
The Secrets of Sherlock’s Mind Palace - walterbell
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secrets-sherlocks-mind-palace-180949567/?no-ist
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tzs
(I've not watched _Sherlock_ , so this is just going from the article)

The description of Sherlock wandering through his mind palace as if it were
some kind of virtual reality reminds me of what I experienced during a bad
acid trip in college. If I looked at some object and tried to remember details
about it I would "see" this multidimensional spatial array of all similar
objects that I had in my memory with them sorted along each dimension by some
attribute of the objects, and then I could "see" a search take place along
each dimension to find the memory that best matched the object I was looking
at. When the match was found, I could feel the data load from the memory to my
awareness.

Basically, it seemed on this trip that the part of my mind that is "me" had
become kind of detached from the rest of my mind and could watch how the rest
worked. Another example: when someone spoke, I first would hear just nonsense
sound, then I'd hear a replay but this time as phonemes, then I'd hear them
replay again but this time as words, then I was aware of some kind of parsing
going on and them the "me" part would be aware of the thought the speaker was
trying to convey. (And this might also trigger an attempt to remember who the
speaker was, which would do that whole spatial array thing I described in the
prior paragraph).

I have no idea if this experience was just some random thing my brain made up
due to the effects of the acid, or if it really does have some connection to
how memory works and/or how language is processed.

I didn't try to do any experiments with memory perception while tripping after
that, because I never dropped acid after that trip. I'd noticed that my last
several trips had felt like context switched between the real world and the
tripping world. When I'd trip, I'd kind of pick up where I left off in the
tripping world the previous time. Since my last trip had turned bad, I was
worried that tripping again would just pick up where I left off, and so never
touched acid (or any other hallucinogen) again.

~~~
cowpewter
Your comments about language reminded me of this:

When I was younger, I had hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Whenever my blood
sugar would start crashing, I could actually feel my brain functions start
shutting down, in a rough order from highest to lowest.

First I would have trouble with concentration and attention. I would feel
'spacey'. Lots of things can cause this though, so I didn't always realize it
was a blood sugar problem and that I needed to eat something.

The next thing to go would be my ability to process language. Usually when
someone is speaking to you in your native language, you aren't really
conscious of the difference between 'hearing a sound' and that sound having
meaning. Someone is talking and the meaning just forms in your head. But when
my blood sugar started dropping, English would start sounding like a foreign
language. It was all just sounds. The sounds had the rhythm of language, but
not one I understood anymore.

And then when I tried to speak, I would clearly form the intent of speaking
certain words and completely different ones would come out of my mouth. Before
I knew that it was hypoglycemia, I had an episode once in high school where I
knew something was wrong, and I was repeating the words 'I need to visit the
nurse' over and over in my head, but when I managed to speak, all I could say
was 'I don't feel good' before I lost control and started sobbing. Laughing or
crying uncontrollably happens right before I black out.

~~~
franklinho
My diabetic fiance has a similar experience. If she speaks gibberish in the
middle of the night, I use it as a good indicator that she has low blood
sugar.

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Hjulstrom
For those who wish to know more about the history and applications of the
"method of loci", beyond portrayals of it in a fictional series - I highly
recommend 'Moonwalking with Einstein' by Joshua Foer. It's an account of a
journalist who spends a year learning the methods above and subsequently wins
the US memory championship.

It's interesting, in a world in which instant access to a significant subset
of knowledge is taken for granted, that these memory techniques are undergoing
a resurgence.

I encourage anyone to spend 15-30 minutes a day learning these techniques and
applying them to small tasks such as memorising a shopping list, phone numbers
and useful bits of info. one tends to forget.
[http://mt.artofmemory.com](http://mt.artofmemory.com) is a good starting
point also.

~~~
mbrock
Cal Newport in _Deep Work_ also mentions that book and recommends this kind of
memory exercise. Not only for the value of being able to memorize stuff, but
because it seems like memory training improves attention, citing a professor
at the University of Washington's Memory Lab:

> _We found that one of the biggest differences between memory athletes and
> the rest of us is in a cognitive ability that 's not a direct measure of
> memory at all but of attention._

[http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/remembering-as-
an-e...](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/remembering-as-an-extreme-
sport/)

