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Intro: What & Why

The perception we have of time, it’s passage, nature and availability is often very fluid, morphs in different contexts, stretches and compresses, mostly out of our control. To navigate this messy thicket, our mind turns to memories, to create some continuity, some sense of stability as reference points from which to make future decisions, to store beliefs about ourselves and how the world supposedly works.

How we remember things is important – memories can have a huge influence on who we think we are, what we value in life, and what we consider true about our own abilities, relationships and experiences. As our mental state changes, the way we remember does too. The complexity and level of detail can differ dramatically, which part of the memory is deemed the most important and the type of data, be it visual, three-dimensional, emotional, based on voice, or other sensations. Also, as we recall memories, either actively when reminiscing, oder instinctively when triggered by a familiar situation, the memories change with each recall, they are not static. While all of this is very useful and works intuitively for survival, the evergrowing complexity of our society and lives can make this tool – our storage of impressions and ideas – work against our interests.

This becomes very visible and even measurable in mental health conditions like depression. Depression is known to tone everything down, emotions, reactions, desires, but also both the encoding and retrieval of memories is severely limited. This is a mechanism of self-protection, the mind has learned, has been conditioned to avoid behaviours that introduce the risk of conjuring and reliving strong negaitve feelings. If one for example has suffered trauma of any kind, is carrying around difficult emotions, any unresolved emotional issue that is hard or scary to navigate, a learned reaction can be to avoid detailed memory recall altogether, as can be observed in many depressed patients. This leads to memories being remembered in a very diffuse categorical manner, i.e. devoid of detail and just sorted into a broad category like “had a bad time“ or “had a good time“, with very little nuance and rarely any moment-to-moment memory of images and sensations. 

For this reason, a common motif in psychotherapy is creating some sort of emotional object permanence, to enhance patients’ abilities to remember positive things even in times of struggle. 

One interesting approach to this endeavour was shown in the 2013 study [Dalgleish et al, Method-of-Loci as a Mnemonic Device to Facilitate Access to Self-Affirming Personal Memories for Individuals With Depression], where the researchers trained the participants in the ancient mnemonic technique, the Method of Loci (also colloquially known as a Mind Palace), first credited to Simonides of Ceos (477 BC). When using it, usually one imagines a route through an already familiar or mentally constructed space (the mind palace), then uses points/images/objects (Loci, Latin for “Places“) on that route to associate information with, often by ways of conjuring a bizarre image that connects the locus with the information. This technique is well documented since the 70s [Bower, Analysis of a Mnemonic Device], and is used by memory record holders. Many studies show it’s use in learning and it’s effectiveness for itemized memory. [Qureshi, The method of loci as a mnemonic device to facilitate learning in endocrinology leads to improvement in student performance as measured by assessments]

In the 2013 study, they learned to visit a familiar space within their head, and associated positive, self-affirming memories with the objects in the journey, to enhance access. The study showed promising results, inviting further research. It will serve as one of the starting points for this project.

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Copperplate of Simonides. In the background: A dining hall collapsing. According to the story, Simonides remembers everyone in the room and their positions afterwards, to identify who was and wasn’t killed.

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The step-up: Virtual Memory Palaces & VR
I had been introduced to the “Method of Loci” technique some years ago in a seminar, and observed something that i would hear again form others later in many internet forums talking about memory technique: When i use it, i do usually not choose mind palaces from the real world, like a childhood home or flat. Instead i use scenes from old video games for the palace, because they have proven to work really well for me. The stylized nature, high familiarity and positive feelings associated make for relatively effortless association. I tend to gravitate specifically towards the hub worlds of games, which usually are designed to be iconic, easy to navigate and feature distinctly different corners. Another upside that i and also others reporting online note: The virtual spaces are free of negative associations one might for example have with the own flat, especially when depressed. 

Now, not everyone plays video games regularly or is familiar with them, so a more generalized approach would be necessary, to make virtual memory palaces usable in a broader way. 

Simultaneously, the use of virtual reality for mental health treatment aswell as for mnemonic techniques and learning has been generated increasingly interesting products and projects in the last years. The immersive capabilities and novelty of the medium can provide more effective, engaging and motivating experiences, opposed to more common techniques.

This is why, on this intersection of these three fields, mental health treatment, virtual reality and mnemonic techniques, this project, Mnemo, seeks to connect the previous research and ideas to design and develop a method, a tool that shows the viability and power of the combination of these fields. 

What could a process of establishing a VR-based virtual memory palace look like?
What could the short-and long term benefits and use cases of these palaces be?
For whom could this be made accessible and how?
What could be the advantages over non-VR mnemonic or therapeutic techniques?

Probably my personal most used mind palace: Rogueport, the hub world of the game “Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door”, Gamecube, 2004.

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Mental

Health

MNEMO

Virtual Reality

Mnemonics