"Memory Palace": description of a method for memorizing. Mnemonics “memory palace” - learn to reproduce information like geniuses What is the Memory Palace

Alexander Luria, a Soviet psychologist, colleague and friend of Lev Vygotsky, in his “Little Book of Great Memory” told the story of the mysterious citizen Sh. One day, this Sh., a young newspaper reporter, came to the laboratory with complaints about... phenomenal memory. He instantly remembered dates, numbers, places, names - any facts. Research has shown that Sh.’s memory had not only no boundaries, but also no “expiration date”: information learned once, he could reproduce decades later. Imprinting in memory “was of a direct nature, and its mechanisms boiled down to the fact that Sh. either continued to see the rows of words or numbers presented to him, or turned the words or numbers dictated to him into visual images.”

Joshua Foer. In 2005, he covered the American Memory Championship as a journalist, where he marveled at the competitors' ability to remember the order of cards in a well-shuffled deck in a short period of time. Just a year later, Foer managed to become the winner of such a championship, and he subsequently outlined the story of his preparation for the competition in the book “Einstein Walks on the Moon. The Science and Art of Memorization." Explaining how our memory works and how approaches to its study have changed, Foer not only gives valuable instructions related to so-called brain hygiene, but also talks about specific techniques that allow you to remember more and better.

Some scientists involved in cognitive research claim that a person never forgets anything. Everything once seen, felt or heard is stored in certain “compartments” of the brain until the end of life. In other words, the problem of forgetful people is not poor memory, but poor skills in reproducing information. Therefore, learning requires not memorizing facts, but retrieving them from memory. The good news is that it is possible to develop your ability to remember. Albeit within certain limits.

The leaders of the World Memory Championships, which have been held regularly since 1991, demonstrate phenomenal results. Participants remember a gigantic number of dates, faces, numbers, lines of poetry, shocking the audience with subsequent accurate reproduction. In his interview Joshua Foer- US memory champion - assures: none of the participants have superpowers, and brilliant results are the result of training; a person with the most ordinary memory can achieve this.

The mnemonic technique “memory palace”, which will be discussed, appeared 2,500 years ago in Ancient Greece. The same technique was unknowingly used by the mysterious citizen Sh. (by the way, his real name is Solomon Shereshevsky) and consciously by the current participants in the memory championships.

The legend about the appearance of this technique could serve as a plot for a Hitchcock film. The ancient Greek poet Simonides was invited to read poetry at a big celebration. Having finished his speech, the poet went outside, and a few moments later the vault of the building where the celebrations took place collapsed. Everyone who was inside died. The victims were so mutilated that relatives could not identify the bodies or properly bury the dead. The only survivor was Simonides, to whom, while he was watching the grief-stricken people, a real miracle happened. Gradually, a panorama of the banquet hall before the destruction appeared in his memory. The poet began to take relatives by the hands and lead them to the bodies of the dead. Having later analyzed how the “picture” appeared in memory, Simonides described the first mnemonic technique. True, there is an alternative legend in which the authorship of the technique is attributed to Cicero.

The “memory palace” method is based on very strong associative connections, thanks to which any amount of information can be remembered in the right order.

Materials

• 
  Free time.
• 
  Imagination(as developed as possible) and concentration.
• 
  Information, which you need to remember.

What to do

Let's imagine that you need to remember the products that your mother (wife, husband, director of the company, etc.) sent you to the store for. The list includes: apples, marmalade, milk, cottage cheese, eggs, bread, mayonnaise, dried fruit, green tea.

1. Let's come up with...

Each item has its own “room” - a hook with which we will extract the necessary information from memory. It is optimal if the “rooms” are built into one “palace” - all associations are connected into one story. It's okay if it turns out to be absurd.

2. Let's begin...

From the traditional fairy-tale beginning: “once upon a time,” “in the distant kingdom,” “in a galaxy far, far away.”

