The Secrets Of Memory Part- 2

In the last post we discussed about what a memory is, in basic terms. Now we are going to go deep into that subject i.e, we are now going to discuss on how we can develop that feature of the brain.

Think of it in this way. The Brain is a library and the hippocampus, the librarian. We all dislike a library where the books are not arranged or kept in a particular pattern. A similar case applies for the brain too.
We must organize the books (memories) in a particular manner or pattern so that it would be easy to retrieve it later. There are many ways to improve our memory. One of the most accepted, reliable and efficient method is The Method of Loci.
The Method Of Loci, plural of Latin word Locus which means a place or location, is also referred to as a journey method. The parts of the brain which greatly contribute to this method are medial parietal cortex, retrosplenial cortex and right posterior hippocampus.

The Method of Loci.....

   Allow me to give you a brief introduction to the story behind it. There was a poet during the 5th century B.C. His name was Simonides of Ceos. The tale goes like this: Simonides of Ceos was once hired to recite an ode at a noleman's banquet. He started off with a few lines of praise to divinities - Castor and Pollux, before starting the serious talk about the host. The host, who objected to the diversion of flattery, deducted half of Simonide's fee and asked him to collect the rest from the gods he praised. At that time, a message came to him that two men had come to his house and wished to speak with him immediately. When he went to his house, there was no one there. But while he was out, the banquet hall had collapsed, killing the impious noblemen and other guests. Castor and Pollux did indeed pay their fee!!
Now now..... don't just think that the story ends here. like any other Greek stories. That's not the moral or the interesting part of the story!!!!
When the rubble was cleared... the bodies of the victims were un-identifiable to their families. Simonides, however was able to identify each and every one of them!! How did he do it?? Well, he was one of the first persons' to ever use the technique or method of Loci. While he was on the stage making his speech, he had a full view of the banquet hall and the guests along with it. He visualized a banquet hall exactly same to to what he saw. Then, he virtualised each guests present at the banquet and placed them in his version of the banquet hall exactly where they sat at the real hall. In simple words he memorised the position of each guests in the hall. So he was able to identify each of the deceased guests. This marked the beginning of The Method Of Loci.

So now lets try this method out. What do you say??
Ok here's a list of some things.
- A Deck of cards
- Quartz crystal
- Australian Aborigine
- Saxophone
- Zebra
- Telephone
- Micky Mouse
- Table fan
- Bread and Butter
- Airport

 Ok this will do. Now this is just a very small (very small... i mean it) list. If you notice the list and just read through, you will find that the things mentioned here are barely connected to each other. This is just to increase the complexity or toughness of the activity (or should i say demonstration?). Now your task, as you might have guessed, is to memorize the whole list.
The most common method used is linking and connecting to one another. In this method, what we do is find something which is common in two things which lie side by side. This method is very familiar to all of us. But this method is not efficient in cases where the link or common thing between things are absent, such as this!!!!
I would suggest to use the method of Loci here. So here's how to use it .
Imagine your house. Now think of yourself walking into the house. In order to get into the house, you must pass through the door first (naturally!!). Now construct a virtual image of a Deck of Cards and place it at the doorway of your house. So now you have to pass through the Deck of Cards (door) to get in. You slide the Deck of Cards and get in the house. Now you have entered the living room of your house. Time for placing the next thing on the list, The Quartz Crystal. The Quartz crystal is visualized first. But it must be large enough to be visible. So what you must do is increase its size and place it at the center of our living room. Now thats over and you move on. You take a turn at the end of the living room and see your bedroom. Now visualize and place a Australian Aborigine playing with a flute. But you don't like its tune. So you replace the flute with Saxophone. And it goes on......
You will discover that the list is now much more easier to remember that bow you could tell the list even from bottom to top in the exact order!!!! You can make this much more simpler by adding some more effects to your visualizations like sounds and other special effects. You can even add or register some emotions and humour into your Locus like getting shocked when you see the Australian Aborigine in your bedroom!
It is not necessary to position each object in the list at each room. Since the list above is small, you may keep each item at different rooms. But if you observe, you notice that I grouped The Australian Aborigine and Saxophone in a single room. It all depends on your likes and imagination.
So since the list is small, you may only use a small Locus. But in case of very long list, you must use many Locus or Loci ( In that case, you can imagine a multi-storey flat or shops on a road). So in order to recollect the objects in the list in the right order, all you must do is virtually travel on the same path you took while using or storing the objects in the Locus for the first time. This will fire the same neuron path you took to store it in your brain or memorize.

Here's a short video on The Method of Loci. Courtesy of BBC.

Please don't forget this one point: " This is just one of the ways to improve your memory."

So I guess that's it about memory. I hope you all practice The Method of Loci and tell me how you positioned your objects in the Locus. Above all, I hope this post was informative!!!!!

Stay tuned for more secrets and tips of the brain.!!! Bye till then.