Brain attic vs. memory palace

Dear reader,

this here is my blog, my thoughts. No idea whether this matches what scientists think as well.

I believe that there is a difference between a brain attic and a memory palace. Both store things, but in different ways. Sherlock Holmes says that we store all kinds of things in our head. Like in an attic. An attic has got many boxes in which all sorts of things can be kept. Maybe an attic has several different spaces, but it's limited, a defined space. A memory palace on the other hand is a complex of buildings with many rooms. A palace can be enlarged and rooms can be attached to it.

In The memory palace I mentioned different examples of people and their way to remember things. Jonesey's memory warehouse seems to be much like an attic. He explains to the others that for new information to store, he's got to delete other information.

Many years ago I have started writing certain things on index cards. They're separated with separation cards in alphabetical order and sometimes lined with one another with arrows and keywords. I wanted to have information to specific topics sorted and kept in a short way. Index cards seemed to be a good way to me. The good thing about index cards is that I can use them to look things up and the loose card system allows me to add new ones, should I feel like that. I've still got the cards. By now there are other topics added to them than that of the original one.

Although I've still got the cards, I don't as such use that system anymore. The memory palace is a system I know better now than I did then when I started the index card system. I seem to store information in my head much like index cards these days anyway, short information like index cards or newspaper clippings. Single words, images, fragments. I'm not aware of having a whole set of information stored in a single room for certain information. At least not yet. I'm sure that Derren Brown for example does have rooms created for specific things and does use the whole room. I do have single rooms, but I use them more for the atmosphere they have. Much like someone might for example go to church to do some reflective thinking.

When I waiting for the third "Sherlock" season was at times too long and unbearable for me, I was able to keep scenes, dialogue and images of the episodes so far together and in one room. I walked out of the room, the door had a tag "Sherlock" on it. I closed the door. Sometimes I sat in front of the door with my back against the door. Those are rooms that I can create, but not in a sense that I use the room and its content. It's not consciously forgetting. Naturally the information is still there. But they're behind a door and not close anymore. Distant to information also creates emotional distant. I'm not saying it's easy. I closed the door several times and more than once did I sit with my back against it to forget that I had to wait an unbearable long time for a new episode of "Sherlock". Mind control in that way is possible though. If you're not waiting for the next episode of "Sherlock", which seems to be a lifetime away, those kind of thought experiments can also be fun.

Probably the brain attic grows to be a mind palace some day, if you're taking care of the attic and work in it and at it. So I guess my headline wasn't quite correct. It's not an either or, no one or the other. Likely the brain attic is more like a possible beginning of a memory palace. Like my index cards were the beginning of more thoughtful remembering things and retrieving them at my leisure.

Until next blog,
sarah