i don’t know if there was such topic earlier, but through Google search i didn’t find anything (if there is, please, redirect me).
Do you know any efficient method to remember the map of your city? I am pretty frustrated, because i don’t remember the names of the streets and also my spatial orientation is not in the best shape and i want to change it. In O’Brien How to develop perfect memory i couldn’t find anything either.
Should i try to pretend that my city is a big memory palace and gradually try to visualize in my mind the main streets and than smaller ones, trying to go from one point to another as it is in real life or do this mental walks as it is on the plan of the city, just 2D? Names of the streets shouldn’t be that hard, just simple associations should do the trick (in the street i will put sth that will remind me of the streets name) if I do this in 3D in 2D it can be trickier…
I think the best method is to travel a lot in your city, whether by walking through it, driving, taking a cab, etc. After time you’ll be able to walk/drive/ride through it in your mind without any trouble, at least on the streets that you travel on a lot. I can’t navigate my entire town (and nearby city), but I can do the routes that I travel frequently easily. My town is pretty small, so I can navigate almost my entire town, but not the large subdivision/neighborhood (it’s VERY large and I rarely drive or run through it), but I can travel to both “shopping centers” (quotes because they’re really small and not really shopping centers), and to my karate dojo, as well as visualize the layout of the restaurants and stores that I go into somewhat often.
As for the city that is near my town, I can visualize the path I take to drive there, where my church is, where some of the shopping centers are, and where some restaurants that I frequently go to are.
I think the best method is just to travel through it and pay attention, not to “memorize” a map.
I agree. I think remembering places is one of the fundamental things that our brain has learned during our species’ struggle for survival, and I strongly doubt there is a better memory technique for remembering places than actually walking through the places you want to remember.
After many - scarcely intellectual, I admit - gaming experiences with GTA, I noticed that I continuously forgot the geography of the places in the game, or retained a very basic and fuzzy memory of them, although I wandered there repeatedly. That’s why most videogames with an open world structure feature a map which is either always on screen or very well visible, I guess, Therefore, as far as I have experienced, virtual walks are going to be more a hindrance than a help.
I suggest you just get out and explore. I guess it’s kind of healthy, too, unless you live in Delhi or Beijing.
A cool feat you could perform, though, is using the places you walk through as pegs in order to remember the name of every street. Could get you a taxi driver licence in London in no time
If you want to use the city as a memory palace, my suggestion is first walk, then go through the whole walk in your mind when you get back home. Your memory of a street will probably be something like bulding rubbisha particular park/building/shopmore building rubbisha nice cornerindefinite park thingmore building rubbish. You may feel the urge to increase the number of loci by using arbirary locations such as “beginning of the street”, “middle of the street”, both sidewalks and so on. If you want it to stick well, don’t. Just use the places that your brain has naturally picked up to orient itself and your loci will be unforgettable. The more you walk a street, the more loci you will be able to grab. But don’t try being “artificial”, follow what your brain naturally dictates.
I will stick to going through my city in real life and then try to visualize it when i am back at home, maybe with the little help of googlemaps and than use the builings and other stuff as pegs and connect it to street names. I live in Warsaw, 2 mln people and quite a big city, so i start small with familiar places and see how it goes from there. I will post my results in a month or so. Thanks for your feedback;)
