기억의 궁전

기억의 궁전은 마테오 리치부터 시작된 기억술 또는 기억법이다. 영국의 드라마 셜록에서 셜록이 사용하는 기억술로 큰 인기를 끌게 되었다.

만드는 방법

이 문서는 삭제가 신청되었습니다. (기여철회)

1. 궁전의 청사진을 그려라. 상상력만을 이용한 가상의 공간을 만들 수도 있지만, 게임 속 장소 같은 나에게 익숙한 곳이나 현실에 존재하는 곳을 이용하면 더 편하다. 예를 들어 자신의 방 같은 곳 말이다. 더 큰 궁전을 만들고 싶다면 자신의 집이나 성당, 마트 가는 길, 아니면 자신의 동네를 이용할 수도 있다. 궁전을 더 자세하고 더 크게 만들수록 저장할 수 있는 정보들은 더 많아진다.

2. 경로를 정해라. 어떤 것들을 순서대로 외워야 한다면, 궁전 안을 돌아다니는 특정한 경로를 정해야 한다. 그러므로, 자신의 궁전을 무엇으로 할 지 결정하고 난 후에는 이제 어떻게 그 안을 돌아다닐지 생각하라. 만약 순서대로 안 외워도 된다면, 이 단계를 굳이 할 필요는 없다. 하지만 궁전을 더 쉽게 암기할 수 있도록 도와주기 때문에 유용하긴 할 것이다.

3. 기억을 저장할 위치를 정해라. 우리가 기억의 궁전을 사용할 때, 기억들은 특정한 위치에 따로 따로 저장될 것이다. 그렇기 때문에, 필요한 만큼 많은 장소들을 정해놓아야 한다. 궁전이나 경로를 머릿 속에서 걸어보고, 한 번 관찰해 보아라. 만약 경로를 통해 기억을 저장할 것이라면, 기억 저장용 위치들은 길가의 건물들이나 랜드마크들을 사용하면 된다. 이웃의 집이라던지, 동상이라던지 하는 것들. 만약 진짜 궁전을 이용할 것이라면 다양한 방들 안에 기억들을 집어 넣으면 된다. 방 안에서는 가구나 그림 액자 같이 특정 위치들을 파악해 놓고 기억을 넣으면 되는데, 가장 중요한 건 하나 하나의 위치가 헷갈리지 않도록 모두 뚜렷하게 구별되어야 한다는 점이다.

4. Memorize your memory palace. For your memory palace to be effective, you need to commit it to memory perfectly. The best way to do this is to actually draw out a blueprint (or a map, if the palace is a route) which shows the landmarks or storage locations you have chosen. Try visualizing the palace when you are not there, and then check your mental image against the map to make sure you have remembered every location and put them in the correct order. Picture the landmarks in as much detail as possible: make sure your mental image includes their colors, sizes, smells, and any other defining characteristics.

5. Place things to be remembered in your palace. Once you have constructed your palace and have it firmly implanted in your mind, you are ready to use it. Put a manageable amount of information in each place. For example, if your palace is your house, and you are trying to remember a speech, you might place the first few sentences on your doormat and the next few in the keyhole of your door. Don’t put too much information in any one place, and if certain things must be kept separate from others, put them in different places. Make sure that you place things along your route in the order in which you need to remember them, if applicable.If you are a beginner, it is not a wise to pick up same kind of objects from different places of your mind palace to put different informations as it may confuse you.

6. Use symbols. You don’t necessarily need to put a whole string of words or numbers in a given location in order to be able to remember it, and trying to do so can be unwieldy and counterproductive. Generally, all you need to store in each location is something that will jog your memory, something that will lead you to the actual idea you’re trying to remember. Thus, if you are trying to remember a ship, picture an anchor on your couch. If the ship is the U.S.S. Wisconsin, picture the anchor made out of cheese. Symbols are shorthand and make memories more manageable, but they also can be more effective than picturing the actual thing you are trying to remember.

7. Be creative. The images you put in your palace should, obviously, be as memorable as possible. Generally, images will be more memorable if they are absurd (out of the ordinary) [see warnings] , or if they are attached to some strong emotion or personal experience. The number 124 is not particularly memorable, but an image of a spear shaped like the number 1, going through a swan (which looks like the number 2), and splitting the swan into 4 pieces is. Yes, it’s disturbing, but that’s part of what makes it stick in your mind.

8. Stock your palace with other mnemonics. There are many simpler mnemonics that you can use in combination with the memory palace. As an example, suppose you need to remember a great deal about music composition. As you enter your kitchen, you could see a little boy eating a piece of chocolate fudge, which would evoke the first-letter mnemonic “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge," which would in turn allow you to recall the order of notes on the lines in treble clef (EGBDF).

9. Explore your palace. Once you have stocked your palace with evocative images, you need to go through it and look at them. The more you explore your palace, the more easily you will recall its contents on demand. In your mind you want to see James Joyce, for example, sitting on your toilet as if he belonged there and was really an integral part of your bathroom décor.

10. Use your palace. Once you have memorized the contents of your palace you can recall them simply by mentally walking through it or looking around it. If you need to give a speech, just follow your route in order as you do so. If you need to remember that your girlfriend’s birthday is March 16, simply go into your bedroom and see the soldiers “marching" on the bed to the tune of the 80s cult classic “Sixteen Candles." With practice you will be able to start anywhere in your palace or along your route to recall a specific piece of information.

11. Build new palaces. A memory palace can be reused over and over again if you need only commit things to memory for a short time. Just replace the existing contents with new ones, and you’ll soon remember only the new ones. If you need to remember the contents of your palace for a long time, you can keep that palace as it is and create new ones in which to store other information as needed. If your house contains the phone numbers of everyone you know, you can walk to your workplace if you need to remember the order of a deck of cards.