The best technique to remember many notions all together is the one used by the first inhabitants of Australia
The best technique to remember many notions all together is the one used by the first inhabitants of Australia
Other than the 'Palace of Memory': the best technique to remember many notions all together is the one used by the first inhabitants of Australia. This is the conclusion reached by a research group from Monash University (Australia) that suggests how this method can be even more useful to medical students and healthcare professionals in remembering long lists of words and notions.
The 'Palazzo della memoria' is a method used already in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, when people built mental maps by associating facts and data with certain characteristics of the house (the "palace") such as a carpet, a desk or a window. And even today students are offered this method if they have difficulty remembering.
- ancient Australian aboriginesinstead, they used a narrative technique, walking in nature and linking the names to a story that they themselves constructed from a visible feature, such as a rock or a plant. Although similar, the techniques differ in this story to be invented, which is not required in the Memory Palace.
The study was therefore conducted on 76 medical university students in rural Australia, divided into three groups, each of which should have memorized an identical list of 20 names of butterflies.
To start, all the students had to try to memorize the list but then one group was taught the ancient aboriginal method by an experienced Australian Aboriginal educator, another the 'Memory Palace' and the third tried to remember without any particular technique.
At the end of the experiment, both types of memory training allowed the students to remember the list better than the group who attempted on their own. But the group that learned the Australian Aboriginal technique made far fewer mistakes than those who used the other technique.
©PLOS ONE
After training, moreover, with the ancient aboriginal technique the students had almost three times as likely to remember the entire list in the second test, those who had learned the 'Palace of Memory' twice as much, while the others only improved by about 50% in the second attempt.
The results, however, are not maintained over time. 6 weeks later, in fact, the 'Palace of Memory' group remembered more than the first group, which indicates that the Aboriginal technique is extremely useful, but only if students continue to practice.
The sample size is small, the researchers are quick to point out, so it's hard to read too much into these results. From what has been seen, however, the Australian aboriginal method requires sustained practice and repeated exposure to the landscape to withhold information for more than one day.
This study reveals several subtle but important advantages for teaching the Australian Aboriginal memorization method over the more well-known 'Memory Palace' technique, the researchers conclude.
All of this further demonstrates that dedication is required for the best results, as well as an extraordinarily strong bond with the landscape.
The work was published on PLOS ONE.
Sources of reference: ScienceAlert / PLOS ONE
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