What Is the Method of Loci?

The method of loci is a memory technique in which you place mental images of the things you want to remember at locations along a route you know well, such as the rooms of your home. To recall them, you take an imaginary walk and "see" each item where you left it. It is better known today as the memory palace.

Origin

The method is ancient. Roman authors told the story of the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos, who left a banquet hall just before its roof collapsed and was able to identify the victims by remembering where each guest had been sitting. The technique was taught as part of rhetoric so orators could deliver long speeches without notes. It is described in the Rhetorica ad Herennium (around 80 BC) and by Cicero and Quintilian. Loci is Latin for "places."

The method is still the main tool of competitive memory athletes. Dresler and colleagues (2017) found that ordinary people who trained with the method of loci for six weeks substantially improved their word-list recall, and that their brain connectivity patterns shifted toward those of memory champions.

How it works

1. Choose a route you can walk in your mind without effort: your apartment, your commute, your school.
2. Fix the stations in a set order, such as front door, coat hook, kitchen table, sink, window. Start with ten.
3. Create a vivid image for each item and place it at a station. Exaggerated, moving, funny images work best.
4. Walk the route in your mind to recall the items in order.
5. Review the walk after a day and a few days later, as with any memory.

It works because humans have excellent spatial memory, and because the route provides ready-made retrieval cues and an order. It is also a strong form of dual coding: verbal items are turned into images.

A vocabulary example

Why it matters (and its limits) for learning words

The memory palace is excellent for ordered lists and for memorizing a fixed set quickly. For vocabulary, its main strength is creating a strong first link between a word and a meaning, often combined with the keyword method for the sound.

Its limits are real:

• Building good images takes time, often longer per word than a simple flashcard.
• Abstract words (notwithstanding, hence) are hard to picture.
• A palace tells you the meaning, not the grammar, collocations or register.
• Reusing the same palace for many lists causes interference.

For building thousands of words over months, spaced repetition, recall practice and reading do more of the work. The palace is a specialist tool, best for exam lists or words that refuse to stick.

Common mistakes

• Vague images. "A dry thing at the door" will not survive a day; make it vivid and specific.
• Too many items per station. One image per location.
• Skipping review. Even a palace fades along the forgetting curve.
• Stopping at the image. Once a word is recalled, use it in a sentence so it becomes real vocabulary.

For an overview of memory techniques for words, see how to remember new words.

Sources: Yates, F. A. (1966). The Art of Memory. Dresler, M., et al. (2017). Mnemonic training reshapes brain networks to support superior memory. Neuron.