BELT YOUR MEMORY!
Sue Whiting, Memory Grandmaster, explains how
The Brian Club has always envisaged an award system for memory achievement. A grading system - Memory Belts - is in the club manifesto. But are these Belts well defined? And how are you supposed to achieve them? These issues, among others, were discussed at a recent meeting of mnemons. Several of our members had already started to learn information from Master Your Memory and we decided that the grades on page 15 of the Manifesto should be amended as in the table below:
What constitutes an item of data?
Anything could be an item of data for these purposes. But there have to be some guidelines - and we agreed the following rules as appropriate.
- All data must have been learned as part of a memory system. (Anyone using the SEM3 system from Master Your Memory is conforming with this requirement.)
- The full name of a person counts as one item, i.e. the surname and first names count as only one item not two, three, four etc.
- The full name of a work of art similarly counts as one item.
- Any year counts as one item.
Verification of test results
As with all Brain Club certification there is a strong element of trust (see page 15 of the manifesto). A witness, who can even be a family member, must observe the skill being performed to the required level. The most efficient way of verifying test results though, is probably to do it through one of the various cells of the Brain Club. It is not necessary for the witness to have achieved any memory belts himself.
There should be some authoritative source of data upon which that person should be tested. I photocopied the relevant sections of Tony's book (hopefully not breaking any of the copyrights!) and deleted the sections that I hadn't learned, e.g. all the composers' styles from number 50 onwards and all the writers' dates.
I also inserted some additional interesting information that I had gleaned during the memorising process, e.g. Carlo Gesualdo was a violent and passionate man who murdered his first wife and her lover! (Thanks Penny for that gem!) To make life easier, for both my witness and myself, I additionally wrote alongside each composer, etc., how many items I had learned - this helped considerably when calculating the final total!
The test itself
In most cases the person being tested will be given a list of questions and will be expected to write down the answer. For example: What is number 79 in the major system? Who is composer number 51 and give all his details? What is the birth date of Mozart?
Unlike the Grandmaster awards, a mistake is not particularly penal, i.e. spelling errors and omitting part of a name, would only lose 1/2 of a mark. We decided that a confidence level of 95% would be sufficient for this type of memorising.
Statistical sampling
To avoid having to test people on every single item of data, which almost becomes impossible when you reach Dan status, Ian Docherty has devised a system of statistical sampling. He has formulated a table (see below) showing both the sample size and the maximum number of errors allowed at each level.
This table is not mandatory but Ian and I decided that we had to have some written guidelines when we were doing the witnessing for each other. So when Ian and I achieved our green awards (1,500 items) we actually learned 1,650 items, were tested on 170 and were allowed up to 14 mistakes.
Our error rate, even after losing those infuriating half marks for spelling errors, was well below 14 and so we achieved our belts. When we try for our more advanced belts, we will still have to be tested on the first 1,650 again since one purpose of this memory exercise is to have knowledge in one's long-term memory.
I hope that this will show you how easy it is to achieve memory belts as long as you work consistently towards your own personal goal. All members of the Brain Club should be able to register for the white belt (you just need to know the number shape or rhyme system) and then the white plus red (just learn the major system - I suggest you learn 10 new ones a day and then you'll be there in 10 days).
If you have any questions on the statistics, please refer them to Ian. But of course if you don't like statistics, feel free to be tested on every single item ... the choice is yours!
Table 1
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