M NEMONICS
T HE M ETHOD OF L OCI
What if you could memorize a 50-paragraph article today and
six months later recall every paragraph that had been read?
You can. But the issue is: how do you master your memory to
this amazing level? It is by using the method of loci (also
known as memory palace). This method involves forming
pictures between specific locations and items to be
remembered. Loci is a Latin word for ‘places’. According to a
recent research article by Kroneisen and Makerud: ‘The
method of loci is an old mnemonic strategy used to enhance
serial recall. This method encompasses navigating mentally
through a familiar environment and placing the to-be-
remembered items in specific locations. In the later recall
phase, the participant re-imagines walking through the
environment, “looking” for the to-be-remembered items.’1
The method of loci is a method of memorizing information
which utilizes visualizations with the use of spatial memory,
familiar information about one's environment, to quickly
recall information.
The method of loci is also known as the memory palace,
memory journey, or mind palace technique. Research has
shown that the method of loci is an effective tool for
1 Kroneisen, M., & Makerud, S. E. (2017). The effects of item material on
encoding strategies: Survival processing compared to the method of
loci. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(9), 1824-1836.
memorization.2 To use this strategy, familiarize yourself very
well with the various rooms in your house. Within the rooms
are items of furniture. Associate images representing the
information you want to remember with items of furniture in
the rooms. To recall information, simply take a tour around
the rooms in your mind, visualizing the furniture and their
associated images.
You can use other places to store other forms of information.
Don’t limit it to rooms in your house. Actually, you could use
your campus or your street, and populate it with memory
images.
Here’s how to begin:
Choose 5 rooms in your home. In each room, number 10 large
items. Number these items 1 to 50. The first item in the first
room is number 1. The first item in the second room is number
11. The first item in the third room is number 21, and so on.
Suppose your sitting room is the first room. Number 10 items
the way they flow around the room:
Settee, TV, Video, Stereo system, CD rack, Telephone, Table,
Lamp, Bookcase, AC unit.
Now, open doors from your sitting room into other rooms and
number the objects in them as well. When you have more
experiences, you may find that you can build extensions to
2Huttner, J. P., & Susanne, R. B. (2017). An Immersive Memory Palace:
Supporting the Method of Loci with Virtual Reality, AMCIS2017, Human-
Computer Interaction (SIGHCI), 20.
your rooms in your imagination, and fill them with objects
that would logically be there.
Once you have permanently memorized the locations, you
can then use them to recode information for later recall. You
can use this to remember any set of information, such as
points in a chapter. The best strategy is to convert each
paragraph in a chapter into a vivid mental image and imagine
it interacting with a particular item of furniture.
You may, as a simple example, want to remember a 50-
paragraph exposition of constitutional development in
Nigeria. It is on record that until now, eight constitutions have
been operated in Nigeria. It began with the Sir Frederick
Lugard’s Amalgamation Report of the 1914. Thereafter, there
were the Sir Clifford Constitution (1922), Sir Arthur Richards
Constitution (1946), Sir John Macpherson Constitution (1951),
Oliver Littleton’s Constitution (1954), and so on.
Now, this is where it gets fun. Take each of these constitutions
and place them mentally around your furniture in
chronological order. Imagine them interacting with this
furniture in detail. Now, whenever you wish to remember the
whole chapter, you simply mentally walk through your
house, and imagine yourself looking at each piece of furniture,
and its corresponding constitution. For example, as you open
the door to the sitting room, Sir Frederick Lugard is reclining
on the settee reading the Amalgamation Report, Sir Clifford is
on the TV discussing the 1922 Constitution and, next to the
TV, on the wall is a picture of Sir Arthur Richards writing the
1946 constitution. The more details you could add to the
image, the more rememberable it would be. The sillier, the
better.
The furniture serves as cues for the desired information. In
fact, the amount of information one can remember using this
method is limited only by the number of furniture one has
memorized.
I know you may feel that this technique is bizarre, yet with a
little practice, it can work wonders. So, if your desire to
outshine other students and grab that first class is immense,
embrace this method with all your energy.
The above nuggets are extracted from the book: The
Firstclass You. For more, you can download the book
at:
[Link]
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