Although I’d love to have one, a memory palace has never worked for me for the simple reason that I struggle to recall the order of even real-world spaces. I’ve lived in the same town my whole life (a town with only one road going down the middle of it) and yet I couldn’t tell you in what order you’d find things along the road. I simply cannot close my eyes and see them happening in sequence. I do have a poor memory in general, but remembering objects on a path and their relative distance is one of my worst facilities.
So the idea of walking a set path in an imagined space and recalling the arrangement of furniture, doors, and so on, is as daunting as it is difficult for me. My theory is that I have a degree of time-blindness due to my ADHD and the part of my mind responsible for tracking time is the same as the part responsible for tracking motion along a path.
Are there other methods with similar impact as the Loci Method that don’t require this sort of natural ability to visualize relative placement and distance of objects? Something I’m pretty good at memorizing is melody when played on an instrument, if that helps. Also, does anyone else have this problem?
Interesting. I hadn’t considered using my own body as a map. I’m not sure how I’d connect concepts to music, it usually only works the other way around (music evokes images) but I can certainly try. Thanks!
Your post doesn’t make sense in that you say it’s “never worked for me” but then talk about the “idea of” it. Which is it? Have you actually tried it? It doesn’t sound like it.
Don’t abandon the best method before you really make an effort.
At worst you can physically walk a route (Lynne Kelly does this) so you don’t have to remember it. But you probably don’t get lost inside your house or in your neighborhood.
I encourage you to explore this more deeply. It’s worth it.
There are plenty of people here that will help you if you make an effort.
I’ve tried a handful of times, but I’ve never been able to progress past a single session. Either the palace disappears completely before I retrieve it, or I can’t even build the space and keep it consistent in the first place.
I’m terrible at sequential/ordered/time-based logic, and I have trouble with “What’s the next item in this list?” On the contrary, my gestalt/spatial/whole-picture abilities are far stronger, and I can answer “Where in the list is this item?”
My solution has involved creating memory palaces that are circular, ending near where they start. A circle to me is easier to memorize in its entirety than a line, because it feels more compact and easier to visualize. For instance, when I use a room of my house, I will make sure that my last locus is next to the door, which is locus 1. This way, I can think of absolute location, rather than relative location, as in: “Where in the circle is this locus?”
I’ve also experimented with using music as a memory palace. For me, different parts of a sonata or melody convey different emotions, from which I can draw some form of image or place (which you also have the ability to do). Then, I can arrange these images in the order in which they were played in the piece, forming a musical memory palace whose images are based on the music. The advantage is that the loci are more emotional, making them easier to remember. The disadvantage is that the loci do not manifest in real life, making them harder to remember.
Ultimately we can’t bypass the concept of a memory palace itself, but we can make it less demanding on the “linear” side by finding ways to have a memory palace play to our strengths.
This is interesting. My favourite memory palaces are outdoor (street, parcs or gardens), I get lost if I do straight lines, the more twists and turns I take the better.
I used to be convinced street memory palaces were impossible for me. Now I like them better than memory palaces indoors.
I’m forever grateful to Lynne Kelly who advised me to place things on corners and turns instead of following lines. Such a simple thing, but huge results.
Some of your description suggests that the associations may need as much work as any kind of loci-based strategy. You shouldn’t have to memorize “objects” at all, but rather you can draw upon highly dynamic figures that are already in your memory.
That way, they basically leap out at you and hand you the target information without you having to do much more than ask them to perform as if you are a stage director.
And in terms of that stage, I’d humbly suggest not giving up on ye olde method of loci just yet.
If you use a room you have access to and simply touch the walls and walk in a square, one of the simplest Memory Palace configurations is simply the walls and the corners. And by touching the walls, it doesn’t require imagination to get started. You’re actually physically navigating the journey.
Many students have done this in order to usher themselves through obstacles and get going with the technique, which can be quite challenging for some in the beginning.
But just as you can use your body as a linear line, you can place your body in rooms and use walls to physically follow linear lines.
Although it’s not exactly the same instruction, Peter of Ravenna advises something similar in The Phoenix and it has worked wonders for many people ever since.
I think I might benefit from this circular construction! I will give it a try. Thank you for the suggestion! I hadn’t really thought about it before but I think i have the same predilection.
The music one is tough for me because although I have a very strong connection to music, it is, as you said, a more abstract experience and harder to map onto a concretized imagination where things can be seen “in the round” so to speak.
This is helpful, actually, because I think I’m similar to Rongorongo and yourself in the sense that a more circuit-like space like a forest path is easier to imagine than, say, a modular space like a house if that makes sense. I do think the corners and turns makes sense too.
If you cannot quickly access images from a memory palace, many other things you access that follow a linear sequence can serve as cues to remember things.Examples:1 - numbers from 1 to 100, provided you have created an image for each number as you can look up on this site;2 - a wide variety of lists: the names of Snow White’s 7 dwarfs for a palace with 7 locations, a list of people you have kissed in order, a list of months for a palace with 12 locations, a list of days of the week for a palace with 7 locations, etc., a list of musical notes;3 - if you know a song by heart, each verse is a link to remember something.Instead of trying to use locations, look at what you already naturally know by heart and transform that into a memory palace
Interesting- I really like the idea of using something with a fixed number (months, say) to memorize something of an equal number. It feels less open ended. Thank you!
“Memory Craft” is my recommendation by Kelly. I’m sure it will be helpful.
Memory palaces take a little labor–every memory process does. But once you have it in your grip, it becomes much easier. It makes no difference that you live in a small town: You’ve been in your own home, that of your grandparents or other family members, to the dentist’s office, school(s), libraries, movie theaters, hardware stores. The list goes on.
When you enter a building–any building–move clockwise from place to place. Unless you have a disability (some do, no shame in that), you are capable of citing the location, in order, of the hallway, bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen, et al. And even if you only have a single room, within it is a chair, a table, a lamp, a TV, the curtains, a window, a dog-dish, and so on in clockwise rotation. And you cite them a second time they will still be in the same place.. Just move clockwise and name them.
When using them as loci, whether rooms or objects within a room, you will assign them one at a time, like the rest of us. It may take more than an hour to get the hang of it, and three days to be fully comfortable with it.
Nobody learns to play the banjo the first time they pick it up!
