Memory Trick: How Spaghetti Helps Increase Memory Retention

Maybe this happened to you or a family member: You’re standing in the supermarket and you forgot what you wanted to buy. Or at least we can no longer think about important food.

Basically, we humans are pretty bad at remembering information that has no direct relevance to our lives. But what we can remember well are places, people, shapes and forms.

With a little knowledge and practice, you can outsmart your brain and remember a lot of things. For example, using so-called mnemonics – that is, memory techniques. Using these tools, memory mathematicians can, for example, memorize the order of a deck of cards in less than a minute.

Mnemonics combine things that are difficult to remember with something that we can remember well. For example, the body menu mnemonic method involves associating foods with parts of a person’s body that are easy to remember. If you mentally visualize these body parts in the supermarket from top to bottom, it will be easier for you to think about what to buy.

Here’s how it works

For example, we’ve compiled a random shopping list for you: spaghetti, onions, cherries, sugar, bananas, eggs, mushrooms, croissants, milk. The more “weird” you can imagine where these foods are in your body, the better you’ll remember them.

For example, in this fantasy image, your hair is made of spaghetti that twists around violently. You wear glasses made of onions, which makes your eyes water. Your nose is made of cherries, your mouth is made of banana, and your ears are made of candy.

In addition, your upper body is covered in chainmail made of eggs – which is definitely not very practical – and you also have fancy shoulder pads made of croissants. Your knee pads are mushrooms and you wear milk cartons as shoes. By the way, this image might be easier to create if you imagine the whole thing with your eyes closed.

Next time you need to remember something difficult, try the body list technique. Of course, it can also be used for school work. We wish you a happy anniversary!

Send questions about the week’s experiment to [email protected]