How to remember places. There is a great difference in the various degrees of
development of the sense of locality in different persons, but these differences may be
traced directly to the degree of memory of that particular phase or faculty of the
mind, which in turn depends upon the degree of attention, interest, and
use which has been bestowed upon the faculty in question. The authorities on phrenology
define the faculty of locality as follows, cognizance of place, recollection of the
looks of places, roads, sceneries, and the location of objects where on
a page ideas are to be found and positioned. Generally, the geographical faculty
the desire to see places and have the ability to find them. Persons in
whom this faculty is developed to the highest degree seem to have an almost intuitive
idea of direction, place and position. They never get lost or mixed up
regarding direction or place. They remember the places they visit and their relation and
space to each other. Their minds are like maps upon which are engraved the
various roads, streets, and objects of sight in every direction. When these
people think of China, Labrador, Terra del Fuego, Norway, Cape of
Good Hope, Tibet, or any other place. They seem to think of
it in this direction or that direction, rather than as a vague place situated
in a vague direction. Their minds think north, south, east, or
west, as the case may be, when they consider a given place.
Shading down by degrees, we find people well at the other pole of the
faculty, who seem to find it impossible to remember any direction or locality or
relation in space. Such people are constantly losing themselves in their own towns and
fear to trust themselves in a strange place. They have no sense of direction
or place, and fail to recognize a street or scene which they have visited
recently, not to speak of those which they traveled over in time past.
Between these two poles or degrees, there is a vast difference, and it
is difficult to realize that it is all a matter of use, interest,
and attention that it is. But this may be proven by anyone who will
take the trouble and pains to develop the faculty and memory of locality within his
mind. Many have done this, and anyone else may do likewise. If
the proper methods be in the secret of the development of the faculty and memory
of place and locality is akin to that mentioned in the preceding chapter in connection
with the development of the memory for names. The first thing necessary is to
develop an interest in the subject. One should begin to take notice of the
direction of the streets or roads over which he travels, the landmarks, the
turns of the road, the natural objects along the way. He should study
maps until he awakens a new interest in them, just as did the man
who used the directory. In order to take an interest in names, he
should procure a small geography and study direction, distances, location, shape and
form of countries, et cetera. Not as a mere mechanical thing, but
as a live subject of interest. If there were a large sum of money
awaiting your coming in certain sections of the globe, you would manifest a decided
interest in the direction, locality, and position of those places and the best
way to reach them. Before long you would be a veritable reference book regarding
those special places. Or if your sweetheart were waiting for you in some such
place, you would do likewise. The whole thing lies in the degree of
want to regarding the matter. Desire awakens interest. Interests employ attention, and
attention brings use development and memory Therefore, you must first want to develop the
faculty of locality, and want to hard enough. The rest is a mere
matter of detail. One of the first things to do after arousing an interest
is to carefully note the landmarks and relative positions of the streets or roads over
which you travel. So many people travel along a new street or road in
an absent minded manner, taking no notice of the lay of the land as
they proceed. This is fatal to place memory. You must take notice of
the thoroughfares and the things along the way. Pause at the crossroads or the
street corners, and note the landmarks and the general directions and relative positions until
they are finally imprinted on your mind. Begin to see how many things you
can remember regarding even a little exercise. Walk, and when you have returned
home, go over the trip in your mind and see how much of the
direction and how many of the landmarks you are able to remember. Take out
your pencil and endeavor to make a map of your route, giving the general
directions and noting the street names and principal objects of interest. Fix the idea
of north in your mind when starting, and keep your bearings by it during
your whole trip. And in your map making. You'll be surprised how much
interest you will soon develop in this map making. It will get to be
quite a game, and you will experience pleasure in your increasing proficiency in it.
When you go out for a walk, go in a roundabout way,
taking as many turns and twists as possible in order to exercise your faculty of
locality and direction. But always note carefully direction and general course so that you
may reproduce it correctly on your map when you return. If you have a
city map, compare it with your own little map, and also retrace your
route and imagine it on the map with a city map or road map.
