It's basically impossible to run out of space. You can always go on a hike someplace to get another palace or journey. You can also reuse palaces in different contexts or weathers. For example, imagine it's all underwater, or it's snowing. You can create imaginary palaces as you gain skill.
Getting started phase: was 15 min a day. Over-hyped phase: for some memory "projects" maybe 30 min a day. Now: I just use memory tricks all day long without really training. However every day, for the last 30 min of work I try to recall everything that was important that day (free recall). At the start of the workday I recall the top-3 things to work on.
If you want to learn more about indigenous memory techniques read: "Memory Craft" by Dr. Lynne Kelly and "Sand Talk" by one of the authors of the experiment in question.
> Do you ever "refactor" you maps to show updated understanding? Or do you find that this happens naturally?
Yes. I often add on things. So let's say I read a book and years later I realize that the author omitted something very important (IMHO). Then, I just add that knowledge to the appropriate room. I naturally remember what was or wasn't part of the book. With these systems you're training your mind to think a specific sequence of thoughts (in the act of recalling the experience of your mind palace). With training even the recall becomes fast. However,... you can't easy delete (not after rehearsing something for years). It's about as easy to delete something as it is to change a bad habit. It's just easier to make new habits (or add new information).
> Do connections between different areas stand out or form?
This is one of the coolest things that happens. A kind of thinking becomes possible that isn't available without the "whole topic" loaded in mind. You can see broad expansive connections. One fun activity (that you can do right now with two decks of flash cards) is to compare and contrast different books. Mentally walk both of them simultaneously forwards and backwards. You'll see how the connect and differ.
> Do you have examples of notices patterns or structure in knowledge because of it?
Sure
First with encoding... _where_ things occur in your memory palace is "free" information. So some people when learning foreign languages store different genders in different cities. Say you're trying to recall the gender of Boot (boat in German). You think, "where is that boot shaped like a boat?" instantly you know it's in a cafe in Williamsburg which is where you put all the "das" verbs making it "das Boot".
You say you're encoding the periodic table, if you put all the columns in the same room, you know instantly that you could replace your Gallium doping with Indium in your Si wafer (in this toy example).
If you want to learn the party trick of knowing which day of the week someone was born on. You can either get good at mental math and learn the equation and calculate it. Or, you can make a system of rooms in which you stick people who represent all the possible years to "cache" part of the calculation. Then the problem reduces to addition of small numbers.
In the renascence there was a standardized system of memorized hand symbols to recall music. For guitar you can memorize fingerings by creating a person action object system in a way that tells you the fingering, the string and the fret number in one image. You can then use this to memorize classical music. With music you are going from conscious to unconscious procedural memory. But you can "double encode" using memory palaces and systems for a "backup". (It can actually help you learn it faster because you can get rid of sheet music)
I started by working through: "How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 50 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills" by Dominic O'Brien. It's got 50 short doable activities. That's a great way to start. After that check out Lynne Kelly and Nelson Dellis
Great idea. I do this in a notebook. Left page: a list of items to recall, right page: a quick sketch of the palace. Rooms are simple squares. If I can't go back to the palace, then I paste in some printed photos.
I used to try to do that. Now I keep a list of potential palaces and do everything just-in-time.
Preparing a memory palace is just yet another skill. At first it seems like a big "job" to do. Later, it's like nothing, you float through it once, done. Especially if you reuse systems like Roman room because that makes a lot of decisions by rules.
Also because you're trying to link knowledge to what you know well you don't need to have amazing recall of the place. Just a sense of a room that you know about, eventually will be enough. If you can recall furniture or whatever, then use that it will help. But if you're straining to recall... you might not get much additional benefit by trying to photographically document the space in your mind.
> So, for the sake of etymology I guess it would not be visualise but factualize or some other word.
In terms of the process, it's like imagining something using all of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, balance. You want to make the abstract concrete so you're recalling an experience.
Yes. There have been many follow up interviews with these researchers. It's an early "is this interesting" proof-of-concept study. But, they are getting funding for a study which should generate more reliable data.
Dr. Lynne Kelley the author of The Memory Code and Memory Craft has it. She uses memory palaces. With aphantasia you still have a hippocampus so thinking about the concept of space to encode info works just the same. :)
Yes. Some people chain together small locations that in aggregate serve as a large palace
> Many bullet points per location?
At first I used the "roman room method" which put 10 items per room. Later, I store "memories within the memories" which is like zooming into a single item that itself serves as a mini-palace. For example, maybe Mr Rogers is in a room. I can zoom into him and he could have something on his head, in his mouth, on each hand, etc and he could store an additional 10 ideas.
> Very big memory palaces?
They are places I've been like houses with 5-10 rooms. I tried using the British Museum because it has google street view.
The key to memory is link ideas to what you already know well.
>do you memorise as you read, or do you take notes and learn those?
I've tried both. If it's a "concept book" then I read it once, take short short notes of only 3-5 bullet points per chapter, then memorize those at the end.
With "course/class/do-it" books where you're learning by doing and spending a long time with the book, I paper clip a folded sheet of paper in the book and do it on the fly.
> any guides that you found particularly useful?
I'll share some below. One point to share is that this is a skill (like bike riding). So studying the method (at first) is almost useless. Just try it, learn by doing. Answer your own questions by doing the experiments yourself. Start with memorizing something you actually care about. You will totally suck at first, and rapidly improve. :)
I've tried both approaches. Some palaces are one topic only. Others have been reused >5 times. With the reused palaces, with intention you can sequential recall just that topic. It's the same as having a party at your house. You don't confuse what happened at the party versus what happened when you were just cleaning your flat.
With "random access" memory within a multi-use palaces, then, there is a little mixing. Sometimes you are thinking about a topic, the mind "goes" to the appropriate palace and then you recall maybe all the various unrelated topics, but your mind focuses on what matters. In the mixing, topics take a mythological feeling because the characters within them are involved in so many stories. Like fables or comic books.
Augustine of Hippo (later Saint Augustine) from 354 AD:
And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of my memory, where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses. … When I enter there, I require what I will to be brought forth, and something instantly comes; others must be longer sought after, which are fetched, as it were, out of some inner receptacle; others rush out in troops, and while one thing is desired and required, they start forth, as who should say, “Is it perchance I?” These I drive away with the hand of my heart, from the face of my remembrance; until what I wish for be unveiled, and appear in sight, out of its secret place. Other things come up readily, in unbroken order, as they are called for; those in front making way for the following; and as they make way, they are hidden from sight, ready to come when I will. All which takes place when I repeat a thing by heart.
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