3. We connect...

Words are verbs. For example, “the yolks of the eggs were beaten into mayonnaise.” If this seems difficult, ask the word's nearest neighbor for help. For "tea" it could be "boiling water". And to avoid using the word “boiling water”, make him Chai’s hot-tempered neighbor.

4. Let's experiment:

“... because Mr. Chai had a strange greenish complexion.” It is very important not to think too long. If associations are born as a result of prolonged creative torment, you are unlikely to be able to reproduce this chain in the future.

The final story with an encrypted shopping list could look like this:

One day Isaac Newton walked through a garden where spreading apple trees grew. A ripe fruit fell from a branch and fell directly on the scientist’s head, which allowed him to discover one of the most important physical laws. Unfortunately, the only eyewitness to this event was a cow from a neighboring farm. She was so surprised by what happened that she stopped giving milk for several days. Without knowing it, Isaac Newton deprived himself of breakfast: in the morning he preferred to eat fresh cottage cheese made on a neighboring farm. It’s good that the chickens didn’t see the apple fall, so the eggs regularly continued to arrive in Newton’s kitchen. But the scientist’s cook was so carried away that she transferred all the eggs to making mayonnaise. As a result, poor Newton had to have breakfast with stale marmalade, which he snacked on bread that was hard enough to resemble dry bread. The only consolation was sweet tea the color of the grass that the ill-fated cow ate.

If you need to remember a number

Using the “memory palace” method, you can also memorize series of numbers, assigning each its own association. So, for example, the telephone number 2–12–85–06 (and longer series accordingly) can be retained in memory using stories like:
“The snow-white swan (2) lost a dozen (12) lovers in an infinity of (8) moves that arose due to excellent students (5) of labor trying to transfer all the birds to the roundest (0) pond in the city and close the round lock (6) on bird house."
You can use dates (historical or your own). For example, the PIN code for a bank card 5293 will be remembered as “a year before Stalin’s death, a year after my birth.”

If you need to remember the name

You can make associations as follows: the name Arthur is translated as “bear,” so we remember all Arthurs sleeping in a hole. Another option is the king of the round table. But Olga is a princess to whom it is better not to send ambassadors.

Cover: still from the TV series “The Big Bang Theory”
Photos and illustrations: BBC, Shutterstock
Authors: Vitaly Vasyanovich, Anastasia Zhurba

In the past, people attached a completely different meaning to memory. Memorization has been elevated to the level of a science and an art. Before being written down, many teachings were passed down by word of mouth over the centuries. And reading to ourselves, which is common for us, became a habit not so long ago. Previously, people spoke out what they read and this was the only normal way to read. In our age of excess information, computers, gadgets and other external storage media have become a replacement for memory. Indeed, why do we need memory when we have it?

But has it ever happened to you that you couldn’t remember the names of the main characters in a book you just read?

Or were you struck by the depth of some quote, but there was no way to reproduce it from memory? All that remained was to lament how appropriate she would have been at yesterday’s meeting.

How not to embarrass yourself at a conference and remember your speech?

What about preparing for exams? An unpleasant task, isn't it? Is there a way to make it easier?

What did you do last Wednesday?

What did you have for breakfast the day before yesterday?

How do you feel when you are asked to tell about the sights of the place you last visited?

Of course, there is no need to remember everything - most of the information around us is garbage. But how to distinguish garbage from what is important if the memory does not work? What to talk about with friends? How to interest the person you like?

Here are a few simple techniques to improve memory.

1. Memory Palace.

This method utilizes the core principle of mnemonics—thoughtful encoding. Each of us remembers in detail at least a few places close to his heart. This could be the house in which we live now or lived in childhood, our grandparents’ house, a city street, a park, the road to work, a favorite museum, etc. We can recreate every corner of these places from memory, so these places are ideally suited to be so-called memory palaces. The essence of the method is to first mentally recreate a space that you know well, and then fill it with what you want to remember, placing each thing in a specific place. When you need to extract this information, you just need to walk through the memory palace, encountering objects and images placed there along the way.