You may get lots of amusement by re traveling the route of your little journeys.
Always note the names of the various streets over which you travel, as
well as those which you cross during your walk. Note them down upon your
map, and you will find that you will develop a rapidly improving memory in
this direction. Because you have awakened interest and bestowed attention, take a pride
in your map making. If you have a companion, endeavor to beat each
other at this game, both traveling over the same route together, and then
seeing which one can remember the greatest number of details of the journey. Akin
to this, and supplementary to it, is the plan of selecting a route
to be traveled on your city map, endeavoring to fix in your mind the
general directions, names of streets, turns, return, journey, et cetera.
Before you start, begin by mapping out a short trip in this way,
and then increase it every day. After mapping out a trip, lay
aside your map and travel it in person. If you like, take along
the map and puzzle out variations from time to time. Get the map habit
in every possible variation and form, but do not depend upon the map exclusively,
but instead endeavor to correlate the printed map with the mental map that you
are building in your brain. If you are about to take a journey to
a strange place, study your maps carefully before you go, and exercise your
memory in reproducing them with a pencil. Then, as you travel along,
compare places with your map, and you will find that you will take an
entirely new interest in the trip. It will begin by meaning something to you.
If about to visit a strange city, procure a map of it before
starting, and begin by noting the cardinal points of the compass, study the
map, the directions of the principal streets, and the relative positions of the
principal points of interest buildings, et cetera. In this way, you not
only develop your memory of places and render yourself proof against being lost, but
you also provide a source of new and great interest in your visit. The
above suggestions are capable of the greatest expansion and variation on the part of anyone
who practices them. The whole thing depends upon the taking notice and using the
attention, and those things, in turn depend upon the taking of interest in
the subject. If anyone will wake up and take interest in the subject of
locality and direction, he may develop himself along the lines of place memory to
an almost incredible degree in a comparatively short time. At that There is no
other phase of memory that so quickly responds to use and exercise as this one.
We have in mind a lady who is notoriously deficient in the memory of
place, and was sure to lose herself a few blocks from her stopping place.
Wherever she might be. She seemed absolutely devoid of the sense of direction
or locality, and often lost herself in the hotel corridors. Notwithstanding the fact
that she traveled all over the world with her husband for years. The trouble
undoubtedly arose from the fact that she depended altogether upon her husband as a pilot,
the couple being inseparable. Well, the husband died and the lady lost
her pilot. Instead of giving up in despair, she began to rise to
the occasion. Having no pilot, she had to pilot herself, and she
was forced to wake up and notice. She was compelled to travel for a
couple of years in order to close up certain business matters of her husband's,
For she was a good businesswoman in spite of her lack of development along this
one line, and in order to get around safely, she was forced to
take an interest in where she was going. Before the two years travels were
over, she was as good a traveler as her husband had ever been,
and was frequently called upon as a guide by others in whose company she chanced
to be. She explained it by saying, why, I don't know just
how I did it. I just had to, that's all. I just
did it. Another example of a woman's because you see what this good lady
just did was accomplished by an instinctive following of the plan which we have suggested
to you. She just had to use maps and to take notice. That
is the whole story. So true are the principles underlying this method of developing
the place memory that one deficient in it, providing he will arouse intense interest
and will stick to it, may develop the faculty to such an extent that
he may almost rival a cat which always came back, or the dog which
you couldn't lose. The Indians, Arabs, Gypsies and other people of the
plain, forest, desert and mountains have this faculty. He so highly developed
that it seems almost like an extra sense. It is all this matter of
taking notice, sharpened by continuous need, use and exercise to a high degree.
The mind will respond to the need if the person, like the lady,
just has to the laws of attention and association will work wonders when actively
called into play by interest or need, followed by exercise and use. There
is no magic in the process. Just want to and keep at it,
that's all. Do you want to hard enough? Have you the determination to
keep at it?