Informativeness Of Speech As A Tool To Influence The Interlocutor. Or How Memory Training Helps You Win An Argument

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

I will now ask you to remember something. I think it won't be very difficult.

Try to remember when was the last time you listened to one of your friends or acquaintances with genuine attention and interest? I think that it will not be difficult for you to answer this question. Surely there are such people in your environment. Surely you often communicate with them. Surely your attention and interest were attracted by a topic in which your friends understand well (in any case, not worse than you, and in most cases - much better).

If you listen to a conversation from the side with the look (or rather, hearing) of an outside observer, then first of all you draw attention to the fact that people who are listened to with interest usually use a lot of accurate information in their speech. What is accurate information? This is the information that needs to be reproduced without error. Typically, such data include numbers, dates and numbers, the names and surnames of other people, any facts, links to sources, etc. Thus, a person's speech becomes more INFORMATIVE, that is, rich in information. The more sentences contain accurate information, the higher the degree of confidence in the thought or idea that the speaker expresses.

Well, imagine three versions of a monologue. Suppose a monologue is conducted by a person who disagrees with someone and tries to substantiate his disagreement. Let's say we are talking about the demographic situation in our country.

Option 1.

“In general, the demographic situation in our country is very bad. I read that people are leaving the country in large numbers."

Option 2.

“In general, the demographic situation in our country is very bad. More than 200 thousand people left in 2012”.

Option 3.

“In general, the demographic situation in our country is very bad. I read the information on the Razumkov website. In 2012, 207 thousand people left”.

Which speaker do you trust more? If you do not have other facts on this topic, then the third option, as the most informative, will have the greatest influence on your opinion. And for this it is enough to mention only 2-3 exact facts. It's amazing how knowing just a few facts can change the opinion of another person in your favor.

And now remember how many times you, having lost in a dispute or failing to convince your interlocutor, after some time remembered the necessary facts, picked up new arguments, found the right words? Or, even more offensive, they heard from other people what they themselves wanted to say. They wanted to, but did not remember in time. And they did not succeed in the dispute.

This often happens to us when our memory fails us.

Any conversation that we have, any dispute can be decisive for us. And the memory should work like a clock. Ideally, our knowledge should be impeccable to increase influence on other people. Facts, figures, quotes should pop up in memory exactly at the moment when they are needed, and not "a little bit" later.

If victory in an argument is not important to you, no matter what influence you have on your interlocutors, then the issue of memory training will most likely not be relevant for you (in any case, winning an argument is not the most urgent reason for this). But if the ability to persuade is important to you, and the holes in your memory are more and more troublesome, then the question of training and developing the ability to remember an important detail at the right time will eventually force you to study your memory closely.

Now the main question is how? It is not enough just to know that a good memory will improve communication and make you a more influential arguer / negotiator. This is obvious. It is important to know and understand exactly how you need to develop your memory.

The main arguments that we need in a dispute require our memory to know information, which can be conditionally divided into the following types:

- digital data;

- dates of events;

- names;

- titles.

Memorization of each type of information can be improved both with the help of special techniques (mnemonics), and by following the general rules of memory hygiene. But in fact, in order for your memory not to let you down in an argument, you need to follow 3 basic rules:

1. Purposeful memory training. Mnemonics help develop the ability to memorize a certain type of information. Your ability to memorize increases several times.

2. Personal interest in the topic. The ability to memorize is not enough. We must not only memorize well, but also retain information. And this requires personal interest, as the most powerful motivational factor in memorizing any data. If the topic is interesting to you, you are able to memorize huge amounts of information. But if there is no interest, then memorizing even a small piece of information will be worth a huge effort.

3. Regular experience in conducting disputes, conversations, public speaking. Nothing sharpens theoretical knowledge like regular practice.

Is memory the tool that will increase your influence on the interlocutors? Undoubtedly.

Is memory the only tool you need? Of course not.

But without the ability to accurately and without prompting to reproduce accurate information, it is impossible to win a dispute. The most striking performance can be hopelessly spoiled by just one mistake in your memory. Or, on the contrary, just one good fact that has come to mind in time can tip the scales in your favor.