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 seemed 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 in
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, to bet 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 at the other pole of the faculty
who seem to find it impossible to remember any direction or locality or relation and
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 employed. 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, etc. 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 in imagine
on the map with a city map or road map. You may get lots
of amusement by retraveling 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 direction, names of streets,
turns, return, journey, etc. 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, etc.
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's 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?