The Ancient Memory Palace
Annabelle Poer
Why Memeory Palace?
Mind-Attic
Taj Mahal
Hannibal Lecter
What is Memory Palace?
Memory Palace is a memorization technique used by associating common items in your everyday life, like the furniture in your home, to new words/phrases/information/etc. that you may be studying. For example, say the first word you needed to learn for a project in school or work was dog. You would go through your house numbering your bug pieces of furniture clockwise through the room; say that the first piece of furniture you numbered off was a couch. Since number one piece of furniture corresponds with the number one word you need to remember, Dog, you will imagine a dog sitting on, tearing up, sniffing, doing anything with the couch. Now when you get to number one on a test, you will see the number, think of your couch, associate it with a dog, and you've got it.
This mnemonic system works it involves activation of regions of the brain involved in spatial awareness, such as the medial parietal cortex, retrosplenial cortex, and the right posterior hippocampus. In using physical locations, you are automatically putting your words into pictures by association.
Memory Palace is often referred to as the "method of Loci", referring to it's use since ancient times. Scholars and memorization champions around the globe have used this technique to memorize thousands of cards of deck with a single glance at each of them. For instance, Joshua Foer. He wrote a best-selling book, Moonwalking with Einstein, in which he uses the method on route to becoming a memory champion.
Works Cited:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-memory-palace-SuperStruct-Instruc/
Email: Poera@go.lisd.net
Website: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-memory-palace-SuperStruct-Instruc/
Location: Marcus High School, Morriss Road, Flower Mound, TX, United States
Twitter: @PoerAnnabelle