Memory techniques adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises

Method of loci

Method of loci

The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses <a href="/en/Mental_image" title="Mental image" class="wl">visualizations</a> of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey method, memory spaces, or mind palace technique. This method is a <a href="/en/Mnemonic" title="Mnemonic" class="wl">mnemonic</a> device adopted in <a href="/en/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome" class="wl">ancient Roman</a> and <a href="/en/Ancient_Greece" title="Ancient Greece" class="wl">Greek</a> rhetorical treatises (in the anonymous <a href="/en/Rhetorica_ad_Herennium" title="Rhetorica ad Herennium" class="wl">Rhetorica ad Herennium</a>, <a href="/en/Cicero" title="Cicero" class="wl">Cicero</a>'s <a href="/en/De_Oratore" title="De Oratore" class="wl">De Oratore</a>, and <a href="/en/Quintilian" title="Quintilian" class="wl">Quintilian</a>'s <a href="/en/Institutio_Oratoria" title="Institutio Oratoria" class="wl">Institutio Oratoria</a>). Many <a href="/en/Memory_sport" title="Memory sport" class="wl">memory contest</a> champions report using this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words.<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Memory techniques adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises</div>
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<figure class="mw-default-size wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:M-T-Cicero.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:M-T-Cicero.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/M-T-Cicero.jpg/220px-M-T-Cicero.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="709" data-file-height="953" data-file-type="bitmap" height="296" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/M-T-Cicero.jpg/330px-M-T-Cicero.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/M-T-Cicero.jpg/440px-M-T-Cicero.jpg 2x" alt="M-T-Cicero.jpg"></a><figcaption><a href="/en/Cicero" title="Cicero" class="wl">Cicero</a> discussed the method of loci in his <a href="/en/De_Oratore" title="De Oratore" class="wl">De Oratore</a>.</figcaption></figure>


The term is most often found in specialised works on <a href="/en/Psychology" title="Psychology" class="wl">psychology</a>, <a href="/en/Neurobiology" title="Neurobiology" class="mw-redirect wl">neurobiology</a>, and <a href="/en/Memory" title="Memory" class="wl">memory</a>, though it was used in the same general way at least as early as the first half of the nineteenth century in works on <a href="/en/Rhetoric" title="Rhetoric" class="wl">rhetoric</a>, <a href="/en/Logic" title="Logic" class="wl">logic</a>, and <a href="/en/Philosophy" title="Philosophy" class="wl">philosophy</a>.<a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a> <a href="/en/John_O'Keefe_(neuroscientist)" title="John O'Keefe (neuroscientist)" class="wl">John O'Keefe</a> and <a href="/en/Lynn_Nadel" title="Lynn Nadel" class="wl">Lynn Nadel</a> refer to:<blockquote>... "the method of loci", an imaginal technique known to the ancient Greeks and Romans and described by <a href="/en/Frances_Yates" title="Frances Yates" class="wl">Yates</a> (1966) in her book <a href="/en/The_Art_of_Memory" title="The Art of Memory" class="wl">The Art of Memory</a> as well as by <a href="/en/Alexander_Luria" title="Alexander Luria" class="wl">Luria</a> (1969). In this technique the subject memorizes the layout of some building, or the arrangement of shops on a street, or any geographical entity which is composed of a number of discrete loci. When desiring to remember a set of items the subject 'walks' through these loci in their imagination and commits an item to each one by forming an image between the item and any feature of that locus. Retrieval of items is achieved by 'walking' through the loci, allowing the latter to activate the desired items. The efficacy of this technique has been well established (Ross and Lawrence 1968, Crovitz 1969, 1971, Briggs, Hawkins and Crovitz 1970, Lea 1975), as is the minimal interference seen with its use.<a href="#cite_note-cognitivemap-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;">[2]</a></blockquote>

The items to be remembered in this mnemonic system are mentally associated with specific physical locations.<a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;">[3]</a> The method relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content. It is also known as the "Journey Method", used for storing lists of related items, or the "Roman Room" technique, which is most effective for storing unrelated information.[<a href="/en/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" class="wl">citation needed</a>]

The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey method, memory spaces, or mind palace technique. This method is a mnemonic device  adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises . Many memory contest champions report using this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words. 

The term is most often found in specialised works on psychology, neurobiology, and memory, though it was used in the same general way at least as early as the first half of the nineteenth century in works on rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. John O'Keefe and Lynn Nadel refer to: The items to be remembered in this mnemonic system are mentally associated with specific physical locations. 