Memory techniques

Three techniques, each backed by memory research, that work best together. BlueMemo is built around all three.

1 The memory palace

Place vivid images along a route through a place you know, then walk it in your mind.

The memory palace, also called the method of loci, is more than 2,000 years old and is still the favourite technique of memory champions. It works because your brain is excellent at remembering places and pictures, and much worse at remembering lists. By tying each thing you want to learn to a spot you already know, you borrow that strong spatial memory.

How to do it

  1. Choose a place you know by heart, such as your home.
  2. Plan a route through it with clearly different stops: the front door, the hallway, the kitchen table...
  3. Turn each thing you want to remember into a vivid, slightly absurd image. The stranger, the better.
  4. Place one image at each stop, and take a second to really see it there.
  5. To remember, walk the route in your mind. The images, and the answers, come back in order.

In BlueMemo

Memory route decks guide you stop by stop, with a suggested image for each card. You can always make your own image instead.

2 Active recall

Pull the answer out of your memory before you look, instead of reading it again.

Active recall means testing yourself instead of re-reading. Every time you pull an answer out of your memory, the path to it gets stronger. Re-reading feels productive because the text looks familiar, but recognising something is not the same as being able to recall it. Research on the testing effect shows that practising retrieval makes memories last much longer than reviewing the same material again, even when you get the answer wrong, as long as you check it afterwards.

How to do it

  1. Look at the question and cover the answer.
  2. Really try to answer, in your head or out loud, before you check. Picture your image if you have one.
  3. Reveal the answer and compare honestly.
  4. If you missed it, look at the answer and your image once more, then try again a little later.

In BlueMemo

Every card shows the question first and keeps it visible. The answer only appears when you ask for it, after you've tried. Rounds repeat the cards you missed until you know them all, and each deck ends with a test.

3 Spaced repetition

Review each card right before you would forget it, so you study less and remember longer.

Memories fade along a forgetting curve: quickly at first, then more slowly. Each time you successfully recall something just as it's starting to fade, the memory becomes stronger and fades more slowly next time. Spaced repetition uses this by spreading reviews out over time: a new card comes back after minutes, then days, then weeks or months. You spend your time on what you're about to forget, not on what you already know.

How to do it

  1. Learn the card, ideally with a strong image.
  2. Review it when it's due, using active recall.
  3. Rate how it went: Again, Hard, Good or Easy.
  4. The better you know a card, the longer it waits before it comes back.

In BlueMemo

BlueMemo schedules reviews with FSRS, a modern scheduling model that estimates when you're about to forget each card. It can be optimised on your own review history, so the timing fits how your memory works.

Better together

The memory palace helps you learn something quickly, active recall makes the memory strong, and spaced repetition makes it last.

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