Memorial palace

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A memory palace (also thought palace or memory palace ) is a mnemonic . With it declarative knowledge can be learned.

The Gedächtnispalast makes use of the tradition of telling human cultures for learning processes . It is therefore based on storytelling . Users should be familiar with the loci / route method . A memory palace builds on this and uses other methods.

origin

The Gedächtnispalast technique has its origins in a structural development from the loci route method of the ancient Roman and Greek rhetoric schools (in the anonymously written Rhetorica ad Herennium , Ciceros De oratore , and Quintilians Institutio oratoria ). The aim is to connect key terms of a speech with certain places (loci method) and to memorize these places in a single route - to be mentally followed during the speech according to the argumentation structure (route method).

Marcus Tullius Cicero : De oratore liber.

A first substantive discussion of the memory palace technology can be found in the reports of the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci from the year 1596. He taught Chinese people how to build a memory palace for the official examination in the then German Empire. According to his own account, he had previously learned fifty thousand Chinese characters in preparation for his missionary work in the country.

Matteo Ricci (1552-1610)

The first scientific descriptions were made in The Art of Memory by Yates (1966) and by Luria in A Small Portrait of a Large Memory (1968). The popular scientific work Der Gedächtnis-Palast was recently published in German . Understand more, remember more, remember more by Rütten (2011).

Alexander Romanowitsch Lurija (1902–1977)

distribution

The spread of individual methods, which are combined in the Gedächtnispalast technique, is high among learners. For example, every top memory user uses one or the other variation of the loci-route method. However, such methods are more likely to be acquired autodidactically with the help of non-fiction or further training in seminars and are rarely part of primary and secondary education. In non-fiction, the Gedächtnispalast technique is often only scarce. On the one hand, this can be attributed to the greater complexity - as a result of the combination of many methods into one technique. On the other hand, the shortage is due to the poor everyday practicality of the technology. It should be noted:

“… That such books are often written by authors who take part in memory championships. […] What we certainly agree on is that sporting tournaments always represent an artificial situation. The fastest runner in the stadium doesn't have to be the fastest when it comes to escaping a burning house. Memory championships are about memorizing abstract information in a fixed order. In [everyday] one rarely has to learn abstract information. "

The Gedächtnispalast technology itself is not widely used because of this complexity and the high level of effort involved in mental visualization. In courses on “learning to learn”, the technology is taught as a metacognitive technique. It is used to code the core ideas of a topic. Two approaches are:

  1. The core ideas of a topic are linked to one another and the learner learns the (given) relationship between the ideas.
  2. The core ideas are thought through in detail and then the relationships are rearranged and then learned.

Structure and structure

The Gedächtnispalast method is used to store declarative knowledge and retrieve it from memory. It can be used to memorize sequences of digits (e.g. the decimal places of the number Pi ), pieces of text, historical data, vocabulary, etc. To this end, the Gedächtnispalast combines different mnemonic techniques , of which the loci route method is the most important. Every memory principle and every memory method can be used to build the Memorial Palace.

Type of learning material

As with the simpler Loci method, everything can be saved that can be formatted mnemonically, that is, everything that can be converted into images. For example, if someone were to visualize the Statue of Liberty for the abstract term “freedom” , that would be a good transformation. In the case of very abstract things, such as numbers or cards, these associations are created by means of a memory system based on an alphanumeric system, or by means of an arbitrary assignment. In such a decimal number, for example, a letter is first assigned to each digit and then a clearly visualizable image is generated from several digits. The most common system of this type is the major system. Rütten draws attention to the idea behind the structure of this technology:

“A memory palace is a metaphor for the representation of knowledge, just like the image of the knowledge network. Information is converted into imaginable things and arranged, structured and organized as such. This way, information can be remembered and retrieved much more easily. We not only remember the information, but also consciously store it in our memory, with what we keep, how and why ”.

Systematics

Specifically, this means: the palace is an image for the consciously learned factual knowledge. There are different rooms that already express the topic of knowledge: "Rooms, halls, corridors, rooms and chambers - in a memory palace these different places are the places where the information is stored as knowledge". In the palace there are different places or loci where the knowledge is stored. This could be a carpet, a vase or a chest of drawers, for example. It is very important to create lively and, if possible, emotional images. However, these are not meant to be bizarre. Information is often already expressed in the form of the palace. A room in which quotes from Feuerbach are stored can be crisscrossed with a stream of fire. This brook then serves both as a distinguishing feature to other rooms in the palace and as identification with the information. The learner notices through the brook that the quotes are from Feuerbach there. There are practically no limits to the size of the palace - and thus of the stored knowledge. In addition, the palace can be continuously expanded:

“The size of your memory palace depends on how much you want to remember. It should be the storage space for the many concepts that together make up a person's knowledge. Several hundred construction phases of all sizes and shapes are conceivable. The more there are, the better. Nobody has to build the whole complex at once.
Your building doesn't have to be a palace. Perhaps it is a lodge, a town hall, a temple or a monastery sanctuary, or a large government complex. Or maybe it is - a bit smaller - a reception hall, a pavilion or a studio ”.