~~~
vowelless
Slightly OT, but I quite appreciated Deep Work. Been following Newport for
many years now. His last two books have been quite interesting.

~~~
mbrock
I quite appreciated it too. Just got back to work after a long vacation and
I've been doing some deep working, more or less, although not in a tower out
in the forest. But I like the audacity of the book, or something like that:
like it encourages me to really try for serious sustained effort. Reminds me a
little of that talk "You and your research".

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telesilla
I read a fascinating book on the the Art of Memory by Francis Yates some years
ago [1] in which she explores the topic with much depth, a pleasure to read. I
have certainly been surprised we forgot about this - once I became aware of
it, it made so much sense. I personally try to use my memory where possible,
especially in this day of immediate access to digital diaries and calendars.
It's a challenge and I'm not sure our modern world can support such ideas for
much longer.

If nothing else, read the reviews on the Amazon link below to learn a lot more
of interest on the subject.

I remember that when I this in the discussed BBC Sherlock Holmes episode I was
not at all surprised that the writers had thought to use this technique. I
suppose Arthur Conan Doyle didn't know about this specifically, or it would
have made quite a lot of sense to have written it into Sherlock's story.

 _1\. The Art of Memory, Francis Yates pub. 1966

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Memory-Frances-
Yates/dp/184792...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Memory-Frances-
Yates/dp/1847922929*)

~~~
sdoering
As I am running into a 404 here is the link, that worked for me:

[http://www.amazon.com/Art-Memory-Frances-
Yates/dp/1847922929...](http://www.amazon.com/Art-Memory-Frances-
Yates/dp/1847922929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453117034&sr=8-1&keywords=frances+yates+memory)

------
achow
<Context - I consider my self somewhat challenged when it comes to remembering
numbers.>

I personally found ‘mind palace’ technique very helpful.

It allowed me to remember a financial instrument details which involves 32
numbers without any pattern. Whenever I have to use this instrument I have to
input random 6 numbers out of those 32. Before I discovered this technique I
had to pull out the hardcopy of the instrument every time for reference, now
no more.

Also, it need not be ‘palace’ or a structure. I use mental map of a roadway
which I’m intimately familiar with to place the 32 numbers on the various
landmark on the way. Whenever needed I mentally ’drive through’ the roadway to
retrieve the numbers.

Somewhere I read that it works so well because as a human species we have
ability to remember geo spatial things much better than abstract things like
numbers. I would guess that it has to do with our hunter-gatherer days when we
were primarily dealing with spatial concepts; brain is hard wired to store
those information much better than things like numbers.

~~~
robmcm
How do you add the numbers on landmarks? Do you just have a road sign with 42
miles to x, or a building with 8 windows?

Also when you are starting with a new number, do all the landmarks need to be
unique, or can you re-use the same building but with a different number of
windows etc. Or are the items all the same, just in a different order?

~~~
achow
> How do you add the numbers on landmarks? Do you just have a road sign with
> 42 miles to x, or a building with 8 windows?

It could be anything, what you said would work beautifully if it has occurred
spontaneously to you. The key thing is it has to be very very natural to you
but may not make any sense at all to others.

Example, one of the building I have assigned the number 78 as it is an old
building and my father's age is around that.

> do all the landmarks need to be unique

Again it is a very personal decision. For me currently it is one pair of
number per landmark as I did not want to 'overload' my system. But if I think
about it now, maybe after sometime when I'm comfortable with my current system
I can assign another number to the same landmark... But I'm not going to risk
it now :-).

If you really want to try it out, start with one thing now and see how it goes
before doing for others.

Btw, I discovered this when reading 'Moonwalking with Einstein' (referenced by
another commentator here). This book was in reading list of Bill Gates couple
of years back.

To illustrate my earlier point, the title of the book does not make any sense
at all, but that series of words is used by somebody in the book to remember
certain things.

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YeGoblynQueenne
I learned this technique as an undergraduate in a seminar meant to help with
exams. I thought it was so much woo but it does work. For me anyway, though I
never used it for exams- I use it to memorise shopping lists.

I find that for that sort of thing I don't need a whole building. I just
visualise an array of empty abstract squares, and fill them up with groceries
etc. I think the important thing is the structure you give the memory. I can
usually memorise ~15 items in less than a minute.

I also visualise my house sometimes, very convenient for things that actually
go to, eg the kitchen or the bathroom irl. I just put them in the proper place
in my mind, then to remember them I imagine walking around the house. It helps
to do it in the same order both times: start at the front door, proceed to the
kitchen, then the bathroom etc. I think I'll try placing them in the actual
store next.

