Hi,
I would like to ask you for tips how to improve my visualizations.
I have been using mnemonics for couple of years and they are an amazing help in daily life. I have created PAO system and use many types of peg lists for memorizations and I also use memory palaces in daily life.
But I struggle with making my visualizations stick in memory palaces quickly for later review. Here is a situation I wanted to memorize new information.
We went to a technical museum yesterday and I wanted to remember some interesting facts. We entered section with astronomy. I wanted to store my visualizations at every room we would enter. At first I memorized the room plan of the section which would help me with memorization of the memory palace. This part sticks good enough.
Then at each room I created vivid visualizations using couple of senses e.g.: Galileo Galilei riding on a smelly pig which would stumble and Galileo would fall in a corner of the room. This is how I would represent his birth 1564.
The problem is almost non of my visualizations sticked enough for me to remember it when we left the museum couple hours later.
Do you have any tips how to improve my techniques?
Hm, I do not know how often you review your Visual Images you have created. It is rare I am able to make a Visual Image/ Scene that sticks for several hours / Day ( or similar with remembering a persons name) With only 1 Review and little Focus time while Creating the Visual Image.
There is the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. I have heard when learning new information several Reviews are needed if you want to store it for longer periods of time. There has been various statements on how frequent. But have you tried after you Created the Visual Images, to Immediately review, then 30 minutes later, then about a few hours next time and add additional one even later than that? I might be wrong, but I do think having more Frequent reviews Maybe could help this out.
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Hi NiklasMoonsun, thank you for your answer. 
Yes, I am aware of my forgetting curve and I also know I need to review in spaced intervals. I use it extensively.
In the museum I did immediate review after forming 5 images but I did not have time to review them for another couple of hours.
It feels like making images to stick is more difficult in new places. For example, yesterday during work meeting I managed to create visualisations which I remembered couple hours later. Few things were different compared to the museum:
- I was in a room I knew well
- I had more time to make images stick
- I reviewed images while adding new ones (not only after all of them)
But the process is too costly while trying to remember more in short time.
What I want to achieve is to extend the interval between first reviews and make creating memorable images faster.
What else would you do to improve it when you do not have much time for making images and review?
One of the things that helped me recall my images better was making sure they’re interacting with the location clearly and not just placed at the spot. So, if I had an image placed at, let’s say, the refrigerator, then it’s getting slammed by the fridge door—not just placed there in front of it. It’s a small change but it made a big difference.
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Good point. I will incorporate it in my visualization.