The method of loci: its history, and why it works
The method of loci (Latin for “method of places”) is a technique for memorizing information by attaching it to precise points along a route you know very well. It's also known as the memory palace, or the mind palace made famous by Sherlock Holmes.
It isn't a stage trick. It's the technique ancient orators used to hold hours-long speeches in their heads, and it still underlies the performances of memory champions today. Here is where it comes from, and why it works so well.
A story that begins with a collapse
The legend of the method's origin is told by Cicero in De Oratore and goes back to the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos, in the 5th century BCE. Simonides had been invited to a banquet to recite a poem in honor of his host, but devoted part of the verses to two gods, Castor and Pollux. Offended, the host paid him only half the agreed fee, telling him to collect the rest from the two gods.
Shortly after, a messenger called Simonides outside: two young men were looking for him. He stepped out and found no one, and at that moment the roof of the hall collapsed, killing everyone inside. The bodies were unrecognizable, but Simonides identified each of them simply by remembering where they had been sitting at the table.
From that episode, according to Cicero, Simonides concluded that whoever wants to train this faculty must choose places and form mental images of the things to remember, setting them down in those places. It's the whole method in miniature: anchor things to a position in space instead of trying to remember them directly.
From Roman orators to the Renaissance
The method was codified in the Rhetorica ad Herennium (1st century BCE), the oldest surviving manual that describes it, and taken up by Cicero and Quintilian as a tool for oratory: a speech was divided into parts, and each part was placed in a room of an imaginary building.
The tradition, known as ars memoriae, ran through the Middle Ages, when monks used it to memorize texts, and the Renaissance, with figures like Giulio Camillo and his “memory theater” or Giordano Bruno. With the spread of printing, memorizing became less necessary and the art was gradually forgotten.
It came back in the 20th century with the memory championships, where every top competitor uses memory palaces to memorize decks of cards and thousands of digits. Joshua Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein (2011), the story of a journalist who became US memory champion in a year, brought it back to a wide audience.
Why it works: the cognitive explanation
There's nothing magical about it: the method is well explained by what we know about how the brain encodes information.
Spatial memory is a privileged channel
Navigating space and remembering routes are evolutionarily ancient abilities, handled largely by the hippocampus, the same region involved in forming long-term memories.
Dual coding beats single coding
An abstract word leaves only one trace, the verbal one. A vivid image tied to a specific place leaves at least two, a visual one and a spatial one, which reinforce each other.
The unusual is remembered better
The brain prioritizes whatever stands out: this is the distinctiveness effect (or Von Restorff effect). An elephant playing the piano in your living room is far more memorable than a generic “elephant”.
The order comes for free
In a list, the order is one more piece of information to hold on to. In a route, the order is simply the sequence of rooms: you can't skip one.
Research confirms it: in a 2017 study published in Neuron, people with ordinary memories who trained with the method for 40 days more than doubled the number of words they could remember. The article on the memory palace for studying goes through the evidence.
History is nice, but the method is learned by doing: try it now on a ready-made route.
Try it now →Frequently asked questions
Who invented the method of loci?
According to legend, the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos, in the 5th century BCE, as Cicero tells it in De Oratore. The oldest surviving description is in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, from the 1st century BCE.
Why is it called the “memory palace”?
Because the route along which you place the images is often imagined as a building with many rooms. Any familiar route works: your home, a street, your commute.
Does science confirm that it works?
Yes. It relies on spatial memory and on vivid, distinctive images, both well documented, and studies show that people with ordinary memories improve a lot after a few weeks of practice.