A scientific method that the ancient Greeks and Romans came up with can help anyone improve their memory. The plan is to make a “memory palace.” A group of researchers says that training every day with an old method can make it easier to remember things and help many people remember more than twice as much as they did before.
Scientists have used technology to help people remember things in the past, but it doesn’t always have to be so extreme. Instead, if you have a little time and want to improve your memory, you can use an ancient Greek and Roman method.
Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
Contents
Ancient memory technique
The researchers’ findings on how to improve your memory were first published in the journal Neuron in 2017. Even though the paper is from a long time ago, the results are still amazing and worth looking at in 2022. The work of Martin Dresler, William R. Shirer, and others is included in the paper, which is called “Mnemonic Training Reconfigures Brain Networks to Support Better Memory.”
As mentioned in above, the basic idea is to train your brain to remember things better so that you can build a memory palace. After using the technique, 51 of the people who volunteered for the study were able to improve their memories by a lot.
After only four months, people could remember 62 of the 72 terms on the test. At first, most people could only remember 26 out of 72.
The memory palace method is not a new way to improve your memory, though. As was already said, it goes back to the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. But it seems to be making a sort of comeback, and the idea has even been used in modern TV shows, movies, and even video games.
How to Apply the Memory Palace Method
You can teach yourself how to use the memory palace method if you want to train your brain and improve your memory. First, you have to picture yourself walking through a place in your mind. This is your memory palace, as the name suggests. From there, imagine that there are different doors, cabinets, or something else for each word you need to remember.
If you use this method every day, your overall memory strength will start to get better over time. The method was first called “method of loci,” which in Latin means “method of places.”
One of the best things about the memory palace method is that you can picture almost any place. You can put together a lot of memories in one place by using houses, roads, and even small towns. Scientists also say that if you improve your memory in this way, the improvements will last for a long time.
Many of the people who took part in the study that Dresler and others did still had better memories four months after the study was over. So, if you want to improve your memory, science shows that the memory palace is one of the best ways to do it.
Summary
Consistently practice seeing if this technique works for you. A little time and imagination are all that’s needed to achieve this.
