"Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer is about human memory. I have just been reading about chunking. He examines techniques and approaches that memory champions employ. One of them is chunking. This post is titled "1207410911101". If that was a series of random digits, it would be 12 digits to remember. For a younger person, it might be that. For an older person, it would probably be easier to remember Pearl Harbor and Nine Eleven. The US naval installation at Pearl Harbor was surprise-attacked on Dec. 7, 1941 and Nine Eleven is the date in September, 2001 that the US suffered a surprise attack by Al-Qaeda.
Foer and others make the point that we can often remember something if it is associated with other things we know. It turns out that our memories are not recordings like a tape or a CD. They are related to other things and we can remember items that are associated with other items. Suppose I use "In God we trust all others pay cash" as a password. I remember the sentence and I translate it into IGwtaopc. If the web page insists on special characters, I might use IGwtaop$. I already have capitals and small letters but maybe I need at least one numeral. If so, I would throw on one or two numbers, maybe changing the sentence to "...6 others pay cash."
I have read that rhyming verses have sometimes been constructed to assist the memory. If you say "Ogden Nash", I say
When called by a panther,
don't anther.
For no good reason beyond a little interest and my normal laziness, I memorized that little verse of his. Those nine syllables stuck in my head and they remain there. He has very memorable titles, which give me a laugh without even bothering with the long poems. Example: To a small boy standing on my shoes while I am wearing them.
