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I've once watched a movie in which CIA agent went into a room just for a few seconds and on the next day he could recall every detail of that room, including what was on the monitors.

And I am wondering is there a way to improve my memory to this level?

I would also like to know if there are studied ways of accomplishing this.

There also is something that I remember reading few years ago about training visual memory:

"You go into a dark room with a page of text and a flash light, and every ~30 seconds you turn on and off the flash light very quickly and try to recall as much as you can. And you do this for ~20 minutes. After ~30 days of practice you should have much better visual memory."

What do you think about this method. Could it really work? And if so, could this ability disappear after some time without practice?

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    $\begingroup$ My intuition tells me that we are limited by our mental capabilities to reach this kind of cognitive power. What you are referring to is called eidetic memory and is found in about 2-10 percent of children. The wikipedia article states that this skill may disappear in these children if not nurtured. $\endgroup$
    – Jean-Paul
    Commented Nov 1, 2015 at 0:37
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    $\begingroup$ An interesting video regarding this concept is this one $\endgroup$
    – Jean-Paul
    Commented Nov 1, 2015 at 0:39

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You can read book: Trick of the mind - Derren Brown. Derren Brown is a mentalist and in his book you have very powerfull methods to improve your memory based on natural mental processes.

The easiest way for me is to create short story about something, that i want to recall, in the fantasy way - for exemple - i want to remember my list of products to buy when i go to shopping center - i must buy: milk, book, bread, aspiryna, food for my dog and new computer game so...

I create fantasy story - Imagine sea of milk and books as ships, one of the ships must go to port and in this port all buildings are from bread, all people in this small city eat aspiryna and dogs too! Further more these dogs like to playing computer games ... as you create that funny story you will be remember everything better - you can learn this in few minutes!!! And ofcourse - use it :) Try this and tell me if it works ;)

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  • $\begingroup$ Learning by association is the primary method I always see when looking up how to increase memory, and that's great for things like grocery lists. I don't think this works very well when you are presented with a lot of information in a very short amount of time though. You just don't have time to form a story before you've already forgotten half the details. I wonder what resources there are for improving non-associative learning? $\endgroup$
    – BVernon
    Commented Jun 26, 2018 at 4:51
  • $\begingroup$ I'm particularly interested in retaining information for a short amount though... like, for example, being able to beat the Simon game. $\endgroup$
    – BVernon
    Commented Jun 26, 2018 at 4:53
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Your best bet is to start looking on YouTube and the Internet for various memory methods used by card memorizers, magicians, and other stunt people. I have used them extensively, and they work. You can also look on Amazon for books. Tony Buzan, Harry Lorraine, Dominc O'Brien. Also the book Moonwalking with Einstein.

Don't believe all the nonsense out there about your limited memory, or it takes years of practice, or you need special supplements. I've met SEALs who used the simple techniques taught in the books to help them. It worked for them.

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