Memory grandmasters

There are many memory grandmasters. To qualify for memory grandmaster one must complete 3 trials: 10 decks cards in one hour, 1000 numbers in one hour and one card deck in 2 min, not necessarily all in one tournament. There are further standard memory events, like memorizing 200 random words in 10 min or learn 60 foreign language words in 5 min. The memorization is very technical: no long-term memorization or comprehension is required. Everything is about speed and accuracy of memory.

Memory champions are not smarter than average people, but are extremely dedicated to memory sport. Some spend 8 hours per day training various methods and travel to build new memory palaces and add details to existing palaces. The first places of the memory tournaments get tens of thousands of dollars cash price, as well as PR and public speaking deals. The participants usually do not come for the money or fame, typically they practice because they love to train their memories the same way other sportsmen train their bodies.

The people that get this level of achievement are very different from each other and use various methodologies: PAO, Wang 2×2 system, Dominic/Pridmore system and many other variation of major system, loci and clustering. Notice that mindmaps are absent from the competitor systems: mindmaps are more useful for analysis of hierarchical text than for random objects.

Currently the top-ranked player is probably working on the field of MRI , medical imaging engineer and PhD from the University of Magdeburg. He uses simple loci method with clustering of 3 (1000 objects in the deck). Since the method is relatively simple, Johannes practices for 10-15 hours per week. Since age 14 Johannes suffers from muscle degradation and currently needs an electric wheelchair to move. For Johannes, memory training is a way to fight depression associated with his disease. Johannes recommends memory challanges to anyone willing to develop his or hers memory.