The world's oldest memory technique, and how to use it:

Around 500 BC, the Greek poet Simonides stepped out of a dinner party to receive a message. When he returned, he found the roof caved in and every other guest crushed among the ruins. Worse still, the corpses were so disfigured that it was impossible for family members to identify their dead. That's when Simonides stepped in and offered to name every last person. How? He remembered the positions they'd been seated in around the table.

A history of memory techniques and training: 500 BC to 2015 AD

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Around 500 BC, the Greek poet Simonides stepped out of a dinner party to receive a message. When he returned, he found the roof caved in and every other guest crushed among the ruins. Worse still, the corpses were so disfigured that it was impossible for family members to identify their dead. That's when Simonides stepped in and offered to name every last person. How? He remembered the positions they'd been seated in around the table. Thus was born the method of loci, the world's oldest and arguably most famous memory technique — but far from the only. If you've ever wanted to train your memory, then you're in good company. From the visualization techniques of the Classical age to modern software-based training programs, here's how different methods for approaching memory have evolved through the millennia. Memory training in ancient times: the "mind palace" Simonides' method of loci (from the Latin for "place") is based on one simple insight: people have a far better memory for the tangible (physical spaces, images) than they have for the abstract (numbers, words, ideas). To employ the method of loci, simply pick a physical space and populate it with vivid representations of whatever you want to remember. And because you're wired to notice new, unusual things, the odder these images, the better. Let's say you have a simple to-do list: buy a bag of oranges, then pick up a dog at the pound. First, imagine your house. Now imagine a man in a skintight orange jumpsuit standing by your front door with a bag over his head (that's your bag of oranges). Beyond him in the next room, picture the world's tiniest, one-pound dog sitting on a scale. You've now created a "mind house" that will make your to-do list very hard to forget — and you can use the same technique to create mind schools, streets, or even palaces. The method of loci was first recorded in 55 BC by Cicero, a Roman orator renowned for thunderous, 5,000-plus-word speeches, which he likely memorized using mind palaces of his own. Memory techniques were ubiquitous during the Classical age, thanks to the rarity of books and a strong oral tradition. Cicero claimed that even the most "dull-witted" could aspire to great feats of memory. For the next thousand years or so, the method of loci remained a fundamental pillar of intellectual life, surviving the rise and fall of several empires. But sometime in the middle of the second millennium it disappeared from popular use, referenced only as a curiosity in books and TV shows. Why? Enter the age of the book, exit the age of the long-form memory In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented Europe's first printing press. The price of books dropped, the availability of information rose, and the once-great art of memory ceased to be very useful. To be a great thinker, one had only to be a great reader, not a great rememberer. The old techniques for long-form memorization were relegated to mere curiosities and parlor tricks; but then in 1890, a new memory training program called Pelmanism arose. Pelmanism consisted of a dozen little grey books targeting the needs of the current age: memory for facts and dates rather than long speeches, creative imagination, moral courage, and more. The course delivered a mix of common-sense memory advice, early psychology, and logic puzzles through the mail. Thousands of people filled out the questionnaires in their Pelman books and sent them back for instructor feedback. This pen-and-paper exchange was an exciting new way to capitalize on the ubiquity of books and the increased speed at which information could travel. At its height, Pelmanism spawned Pelman Institutes in 11 countries and was used by a Swedish prince and British Prime Minister. Memory training in the age of neuroscience Cicero and other scholars of antiquity spoke only of the "mind" in relation to memory. But with the birth of modern neuroscience in the 20th century, more and more scholars began to speak of the "brain" — the physical house of memory. They spoke of "neurons" (brain cells) and "neurotransmitters" (chemical signals in the brain), deepening and demystifying their understanding of memory. In 2003, equipped with brain scanning technology, a researcher named Eleanor Maguire studied several modern-day Simonideses in the lab. Ten "mental athletes" from the World Memory Championship, which includes events such as memorizing entire decks of cards, were asked to memorize some simple facts. Both mental athletes and normal people activated areas of the brain linked to memory — no surprise there. But oddly enough, the mental athletes also activated two brain areas related to visual memory and spatial navigation, confirming what Simonides had discovered thousands of years earlier. The scientific and technological advances of the last few decades haven't just informed a deeper understanding of ancient memory techniques; they've also paved the way for new memory training methods. Today's memory training programs are encoded in bytes and clouds. Where practitioners of Pelmanism waited weeks for instructor feedback to arrive through the mail, an online or software-based program can use automated algorithms to provide instant evaluation and adaptation. The ease and transmissibility of the digital age have also dispersed these training programs to tens of millions of people — making them perhaps more widely used than Simonides' techniques. As a Lumosity member, know that you're the cultural descendent of a long, rich history of scholars and speakers, politicians and nobility. And now that you have a better idea of how memory training has changed through the ages, try combining the old with the new: play a Lumosity Memory game like Familiar Faces and see if Simonides' techniques can help you get even further in your training.

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