On memory palaces...
Feb. 15th, 2001 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpWARNING: Musing alert! What follows is a freewheel that may not have any point...I won't know until after I finish it and maybe let it sit for a few days.
The concept of a "memory palace" continues to intrigue me. Such a palace is a mental construct that provides the owner with a set of "places" to associate things to. (The formulation 'In the first place..." is said to have originated with ancient orators who literally would go from the "first place" in their mental labyrinth on to the second, third, etc. and fetch the associations to the points they were going to speak about.)
I gave some thought the other day to creating a virtual, Web-based memory palace, say, using some sort of 3D rendering technology, or VRML, but my last look at such software told me that the available tools (at least the accessible ones) were not up to the job. Of course, I could simply just construct the palace as a group of HTML pages, too, and that would be easy. There's just one thing...
The whole idea of a memory palace is to be able to remember (store) quantities of information for later retrieval. Aside from the benefit of working with information while casting it in a form suitable for Web representation (this kind of interaction helps you learn the material), and the ability to review and reinforce memory links while revisiting the pages, what would be the point of the exercise?
Almost certainly, the pages would be completely personal in nature, for that is the only way for them to be useful. In other words, a visitor - assuming he or she were let in - would probably not understand much of what was being displayed. But then again, this is not a bad thing.
Another difficultly has to do with implementing visual sequences. For example, when Polonius tells Ophelia "'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late given private time to you," I recall the following sequence of images to recollect the words:
Yeah, I know, I'm probably one sick puppy to have thought of this particular series of images, but the point is that this silly sequence of pictures is part of a longer sequence that has helped me learn that whole passage.
How do I systematize that? I'm no artist, and I don't have time to scour the Internet for suitable images to create rebuses.
Then again, maybe a table such as the one above is adequate?
I have to give this more thought. The idea of a personalized Web-based "memory palace" is interesting, but would it be worth it, from the perspective of time invested? And regardless of the time invested, would it work?
Cheers...
The concept of a "memory palace" continues to intrigue me. Such a palace is a mental construct that provides the owner with a set of "places" to associate things to. (The formulation 'In the first place..." is said to have originated with ancient orators who literally would go from the "first place" in their mental labyrinth on to the second, third, etc. and fetch the associations to the points they were going to speak about.)
I gave some thought the other day to creating a virtual, Web-based memory palace, say, using some sort of 3D rendering technology, or VRML, but my last look at such software told me that the available tools (at least the accessible ones) were not up to the job. Of course, I could simply just construct the palace as a group of HTML pages, too, and that would be easy. There's just one thing...
The whole idea of a memory palace is to be able to remember (store) quantities of information for later retrieval. Aside from the benefit of working with information while casting it in a form suitable for Web representation (this kind of interaction helps you learn the material), and the ability to review and reinforce memory links while revisiting the pages, what would be the point of the exercise?
Almost certainly, the pages would be completely personal in nature, for that is the only way for them to be useful. In other words, a visitor - assuming he or she were let in - would probably not understand much of what was being displayed. But then again, this is not a bad thing.
Another difficultly has to do with implementing visual sequences. For example, when Polonius tells Ophelia "'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late given private time to you," I recall the following sequence of images to recollect the words:
| 'Tis TOLD ME | a toll booth with the musical note "mi" paying to pass |
| he hath VERY OFT of LATE | the toll collector is a fairy (Tinkerbelle) spraying "OFF" insecticide on a bug shaped like the number 8 |
| given PRIVATE TIME to you | the 8 becomes a running track, around which a recruit in boot camp (private) is running, festooned with wristwatches (time) |
Yeah, I know, I'm probably one sick puppy to have thought of this particular series of images, but the point is that this silly sequence of pictures is part of a longer sequence that has helped me learn that whole passage.
How do I systematize that? I'm no artist, and I don't have time to scour the Internet for suitable images to create rebuses.
Then again, maybe a table such as the one above is adequate?
I have to give this more thought. The idea of a personalized Web-based "memory palace" is interesting, but would it be worth it, from the perspective of time invested? And regardless of the time invested, would it work?
Cheers...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2001-02-15 04:56 pm (UTC)I tend to remember things semi-photographically, or holographically or something. As a whole, pictorially (like being able to visualize a magazine page and knowing where to find something, but not in enough detail to be able to read it). I have a feeling that my method would fall apart quickly if I had a lot of stuff to commit to memory though. Which, luckily, I seldom have.
Now if I could only retrieve names as quickly as I can retrieve faces ;)
no subject
A few posts back, I mentioned the work of Aleksandr Luria, who studied a subject he referred to as "S" for many years. "S" was so good at creating imagery, that he could the most abstruse things for many years. Indeed, he seemed to have a problem forgetting things. He couldn't.
I am sure that's just as bad as not being able to remember, but all other things being equal, I'll take my chances with a better memory.
Cheers...