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Method of loci

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Re: Method of loci

#11

Post by mturmon »

This came to my attention while reading the essays collected in Tony Judt's book The Memory Chalet (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/10/tony-ju...). From the review:

"Physically unable to write [because of ALS], but with a mind as sharp and active as ever, [Judt] plotted the twenty-five short essays that compose this book in his head, while he was alone at night, using a mnemonic device taken from accounts of the early modern “memory palace,” whereby elements of a narrative are associated with points in a visually remembered space; but instead of a palace, he used a small Swiss chalet that he had once stayed in on vacation as a boy, and that he could picture vividly and in detail. He was then able to dictate these feuilletons the next day from the resulting structure."

Re: Method of loci

#12

Post by Rainymood »

Very very cool! Interested? Read 'Moonwalking with Einstein'

I recall being surprised (the whole class) by a surprise test for some people who wanted to study us. We had 5 minutes to memorize 50 random words. I just read Moonwalking with Einstein so I learned how to use loci. The average that people could recall (N=25) was around 20 words. I was able to recall 49! 49! That's almost perfect! I was pretty fucking baffled. I still know most of them ...

A JAMAICAN person jumped off a RAMP on the TITANIC and then flew in to SPACE on the ISS where he saw a DOG which was playing the VIOLIN which then bit TESLA, GHANDI was playing CHESS and then the iss crashed down into MILAN which was covered in a huge OMELET, we flew over mount FUJI and ... etc

Bolded words are words that were on the list. It's pretty awesome for hardcore memorization!

Re: Method of loci

#13

Post by logicallee »

Rainymood wrote: post #12

Very very cool! Interested? Read 'Moonwalking with Einstein' I recall being surprised (the whole class) by a surprise test for some people who wanted to study us. We had 5 minutes to memorize 50 random words. I just read Moonwalking with Einstein so I learned how to use loci. The average that people could recall (N=25) was around 20 words. I was able to recall 49! 49! That's almost perfect! I was pretty fucking baffl…

I hope you told the researchers! (That you had literally just learned this method.) Probably a more important data point than anything else they happened to be studying.

Re: Method of loci

#14

Post by edanm »

Moshe_Silnorin wrote: post #9
zupreme wrote: post #7

I took the Jonathan Levi Superlearner course on Udemy about a year ago and the Loci method is a key part of this course. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in this topic. I can say that it's extremely useful for remembering lists of things, but I haven't had a lot of success in using it to retain or organize abstract information.

>I can say that it's extremely useful for remembering lists of things, but I haven't had a lot of success in using it to retain or organize abstract information. I think the fact that these techniques have died out is some evidence that they are not actually very useful.

Just as a counterpoint, in the book "Moonwalking with Einstein", the author talks quite a bit about the fact that many of these methods survived for a long long time, and people in the past considered memory an incredibly important proof of someone being educated.

The methods seem to have been "lost" mostly when better options for external memory (e.g. writing and printing) became more universal. (iirc - i'm probably messing this up somewhat).

Re: Method of loci

#15

Post by walterbell »

There's an active memory-improvement community at http://artofmemory.com including forums and a wiki of techniques.

Why bother? Because these techniques increase the capacity of "cache" that is closer (low latency) to human "computation". This can lead to faster traversal of the OODA loop, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop, which is relevant to lean startups, business competition, combat and more.

See the HN thread on AI as an enabler of IA, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10373180

In addition, spaced-repetition techniques can be used to increase your vocabulary, which is like gaining extra pixels for the expression of nuanced goals, helping any compass which guides execution to a goal. Words are proxies for dreams and dangers, especially in a software-constructed world. Greater word capacity becomes greater visibility over a software-based terrain.

Re: Method of loci

#16

Post by [deleted] »

fatratchet wrote: post #6

I'm really curious about building a virtual memory palace for VR. Seems there would be many possibilities to make memorizing more effective. Some common techniques like following a predetermined path through a palace and imagining diffrent unique objects and scenes at fixed locations along that path could be really nicely visualized. I would think you could benefit a lot from actually beeing able to explore and fully…

[deleted]

Re: Method of loci

#17

Post by archagon »

Are most people able to just "picture a room" as required by this technique? I've never been good at that. Whenever I try to picture a location, I just see objects and landmarks with no real sense of place, kind of just floating in an impressionistic aether.

Re: Method of loci

#18

Post by gohrt »

archagon wrote: post #17

Are most people able to just "picture a room" as required by this technique? I've never been good at that. Whenever I try to picture a location, I just see objects and landmarks with no real sense of place, kind of just floating in an impressionistic aether.

You don't have to picture it, you just have to visit the loci in sequence. Can you write down a description of your morning routine (wake up, wash, eat, commute, etc) or execute your morning routine with your eyes closed? (ignoring safety concens, so please don't try driving with your eyes closed!)

As you do so, how many specific objects could you identify, in the order you handle them? Quite many, I bet.

Re: Method of loci

#19

Post by gohrt »

pixelHD wrote: post #5
dagurp wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a great book called Moonwalking with Einstein

Yes, it is a great read. I heard about the "Memory Palace" on BBC's Sherlock. Holmes says that you can theoretically remember everything (I think this was in the episode The Hounds of Baskerville). I then happened upon this book via gatesnotes[0], and picked it up. The author is quite successful in learning and putting this technique to use. He reaches the finals of the USA Memory Championship. However, he says this…

I can't find a reference now, but I read about a women who had a debilitating mental illness -- she could remember very many of the mundane details of her days, and it crowded out her ability to perform other mental tasks.

Re: Method of loci

#20

Post by schoen »

Rainymood wrote: post #12

Very very cool! Interested? Read 'Moonwalking with Einstein' I recall being surprised (the whole class) by a surprise test for some people who wanted to study us. We had 5 minutes to memorize 50 random words. I just read Moonwalking with Einstein so I learned how to use loci. The average that people could recall (N=25) was around 20 words. I was able to recall 49! 49! That's almost perfect! I was pretty fucking baffl…

A friend of mine was given a list of fake definitions for real words as part of a puzzle contest

http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/2014/puzzle/eggsam/

and then had to answer a face-to-face oral quiz where she was supplied with a definition and had to give the word, from memory, that corresponded to the definition. (What's worse, these definitions are definitions of other words: for example, "A parliamentary tactic in which a lawmaker speaks for an extended period of time in order to delay a vote" is really FILIBUSTER, but for purposes of the quiz she had to respond with NARWHAL!)

She learned them all in about 15 minutes and then got a nearly perfect score on the first try, which kind of astounded everybody. I think your feat was similarly impressive, though.

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