Method of loci

[BlueScreen]

I read an interesting article from the New York Times a few days ago on memory championships and learning to have superior memory capabilities. Part of it was the method of loci which is an ancient technique they used before they had such reliable memory aids as we have today.

I did a few little trials today and my first impressions were pretty positive. It is actually quite impressive how clearly you can remember things if you put them in the right form. Has anyone here had extended experience playing with this, or know any good practice or games to get good at it. I figure it would be a cool party trick to be able to memorise packs of cards and other things... not to mention useful in more practical senses .

 

[Poki]

I did something similiar where you would place objects on top of each other and visual the interactions. Like say you have a grocery list you stack the objects and visually picture them balancing on top of each other. The more you tie the relationship of each object together the better your chances of remembering them are. Like say if you placed a fridge on an orange and you visualize the fridge balancing on the orange or visualize seeing a portions of a flattened orange sticking out from under the fridge. The exercises had about 30 items that you had to stack and remember.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I have used it a lot. It was very helpful in college.

Edit: the large print at the beginning of the article describes it perfectly. The funnier, weirder or more sexually charged the association, the easier it will be to remember.

 

[Poki]

I have used it a lot. It was very helpful in college.

Edit: the large print at the beginning of the article describes it perfectly. The funnier, weirder or more sexually charged the association, the easier it will be to remember.

I read the method of loci, not the NY times article. That sounds like shifting of concrete items and I cant figure out how to properly tie a 9 of clubs to "spittle". Is this an Si thing? I can tie concepts to other things that it doesnt properly belong, but not just swapping objects like this willy nilly.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I read the method of loci, not the NY times article. That sounds like shifting of concrete items and I cant figure out how to properly tie a 9 of clubs to "spittle". Is this an Si thing? I can tie concepts to other things that it doesnt properly belong, but not just swapping objects like this willy nilly.

Yeah, it's hard to see how the author made those associations, and it's more likely to stick if you make them yourself.
a playing card is pretty abstract, so you have to make associations to something easy to visualize. So for 9 of clubs, you light visualize a giant number 9 beating the crap out of a cat, or something (so beating = club, and you would relate that image to all cards that are clubs). Yes, it's rediculous, but that makes it stick. It takes practice, but you get better and better at it. I studied ancient Greek in college, and one semester I was supposed to memorize 65 lines of the Iliad, and be able to write it down. Well, master procrastinator that I am, I waited until the morning of the test, memorized the whole thing, and got the highest score. So I know it works.
You can memorize anything with these methods, and it's kinda fun too.

 

[Poki]

Yeah, it's hard to see how the author made those associations, and it's more likely to stick if you make them yourself.
a playing card is pretty abstract, so you have to make associations to something easy to visualize. So for 9 of clubs, you light visualize a giant number 9 beating the crap out of a cat, or something (so beating = club, and you would relate that image to all cards that are clubs). Yes, it's rediculous, but that makes it stick. It takes practice, but you get better and better at it. I studied ancient Greek in college, and one semester I was supposed to memorize 65 lines of the Iliad, and be able to write it down. Well, master procrastinator that I am, I waited until the morning of the test, memorized the whole thing, and got the highest score. So I know it works.
You can memorize anything with these methods, and it's kinda fun too.

That makes much more sense. I can picture a number 9 with arms and white gloves trying to fight because he is the biggest "single digit" number. or a number four charging a number 1 leaning over using the 2 upper points like bull horns.

 

[Stanton Moore]

That makes much more sense. I can picture a number 9 with arms and white gloves trying to fight because he is the biggest "single digit" number. or a number four charging a number 1 leaning over using the 2 upper points like bull horns.

Yeah, that's it! It just takes practice and you can remember anything in detail. Here's the book that where I learned this stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-C...=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298660964&sr=1-5