Book SummaryUnlimited Memory, by Kevin Horsley

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Unlimited Memory

In Unlimited Memory, Kevin Horsley explains that, using the right techniques, anyone can train their brain to learn and remember anything. He offers several techniques to help you remember everything by making associations between things you already know well—like your car or your body—and things you want to remember. He also describes strategies to help you remember things through story, art, and visualization.

Kevin Horsley is a professional speaker and author of books such as _[The Happy...

Unlimited Memory Summary Memory: The Foundation of Learning

According to Horsley, your memory is one of your most important abilities as a human being. It underpins learning—the process of gaining new knowledge—because remembering information is the key to utilizing it. Memory is also foundational to gaining skills because all skills build on knowledge. For example, in order to gain the skill of speaking another language, you have to build the knowledge of that language’s vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, and then you have to remember that knowledge so you can apply it.

The Different Types of Memory

Horsley writes about memory in a general sense, but there are different types of memory that store different types of information. His advice largely relates to semantic memory, or the memory of facts and information about the world. As we’ll see later, he often advises that you connect semantic memories to episodic memory—the memory of events and experiences—to help you better retain them. These are both types of declarative or explicit memory.

His advice doesn’t apply as well to _[implicit...

Unlimited Memory Summary Attention: Stay Present While Learning

Your ability to commit information to memory depends on how well you pay attention to it. Paying close attention to what you’re learning requires you to be present in the moment—focusing on the task at hand and blocking out irrelevant stimuli or interruptions. If your mind is cluttered with discouragement, distraction, or a lack of a clear goal, you can’t be present. Below we’ll explain how to manage these types of clutter to help you pay better attention.

(Shortform note: Mindfulness is a term used to describe being fully present in the moment and unbothered by external distractions. Research shows that mindfulness practices like meditation can improve memory capacity and function by reducing stress and stimulating structural changes in the brain (a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity). Pairing Horsley’s techniques with mindfulness practices may improve your memory even further.)

Dealing With Discouragement

According to Horsley, the way you talk to yourself determines how well you can pay attention. If you tell yourself you’re bad at paying attention, and you...

Unlimited Memory Summary Association: Connecting What You’re Learning to What You Know

Horsley’s second memory principle is association: According to Horsley, we learn everything by association. Association is when you make mental connections between knowledge you already have and the knowledge you’re trying to learn. You’re using your long-term memory (things you already know well) to latch onto items that are passing through your short-term memory. This allows you to store them in your medium-term memory (which ultimately becomes your long-term memory). This is how you make new information accessible to your brain.

(Shortform note: In The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge explains that creating mental associations actually causes physical changes in the brain through a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. When you have a thought or learn something new, a neural pathway between nerve cells in your brain forms, and the more you have that same thought or remember that information, the stronger the pathway (and its respective mental...

Unlimited Memory Summary Practice: Hold on to What You’ve Learned

The attention and association techniques will help you remember things for a certain period of time, but in order to remember them forever, you need to practice and review the information regularly until it’s fully committed to your long-term memory.

According to Horsley, these reviews should take place at certain intervals to maximize your retention. First, review the information 10 minutes after you’ve learned it. For this first review, go through the information in the reverse order from which you learned it. This greatly strengthens your memory of the ideas.

(Shortform note: Research suggests that when your brain is first reviewing newly learned information, it does so in reverse. Thus, deliberately performing your first review in reverse might be particularly helpful because it taps into your brain’s natural learning process.)

Next, he recommends reviewing the information at the following intervals: one hour, one day, three days, one week, two weeks, three weeks, one...

Shortform Exercise: Put Your Unlimited Memory to Work

Use Horsley’s tips and memory techniques to commit some new information to memory.

First, pick something you want to memorize, whether it be a list, a concept, a string of numbers, or anything else. Identify anything that may interfere with your attention in memorizing this. Are you prone to self-deprecating and discouraging talk? Or do you struggle with single-tasking? Consider how these may impact your learning and write down some solutions to avoid distraction and discouragement.