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An ultimate guide to memory palaces

metacognitive.me

11–20 of 87 posts

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#11
post #4

I find it interesting to hear what kinds of information people find usable to memorize. If there are people here that utilize the memory palace (or any other memorizing method): what do you put inside the palace?

You can use it to accelerate language learning. So you'll put in the words you want to learn (and have explanations or pronunciation hints attached to it) and you'll use this as a base for reviewing and learning words.

I'm told you can reach a speed of +200 words/week with this approach.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#14

I could never get memory palaces to work for me, but found that with enough practice, Mnemonic Pegs is like a superpower.

Interesting, I found this link that looks like a promising starting point: https://artofmemory.com/wiki/Mnemonic_Peg_System/#:~:text=A%....

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#15
post #4

I find it interesting to hear what kinds of information people find usable to memorize. If there are people here that utilize the memory palace (or any other memorizing method): what do you put inside the palace?

I used to store:

- Casual thoughts and ideas to review and ponder about them later. In case I didn't have a smartphone or notebook near me, I could put them into a palace, into the so-called "random room"(a place that you should review periodically to sort the remaining things out, i.e. categorize, put images into other places). However, it's simpler to spend time looking for a notebook to write the ideas down.

- Phone numbers. In cases such as losing my phone, to call my relatives, friends.

- Information about people I met. Sometimes there were a lot of people I met in a day/week at university. I wanted to remember their names, some general info. The problem with names is they may repeat. One may use an image of a known person with this name and add a few more images to describe the person better. E.g. a place where you've met, hair color, a hobby, other peculiarities.

- First medical aid.

- Books' summaries.

Rather fun to store than useful in real-world situations:

- Bus numbers and their schedule. Also, a schedule for a local airport and railway station. E.g. where this man with luggage is going to? It's winter, yet he wears a Panama hat. Let me check the possible routes...It was fun to guess. p.s. I didn't haunt people.

- Birthday dates.

- Other random information, e.g. historical dates.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#16
post #10

I've trained my memory over the last ~5 years. I became fascinated with oral cultures. How could they transmit enough knowledge to survive and basically confer PhD level knowledge of survival without books? How could they remember it all? How does your experience of the world change when every place you find yourself is (mentally) chock full of (your most prized) memories? I also wanted to get more out of reading. I…

Do you use the same memory palace for different "groups" of things to remember? If so, do you ever get items confused because they are at the same location in the palace?

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#18
post #16
post #10

I've trained my memory over the last ~5 years. I became fascinated with oral cultures. How could they transmit enough knowledge to survive and basically confer PhD level knowledge of survival without books? How could they remember it all? How does your experience of the world change when every place you find yourself is (mentally) chock full of (your most prized) memories? I also wanted to get more out of reading. I…

Do you use the same memory palace for different "groups" of things to remember? If so, do you ever get items confused because they are at the same location in the palace?

I've tried both approaches. Some palaces are one topic only. Others have been reused >5 times. With the reused palaces, with intention you can sequential recall just that topic. It's the same as having a party at your house. You don't confuse what happened at the party versus what happened when you were just cleaning your flat.

With "random access" memory within a multi-use palaces, then, there is a little mixing. Sometimes you are thinking about a topic, the mind "goes" to the appropriate palace and then you recall maybe all the various unrelated topics, but your mind focuses on what matters. In the mixing, topics take a mythological feeling because the characters within them are involved in so many stories. Like fables or comic books.

Augustine of Hippo (later Saint Augustine) from 354 AD:

And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of my memory, where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses. … When I enter there, I require what I will to be brought forth, and something instantly comes; others must be longer sought after, which are fetched, as it were, out of some inner receptacle; others rush out in troops, and while one thing is desired and required, they start forth, as who should say, “Is it perchance I?” These I drive away with the hand of my heart, from the face of my remembrance; until what I wish for be unveiled, and appear in sight, out of its secret place. Other things come up readily, in unbroken order, as they are called for; those in front making way for the following; and as they make way, they are hidden from sight, ready to come when I will. All which takes place when I repeat a thing by heart.

Re: An ultimate guide to memory palaces

#20
post #10

I've trained my memory over the last ~5 years. I became fascinated with oral cultures. How could they transmit enough knowledge to survive and basically confer PhD level knowledge of survival without books? How could they remember it all? How does your experience of the world change when every place you find yourself is (mentally) chock full of (your most prized) memories? I also wanted to get more out of reading. I…

so many questions :)

> So I memorized books. Convert a book into 100-250 bullet points, memorize them in a memory palace

do you have one palace per book? Many bullet points per location? Very big memory palaces?

do you memorise as you read, or do you take notes and learn those?

any guides that you found particularly useful?

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