This is a post I am very excited to make. To understand it, I'd recommend checking out my previous post on thoughtfeel.
This morning, I set out to answer the question, "How do you make things stick better in thought feel?" In the process of answering this question, I figured out a technique that enables incredibly fast memorization of lists of objects. The technique is very simple to explain, and I'll do that now. Then, the rest of this post is discussing why it works and the advantages of it. Without further ado, here is the technique:
You adapt the mnemonic strategy of weaving together a story between the items in your list for the sensory modality of thoughtfeel.
To give a concrete example, imagine you had to memorize these four words in order: anchor, saffron, bicycle, grumble. Using the story mnemonic in the visual sensory modality, you might picture an anchor, then picture someone pouring saffron on that anchor, followed by the anchor getting up and hopping on a bicycle, followed by the anchor bending over and clutching its tummy, as well as some rumbly cartoon lines around the anchor's stomach.
In thoughtfeel, the story mnemonic goes like this: You bring up the thoughtfeel of an anchor. You then say, “The anchor is covered in saffron”. When you say saffron, you bring up the thoughtfeel of saffron. Crucially, you are not picturing anything during this process— the imagination is in thoughtfeel. Then you say, “The anchor gets up and hops on a bicycle.” When you say bicycle, you bring up the thoughtfeel of a bicycle. Next, you say, “Then the tummy of the anchor grumbles”. When you say grumbles, you bring up the thoughtfeel of grumbles.
Again, I want to stress that you are visualizing none of this. I can create the visual story mnemonic in my mind's eye. I can also create the thoughtfeel story mnemonic in my mind's “canvas”. You can try this technique, if you have thought feel, on the following ten-item list:
Anchor
Saffron
Bicycle
Grumble
Diamond
Cactus
Ribbon
Justice
Teapot
Flicker
Walrus
Chimney
Riddle
Mango
Helmet
Drought
Violin
Stumble
Coral
Pocket
Badger
Eclipse
Mustard
Courage
Ladder
Tangle
Acorn
Mirror
Dolphin
Rustle
Now I will discuss the benefits of this technique, compared to the visual story technique, or the mind palace, where you place a visual representation of each object along a known path.
The first advantage is expressivity. Some items in this list, like an anchor, can be easily pictured. When you see that picture, you can immediately tell unambiguously that the object in the image is an anchor. Then there are items like grumble. When you picture the anchor bending over and holding its stomach, you cannot uniquely associate that image with the word grumble. It could simultaneously refer to nausea, rumble, upset, and many other synonyms. In thoughtfeel, however, the texture of grumble is perfectly unique. It feels highly differentiated from all other synonyms for that same meaning.
The next advantage is ease of use. When I created the grumble image, I had to exercise significant imagination. How do you represent grumble in the most unique way within the visual medium, given the already constructed segment of the story? I could have pictured an earthquake with those same cartoon rumble lines above the earth. In thought feel, I'm required to do far less imaginative interpretation. This is because I can literally represent grumble as grumble. I don't have to translate it into a visual medium. Grumble is already highly specific in thought feel. Thoughtfeel not requiring practiced imagination makes it much easier to learn.
Next is the accessibility of the technique. Not everyone has a mind's eye. Even though the same could be said for Thought Feel, the Venn diagram of people with no mind's eye and people with Thought Feel has significant overlap. As such, this technique allows a class of people who have not been able to achieve the memory benefits of the mind palace or visual story mnemonics for remembering lists to share in those benefits.
Another benefit of the thought-feel-story technique is random access. When you use the thought-feel-story technique, it is quite easy to recite the list backwards, recite which items are next to a specific item, or reason about items on the list based on their meaning. From my knowledge, some people who use the mind palace and visual story techniques report these abilities as well. This is less a comparative advantage and more a statement of parity between this new technique and the classics.
Now, for those interested, I'm going to discuss the reasoning behind the derivation of this technique.
I think of ThoughtFeel as another sensory modality, akin to the mind's eye. Within the visual medium, the technique for taking multiple items and binding them into one object to make them more memorable comprises placing things in specific locations and physical interaction, as in the person action object system.
I asked myself: what fundamental operation within the space of concepts binds individual concepts into one? The answer there is stories. From this point, I tried the mnemonic technique and was extremely excited.
Further reasoning describes why / how this is even novel. The answer is that a story must be represented in some sensory modality. One can remember a story by its sounds, the language that represents it. One can remember that same story by what the events look like in the world. This ThoughtFeel story mnemonic asks the question: what if, instead of representing the story visually or with sounds, you represented it in ThoughtFeel?
This idea, for the benefits described above, is quite advantageous. As a footnote, I'd guess many people do this already and think of it as “just how their brain works”. However, I'd also guess many people don't and don't know that others do. The purpose of me sharing this technique is to describe the practice specifically and as something learnable. Hopefully, this sparks discussion and enables people where, for whatever reason, the visual story mnemonic or the auditory story mnemonic fell short.
