Mnemonic Techniques - the Roman Room - Method of Loci (MoL)
A little Greek history!
Simonides of Ceos (modern Kea Island) is often credited with discovering the "Roman Room" method around 500 BC: the legend says he was at a banquet of honored guests, stepped outside to receive a message, and at that moment a powerful earthquake collapsed the roof, crushing everyone inside beyond recognition. Known for his mnemonic techniques, tο everyone's astonishment Simonides could identify each body for burial by mentally “walking” through the seating arrangement and matching each person to their place, showing that when we anchor vivid mental imagery to locations (Loci), the mind can store astonishing amounts of information in sequence and with striking clarity. This technique—later named the Method of Loci (MoL) by modern scientists and memory athletes—was widely used in Ancient Greece and Rome by orators, teachers, poets, politicians, and scholars of all kinds. These people could recite vast material without notes, and echoes of similar place-based mnemonic systems have also been found in many pre-writing societies (including the indigenous peoples very far from Europe and the Med). We now call it Roman Room or Roman Palace technique because this thing was BIG during the Pax Romana - once you learn it, it can help you learn lots...fast!
This brings us to the obvious question: Can naturalists benefit from mnemonic techniques too? For sure!
Memorizing Birds Really Quick!
So, I will provide a step-by-step example, and of course there are many such tutorials on YouTube - all sorts of people now use MoL techniques for language learning, public speaking etc...
About 30 years ago when I learned about this (see personal note-at the end of this post) it was not widely known - and boy did it help me get through University! So as a Natural Historian, I owe a lot to mnemonics - and maybe to the Ancient Greeks (and my modern mentors) as well.
This is a step-by-step guide of how I do it with learning birds, an example being rapid name-building and field-mark competance before going on a trip where I need to learn a lot of names..... Lets say I need to RAPIDLY learn the names and "looks" of 500 birds for a upcomming trip to Kenya (total avifauna: approx. 1,100 spp.). Say, I've got no time....and I know very well that browsing the Merlin Bird ID app does not make them stick!
Here I'll use this old Greco-Roman mnemonic technique, the Roman Room, and show you how....
The “Roman Room/Palace” technique is basically:
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A fixed route through a "familiar place", like the specific numbered spots-locations in a large room (your loci - the locations).
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One vivid image per location, exaggerated and weird (!!).
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Strict order (you always walk the same path).
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Chunking: lots of small rooms rather than one giant one. Many rooms make a palace. I'll call them rooms here/ focus on the basics.
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| Memory Palace Generalization. A Palace is made up of rooms (compartments within apartments). You visualize a room first, then connect the rooms into a palace. (Source: https://fastercapital.com/content/Focus-Techniques--Memory-Palace-Technique---The-Memory-Palace-Technique--A-Mnemonic-for-Focus.html) |
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| You don't necessarily have to draw the room and its loci, but it may help to make a quick sketch of the numbered loci. Each locus will have a bird on it. I have found that it is quite easy to fit 25 birds in on side of the room (about 50 spp. per room is possible). The image ilustrates the method.(Source: Google) |
For 500 birds, the secret is many small rooms and a consistent bird-image recipe per locus - each room can have mayby 25 or 50 loci at most.
What you need to memorize 500 birds efficiently?
You’re memorizing two things per bird:
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the name (word/phrase)
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the look (key field marks)
So you must create one combined image/scene on each locus that encodes both:
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Name cue (a pun / sound-alike / meaning)
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Visual cue (2–3 distinctive features: color patch, beak shape, tail, crest, habitat)
Example (made up as a template):
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“Lilac-breasted Roller” → a lilac-colored bra rolling like a tire while a bird with turquoise wings does acrobatics.
Name = lilac + bra + roller. Visual = turquoise wings + lilac chest.
That’s the whole game!
Build palaces the “Roman” way (fast)
Choose 10 rooms × 50 loci each = 500 birds
You can do:
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Your home (50)
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A childhood home (50)
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Your walk through a city mall you know well (50)
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A museum route you know well (50)
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A school/university building (50)
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A favorite neighborhood loop (50)
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A gym route (50)
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A friend’s house (50)
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A small fishing harbour route (50)
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A “virtual palace” you know well (e.g., a famous movie set you can walk through mentally) (50)
Rule: Each palace must be a linear route, not random compartments etc.