It is important to note that the more unusual the image, the easier it will be remembered. Any boring thing that needs to be remembered must be turned into something bright, surprising and unlike anything seen before, so that it simply cannot be forgotten.

This method is ideal for memorizing the chronology of events, representatives of historical dynasties, various types of lists, new acquaintances at a crowded party.

2. Effective memorization of poems and verbatim memorization of texts.

Unfortunately, remembering words is exactly what our brains are poorly equipped to do. And in this case, using only one memory palace method will not be effective, since it is extremely difficult to select stable images for such abstract concepts as, say, empathy. It is also difficult to visualize prepositions, pronouns and punctuation. But to learn a poem, you need to memorize every word it contains. The solution is to develop a system of images for prepositions, pronouns and punctuation marks, and break abstract, unmemorable words into syllables, each of which will have its own symbol. For example, the word empathy can be thought of as Emma Thompson (um) dancing at a party.

3. “Main system” for memorizing numbers.

The system was invented back in the 17th century by art critic Johann Winckelmann, but mnemonics still use it to this day, memorizing number series consisting of hundreds or even thousands of digits. The point is to transform numbers into phonetic sounds, and turn sounds into words, obtaining images for your memory palace. For example, the number 3 looks like an inverted letter M, 8 looks like an F, and so on at your discretion (the main thing is to remember the correspondence). Then, for example, the number 3826 (MFNB) can be represented as “Matthew looking at Heaven.” The essence is the same for more complex number sequences.

4. Mind maps.

This direction is actively promoted by mnemonic and, part-time, successful businessman Tony Buzan. To create your own map, you will need a piece of paper and colored markers. The essence of the system is that a person creates a mental map, drawing lines from the main ideas to the secondary ones, then branching out to the tertiary ones, etc. Ideas are formulated in a few words and, if possible, illustrated with images. It turns out something similar to a colored web of associations. And because this chart is filled with colorful images arranged in order on one page, it functions as a memory palace transferred to paper.

This method is especially well suited for taking notes on lectures and analyzing complex, confusing issues, as it requires a conscious approach to information.

The human brain evolved through a process of natural selection under conditions quite different from those we live in today. The needs of our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors shaped the brains we use in our information age. This is why we all find it easier to memorize visual images and spaces than numbers and abstract categories.

Essentially, all memory techniques are based on the fact that our brains do not remember all information equally well. By transforming the information that our brain has difficulty storing into the information it was designed to store, we can significantly improve our memory.

On the other hand, the question arises - why develop your memory in the age of gadgets that can store? The answer is, at least in order to be more attentive to the world around and not lose yourself in it, to connect concepts, generate new ideas and create works of art. After all, our memories make us who we are.

Based on materials from the book " Einstein walks on the moon". Author Joshua Foer

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“My memory is excellent, but short.”

Of all the rhetorical questions that we often ask ourselves, the most common is: “Well, how could I / could I forget?” In everyday life, we are constantly faced with a huge amount of information, both useful and absolutely uninteresting to us, and when it comes to remembering certain events, facts or just words when learning a foreign language, our “operating system” can fail. As Leo Beiser's axiom says: "When you put something into a computer's memory, remember where you put it." Learning to cope with a similar problem, namely erasing certain concepts from our memory, will help us The Memory Palace Technique(Memory Palace technique). This technique is very easy to master and does not require any special abilities. It was developed by the ancient Greeks and used to memorize their public speeches, so it will be useful both for future speakers and for those who simply cannot remember the contents of a basic list of necessary purchases.

So let's figure out how it works?

All we need when using this technique is:

• Well known place familiar place).
• Rich imagination ( vivid imagination).

Step 1. You need to select the so-called memory palace(“memory palace”), that is, the place that you mentally ( in your mind's eye) can describe in detail ( picture vividly), such as your house, apartment or place of work. It is advisable that the “palace” you choose has as many rooms as possible.

