First,
let's examine the question's premise a bit. Should memorization be fun
and is fun generalizable? For e.g., bungee jumping is surely fun for
some but unlikely to be fun for someone deathly scared of heights.
Another related issue is whether making memorization fun makes it more effective.
After all, when the outcome, i.e., the study subject, is inherently
uninteresting to a pupil, there's only so much that process could
contribute. Any number of mnemonic tools, tricks and now even apps like Memrise
(1, 2) claim to have cracked the code for effective memorization.
However, an age-old tradition steeped in hidebound conservatism and
which has remained seemingly unchanged for thousands of years probably
has them all beat when it comes to 1) effectiveness, 2) absence of fun,
and 3) applicability to everyone, not just those innately endowed with
superior memory abilities.
Non-fun memorization can be exceptionally effective
Wouldn't
an unbroken oral memorization tradition conservatively estimated to
have lasted ~3000 years suggest exceptional effectiveness? Rote
memorization involving elaborate mnemonic techniques, Vedic chant,
including traditional face-to-face oral training, this cultural
peculiarity of the Indian sub-continent provides durable, empirical data
that memorization needn't be fun to be effective and long-lasting.
Conservatively estimated to have originated in the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age India, the Vedas have been passed down for ~3000 years in an unbroken tradition, largely orally in the initial millenia.
What's
this memorization process? Starting at a young age, typically between 9
and 12 years of age, children, mainly boys, train in memorizing Vedic
texts daily for 8 to 10 hours for ~ 7 years in Vedic Patashalas
(Vedic Pandit Training Schools). Each of these texts contains 40,000 to
100,000 words apiece. The process involves learning the exact intonation
and accompanying hand gestures. In this manner, the initial 7 years of
training totals ~20,000 hours.
Effective, nay stupendous, non-fun memorization is possible even without pre-selection for innate memory ability
All
well and good but what makes this rote memorization process even more
compelling is participants aren't selected using any selection process
or entrance exam that tests for innate memory or recitation abilities.
For example, in a 2015 peer-reviewed study (3) published in the journal NeuroImage, none of the trainee Pandits tested came from 'traditional family lineages of reciters'. Even more remarkable, the Vedic Patashala dropout rate is reportedly a low 5%.
The
study (3), a collaboration between the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences,
University of Trento, Italy, and the National Brain Research Centre,
Haryana, India, 'conducted structural analysis of gray matter
density, cortical thickness, local gyrification, and white matter
structure, relative to matched controls', and 'found massive gray
matter density and cortical thickness increases in Pandit brains in
language, memory and visual systems, including i) bilateral lateral
temporal cortices and ii) the anterior cingulate cortex and the
hippocampus, regions associated with long and short-term memory’ (3).
Albeit
in the narrow sphere of rote memorization of extremely specialized
material, the continuing existence of both process (a specific oral
learning tradition) and product (the Vedas) is proof positive that this
training system's very effective. All the more remarkable considering
it's survived the entire gamut of historical vagaries, wars, invasions,
famines, colonization and the like. As the authors of the study (3)
state, 'while the ability of Yajurveda Pandits to perform
large-scale, precise oral memorization and recitation of Vedic Sanskrit
texts may, prima facie, appear extraordinary or bordering on impossible,
textual memorization and recitation are in fact standard practice in
traditional Sanskrit education in India...while the Pandit's
memorization capacity may appear unique to graduates of a Western
educational system, it is one of several memorization-related study
traditions current in the Indian subcontinent'.
What could explain the success of such a presumably non-fun memorization program?
1) A group
activity (see picture below from 5), i.e., shared commitment and
sacrifice of time and effort, may help better engage the mind in the
learning process.
2) Discipline and practice
as in every day for several hours per day. In this regard, the process
is uncannily similar to the process of spatial memorization techniques
revealed in the famous London Taxi Driver study (4), which
found the phenomenal memorization capacity of the archetypal London
taxi driver involved learning not just expert spatial navigation but
also 'rote memorization of a large volume of preset verbal sequences' (3), i.e., ~30,000 street and place names 'in 320 set sequences totaling ~120,000 words, with part-time training over ~3 to 5 years' (3). In fact, the 2015 Vedic Pandit trainee study (3) found similar hippocampal differences
to those reported in the London taxi driver study, i.e., generalizable
memorization principles are at work in two different processes, textual
versus textual-spatial, in two different cultures.
3) The student's not alone. His teacher, the guru, is equally invested
in the student's learning. Let's recall this is an oral learning
tradition. It requires Guru-Shishya (teacher-student) face-to-face
training.
4) Continuous practice. Once
trained, most students go on to become either Vedic teachers themselves
or priests. In any case, they continue at least ~3 hours of daily
recitation. This continuing practice ensures memorized material's
retained over time.
This
memorization system offers some general principles for effective
memorization, namely, having a partner/partners who participate(s) in
the learning process, and more importantly a teacher who's evidently
heavily invested in the student's learning, and regular practice,
something that requires discipline more than fun. The former, having a
partner, may be helpful for topics/subjects engaging little by way of
innate interest, for e.g., memorizing just for tests and exams.
More
importantly, given its unbroken lineage of thousands of years and
therefore unparalleled success in rote memorization, the Vedic
memorization process offers the world a unique test-bed. Modern
scientific investigation should research it to deconstruct its processes
and thereby make its general memorization principles and practices
available for the benefit of all.
Bibliography
1. BBC News, David Robson, May 1, 2015. How to supercharge the way you learn
2. BBC News, David Robson, March 7, 2014. How to learn like a memory champion
3. Hartzell, James F., et al. "Brains of verbal memory specialists show
anatomical differences in language, memory and visual systems."
NeuroImage (2015). http://ac.els-cdn.com/S10
4. Maguire, Eleanor A., et al. "Navigation-related structural change in
the hippocampi of taxi drivers." Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 97.8 (2000): 4398-4403. http://www.pnas.org/conte
5. The Hindu, Suganthy Krishnamachari. October 8, 2015. http://www.thehindu.com/f
https://www.quora.com/Intelligence/How-can-we-make-memorization-more-fun/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala
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