This week I received a phone call from someone who is going to do a memory test of sorts. They are going to take 2 people and teach one person the memory or mind palace memory method and then teach the other the memory story method and see which one wins.

Basically, the memory palace or mind palace is where you memorize a map of a room and number the furniture. For example, look around the room you are in right now and pick 5 pieces of furniture.

Desk
Bed
Mirror
Computer
Lamp

These are just examples. Then you number them 1-5 (the next room in the mind palace would be 6-10, the next room 11-15 and so on). These locations are called your ‘files’. Then when you want to memorize a list of items you visualize the first item on the first piece of furniture. For example if the #1 item was a cow then you would imagine a cow on the desk. If the #2 item was water you would imagine water in your #2 file/furniture which would be a bed.

This memory palace method is VERY effective.

The story method is pretty simple. You take a list of words and you connect them to each other with a story. In this Youtube video below I describe both of the memory methods.

I make a prediction in this video of which method I think will ‘win’ this competition. But keep in mind that I think the results would be flip flopped or completely different if the test was 30 or more words.

If you are really interested in the memory palace method then check out my http://www.blackbeltmemory.com memory course.

Positives of the story/linking method = easy to learn and use

Negatives of story method = you don’t know items by number, if you forget one item the entire story is thrown off

Positives of the mind palace method = know info forwards, backwards or by number. Can memorize much more data

Negatives of the mind palace method = takes time to build mental files

So there you have it. I strongly prefer the mind palace. With that said, I understand and use the story method to put more than 1 item on each piece of furniture. So the true memory expert will combine both for maximum result.