附:Stefan-pochmann ------ Memorization
Ok, you've seen the example, which demonstrated the analysis and the execution parts. Now let me tell you how I memorize. You might have noticed that I always wrote the target positions in a light blue color. Here they are again:
FR - UL - FD - DB - DR - UF - LB - UB - DL - FL - BU - stop - UB - RD - UF - UR - DL - RB - FR - DB - BL
Actually I don't work with positions, I work with colors. So what I really get when I blindsolve the 3x3 is the following sequence of color pairs. And no, I don't use the positions and translate them to color pairs like this here may look like. I directly use color pairs. And you can find this sequence just by looking at the cube, without solving it. The first "OB" (orange/blue) is obvious, since it's simply the cubie in the buffer position. And you can find the "YG" (yellow/green) simply by looking at the "OB" place (i.e. where "OB" belongs). And you can find the "OW" simply by looking at the "YG" place. And so on, simply walk along the cycles. Try to scramble the cube again (with the example scramble) and find the color pair sequence yourself just by looking at the cube.
OB - YG - OW - WR - WB - YO - GR - YR - WG - OG - RY - stop - YR - BW - YO - YB - WG - BR - OB - WR - RG
This sequence is all you need to memorize. Then after putting on the blindfold, all you need to do is do something easy for each item in the sequence. And memorizing that sequence is also very easy. What? You don't think it's that easy to memorize? That's only 20 items! For the 5x5, I had to memorize nearly 100! And there are people who memorize a random number with 2000 digits in one hour. Are we geniuses? No, not at all. Are people who can solve the 3x3 (*not* blindfolded) geniuses? No, not at all. What's the secret? Good systems.
So what's a system to easily remember the above sequence? First of all, let me tell you that I don't memorize "YG". As soon as I see the cubie, I think of a banana. I don't even think "YG" at all. I just think "banana". Why? Because I see yellow as primary color and I see green as secondary color. A banana is mostly yellow but also a bit green. Instead of "WB" I think "Donald Duck" (white body, blue shirt). Instead of "RB" I think "Spiderman" (red top, blue pants). Instead of "YR" I think "french fries with ketchup" (obvious). These are all *pictures* I can easily envision. So that's the first step. Think of nice visual objects instead of color pairs. You only need to come up with 24 visual objects, one for each color pair. You can use my few examples, but I won't tell you the rest. It's much better for you if you invent them yourself. Many people use numbers or characters to represent the cubies. I think that's extremely artificial because these are very abstract things. I don't even use things like that as intermediate steps. I only see a cubie and immediately think "banana", because that's what the cubie simply looks like.
Now how do I memorize a sequence of visual objects? For example, how could I memorize this sequence?
Banana
Donald Duck
Spiderman
French fries with ketchup
Method 1: Invent a story, for example... A banana lies on the table. It looks and smells very nice. Donald enters the room, notices the banana and wants to eat it. He's almost there, but Spiderman jumps superfast in front of him and steals the banana. Donald is angry and decides to get some french fries. He prefers junk food anyway... The important thing is to really really *experience* this story in your head. Imagine how very fresh the banana looks and smells like. Maybe you "see" the smell in the air, like in cartoons? Watch closely how happy Donald looks when he sees the banana and starts to run for it. And do you hear him screaming angry when Spiderman steals it? And do you see Spiderman's evil grin? You could add much more information. The more, the better (in terms of memorization safety, not speed, of course ;-). Use as many senses as possible. See it, hear it, smell it, feel it! Use extremes, e.g. the banana could be 2 meters long and Spiderman rides away on it. Makes it easier to memorize!!! Use sexual, illegal, brutal things! Whatever! Extreme things are easier to memorize!!! Blue/yellow is a beautiful stewardess for me and I really like to include her in my mental stories ;-)
Method 2: Similar to method 1, but you use a mental "route" you've prepared beforehand. For the 5x5, I've built myself a mental home with ten rooms, each having ten "places" in it, so overall 100 places. The first "room" is in front of the house, starting with a tree, then a swing hanging down from it, then a motorcycle, then a car (Ferrari ;-), etc... When you memorize a sequence, you mentally "combine" the i-th item in the sequence with the i-th item in the prepared mental route. Envision similarly exciting (or disgusting ;-) things, like in method 1. Oh, how I like it when the stewardess accidently needs to be combined with the bed in my bedroom ;-). Imagine bananas growing on the tree, Donald swinging (and singing?) on the swing, Spiderman playing with the motorcycle, a big fat french fry couple driving away with your Ferrari. Later you just need to walk along that mental route. For the 3x3, a route with 30 places should be enough, usually you need 20-25. You can also try to combine the two methods, build a story along a mental route. The mental route has the advantage that it's hardly possible to forget an item.
I also encode the end of each phase (for 3x3 just edges phase, corners phase) so that I know when to stop (and begin the next phase or take off the blindfold. Since there's nothing more to do, I thought of a black hole for this. But that's not a nice object. So instead I envision Stephen Hawkings in his wheelchair.
One last trick: To make sure you didn't forget some cubies (very important in more complex puzzles, like 5x5 or Megaminx), count! The rule is:
#items = (#wrong cubies) + (#cycles) - 2
In the example, the red/blue edge was correct, so we had 11 wrong edges. We had 2 edge cycles. So we should expect 11+2-2=11 items to memorize for the edges. That's indeed correct. No corners were correct, so we had 8 wrong corners. There were 3 cycles (one just for orienting the last two corners). So we should expect 8+3-2=9 items to memorize for corners. Again, that turned out to be correct.
Btw, I completed my memo home 30 minutes before I started my first ever attempt to solve the 5x5 blindfolded (at the European Championships 2004). And I remembered most of the almost 100 items even three weeks later with only recalling it once in the meantime. In fact, I was worried I might never be able to forget it and that it might give me trouble in future attempts. I just mention this in order to emphasize how easy the memorization part really is. It's much harder to stay concentrated and not make an execution mistake! Memorization is *not* the problem! |