How to get 500 loci quickly in one Roman Palace!
Do “50 per room (i.e., finish palace with 10 rooms for 500 spp.)”:
This would be a likely route within a such a fantastical room:
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Door handle
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Left corner of door frame
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Window corners, window center
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Table/bed
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Right corner , etc.
That’s 50 per room. Add another 5 if needed (in a later re-frame):
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Ceiling light
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Rug
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Closet
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Shelf
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Chair
Try for “One bird family = one room” (best for 500 birds)
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10–25 families you care about most
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20–50 loci each room (don’t force 80+ in one room unless you’re experienced)
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Advantage: almost zero interference
The loci must be clear to you- you can see them in your mind's eye....
Put “taxonomy” into the route itself (hierarchy cue)
For each family room or appartment-block (palace) of several rooms, make the route structured like:
Entrance = Family (or similar-spp group) anchor
Room 1 = Non-passerine waterbirds
Room 2 = similar-looking cluster #1
Room 3 = similar-looking cluster #2
Room 4 = oddballs / rare / lookalikes
This is huge for families like weavers and cisticolas, where many species differ by tiny details. So Cisticolas would have one room or two or three rooms - depending on how deep you want to get into them. Super-similar looking species are not easy....
How to handle super-similar looking species (the real challenge)
When 10 birds differ by “slightly more yellow” you need a ''difference system''.
The “2+1 rule”
At each locus, encode:
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2 field marks (strong visual differences)
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1 differentiator object that stands for the key difference
Examples of differentiator objects:
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Eyebrow vs no eyebrow → paint roller stripe above eye
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Red eye → laser eye
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Longer tail → absurd ribbon tail wrapping the room
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Black throat → choke-collar / black scarf
Voice distinction → chicken-like cackle...
The “comparison trick” (works insanely well)
Put look-alike pairs next to each other on consecutive loci and make them “fight,” highlighting the difference.
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Bird A steals Bird B’s crest.
Bird A spills blood over the other (Bird B having a more reddish hue on breast...)
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Bird B rips off Bird A’s tail streamer. PLEASE NOTE: I am not joking with you: That forced contrast sticks and the 'action' sticks in memory surprisingly well.
Keep “family props” constant to reduce cognitive load
In a family (or look-alike group of speceis) room, decide 3–5 props that appear everywhere.
Example: Sunbird room props
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flowers
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sugar
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shiny metal
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tiny curved beaks (like mini sickles)
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nectar dripping sound
Now every species image only needs:
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name pun
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2–3 field marks…and your brain supplies the rest automatically!
Don’t exceed your “room clarity limit”
For speed learning:
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New room: 20–30 loci
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Comfortable: 30–50 loci
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Advanced: 50–70 (only if loci are extremely distinct)
If a family has 120 species, split it into two rooms:
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“Cisticolas A (common + similar group 1)”
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“Cisticolas B (similar group 2 + oddballs)”
Quick checklist for each family room (1 minute setup)
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Choose a room/palace with a strong theme (bakery, gym, hospital, boat).
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Put the family anchor at the entrance.
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Pick 3–5 repeating props.
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Divide rooms into similarity clusters.
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Put look-alike pairs next to each other.
Make the species that are similar-looking interact!
Go back (before review) and make each scene/image of each species at each loci more 'active'/grotesque/connected.
----The rapid training plan (do this in order)----
Hour 0–1: Learn the skill by doing 20 birds first!
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Build a room with 20 loci (your living room: door handle → fire-place → windows route).
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For 20 birds, force yourself to make images with:
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Movement (wacky movements, funny ones, trempling, shaking...)
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Emotion (pain, awe, brilliance, happy-slappy-crazy feelings...)
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Absurd size (really small for...pygmy sunbird...)
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Interaction with the locus (bird-shitting on door-handle, stepping on bird at door corner...blood all over the locus...).
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Walk the route twice in your head.
You’re not “learning theory” — you’re training the mental muscle.
