter 1958 International Literacy Association; S. Renshaw The visual perception and reproduction of forms by tachistoscopic methods 1945 Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied.

  3. ^

    Renshaw and the Tachistoscope (panshin.com); G Wells Pilot-study use of the tachistoscope in elementary grade reading 1956 University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations.

  4. ^

    J Tassinari Reliability and Validity of a Computerized Tachistoscope Test Dec. 2016 Vision Development & Rehabilitation. 

  5. ^

    A Panshin (n 3); L Goldentouch Tachistoscope principle 2 May 2015 Key to Study.

  6. ^

    As above.

  7. ^

    Tachistoscope Method - Photographic Memory Training Using Flash Cards (rightbraineducationlibrary.com); What is Tachistoscope Testing in Digital Marketing? (affstuff.com).

  8. ^

    A Panshin (n 3).

  9. ^

    H Lin The Effects of White Noise on Attentional Performance and On-Task Behaviours in Preschoolers with ADHD 21 Nov. 2022 Int J Environ Res Public Health.

  10. ^

    S Gualtieri, A Finn The Sweet Spot: When Children’s Developing Abilities, Brains, and Knowledge Make Them Better Learners Than Adults 11 Apr. 2022 Perspect Psychol Sci.

  11. ^

    Learning before bedtime could improve memory – new study | News and events | Loughborough University (lboro.ac.uk). I can't find the actual study associated with this article, let me know if you do.

  12. ^

    K Klein, B Adriel Expressive writing can increase working memory capacity 2001 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

  13. ^

    A Honig, A Nealis What do young children dream about? Jan. 2011 Early Child Development and Care; What Processes in the Brain Allow You to Remember Dreams? | Scientific American.

  14. ^

    G Chevet, T Baccino and Others What breaks the flow of reading? A study on characteristics of attentional disruption during digital reading 12 Oct. 2022 Front Psychol.

  15. ^

    M Thalmann, A Souza and Other How does chunking help working memory? 26 Apr. 2018 J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn.

  16. ^

    Photographic memory - Chess Forums - Chess.com.

  17. ^

    List of people claimed to possess an eidetic memory - Wikipedia even wikipedia confuses the term 'eidetic' and 'photographic' contradicting themselves later in the same article.

  18. ^

    A Ralby, M Mentzelopoulos and Other Learning Languages and Complex Subjects with Memory Palaces 17 Jun. 2017 Communications in Computer and Information Science.

  19. ^

    A Cunff Memory bias: how selective recall can impact your memories 17 Nov. 2020 Ness Labs.

  20. ^

    T Wager, L Atlas The neuroscience of placebo effects: connecting context, learning and health 21 Jun. 2018 Nat Nev Neurosci.

  21. ^

    K Potkin, W Bunney Jr. Sleep Improves Memory: The Effect of Sleep on Long Term Memory in Early Adolescence 7 Aug. 2012 PLoS One; A Reichelt, R Westbrook and Others Editorial: Impact of Diet on Learning, Memory and Cognition 19 May 2017 Front Behav Neurosci.

  22. ^

    The psychology behind colors and symbols in safety messaging | ISHN; T Omori, A Mochizuki and Others Emergence of Symbolic Behaviour from brian like memory with dynamic attention Oct. 1999 Neural Netw.

  23. ^

    K Nader Reconsolidation and the Dynamic Nature of Memory Oct. 2015 Cold Spring Harb Perspective Biol.

  24. ^

    B Baird, S Mota-Rolim and Other The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming 14 Mar. 2019 HHS Author Manuscripts; P.R Corlett, S.V. Canavan and Others Dreams, reality and memory: confabulations in lucid dreamers implicate reality-monitoring dysfunction in dream consciousness 16 Jul. 2014.

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2 comments

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comment by Brendan Long (korin43) · 2024-02-13T22:51:53.004Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I just got around to reading this in my RSS reader (I rarely have time to read something of this length), and I was sad to see that the original was removed. I don't really have anything important to say but I think these posts have been interesting.

Replies from: LiamLaw
↑ comment by PhilosophicalSoul (LiamLaw) · 2024-02-16T08:54:09.845Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

At the moment, I just don't see the incentive of doing something like this. I was hoping to make it more efficient through community feedback; see if my technique gives only me a photographic memory etc. Mnemonics is just not something that interests LW at the moment, I guess. 

Additionally, my previous two (2) posts were stolen by a few AI Youtubers. I'd prefer the technique I revealed in this third post not to be stolen too. 

I'm pursuing sample data elsewhere in the meantime to test efficacy. 

My work seems to have been spread across the internet regardless, oh well. As a result, I've restored the previous version.