# Mind palace A technique for improving your memory, by associating information with familiar spatial environments (e.g., your house). It was used by Romans and Greeks. Nowadays, memory contest champions use this technique to recall faces, digits and list of words. This technique, also called the Method of Loci, Memory Palace or Memory Spaces was described by [[Frances Yates]] in her book [[Art Of Memory (book)]]: > In this technique the subject memorizes the layout of some building, or the arrangement of shops on a street, or any geographical entity which is composed of a number of discrete loci. When desiring to remember a set of items the subject 'walks' through these loci in their imagination and commits an item to each one by forming an image between the item and any feature of that locus. Retrieval of items is achieved by 'walking' through the loci, allowing the latter to activate the desired items. It has been proven to be effective. ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci - http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/teuber-hans-lukas.pdf - https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/illusion-chasers/hannibal-lecter/ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088556 - Ross and Lawrence (1968), Crovitz (1969, 1971), Briggs, Hawkins and Crovitz (1970), Lea (1975) - O'Keefe, John; [Nadel, Lynn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Nadel "Lynn Nadel") (December 7, 1978). [_The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map'_](https://www.cmor-faculty.rice.edu/~cox/neuro/HCMComplete.pdf) (PDF). Oxford: [Oxford University Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_University_Press "Oxford University Press"). [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0198572060](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0198572060 "Special:BookSources/978-0198572060").