Memory Palace: The King of Memory Techniques

Six weeks of training. That's how long it took ordinary people to more than double their memory capacity and develop brain connectivity patterns resembling those of world memory champions. The technique they learned was the Memory Palace.

I've used this method to memorize the 50 U.S. states in alphabetical order (in about 20 minutes), all eight books of The Witcher series using my local boba tea shop, and five statistics topics using a mental top-down view of my state's capitol building. Weeks later, I can still recall any of these lists forwards, backwards, or from any starting point.

The Memory Palace isn't a trick or a shortcut. It's a systematic method that works with how your brain naturally processes information. And unlike many "memory hacks," it has serious research backing it up.

What Is a Memory Palace?

A Memory Palace is a mental structure you build from a place you know well. You mentally walk through this location and "place" vivid images representing the information you want to remember at specific spots along your route. To recall the information, you simply retrace your mental steps.

The technique goes by several names. "Method of Loci" (loci is Latin for "places") is the term you'll find in research papers. "Journey Method" emphasizes the route aspect. "Mind Palace" became popular through the TV series Sherlock. They all describe the same core approach.

The origins trace back over 2,500 years. According to the Roman orator Cicero, the technique was discovered by the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos after a building collapsed during a banquet. Simonides found he could identify the victims by remembering where each guest had been sitting. He realized that spatial memory could anchor other memories, and the Method of Loci was born.

Roman and Greek orators used it to deliver hours-long speeches without notes. Today, nearly all competitors at the World Memory Championships use some version of the technique. But you don't need to compete. The same method that lets someone memorize a shuffled deck of cards in under a minute can help you remember a presentation, study material, or a list of tasks.

Why It Works: The Neuroscience

The Memory Palace isn't just an ancient tradition; it's backed by modern brain research. Several factors explain its effectiveness.

Spatial memory is robust. Your brain has dedicated neural systems for remembering where things are. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure in the temporal lobe, is heavily involved in both spatial navigation and memory formation. When you use a Memory Palace, you're leveraging this powerful spatial system to anchor abstract information.

Brain imaging confirms the effect. Studies of memory athletes show that when they use the Method of Loci, they activate brain regions involved in spatial awareness: the hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex, and retrosplenial cortex. These are the same regions that light up when you navigate a familiar environment. The Memory Palace literally recruits your brain's navigation system for memorization.

Training changes the brain. In a landmark 2017 study, researchers at Radboud University compared 23 world-ranked memory athletes to matched controls. They found distinctive patterns of brain connectivity in the athletes. More remarkably, when they trained ordinary people in the Method of Loci for six weeks (30 minutes daily), the trainees' brain connectivity patterns shifted to resemble those of the champions. The similarity predicted how well their memory improved, and the effects lasted at least four months after training ended.

It creates durable memories. Follow-up research showed that memories formed using the Method of Loci aren't just stronger initially; they're more resistant to forgetting. The technique appears to enhance memory consolidation, the process by which short-term memories become long-term ones.

How to Build Your First Memory Palace

The best way to understand the Memory Palace is to build one. Here's a step-by-step approach.

Step 1: Choose a Familiar Location

Start with a place you know extremely well. Your home is ideal for your first palace. You've walked through it thousands of times; the layout is automatic. Other good options include your workplace, a route you walk regularly, a childhood home, or (as I've used) a favorite local business.

The key is that you can mentally "see" the space clearly and walk through it in a consistent order. If you have to think about what comes next, choose somewhere more familiar.

Step 2: Identify Your Stations (Loci)

Walk through your chosen location, either physically or mentally, and identify 10-15 distinct spots that will serve as your "stations" or loci. These should be clearly different from each other and spaced out enough that you won't confuse them.

For a home, you might use: front door, coat closet, hallway mirror, living room couch, coffee table, TV, kitchen doorway, refrigerator, stove, kitchen table, back door. Notice how these follow a natural path through the space.

For my Witcher series palace (the boba tea shop), I used: entrance mat, the four corners, and the three walls opposite the door. Eight stations for eight books.

Step 3: Practice Walking the Route

Before you try to memorize anything, mentally walk through your stations several times. The route should become completely automatic. You want zero mental effort spent figuring out "what comes next" so all your attention can go to the information you're encoding.

This is also a good time to notice details. What does each station look like? What textures, colors, or features stand out? These details will help you create vivid interactions later.

Step 4: Create Vivid Images for Your Information

Now comes the creative part. For each item you want to remember, create a visual image. If the information is abstract, use a substitute image based on what the word sounds like or what it represents.

For example, when I memorized statistics topics for a revie course, "data types" became a Data (the humanoid robot from Star Trek: The Next Generation) typing on a giant keyboard (data entry). "Distributions" was Walt Disney tripping (Dis-trib). The images don't need to be logical; they need to be memorable. They are hooks, reminders.

Make your images vivid, unusual, or even absurd. A banana sitting on a table is forgettable. A giant banana wearing a top hat and dancing on the table sticks in your mind. Exaggeration, humor, action, and weirdness all help.

Step 5: Place Each Image at a Station

Here's where the magic happens. Take your first image and mentally place it at your first station, but don't just set it there. Make it interact with the location.

If your first station is your front door and you're trying to remember "Alabama" (using an image of Bam-Bam from The Flintstones), don't just picture Bam-Bam standing near the door. Picture him hitting "Al" Bundy (or any other TV or movie character you can picture named Al) over the head with his club. The interaction creates a stronger memory.

Continue through your route, placing one image at each station with a vivid interaction. Take your time. Rushing weakens the encoding.