Hour 1–2: Create your “Bird Encoding Recipe” (so you don’t stall)
For every bird, you will encode:
A) Name cue (2 seconds decision)
Pick ONE:
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Sound-alike (“Weaver” → someone weaving)
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Split word (“Kingfisher” → a king fishing)
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Meaning (“Secretarybird” → secretary with papers)
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Simple symbol (if name is concrete: “Eagle” = giant eagle)
B) Visual cue (pick only 2–3 field marks, not more only those that stick out - don't be a perfectionist!)
Choose the most diagnostic:
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Head (crest? mask? eyebrow?)
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Beak (hooked, long, thick, curved)
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Tail (forked, long streamers)
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One standout color patch (red wing, yellow throat)
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Habitat cue if helpful (reeds, water, savannah; i.e., if the Cisticola in question is in wetlnads have dirty-smelly water dripping from the locus).
C) Fuse into one scene
The name-cue object forces the bird to show the key marks (e.g. Woodland Kingfisher - bright glowing blue and in a shady green wood). Keep it simple animated, caricature-like.
This prevents perfectionism. Two–three field marks/habitat cues is enough. You need to move fast to cover 500 species!
Hour 2–5: Encode 150–200 birds (speed block)
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Do 25 birds per room (not 50 yet).
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YOU NEED DISCIPLINE HERE: Work in 25-minute sprints, 5-minute breaks. It is critical to move fast or else it becomes drudgery and you will question why its taking so long.... (Once you've done it, you go back and re-inforce and iron-out the images).
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After each sprint: walk the whole palace once.
Speed target:
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45–90 seconds per bird at first.
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You’ll speed up to 20–40 seconds per bird after ~80 birds.
Hour 5–6: First big retrieval (this is where memory forms)
Do active recall, not rereading:
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For each room, write/say bird names as you walk the loci. (I often just say the names with vivid imagination; I sometimes write them coded form).
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Then check your list.
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Rebuild any weak images (make them more violent/weird/bigger/sexier).
This step matters more than adding new birds.
Hour 6–9: Encode the remaining 300–350 birds (volume block)
Now you can safely do 50 loci per room.
Same rhythm:
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Encode 10
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Walk back 10
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Encode next 10
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Walk back 20
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etc.
If you feel images “colliding,” your rooms are too similar or the loci not distinct. Fix by:
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adding strong “landmarks”
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changing the route direction
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using different themes per room (e.g., Room 1 is watery scenes, Room 2 is fire, Room 3 is cartoons)
Drawing the rooms or palace (apartments of many rooms makes one palace- remember). Quick sketch is all you need (I sometimes use colours).
Hour 9–10: Final test + “repair pass”
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Randomly test yourself: jump to locus 37 in room 4.
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If you can’t pull it instantly, replace the image with a more extreme one.
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Do one last full walk of each room. The palace is big but you can now visualize it even if you have some shady compartments (these will iron-out easy).
SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE MADE
The mistake that kills people at 200+
Interference: similar birds blur together (e.g., too many “weavers,” some similar looking “sunbirds”, female sunbirds, etc).
Fix it with sub-palaces by family:
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Palace set A: Sunbirds (all loci include nectar, flowers, shiny metal)
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Palace set B: Weavers (every scene includes weaving looms, baskets, knots)
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Palace set C: Raptors (claws, hooks, meat, wind)
Then within that theme, each bird gets its unique name cue + marks.
Make your images “sticky” (champion rules)
Use at least 3 of these every time:
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Sex/embarrassment (brains remember it)
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Danger (blood, falling, explosions)
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Disgust (slime, rot, excrement, feces)
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Comedy (ridiculous physics)
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Huge scale (car-sized bird, molecule sized bird)
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Sound (screeching “KAA-KAA!”)
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Smell (burning feathers, bird shit, vomit, swamp gas, sewage lagoon smells, jasmin-flowers)
Also: NEVER-ever place a “still photo” in a locus. Always a scene.
“Within a day” reality check (and how to actually make it stick)
You can encode 500 in a day, yes, but to keep them you need two short follow-ups:
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Next morning (Day 2): one full recall walk (30–60 min)
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Day 4: another recall walk (30–60 min)
Without that, a lot will evaporate.
