The little people have returned to my home. It’s the Method of Loci, a cognitive activity that attempts to increase long-term memory by creating mental connections with vivid visuals. The premise goes that the practitioner creates a memorable image that incorporates all of the components that need to be memorized. Oftentimes these memorable images involve people in your private space, for some odd reason. Even more odd, they all seem to be just casually and happily hanging out.
What works for me…
I know that many people find value in such exercises. After all, there are books about these sorts of things AND people that buy these books. I’ve always had a pretty good memory anyway. That’s one of my characteristics that made lower level education very easy. But as I’ve had to remember more and more things throughout life, I’ve developed very different strategies than the Method of Loci.
For me, imagining an impossible scenario is too distracting for me to remember the initial information. I get too side-tracked. When I want to remember something, I have two methods I employ, depending upon the type of information I need to recall. If it’s quick, short-term info such as a shopping list, I just force myself to say out loud how many items I need to buy. If I need milk, eggs, toothpaste, and garbanzo beans, then I audibly say, “Four things, four things, four things” in the car right before I go into the store. It works for me.
But for the hard stuff…
But Method of Loci followers could quickly point out that my grocery list was never intended for long-term, conceptual memory – – – the type of memory that Method of Loci aims to invigorate. And that’s right. For conceptual information that I need to retain long-term, I have a different strategy. It take more effort, but it hasn’t failed me. I simply look at the concepts I am supposed to remember, and I tell myself that I am NOT supposed to memorize them. Instead, I must LEARN them.
Here’s what I mean. When I encounter difficult information, whether it be in tax law or evolutionary theory, I stop what I’m doing and read it again. I either connect it to something I have observed previously or I go online and read more about it until I understand it. I find that when I understand a concept, I don’t have to memorize it.
Helping others acquire knowledge
Similarly, in the classroom, I try to teach for understanding and application, hopefully even evaluation. I honestly don’t encourage gathering large amounts of knowledge. I encourage embracing the process of seeking understanding.
As a science teacher, there are very few things more rewarding than to discuss concepts with students and *then* back fill with vocabulary and the names of the original theorist. Sure, I do utilize analogies and metaphors in my instruction. But the parallel “story” has to be real and make sense to me. I’m much more successful with understanding ideas through an analogous concept or process as opposed to gathering a bunch of unrelated objects in my mind.
I’ve noticed that in my instructional design, I tend to gravitate toward *real* pictures, *real* examples. In my opinion, that media communicates much more strongly than forcing disconnected events to somehow connect. In my Project B, I utilized as many real images as I could find and create. Unfortunately, the world being turned upside down prevented me from gaining a true instructional designer/client relationship. My husband did his best to create expectations for me to meet, but I know that I still need to experience the real thing.
Grrowing Ideas 