Records Smashed at (Human) Memory Championship

Pika the Mad writes "Wired News has a neat story about the recent U.S.A. National Memory Championship.'The finalists competed in three brand-new recall events that forced them to remember and recite aloud random words, personality characteristics of guests at a fictional tea party and the order of cards in two decks of playing cards, parroting answers in front of a crowd of onlookers, photographers and video cameras.' The winner claims that in the world finals he'll be competing against people who can memorize an entire deck of cards in 30 seconds."

A deck of cards? That's it?

[brian0918]

Sure, they can memorize a deck of cards, but can they learn the lyrics to It's the End of the World as We Know it?

that's nice

[Loconut1389]

but when are the mammary championships?

Re:that's nice

[Hogwash McFly]

September, in Poland. [missworld.tv]

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[hey!]

Well, that's what happens when you design a computer has a three bit working memory address bus on one hand, but on the other has literally billions of switches dedicated to pattern matching and special purpose retrieval functions.

Re:1 Deck in 30 Seconds?!

[PFI_Optix]

On long stuff like that, I tend to use the "Simon" method (I just made that up, no idea what it would really be called).

Look at the first card, say the name in your head. Look at the second, say the first and second. For every card, repeat the whole series. You develop a rythm and it almost becomes a song in your head. I tired and just got to 18 cards in 30 seconds that way.

I don't know if I could memorize an entire deck of cards in one sitting, though. If I could look through it for two or three minutes, wait an hour or two, then come back to it, I could probably look through it for another minute or two and recite it.

Damn

[r00k123]

The championship was THIS weekend?

Damn. I meant to tape that.

Re:Damn

[Spy der Mann]

The championship was THIS weekend?

Don't worry, I can recall every detail of it! :P

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[PetiePooo]

It's thirty days hath september, april, june, and november.

No, no. Its, "Thirty days hath September. All the rest I can't remember."

Re:Mnemonic Devices

[Dachannien]

And you've got knuckles left over, so in the event that Thirteenember and Fourteenuary are ever added to the calendar, you're still good to go.

A deck of cards in 30 seconds...

[fireman sam]

Pfft, I can do that.

Oh, you mean the order of the cards... On second thought.