Ancient Australian Aboriginal memory tool superior to 'memory palace' learning

[Judi Lynn]

MAY 18, 2021

by Monash University

Australian scientists have compared an ancient Greek technique of memorizing data to an even older technique from Aboriginal culture, using students in a rural medical school.

The study found that students using a technique called memory palace in which students memorized facts by placinthem into a memory blueprint of the childhood home, allowing them to revisit certain rooms to recapture that data. Another group of students were taught a technique developed by Australian Aboriginal people over more than 50,000 years of living in a custodial relationship with the Australian land.

The students who used the Aboriginal method of remembering had a significantly improved retention of facts compared to the control and the "memory palace" group.

The study led by Dr. David Reser, from the Monash University School of Rural Health and Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta, from Deakin University's NIKERI Institute, has just been published in PLOS One.

Medical students, and doctors, need to retain large amounts of information from anatomy to diseases and medications.
Because one of the main stressors for medical students is the amount of information they have to rote learn, we decided to see if we can teach them alternate, and better, ways to memorize data," Dr. Reser said.

The memory palace technique dates back to the early Greeks and was further utilized by Jesuit priests. Handwritten books were scarce and valuable, and one reading would have to last a person's lifetime, so ways to remember the contents were developed.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-ancient-australian-aboriginal-memory-tool.html