Erasing/Reusing memory palace

General Memory Chat
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how to erase the word-list stored in particular memory palace , so that it can be reused efficiently ?

Is it possible to use a memory palace as a quick notepad, over and over?
Pegs or palaces can't be used for bridge. Discuss. [20 marks]
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Not to be flip, but make another palace and use it for awhile.

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Please do what Dale said. Prepare for Yourself 2-3 journeys and rotate between them. Monday- palace 1st. Tuesday palace 2nd etc…

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You’re probably already pretty good at forgetting things, use that natural skill.

I found that doing anything to actively try to erase images just strengthened them as I checked to see if the memory was still there!

So another vote from me for the multiple journey theory.

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I’d suggest that you try to develop a series of different journeys and rotate their use. I don’t use one a day, but several different ones. That said, I have two “go-to” journeys. My mother’s house and my old sixth form college.

Other than that I have walks around Chiswick, Soho, Laleham, London Tourist attractions and more.

If you know an area well then pick out the attractions, like so, and then make a journey between them. Looking at that list of 10, I could probably put in a journey of 50 loci or more as I link the walk with other interesting places (the Cenotaph nr Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade, Admiralty Arch, Statue of King Charles II, the four plinths at Trafalgar Square etc etc).

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Personally i just imagine the place without the object, you just have to focus on the loci and sometimes i imagine a white ball and try to place it a each loci. i don’t know why but it work.

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Hi,

I am having a similar issue that I havent seen covered anywhere.

I now have something like 12 journeys/palaces to remember things like 100 writers, Kings & Queens, Prime Ministers etc. but now I would quite like to use these journeys again, for obvious reasons.

And everyone says that eventually you just ‘know’ the information, so you don’t need the journey anyway.

BUT…

I think I do need the journeys for my recall.

For example, one of my oldest is chemical elements and their atomic numbers, that I have located around my old university. But when I go for recall, my mind automatically goes to the location.

Similarly, I dont see how I could ever remember the sequence of kings and queens in order without my journey.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

Gavino

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This is a sign that you don’t “just know” the information yet.

However you don’t need to let this stop you reusing the journeys.

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The thing is Geoff, I am starting to doubt if I ever will “just know” it, because my recall is solely based on the journey.

So, for example, I have revised these journies and the information many times, but the only thing I see going into working long term memory to retain the sequence is the journey. Sure I can remember Queen Victoria 1837, but without my journey I could not recall that the next monarch was then Edward VII in 1901 or the previous one William IV in 1830.

Perhaps it is the sequence of things that takes a longer time to stick without the journey.

Any more thoughts anyone?

Gavino

P.S. Geoff, please could you expand on the point about still being able to reuse the journies?

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The sequence isn’t going to stick without having something to hang it on. At the moment that’s your journey.
If you want to remember the order without using the journey you need to put in some kind of other linking method.
Remembering start AND end dates might be useful here. eg: Who were the monarchs in 1837: William IV and Victoria I. Victoria I died in 1901, who started in 1901?

As for reusing journeys:

You have your journey in which you remember monarchs. You are familiar with this journey, and probably also the things that are currently there which represent the monarchs. If you want to use the journey for something else, just add new things at each locus.

Say you wanted to also learn historic spaceflight dates:
In your hallway, along with Queen Victoria and whatever 1837 is for you, you’d add Neil Armstrong and 1969.
Because when you’re recalling you know if you’re trying to recall monarchs or spaceflights, working out which is the right thing is fairly easy.

I actually don’t even do the joining step, I just re-use the journey AS IF it was blank, and when I’m recalling the spaceflight information I just see the spaceflight objects.

Just try it and see.

Note that this doesn’t work for reusing short term journeys for things like speed cards. For that you actually need multiple separate journeys. (Although you can mix in long term journeys if you know them well enough not to get distracted by any objects that are already there.)

Hopefully I’ve not made all that too complicated. It’s simpler than it sounds.

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Hi Geoff,

Thanks that raises some interesting points. I have always thought you would probably get interference and crowding from an additional set of images, but it is definitely worth a try if it works for you.

Actually with outdoor journies I have also considered introducing different layers, like floors of a building, so would start with a journey in the air over the main one and also one beneath (in the sewers!).

Another thought was to colour code, but my first attempt at that didnt work out well…

Gavino

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Another way to do it, is to use an ‘anchor’.

For kings and queens, in each location there is a throne, and whatever is placed on the throne then becomes the cue to whoever the king and queen is.

So when you are reusing the journey for your spaceflights, you can safely ignore the throne and it’s contents and just use a rocket as the anchor instead.

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One thing that works for me is after I have just used the journey, I see each traverse the journey and see each point empty. If I can still recall my images I might do what I previously said a few times or I might just blow the point up with dynamite. It really works for me.

Just and idea I guess.

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Thanks for your thoughts. It is more that I don’t want to delete the images rather than thinking I would not be able to. So I want to reuse the journies for new images without deleting the existing ones.

Actually another idea I had that I will be trying is to change a journey by covering it in snow. I hope then it will be different enough.

Gavino

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Quick update: based on the above and thanks to some comments on other threads, I have successfully trialled the following.

  1. Take a journey I already use for some long term information. In this case the floor space of the office where I work that has 10 loci and holds my outline to-do list.

  2. Imagine two new ‘floors’ with an identical layout and the same 10 loci, but one floor is a snow covered wilderness and the other a fiery pre-historic kind of place.

  3. Use the other floors for two completely different data sets, in this case, a ten stop tube journey and some sports information.

  4. The result has been very successful, meaning I am now confident of doing this with some of my longer journies.

If you need to easily multiply your palaces and journies, give it a try!

Gavino

P.S. it sounds a little odd, but using the journey method to memorise tube stops is a real godsend. Whenever the current station is called I can immediately gauge where I am on the journey and how soon my stop is coming. Really handy if you are reading and/or your view of the tube map is blocked on a packed train. A great stress reducer!

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Gavino - did you have to spend long building up and visualising the mental images of the journey’s you have with their altered environment? Or did you pretty much start using them, and when you placed your items to remember, you visualised them in that environment? Thanks

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Hi Suncover,

Basically the latter. I very quickly imagined the new environment on the journey as a whole a few times. Then I made sure I had my new data images interacting with the environment as welll. So my image for the station Wood Lane has a snow covered lumberjack chopping down a tree in the office. Goldhalk Road is a large stature of a gold hawk (wow!) blocking a doorway, but I can see that the metal is glistening with ice and imagine the cold as I touch it.

Gavino

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Excellent - makes sense Gavino! Thanks for letting me know!

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I experimented with this a few months ago but there was too much interference for me and I gave up trying to make it work. Might give it another shot though and see if I can really visual the environment better. Perhaps walking up to the next floor might be helpful too.

As far as the OP’s question goes I don’t really know, but I do know that using the same journey multiple times in one day for speed-numbers causes a lot of problems so I don’t recommend it. Better find a way to clean it or use multiple journeys.

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Probably worth highlighting one point and including a second:

  1. I think it helpful that I used very different data sets as that helps to differentiate between the floors as well as the different physical characteristics.

  2. I should mention that I tried to learn two floors, one immediately after the other on the same day, and then I did get huge interference and my brain was distinctly stressed by the attempt. So let each floor and data set solidify for a while before adding a new one. I now have 4 floors and all working fine.

Since I only memorise for the long term and don’t do cards etc. I think this is a useful method, but, for the reasons mentioned above, it would probably not be appropriate for multiple speedy memorisations of cards or anything else.

Gavino