Step 2: Create a specific route ( chart a specific route) movement around each of the corners ( through every nook and cranny) of your chosen “palace”. Mentally imagine walking through each room several times in a certain order. Always strictly follow the same planned route.

Step 3. Walk through each room in the same direction, for example, from left to right. Memorize all items ( features) that are in this room and come across your path, for example, a desk, a lamp, a wastebasket, a closet or a picture. Imagine each of these items as a “cell” for memorization ( as a “memory slot”).

Step 4. Find the association ( associate) for a fact or concept you want to remember, with one of the items in each room of the "memory palace". Position ( locate) them on your route in the order in which you want to remember them. The more absurd, funnier and even stupider your associations are, the better they will be remembered - that’s a fact! Exaggeration ( exaggerate images) will also contribute ( aid in) the process of remembering ( recall process). For example ( for instance), if you need to buy apples, imagine that one of your home plants is simply hung with kilograms of large, selected apples.

Step 5. Start your route from the beginning and visit each room, noting each item in it in turn, so that you can easily and quickly remember all that information ( to readily recall the information) that you needed to commit to your memory. And very soon people will begin to notice and emphasize that you have an excellent memory.

What are the advantages of this memorization technique, and most importantly, storing information in our memory?

1. First of all, you don't need to write anything down anymore. By using the Memory Palace Technique you may not make a list of necessary purchases before going to the store. Most of us, I think, will agree with me that even if we took this life-saving list with us to the store, and did not leave it carelessly lying where we compiled it (which also happens quite often!), we constantly have to look at it look, because as soon as we put it in our pocket or bag, we immediately forget its contents.
2. We can mentally plan, and most importantly, remember what we need to do today, tomorrow, next week, etc., even while on the treadmill at the gym.
3. If you are preparing a public speech or presentation, then this system will be indispensable here too, since you can easily remember all the key points of your speech and even reproduce them in any order. Actually, the ancient Greeks created this technique for this purpose.
4. In order to remember new foreign words, it is not necessary (or rather, ineffective) to cram them monotonously, use associations. Your imagination will help the foreign word itself to suggest a key image to you, which you will then place in a place that logically corresponds to the meaning of the word in your native language. And then to connect the keyword and place, imagine some bright picture. For example, remembering a word dresser(chest of drawers, closet), imagine that the closet is in your bedroom where you dress ( get dressed → dresser). Or imagine the same chest of drawers, filled with beautiful dresses- dresses, by analogy dress → dresser.
5. Finally, it will not be difficult for you to remember any list of certain concepts (for example, when preparing for exams), and then, even after a long period of time, without difficulty remembering it in its entirety.

The Memory Palace Technique also known by names such as The Loci System (/ˈloʊˌsaɪ/ plural number from lat. “ locus” – place) or the Method of Loci(Loki Method). In essence, this is the same thing, the only difference is that here we do not need a “palace”; instead, a certain route of movement is used, for example, visiting attractions or some other interesting, and most importantly, places that are well known to you. And everything else is the same: following the route, we need to find associations between the place and the information, fact, concept that we would like to remember.

From theory to practice. So, how is this technique used in real life, and what results does it help achieve? Andy Bell, who won the World Memory Championship in 2002, will tell us about this.

