Hello
Im new to memory palaces but i find them very cool. In the future i want to use it for things like memorizing poems verbatim and also maybe for language vocabulary.
So far ive been able to memorize a list of 40 random nouns using a memory palace of my house. But im curious how i am supposed to get better at using memory palaces. How am i supposed to practice?
I was thinking of just memorizing 40 random nouns again and again but im not sure how useful that will be. Any tips? Thanks in advance !
You’re supposed to get better at other skills, like codification or visualization. If you want to literally improve the use of your palaces, there are only two things I could recommend:
Keep memorizing stuff using them, so you get to know them better, and push yourself to do it faster;
if you’re going to use your palace regularly, create new ones. If you keep using the same, you may encounter ghosts (images that you had placed there from a previous memorization session popping up again in a new session and interfering). If you are using it to learn vocabulary, you may need to have a location for an element that you cannot replace any time soon.
Thanks for the advice! But could you explain what codification is if possible? Im not sure what you mean. Also by visualization you mean mnemonic Imagery right?
I mean, when you want to memorize something, you picture it (word list: banana - you imagine a banana; elephant - you imagine an elephant), but you cannot do that with abstract concepts unless you create a code that allows you to turn them into images. For example, numbers.
And yep. Keep practicing and pushing yourself and you’ll see that your ease to create and recall gets smoother with time.
Random nouns is great, but you can also practice a variety of parts of speech arranged in a variety of ways.
Categorization used to be much more common during the medieval and renaissance era of mnemonics, and is no less powerful now as a skill.
Poetry is incredibly powerful to memorize… I’ve recently been practicing with some of the most difficult verse I’ve ever come across. (I’ve recited a bit during recent interviews on my podcast and it’s always fun to watch people listening to these blisteringly difficult passages.)
It’s wild how the most difficult types of verse challenge (and thereby strengthens) both mind and memory!
Practicing with playing cards is also a great thing and will yield many benefits, especially if you premise your card system on the Major. You wind up using multiple techniques at the same time, creating a powerhouse effect that transfers to other content types.
Regular card practice also makes it easier to deal with repetition and near-repetition (or at least, so it seems to me).
Cards also provide a more likely means of practicing and getting used to ghosting issues presented by re-using Memory Palaces.
Beyond that, it’s useful to note the symbolic nature of the techniques. You can extend your range by practicing with all things alphabetical, numerical and symbol and realizing that they are all ultimately alphabetical in nature… or at least can be.
This is one of the most freeing realizations of them all because it reveals what is really going on, and helps make Memory Palaces out of every mnemonic, should you wish to use them that way…