Mnemonics & VR
VR lends well to use with the method of loci, a few studies showed it’s potential in lowering entry barriers, increasing effectiveness of recall and making the method more effortless to use in general. Not only simple itemized orders like shopping lists can be encoded via the technique, but also more complex information like scholarly articles [Yang et al, A Virtual Reality Memory Palace Variant Aids Knowledge Retrieval from Scholarly Articles].
Using a similar approach, the VR app Librarium is providing an interaction-rich mind palace-like space to help with studies, with flash cards from topical decks for different areas of study associated with loci in space, integrated in a playful gameplay progression.
While VR-aided methods show significant improvement in recall in comparison to non-imaged based memory techniques or free recall, they only show a small advantage when compared to other image based methods [Moll et al, Optimized virtual reality-based Method of Loci memorization techniques through increased immersion and effective memory palace designs: a feasibility study]. Participants of the studies generally favored VR though, suggesting that it might be more motivating/interesting to use. Other takeaways from these studies include that people with high spatial ability profit more from VR when used with MoL, potentially because they then have more cognitive resources for memorization, when it’s easy for them to process the space well. Also, desires for interactiveness and options of personalization were both brought up by participants, with the hope of enhancing familiarity and comfort within the space. A comparable degree of control and interaction might be avaiable with an approach using mozilla hubs, a web-based VR platform in which the users can construct spaces and freely place objects/images and more taken from the entire internet, as described on the blog matrise.no.
These applications and studies hold many valuable insights and approaches for making the application more effective in terms of lowering entry barriers and motivations of use. They also could guide how to make best use of the VR format, how to design the spaces, and how to structure the introduction of people to MoL as a technique, with the goal of enhancing memory access.