How to train your memory

• Neural /ˈnjʊərəl/ pathway– neural pathway.
• A route /ˈru:t, ˈraʊt/ - route, course, path.
• Brain cells- brain cells.
• To retrieve /rɪˈtri:v/ facts- extract facts from memory, remember.
• To trigger /ˈtrɪgɚ/ (the same pathway) – call; launch; provoke.
• To recall the exact position– remember the exact location/number.
• A deck (of cards) - Card deck.
• To shuffle (cards) – shuffle the cards.
• Literally- literally, exactly.
• In rapid succession /ˈræpəd səkˈsɛʃən/ – in quick succession.
• To be up- end.
• Referee /ˌrɛfəˈri:/ - judge.
• At random- at random, blindly.
• Six of spades- six of spades.
• Queen of hearts- Queen of Hearts.
• Ten of diamonds- ten diamonds.
• King of diamonds- King of Diamonds.
• The ace of hearts- Ace of Hearts.
• Jack of clubs- jack of clubs.
• No matter– it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter.
• To father- create, invent; invent.
• Memory technique- memorization technique.
• Landmark– landmark, landmark; a noticeable object in the area.
• To establish (a route) - create; organize.
• A saw /ˈsɑ:/ - saw.
• Cast of characters- acting characters.
• Conventionally /kənˈvɛnʃənl̟i/ – conditional; traditionally, usually.
• Location– site, location, definition of place.
• Advantage- advantage.
• Astonishing /əˈstɑ:nɪʃɪŋ/ fits of memory – amazing properties / manifestations of memory.

“It’s one thing to fill your brain with facts, it’s quite another thing though to remember them. So how do we do it? Well, memorizing something is rather like what happens when we set up a line of dominoes. When we commit a fact of memory we create a neural pathway to it – a route of connecting brain cells to whatever that memory’s stored in our brain and to retrieve those facts all we have to do is to trigger the same pathway back to them. It sounds easy, and for some people at least it really is. This is Andi Bell. In 2002 he was crowned World Memory Champion. But just how good is he? Today we’ve set him a test: he is going to try to recall the exact position of every single card in ten whole decks. That's 520 cards that have been shuffled by us. And he’s only got 20 minutes to look at them. Andi has developed a special technique which allows him to remember literally thousands of items in rapid succession. The twenty minutes are up. Can Andi remember the position of the cards our referee selects at random?

- So deck #1 the very first card you saw?

- First card was the six of spades.

- The same deck card #23?

- The twenty third card was the queen of hearts.

- Deck 2, card #27?

- Ten of diamonds.

No matter how many cards we fathered him: “ That was the king of diamonds ”, – Andi remembered them perfectly: “ 48th card was the ace of hearts " In fact, Andi is able to recall all 520 cards: “ Jack of clubs ”, – every one correct and in a right order: “ Queen of spades" So, what's his secret?

Before he even sits down with a deck of cards Andi uses his memory technique. He takes a walk round London visiting a series of landmarks in a particular order. Number 1 might be the Houses of Parliament and number 2 – Westminster Bridge. He walks the route several times to establish it in his mind. But that’s just the first stage, the second is putting his imagination to work.

- When I memorize a deck of cards I turn each card into a picture and this is a colorful animal or object that I’ve learned to associate with that particular card.

The jack of clubs becomes a little bear, the nine of diamonds – a saw, and the two of spades – a pineapple. Then Andi puts the two stages together – in his mind he imagines walking around London on his route and when he passes the Houses of Parliament he imagines the little bear with the saw and pineapple. Andi creates a journey in his mind with this cast of characters.

- As a child I had conventionally good memory. But once you learn a technique, like the location method I use, it takes everything beyond what you could possibly do naturally.

Scientists have discovered that our mind is better at remembering a route between the locations then it is at remembering unconnected facts and figures.

- I think I have the same mental equipment as everyone else. So, it’s something anybody can do.

When we use simple stories to memorize facts we’re creating several pathways to where those memories are formed in the brain. It’s as if instead of lining up one set of dominoes we are setting up several. The reason we often have difficulties at retrieving our memory is because one neural pathway can easily get broken. But by having several different pathways to our memory it means that if one doesn’t manage to reach it, another one will. That's the advantage of the story technique. It creates lots of neural pathways in our brain and all our brains can work in this way which is why everyone can use this method. By using a story to memorize facts we all have the potential to perform astonishing fits of memory.”

