The Method of Loci revisited: Memory enhancement by way of virtually augmented memory palaces
Reggente, N., Essoe, J., Mehta, P.*, Ohno, A.*, Rissman, J.
Humans have long appreciated that visuospatial cues can serve as a scaffolding for the encoding of non-spatial content. The Method of Loci (MoL), which binds objects to a spatial context in one’s mental imagery, has been the favored mnemonic strategy of memory champions since Ancient Greece. In this work, we created a virtual reality implementation of the MoL to tease apart the factors that contribute to the MoL’s undeniable efficacy as a memory enhancement technique. We crafted three distinct virtual environments where subjects could view objects. Subjects that were told to place items at locations of their choosing recalled significantly more objects than subjects who only viewed the objects. We also addressed the contributions of volition and contextual richness to recall strength.
View the poster, presented at ICOM in Budapest (2016)
Philosophy & Neuroscience 