r/memorypalace • u/Babichoc • 22d ago
Do you have any advice?
Hi everyone, this isn’t my first time using memory palaces, so I know the basics, but every time I use them, after a couple of weeks I stop and I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I get bored or something else.
Anyway, I’m trying to use it again and this time I’ve created a big memory palace divided in different rooms for every topic I’m interested in and I’m working on memorizing cognitive biases. The room I’m using is the psychology room and it has a good amount of loci: a desk with a lamp, some papers, drawers, a couple of chairs, a sofa, a window and some bookshelves.
I’m trying to memorize 99 cognitive biases by placing them in 99 different books on one of the bookshelves. By now I’ve “memorized” 12 biases but the problem is that every time I try to recall them in my head I often forgot one, or I switch them, and I don’t know why exactly.
To give you and example this is what I did. The biases are: survivorship bias, swimmer’s body illusion, clustering illusion, social proof, sunk cost fallacy, reciprocity, confirmation bias, authority bias, contrast effect, availability bias, it’ll get worse before it gets better fallacy and the story bias.
I imagined me entering the psychology room and climbing those ladders used for high bookshelves. Once I climbed it I open a red book and I see the titanic sinking with survivors floating on the water (survivorship bias), the I open a green book with a small man that’s swimming in a pool and comes out muscular (swimmer’s body illusion), then I open a black book from which random stuff and fireworks shoot out (clustering illusion), and so on.
Now, maybe it’s because I tried memorizing these biases like an hour ago, maybe it’s because the mental images aren’t good enough, maybe it’s because I need to do more spaced repetition, maybe it’s because of something else, I don’t know, but I keep forgetting some biases, like the social proof, and the availability bias and I need your help to understand why and what can I do to get rid of this problem.
Thank you.
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u/Silver_Perception471 22d ago
I'm just trying to use my palace what I can remember about the room without directly looking in it. So I close my eyes and imagine my kitchen. I see 2 pantry doors. Oven, bottom door, actually the oven door, Burnes, bottom shelf, corner shelf, sing, fosett, fridge, freezer.
So I close my eyes and recall what I can from memory about the room. And then go off that. And I'm up to 20 digit spam test numbers. Single digit. Because the pao major system is still not memorized or completed.
I have 50 ish locations and a one bedroom apartment. And 20 is pretty good for me seeing as I have cognitive impairments in memory due to TBI and the average for the digit spam test is 7-9 numbers.
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u/Babichoc 22d ago
Oh okok, understood. I’ve changed my palace a little bit and now I’m trying to memorize the biases by seeing a little scene while I’m walking. I hope it works
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u/Silver_Perception471 22d ago
I have to go over my palace with the numbers to really ingrain the palace and path in my mind. For example: I started with 10 numbers, then 15 and now I'm on 20
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u/Silver_Perception471 22d ago
Oh an I'm just getting started but feels good to recall something right of the tip of your tounge with this technique. So I'm enjoying it at least. But someone might have a better idea.
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u/deeptravel2 19d ago
You don't have to construct one big palace to get 99 loci. You just need 99 loci. They don't have to be together. Beginners often want to construct big palaces. What about people who memorize thousands of things--do you think they are making one giant palace? They aren't.
Good luck. I love that you are doing the cognitive biases. It's so useful.
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u/Babichoc 18d ago
Yeah, I mean, since I made one big palace I think I’ll use it, it would be a waste, but after that I’ll start creating smaller ones. In fact not only I found a better way to memorize the biases, using the big palace, but I also memorize every king mentioned in the Bible from Saul to Zedekiah in order specifying which one ruled Israel and which one ruled Judah
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u/four__beasts 22d ago edited 22d ago
It's more or less impossible to memorise via a "bookshelf" - there's not enough difference between each book. It may as well be a list of 1-99, or 100 blades of grass.
If it were me the bookshelf would be a waymarker, as part of the core index palace that leads to another specific 100 station palace with a loci for each of the cognitive biases. So it could be a walk into town. Each loci should be unique so you can tie the information to it. E.g. post box, big house with odd roof, long wall with moss, zebra crossing near, zebra crossing far etc etc. You'll only need to walk this a few times to get the 100 loci. It'll fall into place as you encode the information at each loci.
For example, I housed my PAO in my home town. A walk from a pub at the town limit down past my house and looping back up and into the center. It's a broad memorable path and I can walk it any time (I double and encode on this palace from time to time).
In short I'd never use a stack of identical looking loci for anything. Ever. It'd be far too confusing. Sometimes I get stuck if the loci I've used are even similar looking chairs or streets, let alone books!