Memory sport

[1][2] In response to a conspicuous rivalry between two challengers to the same Guinness Book Record, Memory Sports Promotion and Control Ltd., (Company number 3548879) was incorporated on 6 April 1998, by the invigilators Dr Peter Marshall and Ms Anne Perrett.

[4] These can include the method of loci, the use of mnemonic linking and chunking, or other techniques for storage and retrieval of information.

[6] Following the establishment of the World Memory Championships in 1991, national competitions have been set up in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., India, Germany, UK, Italy, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, and the Philippines, among others.

The Guild of Mnemonists Ltd was incorporated 6 April 1998, Company number 03541058,[14] to foster communication and technique sharing as well as to develop ethical controls for competitions and guaranteed standards in memory training courses.

O'Brien's Dominic system is a powerful memorizing strategy that combines both traditional and innovative techniques.

Joshua Foer has written, "Though every competitor has his own unique method of memorization for each event, all mnemonic techniques are essentially based on the concept of elaborative encoding, which holds that the more meaningful something is, the easier it is to remember.

A recent world speed record for memorizing a deck of cards was 12.74 seconds, held by Shijir-Erdene Bat-Enkh of Mongolia.

Instead many superior memorizers, like those in the World Memory Championships, use mnemonic learning strategies to practice preferential engagement of areas of the brain such as the hippocampus and the medial parietal and retrosplenial cortices which allows them to store and access more information in their working memory.

Up-to-date world rankings can be found at the International Association of Memory statistics website.