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Teaches how to use a memory palace and then follows up with advice for people who can't visualize. Goat. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 4 weeks ago by to c/best_of_lemmy@sh.itjust.works
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https://sh.itjust.works/post/68144005

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[–] 6 points 4 weeks ago (18 children)

Hard disagree.

I have aphantasia, the inability to visualize, and the memory palace is irretrievably useless for me and I'm sick death about hearing about it.

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  • [–] [S] 15 points 4 weeks ago (10 children)

    Did you read at the end to just use your fingers? That's why they're the goat.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

    Ah. Yes, I read it, but your headline tantalizingly sounded like a way to make Memory Palaces work for the imaginally visually impaired.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    You have to relate memories to the senses that do fill your mind. Information storage and retrieval is generally about associations. We link some new thing to an existing thing.

    So, you might use s memory record, where you tie the thing you want accessible to music, where each song, or lyrics within, link to your desired item. Scents work really well overall, but can fall short in terms of versatility because you can only hold so many memories per scent, and you have a more limited range of scents to begin with.

    Much harder than visual linking, absolutely. But for short term things, or very important long term things, there's non visual options.

    You can even make it work with touch. But it's way more limiting. The blind guy I knew that used touch for memory had to do some serious planning ahead of time, because linking a memory to touch means (or did for him and me) actually generating a sensation. When you're at home it private, you can pinch or rub whatever and nobody cares. Pinch a nipple at the grocery store, and you might not be able to finish... the shopping.

    But! Touch is less durable than scent or sound. When I was messing around with it after working for the fellow that introduced the idea to me, I found that touch memory itself is very transient. Being able to recall a specific sensation of touch a month after the event is freaking hard, when possible (for me). And people that have tried it have told me that it's as hard or harder for them. Seems that human brains just don't hold onto touch the way they do other senses.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 weeks ago

    There are other roughly equivalent mnemonics for the imaginally visually impaired to play and experiment with. Maybe the sound based ones would work better?

    The Memory Palace method is honestly way way over represented in these kind of pop neuro shares imo, just because it sounds both "fancy" and "easy" but it can be neither just as easily.

    I found myself with a great and fancy tool to better remember that I forgot something behind one of the damn doors.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Dude, what about people without fingers /s

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Sometimes I also say it out loud or mouth the words.

    “Three eggs” can become a single word… that sounds way different than “two eggs” or “four eggs.” It flows together, and I can often remember the sounds I made with my mouth.

    I kind of form a new word in my head for what I’m looking for or going to do too. Three-eggs.

    Obviously I have lots of these!

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  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (1 child)

    I don't have aphantasia, but one friend tried explaining to me how a similar method works for remembering and studying university stuff. And holy shit I would rather read it 100 times than learning the method. It was so convoluted it was like if someone tried explaining the whole dnd player handbook skipping from one chapter to another, in ONE sitting.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago*

    Yes, you can invest a lot of time in learning systems.

    It's kind of the same impulse as researching art supplies for weeks and hours instead of picking up a pencil and starting to draw on scrap paper.

    That said, if you're memorizing anything OTHER than lists, the official Anki flashcard app is the boss.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

    I've a very very very good spatial memory and yet I've never been able to do the memory palace thing. No idea why.

    Meanwhile my wife has aphantasia too, but she is a fucking surgeon. How you become a surgeon without being able to visualise things?!

    I always thought the memory palace was just bullshit for Sherlock Holmes.

    Multi sensory triggers? Yeah, that works. But pure visual never seemed to work for me.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago

    i've got the same "aphantasia but good spatial memory" and what sometimes works for me is using the sense of proprioception to imagine a tether to e.g. the fridge or whatever thing i'm trying to remember, like i'm placing a mental limb on the object in question.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (1 child)

    I always thought the memory palace was just bullshit for Sherlock Holmes.

    I actually mentioned it because, combined with other things, it works for me.

    I can actually still picture the 3 eggs in my head that this person needed, in a triangle in the fridge. Extremely easily. In my mind it’s even kinda dark in there as an extra detail. Not pitch black, but dark.

    I use other things too when I’m cooking (hence the fingers at the end of the comment) because I’m busy, but that kind of visualization works for many people.

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