[yesenadam]

Although most, if not all, masters of memory use methods involving vivid nonsense images, the more nonsensical and crazy the better! Like if was learning "mesa" ("table" in spanish) I might picture a giant mesa in the desert, with lots of tables on the top of it, with members of Mensa sitting at it talking about tables.. You would think that meant having to remember a lot of extra irrelevant stuff. It's rather surprising that it works at all.

[bobosha]

Actually, memory masters ascribe a sequence (a la a song) to store multiple things. I think time/sequence i.e. auto-association is arguably the most important element in human memory. Some have described it as a memory house with various rooms and objects and navigating it.

The more "nonsensical" as you put it, the more distinctive & discriminant the memory is.

Edit: formatting & more details.