How did we know The Memory Palace Technique will help us remember any information (facts, concepts, foreign words), and with special diligence, even make us a memorization champion. This technique is not complicated and does not require special abilities; each of us can find application for it and then reap the benefits of amazing manifestations of human memory. And in conclusion of this article, I have chosen several English Memory Idioms, which are equivalent to expressions we often use in everyday life:

• Haven't a clue– have no idea (about something).
  

  I haven’t a clue what the capital of Ukraine is. Can you help me?

• Slip one's mind- get out of your head; forget something.
  

  I was going to call you but I"m afraid it completely slipped my mind.

• You “can"t make head nor tail” of smth– you can’t understand something.
  

  I"m trying to assemble this IKEA table and I can"t make head nor tail of the instructions.

• Lose one's train of thoughts– lose your train of thought; forget what they just talked about.
  

  “Sorry, I’ve lost my train of thoughts. What was I saying?”

• On the tip of one's tongue– it’s on the tip of your tongue.
  

  What"s that man's name again? It"s on the tip of my tongue.

• Beat me!- I can’t imagine! No idea!
  

  It beats me why this coffee machine won’t work. Everything appears OK with it.

• Rack one's brain- rack your brains.
  

  I"ve been racking my brain trying to remember the name of that film we saw last week.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Do you ever feel like you've forgotten something very important? Perhaps the name of a new colleague or the location of a pet store, or, say, some work-related details. It's OK! Spatial mnemonics, often called the “memory palace,” is a time-tested technique for remembering a truly amazing amount of information.

If you had to give your memory a physical form, what would it be? Is your memory like a filing cabinet, where everything you've ever seen or heard is carefully organized and cross-numbered for easy access? Or is it more like a slightly leaky bucket, meaning you can hold information in your memory for a short time, but if you don't refresh it, it will eventually disappear. Don't be upset if the second option is closer to reality than the first. This applies to most of us. And in fact, it is very interesting to understand exactly how memories disappear, are lost or are transformed over time.

As you may have seen in the TV series Sherlock, there is a special way of using our memory that can significantly increase the efficiency of remembering. The “memory palace” (or “mind palace”), or method of loci, is a mnemonic device that transforms any physical location into an easy-to-navigate storage of information. Of course, this method was not invented by Benedict Cumberburtch, or even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself. In fact, in the original, the character of Sherlock Holmes did not have a particularly good memory. In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes's first story, he even forgot that the Earth revolved around the Sun. No, the “memory palace” has its roots in Ancient Greece.

According to a rather grim story told by the legendary Roman statesman Cicero, this method was developed by the Greek poet Simonides after a state dinner that went about as poorly as it could possibly be. First of all, the rich host made an insulting comment about Simonides' poem, and later, as if things weren't bad enough, the roof collapsed and crushed all the guests except Simonides himself, so much so that they were unrecognizable. The poet was lucky - someone mysteriously called him out of the room shortly before the disaster. Simonides was able to help identify the bodies. By remembering where each of the guests sat, he managed to ensure that the grieving families received the remains of their loved ones. And then he realized that he could use this spatial method to remember less painful information.

In the film Sherlock, the memory palace method takes the form of an imaginary state that has no spatial meaning. Holmes only uses it to store memories. If you start building your memory palace, you will have to do things differently. In fact, it is very important that the place you choose is not just real - it must be very familiar to you. Your own home or office, or even the route you take to get to work every day is a great choice. Have you already made yours? Here's how it works.

Let's say you have a huge list of errands that need to be completed today and you're afraid you'll forget something. You need to go shopping, pick up dry cleaning, change the oil in your car, find a gift for a friend's birthday, and take your cat to the vet. Of course, you could write everything down, but why waste paper?

Instead, simply visualize the layout of your home in detail. Imagine entering the entrance and walking up the stairs to the front door. When you take out your keys, you notice a couple of grocery bags rolling around on the children's swing in the yard (the dumber your idea, the more likely you are to remember everything). You enter your apartment and stand in the hallway when you suddenly come across a stack of freshly ironed suits. Moving past them, you enter the living room, where your car rests in a kiddie pool full of black grease. And as you pass by the bathroom, you suddenly hear the melody of “Happy Birthday to you.” When you look inside, you see that someone has replaced the shower curtain with wrapping paper. Finally, you get to the kitchen, and there is a cat sitting at the table with a thermometer in its mouth. “I actually feel great now,” he tells you gratefully.

