Stanford
Center for Teaching and Learning

Memory Strategy: Memory Palace

Memory Palace (also called Method of Loci) is a strategy for memorizing information. With this technique, you associate information with a familiar place, which can help you better connect to the information that you are trying to recall. This technique also taps into our brain’s visual processing abilities, as well as our encoding and retrieval abilities.

The memory palace technique is useful when you need to remember information in sequential order.

How to Create Your Own Memory Palace

  1. Choose a location: Select a location that you are familiar with. The location should have multiple rooms or distinct areas.
    • Example:  For some people, it might be easy to recall their childhood home. Let’s say you grew up in a home that has 1 kitchen, 1 living room, and 4 bedrooms.
  2. Plan your route: Draw out your memory palace and include all of the rooms that you will walk through. Determine the path that you will follow by numbering the different rooms based on the order you will walk through them.
    • Example:  1) Kitchen, 2) Living room, 3) Bedroom 1, 4) Bedroom 2, 5) Bedroom 3, 6) Bedroom 4
  3. Create mental images: Identify information that you want to remember and create mental images that you can associate with the information.  Tips: Make images and associations that are personal to you. Try to have the images interact with the location when possible.
    • Example:  For your history of psychology class, you need to remember these psychologists and their contributions in order:
      1. Wundt + experimental psychology
      2. Pavlov + classical conditioning
      3. Thorndike + operant conditioning
      4. Piaget + cognitive development
      5. Abraham Maslow + hierarchy of needs
      6. Bandura + social learning theory
    • You might create the following mental images:
      1. Lab coat
      2. Dogs
      3. Cats
      4. Babies
      5. Food
      6. Clown doll
  4. Place mental images and practice recall rehearsal: Place each image into the corresponding room. Visualize walking through each room and seeing the corresponding mental images. You can rehearse the information associated with each image as you walk through the rooms.
    • Example:  You could rehearse:
      1. As I walk through the kitchen, I see Wundt sitting in a lab coat since he is the founder of experimental psychology.
      2. In the living room, I see Pavlov surrounded by dogs and bells, which helped him develop the theory of classical conditioning.
      3. I enter the first bedroom and Thorndike is playing with cats in puzzle boxes, which helped him develop the theory of operant conditioning.
      4. In the next bedroom, I see Piaget observing as babies play with toys. This helped him develop the theory of cognitive development.
      5. In the third bedroom, I observe Maslow folding clothing with a plate of food next to him, since he developed the hierarchy of needs.
      6. I walk into the final bedroom and see Bandura next to a clown doll, which he used to generate social learning theory.

Try It!

Go through the steps to create your own memory palace.

  1. Choose a location: Select a location that you are familiar with. The location should have multiple rooms or distinct areas.
  2. Plan your route: Draw out your memory palace and include all of the rooms that you will walk through. Determine the path that you will follow by numbering the different rooms based on the order you will walk through them.
  3. Create mental images: Identify information that you want to remember and create mental images that you can associate with the information. Tips: Make images and associations that are personal to you. Try to have the images interact with the location when possible.
  4. Place mental images and practice recall rehearsal: Place each image into the corresponding room. Visualize walking through each room and seeing the corresponding mental images. You can rehearse the information associated with each image as you walk through the rooms.

If you would like additional support or want to practice creating your own memory palace, schedule an appointment with one of our academic coaches.

Download a pdf version of this page
Memory Strategy:  Memory Palace

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. You may reproduce it only for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University. 

Check out our other Tips, Tools, & Resources