How to Improve Memory Using Memory Palace Technique
Every student desires to have a strong memory. The ability to memorize things well can come in handy for various situations, but one major benefit that will help you academically is being able to ace tests and contests. What are some ways to sharpen your memory for this purpose?
As long as there is no brain damage or cell deterioration, humans typically have excellent memories and exceptional memory retention. Still, some people are quite good at the memory game, either from genetics or different memory strategies they picked up as they grew older.
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Why should you want a better memory?
Possessing a recall that surpasses that of a normal person could lead to a plethora of academic opportunities. As a student, you might do better on tests and be able to provide the correct responses when your instructor or professor calls you on something. Additionally, you would be able to recall facts with ease in any dispute, giving you the advantage. From an academic perspective, it is impossible to overlook the advantages of having a stronger memory.
What is a memory palace?
The memory palace is one of the most well-known methods for enhancing memory. An approach that people have employed ever before the Roman Empire was still thriving. The memory palace method makes use of the fact that people tend to remember and recall locations that they are familiar with more easily.
This method takes advantage of that ability by linking certain subjects you must learn to the items, traits, and distinctions present in that location. A memory palace doesn’t have to be a palace; it can also be your home, the home of your closest friend, your favorite shop, or the route you always travel to get home.
What are some feats of using the memory palace technique?
Have you ever watched Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes television series? To help him solve the current crime he is working on; Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes frequently stores information and fragments of evidence in his mind using the memory palace approach. Yes, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, which somewhat negates the claim, but there are actual instances of people using the memory palace approach to achieve amazing memory feats.
For instance, Dominic O’Brien, the eight-time World Memory Champion, has memorized a random sequence of 54 packs of 52 cards (for a grand total of 2808) after looking at each of the cards once. This happened in May 2002 as he executed an entry to the Guinness Book of Records, with him only committing 8 mistakes the entire time, four of those errors were immediately corrected by him as soon as he was made aware of his errors.
Another outstanding feat of memory that was showcased to the world was by Ramón Campayo, who claimed to have learned the German language within 1 hour and 40 minutes. The story goes that as he was on a plane ride to the World Championship of Memorization in 2003, he thought it would be nice to give his speeches in the attendees’ native language, so he popped out a book and learned the German language within an hour and forty minutes.
How to learn using the memory palace technique?
Now that you know the benefits and achievements of the memory palace technique (or a variant derived from it), you may like to pick up the technique yourself. To help you begin using the memory palace technique, we have outlined the five most typical steps.
1. Choose your palace
Selecting the appropriate “palace” for yourself is the ideal method to begin learning the memory palace technique. Any location will do as long as you are familiar with it and can clearly recall every aspect. The first place you can choose is your own home, your favorite store, the street where your home is located, or, if you’d like, your grandparents’ home. Just go with the one you truly know well to avoid any trouble in the next steps.
This is a crucial phase since the location you select will serve as the base for your memory palace, which you will subsequently embellish with themes and recollections. You will likely struggle to arrange the concepts and subjects you put in them and might even forget them later if you don’t select the location that you are most comfortable with. To build a robust and efficient memory palace, one must first establish a solid and trustworthy foundation.
You can always utilize more than one memory palace, so don’t worry if you know a lot of familiar locations. You can use several locations to keep track of a number of linked subjects and information that you will discover later on.
2. Imprint the palace in your mind
Making a mental image of your palace is the next thing on the list. Make every effort to retain as much information as you can about your palace. It may come in handy later on in the list. You can achieve this by trying your best to mentally replicate the location as you picture yourself strolling about the palace of your choice. To create a more exact palace, try to mentally recreate every feature of the original location you have selected.
You reduce the likelihood that you will forget the base of your memory palace by making it ingrained in your mind. This should not be too hard of a step because humans are generally adept at remembering familiar places. This is a psychological evolutionary quality that helped our ancestors survive by improving their ability to navigate their environment.
3. List down distinct features of your palace
Following some consideration of where you would like to construct your memory palace, you might make a list of the location’s standout characteristics. The hue of the walls, the indoor plants in the corner, the couch you sit on every day, or the snack rack you frequently visit can all serve as starting points. As long as it is a feature of the location you are familiar with, any information can help you prepare for the next step in this list.
4. Associate topics with the features of the palace
The deciding stage for your memory palace will come next. If you follow this stage correctly, you should experience an improvement in your memory and memory retention; if you don’t, you’ll end up with more confusion than when you first started building your own memory palace. You must practice associating your recently acquired knowledge with the objects or distinguishing characteristics in your memory palace to complete this phase. For example, you now know that the crystalline lattices of the naturally occurring minerals that make up glass, such as sand and limestone, may be heated to extremely high temperatures. You just so happened to have a picture frame of the beach pasted in the wall of your palace (which is really convenient) so you associate the glass keeping the photo from falling off of the frame with the sand in the photo and voila! You have successfully associated that the glass in your picture frame came from the sand found in the photo inside of the frame.
While there is a learning curve for this phase, once you get the hang of it, you can link almost everything in your home to most of the knowledge you have acquired and wish to save in your memory bank. You can keep anything in your memory palace, including historical dates, mathematical sequences, and interesting random information you’ve read online, as long as you’ve connected them to the unique elements of your palace.
5. Recall your palace
The final stage in building your own memory palace is to visualize yourself exploring your palace and retrieving the bits of information you have stored there. You should begin to recall what you saved in each unique object or feature that you come across in your castle. You may be able to recover all of the information you stored or just a portion of it. As long as you have the memory of what you stored there, it doesn’t matter if you can just recall a portion of what you recorded in that object or distinguishing feature. By doing this, you will train your brain to become accustomed to the memory palace technique and improve your understanding of the subjects you were unable to correlate correctly.
You can try to better associate the information you have saved with the things in your memory palace, or you can move the information to other palaces where you will find better objects to associate it with if you are missing some information or are having problems recalling it when using your memory palace. Do this repeatedly until you have fully mastered the art of the memory palace and you will surely see a significant improvement in your memory and memory retention.
Conclusion
Enhancing memory recall and retention can be done powerfully and effectively with the Memory Palace technique. People may greatly increase their recall of intricate and detailed knowledge by using well-known places to generate vivid mental associations with new information. This method has been used by memory champions and portrayed in popular culture, proving that it can do amazing memory feats. Anyone can use the Memory Palace to improve their academic performance, remember key information, and obtain an advantage in a variety of intellectual endeavors with practice and the methodical technique described.
Carelle
Carelle is a teacher who has been through the ups and downs of the teacher and learner life. She wishes for every learner to gain educational satisfaction that will help embody the people they want to be in the future.
