Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

because code is no longer represented visually as blocks, you'll find you're building an increasingly detailed memory model of your code. Sighted people do this, too, but they tend to visualize in their mind. When you abandon this two dimensional representation, your non-visual mental map suffers no spatial limits

That's a really interesting idea to me, because I have been trying to improve my memory and recall (mostly of things like telephone numbers) using the Major Memory system and the emphasis behind that and similar techniques seems to be constructing visual imagery which encodes other information. So, it sounds like you are saying that you have found other pathways/techniques that do explicitly do not do this.




It is entirely possible I'm still using my visual cortex. I was once sighted. When I'm in flow my wife tells me that my eyes spasm as though they're following some kind of pattern in space. I'm not aware I was doing this until she mentioned it. I can say, however, that I'm not visualizing the way I once did. In fact, because I don't have a visual input, conjuring up some kind of imaginary visualization would actually slow me down and be a cognitive burden.


Thank you for sharing your experience.

Would you say your ability to visualize has declined, or you’ve just favored other methods of thinking?


I tried that as well and it does not work for me. What works is association with some stories. For example, to remember a credit card number I associate each 2 digits with a year that gives an event and then the number is a sequence of events.

What also works for me to train memory is to learn phrases in a foreign language that I do not understand. Surprisingly combining those with text I do understand leads to better recall of the whole text. It is almost as understanding harms memory.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: