Problem 1: Guys, I use the memory palace technique a lot, but I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Sometimes I can recall the imagination (image) I created and remember where I placed my words in the memory palace, but I can’t remember the exact word. I can recall the image, but I can’t decode what it was supposed to mean.
Problem 2: Sometimes I can’t even recall the image I created. For example:
Q: What is the capital of Spain? A: Madrid
When I see this question, I can’t remember the image I made. It’s like I completely forgot it. I know this is an easy question, but it’s just an example. I experience this problem much more often with biology.
Problem 3: Even worse, sometimes I use spaced repetition and review on days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 30. But after another 2–3 weeks, I start to forget parts of the definition or the answer to the question. I can still remember some of it, but I can’t fully recall the information.
I typically refresh my palaces every three months. The spaced repetition schedule once the palace is ‘finished’ looks like this:
Immediately after encoding (as the palace is being built)
Later that day
Next day
3rd day
1 week
2 weeks
1 month
then every 3 months for long term.
I used a dedicated google calendar with auto alerts set up for this.
For countries of the world, you will need to have very strong imagery which you must ‘animate’ - create moving scenes not static pictures. Embellish, exaggerate and add senses and ambience.
E.g. Monrovia is the capital of Liberia. I remember this with a cute little ‘Moon Rover’ driving around the loci and it’s got a small conveyor belt to ‘lie beers here’ as it drives round.
For your example, I’m not trying to picture Madrid as a place, it’s a ‘mad druid’ (that said Spain is represented by a Matador in my palace - but I know spain very well). I’d try to use syllabic triggers where possible, like the ‘Mad’ of Madrid and ‘Lie’ of Liberia.
Last tip, don’t recall the actual data when reviewing, just keep reviewing the mnemonic imagery. The core components of the scene will stick eventually. Recalling the data from the scene is a cinch once it has.