Step 6: Retrieve by Walking the Route

To recall your list, simply walk mentally through your palace. As you "arrive" at each station, the image you placed there should pop into view. The image reminds you of the information it represents.

When I want to recall the Witcher books in order, I mentally walk into my local boba shop. In the corner to the right of the door, I see Will Smith as the genie from Aladdin (2019) reading from a giant list. This reminds me of "The Last Wish" (List = Last; Genie = Wish). And so on through the eight stations.

Tips for Making It Work

Keep your route consistent. Always walk through in the same order. The fixed sequence is what guarantees you won't forget items or mix up their order.

Use real locations first. Some memory athletes create entirely fictional palaces, but that adds complexity. Start with places you've actually been. You can branch into imaginary locations once you're comfortable with the technique.

Make interactions physical. Don't just "see" an image near a location. Have it sitting on, hanging from, smashing into, or otherwise physically interacting with that spot. Interactions are stickier than proximity.

Review once or twice. After placing all your images, walk through the palace one or two more times to reinforce the encoding. This takes just a minute or two and significantly strengthens recall.

Don't worry about "overwriting." A common concern: "If I use my house for one list, won't it interfere with other lists?" In practice, this is rarely a problem for different types of information. The context helps keep them separate. But if you're memorizing many similar lists, you'll want multiple palaces.

Aphantasia isn't necessarily a barrier. Some people have difficulty forming visual mental images. If that's you, the technique may still work using spatial or conceptual associations rather than vivid pictures. The spatial encoding seems to be the key factor, not the visual vividness per se. Many people with aphantasia have reported success with modified approaches.

What the Memory Palace Is Good For

The technique excels at ordered information: speeches, lists, sequences, study material with a specific structure. When I memorized the 50 states in alphabetical order, the palace preserved not just the states but their exact sequence. I can recite them forward, backward, or starting from any state.

It's also excellent for large amounts of information. Memory competitors use it to memorize hundreds of digits or multiple decks of cards. Students use it for anatomy terms, legal codes, historical dates, vocabulary, and anything else that benefits from reliable recall.

Where it's less suited: information that changes constantly, unstructured content where order doesn't matter, or very small amounts of data where simpler methods work fine. You don't need a palace to remember three items; a quick mental image or Link Method chain works better for short lists.

And remember: the Memory Palace handles encoding. For retention over the long term, you'll want to combine it with spaced repetition. Review your palace at strategic intervals, and those memories can last indefinitely.

Getting Started

The only way to learn this technique is to try it. Pick a list of 10 items you want to remember, choose a familiar location, and walk through the process above. Most people are surprised by how well it works on the first attempt.

For a detailed worked example, see my case study: How I Memorized the 50 U.S. States.

Once you've built one successful palace, you'll start seeing locations everywhere. That coffee shop could hold your project milestones. That hiking trail could store a lecture outline. The more palaces you build, the more capacity you have.

The technique has been working for over two millennia. It works today because human brains haven't changed: we're still wired to remember places. The Memory Palace puts that wiring to work for whatever you need to learn.

References

1. Dresler, M., Shirer, W.R., Konrad, B.N., et al. (2017). "Mnemonic Training Reshapes Brain Networks to Support Superior Memory." Neuron, 93(5), 1227-1235. Free full text at PMC
Researcher's Note: This landmark study compared 23 world-ranked memory athletes to matched controls and then trained ordinary people in the Method of Loci for six weeks. Trainees more than doubled their word recall (from 26 to 62 words out of 72) and developed brain connectivity patterns resembling those of memory champions. The effects persisted four months later. This is the strongest evidence that the Memory Palace works and that anyone can learn it.

2. Ondřej, M., Kuruc, M., et al. (2025). "The method of loci in the context of psychological research: A systematic review and meta-analysis." British Journal of Psychology. Wiley Online Library
Researcher's Note: This comprehensive 2025 meta-analysis reviewed decades of research on the Method of Loci. The authors confirmed that the technique is highly effective for enhancing recall in adults, supported by consistent activation of brain regions involved in spatial memory and navigation (hippocampus, parahippocampus, retrosplenial cortex). They also noted that training can induce structural and functional brain changes.

3. Yates, F.A. (1966). The Art of Memory. University of Chicago Press. Free full text
Researcher's Note: This scholarly classic traces the history of memory techniques from ancient Greece through the Renaissance. Yates documents how the Method of Loci was central to rhetoric, education, and even religious practice for over two thousand years. The book remains a definitive historical account of the technique's origins and evolution. (Wikipedia)

4. Wagner, I.C., Konrad, B.N., Schuster, P., et al. (2021). "Durable memories and efficient neural coding through mnemonic training using the method of loci." Science Advances, 7(10). Free full text at PMC
Researcher's Note: This follow-up to the Dresler 2017 study examined why Memory Palace training creates lasting memories. The researchers found that the technique enhances memory consolidation through hippocampal-neocortical coupling during rest periods after learning. In other words, the method doesn't just help encoding; it helps the brain convert new learning into durable long-term memories.

5. Maguire, E.A., Valentine, E.R., Wilding, J.M., & Kapur, N. (2003). "Routes to remembering: The brains behind superior memory." Nature Neuroscience, 6(1), 90-95. PubMed
Researcher's Note: This early brain imaging study of memory champions found that 90% of top memorizers used the Method of Loci. Crucially, the study found no evidence of exceptional innate memory or structural brain differences in the champions. Their superior performance appeared to come entirely from learned technique, not natural talent.

Published: 04/01/2008
Last Updated: 01/10/2026