We describe the current state of world-class memory competitions, including the methods used to prepare for and compete in memory competitions, based on the subjective report of World Memory Championship Grandmaster and co-author Nelson Dellis. We then explore the reported experiences through the lens of the Simulated, Situated, and Structurally coherent Qualia (S3Q) theory of consciousness, in order to propose a set of experiments to help further understand the boundaries of expert memory performance.

The making of a memory champion, it turns out, is not so different from the making of any other great athlete. To triumph in sport, athletes sculpt muscle and sinew and lash them together with head and heart to deliver optimum performance. To perform extraordinary feats of memorization, memory champions strengthen distinct groups of structures scattered throughout the brain. And then, they groove the connections that lash those groups together until the whole system works like a well-oiled machine. In short, memory champions are not born that way.