Yes, he knows an encyclopedia's worth of facts.
Yes, he will bet north of $20,000 without flinching.
And yes, he seems to hit the game buzzer with the reaction time of an Olympic sprinter.
But none of this would matter in the success of Jeopardy! champ James Holzhauer without one additional talent: the ability to retrieve information quickly from his brain.
Holzhauer, whose next game airs Monday, summons facts from his memory with such speed that few contestants have come close to beating him. He has raked in $1.69 million in 22 games that have aired to date, winning money at the fastest clip in the show's history.
What will it take to topple the champ?
A few basic strategies can help anyone become faster at remembering facts, say psychologists who study memory and learning. Study after study has identified ways to make memories more durable and accessible, and those benefits tend to go hand-in-hand with greater speed, said Michael J. Kahana, a University of Pennsylvania professor of psychology.
But those who would slay the game-show giant should beware: In an interview via email, Holzhauer said he has used some of these tips himself.
