Foer set a new U.S. record in playing-card recall, where contestants spend five minutes memorizing the order of a deck of cards and then recall as many as possible in a row. He recalled the whole deck in 1 minute, 40 seconds, which is better than he's ever done in practice, he said.
He was already planning to attend the upcoming World Memory Championship in Malaysia in August -- book research, he said -- but part of the prize for his U.S. win includes a paid flight there to compete.
"I don’t think I have a chance in the world championship," Foer said. "I can’t imagine going up against these people -- they can memorize a deck of cards in like 30 seconds."
There was nothing so dramatic at the U.S. Championship, but records were broken in each qualifying event. In the speed-numbers round, where contestants have five minutes to memorize as many randomly-generated numbers in order as they can, finalist Maurice Stoll, of Hurst, Texas, won by breaking his own record with a score of 148.
Newcomer and finalist Erin Luley, 17, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, set two new records – one in the poetry-recall round and another in names and faces, where contestants must memorize names associated with pictures of people.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70399-0.html?tw=wn_index_4
No comments:
Post a Comment