The Memorist

The Museum as Memory Palace: Memory is another form of illusion but also a tool to navigate the construct of time. Test your ability to retain and recall information you learned in one hour with US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis. You will need an imagination and a keen sense of adventure, but you have to leave pencil, paper, smart phone, and other current aide-mémoiresbehind.
Do you want to be able to remember names at parties? Or where you last left your car keys? Or memorize The Waste Land? Attend this training by USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis who will convert the whole museum into a ‘memory palace’, a powerful mental device that the ancient Greeks employed to remember oratory as well as shopping lists. Employing exotic fragrances to help anchor your memorization, and magical illusions to test them, this will be unlike any other museum experience you have ever had.
Nelson Dellis will be in conversation with Todd Gureckis, Assistant Professor of Psychology for Cognition & Perception at the Center for Neural Science & Center for Brain Imaging at New York University.
NOTE: THIS EVENT LASTS 2.5 HOURS

About the Speakers

Nelson Dellis is the 2012 & 2011 USA Memory Champion and an Alzheimer’s Disease activist. Inspired by his late grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s, Nelson decided to take control of his own mind and strengthen his memory. Since then, he has grown to become the leading expert in memory improvement and training. He also climbs mountains around the world to raise funds and awareness for the disease through his charity, Climb For Memory. He will be attempting to climb Mt. Everest for a second time this spring, from the Tibetan side.
Todd Gureckis is Assistant Professor of Psychology for Cognition & Perception at the Center for Neural Science & Center for Brain Imaging at New York University. His research interests center on the memory, learning, and decision processes which allow us to carry out intelligent and adaptive behaviors. He is particularly interested in how people uncover important and useful regularities about the environment through experience. For example, how do we all come to agree on a similar idea of the concept ‘mammal’? How do our learning experiences shape our perception of the world around us? How do we acquire new skills and behaviors? The goal of his research is to enrich our understanding of the mechanisms which support these diverse behaviors, how they might develop and change over the course of our lives, and how they might be impacted by disease or brain damage.

About Brainwave: Illusion

The Buddha said that everything is illusion. What did he mean by that? This sixth edition of Brainwave will enlist the aid of neuroscientists to help us understand how the perception of our world is shaped by the surprising adaptability of our brains. Brainwave includes talks, special film screenings followed by discussions, interactive workshops, and much more!
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Presenting Sponsor of Brainwave 2013