In order to be able to use it sensibly, however, the knowledge that has been stored must be repeated continuously; to stay in the picture, so the palace must be visited regularly. The palace should be structured logically and clearly. Some experts recommend designing the individual floors in different colors in order to bring in an additional memory component in addition to the mere spatial feeling with the color, which makes the palace clearer and more diverse. In addition, the individual floors are better separated from each other.

construction

Rütten describes the construction process as follows:

  1. Plan room structure with the help of a survey on the nature of the information to be learned.
  2. Visualize space and link it to a topic.
  3. Provide space with individual loci that represent the respective information.
  4. Linking loci to a unique route.
  5. Store loci and route and train them to recall them through systematic repetition sequences.

Creating new rooms is particularly useful when there is a lot of material. They enable targeted finding via a (building network-like) structure and avoiding empty chambers.

Tools

At most, simple paper sketches can be used as aids. But they are not necessary. Many even believe that this only restricts imagination and creativity, processes that take place before the paper fixation. On the other hand, it creates a reminder on paper. This floor plan is the learning material and the source of knowledge. The drawing supports the spatial imagination.

Situatedness and narrative tradition

The memory palace makes use of the narrative tradition of telling human cultures for learning processes by mentally representing a situated corridor through a room and by discovering objects of association, and is thus based on storytelling. Something similar takes place in the mnemonics in the PVO system . It is important that the memorization takes place in a situational manner: At the same time, a learner uses his imagination for the most realistic possible loci ( imagination ), links the information with fixed places to suitable loci ( association ) and forms a coherent route ( location ) from the loci ( locations ) .

Variants and special forms

Language locations

The eight-time world memory champion Dominic O'Brien recommends storing vocabulary in language towns using the keyword method . The words are saved according to language gender in one of the districts.

Mental walk

During a mental walk, a list of facts is learned through association with specific landscape features of a familiar, real route. An example of this is memorizing a shopping list by mentally walking through its route. A route that is close to everyday life makes it possible to learn information, the validity of which is limited in time, without much effort. Nevertheless, it should be noted that multiple use of the same route can lead to interference.

Artistic perception

literature

  • The American writer Thomas Harris provides an example of this mnemonics for his character Dr. Hannibal Lecter presents by comparing Hannibal , the third part of his novel series, whose memorial palace with the size of the Topkapı palace. In several passages of the book, Lecter is described as mentally walking through his memory palace, with which he retrieves information or alleviates physical pain.
The fictional character Dr. Hannibal Lecter uses a memorial palace that is the same size as the Topkapı Palace .

Movie

  • The technique was depicted in the BBC series Sherlock in the episodes The Hounds of Baskerville , The Empty Coffin , In the Sign of the Three and His Last Oath , where Sherlock Holmes uses his memory palace to search for important facts and associations.
    The Sherlock Holmes played by Benedict Cumberbatch is also here again resident of a memorial palace.
  • Mnemonic technology is also used in several episodes of the television series The Mentalist by Patrick Jane, who helps colleagues and witnesses to recall details from memory, for example card games or the names of party guests.
  • In the Channel 4 series Mind Control , Derren Brown shows how he uses his memory palace to gain success in gambling blackjack .
  • In the series Sneaky Pete , "Pete" / Marius uses memory palaces to remember numbers.
  • In the Supergirl series , this technique is used several times by the character Brainy.

theatre

  • The director Annette Windlin staged in the play memory palace of Martina Clavadetscher in a disused factory in Emmen LU on five floors and in many scenes the memories of a family. Visitors can visit the 5000 m² memorial palace individually and without a chronological sequence.

literature

  • U. Bien: Easy. Everything. Notice. The perfect memory training. Ingenious memorization techniques. Plus DVD: The compact course to watch. Humboldt, Hannover 2011, ISBN 978-3-86-910482-9 .
  • J. Foer, U. Rahn-Huber: Keeping everything in mind: with easy brain jogging for memory mastery. With a foreword by Dr. Gunther Karsten. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-44-215738-9 .
  • Jonathan Spence : The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Penguin Books UK, London 1985.
  • Frances Yates : The Art of Memory. Random House, London 1992, ISBN 978-0712655453 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 120.
  2. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 115.
  3. ↑ Jonathan D. Spence: The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. 1985, pp. 1-23.
  4. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 97.
  5. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 99.
  6. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 124.
  7. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 125.
  8. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 124.
  9. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 83.
  10. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, pp. 60-137.
  11. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, pp. 131-134.
  12. ↑ Lukas Rütten: The memory palace. Understand more, retain more, remember more. 2011, p. 96.
  13. ↑ http://de.zamonien.wikia.com/wiki/Volzotan_Smeik#Auf_den_Wandernden_Teufelsfelsen
  14. ↑ Several chapters of the novel are actually titled as “mental paintings”.
  15. ↑ Contents of the play, Gedächtnispalast - 5000 m² theater in the Viscosistadt. Play website. Retrieved April 14, 2019.