The point is, you know the layout of your home well, and you don't have to think too hard to imagine it. This way, you can easily imagine the changes that you yourself mentally outline. It will not be just a list, but a list enlivened by exotic details and anchored in solid reality.

This combination makes it easy to add additional elements and more detailed information as needed. For example, you might go into the bathroom of your memory palace to find out details about a birthday party. Perhaps you can add a dinosaur fighting Luke Skywalker on toilet paper to remind yourself of your daughter's two biggest loves, or leave a pile of socks in the shower... in short, don't hold back your imagination. Although this path may seem too winding at first, memory palaces work, it has been tested. We've often wondered how Cumberburtch remembers his lyrics.

Most people notice that they quickly forget the information they receive. This situation is not hopeless, you can develop your memory, but for this you need to work hard. One of the developing techniques - the “memory palace” - appeared about 2,500 years ago. She is still popular today.

How did the “memory palace” technique come about?

Today this mnemonic technique has many supporters; it is believed that Ancient Greece became its place of origin. Some sources attribute the authorship of the technique to Cicero, but there is also a more exotic story in which Solomon Shereshevsky subconsciously used this method. He was a poet and read poetry at the festival, and after his departure the vault of the building collapsed, leaving many victims underneath. Even their relatives could not identify them.

At this time, the full picture of the holiday before everything that happened began to be restored in Solomon’s mind, he remembered everything down to the smallest detail and was able to point out to relatives the dead loved ones. When Solomon analyzed how the whole picture appeared in his memory, he was able to describe the first mnemonic technique. In fact, it may have been successfully used by other people even earlier, but there is no information about it.

What is the technique in practice?

Ricci was able to learn Chinese in 10 years and was well versed in different dialects. He had a reputation as a scientist and wise man. In addition to the fact that he had an excellent education, he was well versed in the principles of mnemonics. He also taught the Chinese. He built a “memory palace” depending on the amount of material that needed to be mastered and remembered. When the information was particularly complex, he built a building that could consist of other rooms of different heights and sizes, but they were connected to each other by logical connections.

If we consider that all these structures were built in the imagination, but were used in real life, then one can only guess about his level of perfection and skill in mnemonics. In his practice, Ricci allowed the use of not only palaces, but also gazebos, public buildings and even temples, if the associations with them were vivid.

Thanks to his abilities, Matteo Ricci was able to pass the exam and receive a high government position in China - before that, no European had been able to do this. The exam included works of Chinese poetry and classics. Only 1% of people passed this exam.

He taught images and concepts to be placed in palaces, and the Chinese successfully used this technique.

Work of J. Spence

Jonathan Spence, a Yale historian, has published several works and monographs, including “Palace of Memory of Matteo Ricci.” The book describes the complex mnemonics that Matteo used. And those with the help of which he built his “memory palace”. This book is only available in the original and has not been translated into Russian. It describes the basic principle of operation.

You need to imagine that you are entering a large house and seeing a room in which there are bookshelves and tables. Every surface in the room needs to be marked with its own memories until all the spaces are filled. Now you can move to another room, recall current memories, go back the same way again and activate the ideas you left behind.

How realistic is it to master the “memory palace” technique?

In their primitive form, people use mnemonic techniques in real life without even realizing it. When they go to the room for something, and when they arrive, they don’t remember what they wanted, then they go back and restore the picture, remembering what they needed. It works, but the memory palace technique is not for everyone. A person with creative potential and developed imagination can successfully master these mechanisms.

If there are problems with imagination, then you can use simple mnemonic systems that help develop memory. They are enough to successfully and systematically work on yourself.