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Control.
In everyday life, or for the layman control is defined as a power to influence or direct others.
If you’re out of control you’re said to be “off the rails,” or too wild to handle. Unpredictable.
But there’s another definition of control.
Control, as defined by science is “a subject or group in an experiment where the factor being tested is not applied, hence serves as a standard for comparison against another group where the factor is applied.”
When it comes to science, control is used to make the data we’re measuring immune to influence. Simple enough, right?
My guest today is Boris Konrad, International Grandmaster of Memory. He is a four time Guinness World Record holder, and lecturer on and teacher of memory.
Professionally, Boris works as a neuroscientist and researcher at Donders Institute in The Netherlands. He is also an award winning keynote speaker of the prestigious German title of “5-Sterne-Rednerpreis.”
In his years of research, Boris has taken the idea of examining the element of control far beyond the constraints of the scientific method.
As a record-setting memory champion he has incorporated a scientific approach to memory improvement, treating his own regimen as an experiment, marrying his experiences in neuroscience to stretching the limits of memory work personally.
In our conversation, Boris shares his story of overlapping profession and self-improvement and how you, too, can serve as your own control, stepping into the role of scientist in the laboratory of your mind, no neuroscience degree necessary.
We talk about all these matters, and so much more that will benefit your memory training. All you have to do is press play above and discover:
- What parameters should truly define science as a whole, and what distinguishes scientific guidelines
- How neuroscience research began with the work of a single scientist and has evolved into many areas of study
- Why retention time is influenced by the method by which information is encoded
- How memorizing for competition differs from memorization for the purpose of learning
- The tradeoff (and benefits) of investing time into experimenting with new memory techniques in your Memory Palace training routine
- What constitutes a real feat of memory (and it may not be what you think!)
- How mixing and matching memory techniques can be the most powerful tool for improvement
- The reason intelligent spaced repetition works (and why robots aren’t all that bad)
- How reusing Memory Palaces is possible without falling prey to the ghosting effect, no modifications required
- The cause of spatial memory and how exactly science has recently proven this hypothesis of organization
- Why the brain fills in gaps of what it fails to remember
- The benefits of solo memory training and using yourself as a control, rather than comparison to others for measured improvement
Further Resources on the Web, this podcast, and the MMM Blog:
Boris Konrad’s Official Website