It's a bit of a hassle to be fair but I'm normally very absent minded :)

~~~
smcl
It's odd that the empty abstract squares works for you, since the article
suggests this isn't typically how the technique is applied ("A large, blank
room wouldn’t work, but one that has identifiable locations within it might")
is it usually only smaller sets of objects you can remember this way?

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
I haven't tried anything else to be honest- like I say I only do this for
groceries, once or twice a week.

I had a few exams in the past year and it never occurred to me to try and use
this technique there (this was for a postgraduate course- other than the one
where I learned about it).

Also to be fair often the stuff I buy at the supermarket is the same list with
small variations- for instance, I don't have to remember to buy milk and
orange juice, just to remember whether there's enough in the fridge.

I really should try to use this for something more involved.

Edit: to clarify, I was convinced that this thing works because I tried it in
class back in that undergrad seminar. I generally have a bad memory, but I was
able to memorise lists of more than 20 objects in a small amount of time (I
don't remember how long- the person training us kept time). I didn't think my
groceries' list is proof enough :)

~~~
smcl
Understood :) I wasn't doubting the technique whatsoever (I'm actually really
keen to try it out) just trying to understand if you had some superhuman
memory, or if you were just applying the simpler\abstracter version for small-
ish lists. For what its worth my memory is pretty shocking too, and in a weird
coincidence I find that writing the shopping list out is enough for me to
commit it to memory, and I never need to consult it once I have it stuffed in
my pocket.

------
akyu
Has anyone else noticed that they instinctively build these mind palaces with
file systems on your computer? I regularly find my self recalling a fact about
our code base by mentally diving through the file structure.

It seems like our brains handle structure very easily.

------
bobajeff
I remember another illustration of the mind palace in the movie Dream Catcher.
One guy had one ( don't recall why) got possessed by an alien and his
consciousness hid in his mind attic, which he'd locked, to escape being
deleted or something.

~~~
EdwardCoffin
I think that what was portrayed in Dream Catcher was meant as a metaphor for
the guy's mind, suited to film, rather than an actual memory palace the guy
'built'. The book (as I recall) did not have a memory palace, just dialogue
between the guy and this voice in his head. It's been a while, so I might have
some of that wrong, but I am sure he did not have a memory palace.

------
Gobiel
Does someone actually use those kinds of mnemonics as a student, for learning
"higher" mathematics or physics?

------
fsloth
SPOILER comment:

The BBC:s latest Sherlock with Cumberbatch ("The abominable bride") made it
explicit that in the show Sherlocks's mind palace 'technique' is actually just
a drug trip :)

~~~
qohen
_made it explicit that in the show Sherlocks 's mind palace 'technique' is
actually just a drug trip _

This isn't really so.

Sherlock uses the memory palace technique, without drugs, throughout the
entire series.

SPOILER-Y STUFF:

The immersion Sherlock goes through in "The Abominable Bride" is of a
different nature -- usually he is focused and in control, driving the search,
but in this instance he is looking to go deeper, to dream his way to an answer
by letting go of external reality. The drugs are an expedient to get him into
that state. It's analogous to the difference between searching a
database/knowledgebase and losing oneself in a fully immersive VR scenario.

SPOILER:

(It is true that Sherlock told Mycroft that he was doing the mind palace
thing, and Mycroft points out that the mind palace is merely a memory
technique and this is beyond that, i.e. a drug trip, but given Sherlock's
relationship with Mycroft, it isn't surprising that he'd underplay the drugs,
is it? Also, I don't think Mycroft knows Sherlock deeply enough to know what
Sherlock can do in his mind palace -- may not even know he had one, given how
he reacts to Sherlock's mention of it.)

EPISODE SPOILERS FOLLOW:

And, just a few quick reminders: remember, in the regular series, Sherlock's
not the only one with a mind palace -- said character refers to his own and
says, "You know about Mind Palaces, don’t you, Sherlock?"

And, in that same episode, we also see an active (i.e. non-drugged) Sherlock
thinking his way out of a jam -- in his mind, various characters show up to
guide him. As one of them says, "It's all well and clever having a Mind Palace
but you've only three seconds...to use it.". Another character later on says,
"Must be something in this ridiculous memory palace of yours that can calm you
down."

(The above examples are on YouTube, but would really spoil some things, so I
won't link to them here; there's also a transcript out there, if you want to
look it up.)

~~~
fsloth
I may have overreached a bit in my comment above. I agree with you about the
presentation of narrative facts in the past of the series, but hold my final
opinion in reserve as Moffat and Gatiss work drama first and then come up with
ways to knit the story back together in a way that appeals to the viewer to
suspend their disbelief. I.e. if they think it's more interesting that
Sherlock has been stoned the whole time, then they will probably work that in.

------
jfb
The method of loci are the jumping off point in Jonathan Spence's marvelous
_The Memory Palace Of Matteo Ricci_.

------
falsedan
Breathless gushing from the Smithsonian over BBC Sherlock? Oh, and a
recollection technique.

