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Main Author: Wiederhold, Bastian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06747
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author Wiederhold, Bastian
author_facet Wiederhold, Bastian
contents Anyone who has tried to memorize a one-hundred-digit number can attest that the human brain acquires abstract information slowly. However, following a three-decade increase of results at memory competitions, the best competitors manage to memorize a one-hundred-digit number in under 15 seconds. This documents explores the origins of this trend: how competitions, records and techniques have evolved. In the process several phenomena are discussed: the actual process of memorization is likely even faster, records are governed by a power law, numbers are easier than playing cards and associations are at the core of memory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_06747
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An introduction to memory competitions, records and techniques
Wiederhold, Bastian
Neurons and Cognition
Anyone who has tried to memorize a one-hundred-digit number can attest that the human brain acquires abstract information slowly. However, following a three-decade increase of results at memory competitions, the best competitors manage to memorize a one-hundred-digit number in under 15 seconds. This documents explores the origins of this trend: how competitions, records and techniques have evolved. In the process several phenomena are discussed: the actual process of memorization is likely even faster, records are governed by a power law, numbers are easier than playing cards and associations are at the core of memory.
title An introduction to memory competitions, records and techniques
topic Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06747