APPENDIX - A CRITICAL QUESTION
*****If I have built one room with one family of birds (say sunbirds) how do I go back and add or subtract species to have a new completed room?
You can edit a “sunbird room” later, but you want to do it in a way that doesn’t scramble retrieval order. Think of your room like a numbered street: you can renovate houses, but renumbering the whole street is painful.
Here are the best systems memory athletes use to add/subtract species cleanly.
A1) Use “addressed loci” so order never breaks
Before you store any birds, decide your loci are permanently numbered:
Sunbird Room:
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Door
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Coat rack
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Mirror
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Sofa left arm
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Sofa seat
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Coffee table
…etc.
Now every species has an “address” (Sunbird Room #12).
This is the foundation that makes editing possible.
A2) The cleanest way to add birds: reserved “empty slots”
When you first build a room, don’t fill every locus. Leave planned gaps:
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Fill only odd numbers first (1,3,5,7…)
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Keep evens as “parking spaces”
Later, new species go into the empty evens without shifting anything.
If your room has 40 loci:
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Day 1: place 20 birds (odd loci)
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Later: you can add 20 more (even loci)
This single trick prevents 90% of rework.
A3) The next best method: “annex shelves” (overflow areas)
If the room is full, don’t insert in the middle. Add a clearly marked extension:
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“Sunbird Room – Window Sill Annex” (10 loci)
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“Sunbird Room – Under-the-Rug Basement” (10 loci)
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“Sunbird Room – Ceiling Catwalk” (10 loci)
Retrieval stays:
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Main room 1–40
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Annex A 41–50
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Annex B 51–60
Your brain loves this because it’s still one route.
A4) If you must insert a species between two existing ones
Do NOT renumber the whole room. Use sub-addresses like a book page:
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Locus 12 = species A
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Add new species between 12 and 13 → put it at 12B (or 12.5)
How to do that visually:
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Locus 12 has a “main scene”
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The new species lives on a distinct sub-spot at the same locus:
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on top of the object
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under it
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inside it
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hanging from it
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Example:
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Mirror (Locus 3): original sunbird is stuck to the glass
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New inserted sunbird (3B): perched on the mirror frame holding a sugar syringe
Rule: max 2–3 birds per locus or it gets muddy.
A5) How to subtract a species (without leaving a “hole” that confuses you)
Two good options:
Option A: Delete + “seal” the locus
Remove the bird image, then add a strong “EMPTY” marker:
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yellow caution tape
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a big red X
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a “FOR RENT” sign
That tells your brain: “There’s intentionally nothing here.”
Option B: Replace (best if you don’t care about keeping the old)
Just overwrite that locus with the new correct species. Fast and clean.
A6) What not to do: shifting everything forward/back
Avoid:
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“I’ll move every bird after #17 one locus forward.”
That breaks retrieval, causes interference, and costs more time than it seems.
If you want a different order, make a new version room (see next tip).
A7) When you should rebuild instead of edit
If you changed your checklist a lot (say 30–40% of species), make a new room:
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“Sunbirds v2 (Kenya checklist 2026)”
You can still keep the old room as “archive” so you don’t confuse memories.
Athletes do this all the time: versioned palaces beat constant reshuffling.
A8) Best practice for bird learning: separate “storage order” from “study order”
Your palace order can stay stable (e.g., alphabetical or field guide order), while your study sessions can jump around. The palace is your database, not your only study sequence.
Quick REVIEW for you (500 birds use-case)
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Build each family room with 20 to 50 loci
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Fill 20 on odd loci initially
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In future development within a room, the overflow goes into Annexes, not mid-route insertion
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Subtract by “seal” markers or overwriting
HOW I GOT INTO THIS? ???????????????????????????????
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| Roger Albert, Sociologist. A screen-frame from one of his telecourses in 1991. He had one course (which I took) called: Effective Study Techniques. There he introduced mnemonic approaches and Tony Buzan's mind-mapping (including Memory Palaces, MoL). |
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| The very successful, brilliang self-help author and memory athlete, Tony Buzan. |
