Memory champions use the loci method to perform amazing feats. Surely, it can help you remember to pick up the dry cleaning.

The loci method, a millennia-old mnemonic strategy, uses the visualization of familiar locations to memorize a series of items, whether it be a grocery list or a series of talking points in a speech.

In fact, storing memories in the form of mental images was the preferred memorization method of the scholars in ancient times. Today, it has allowed people to perform staggering feats of memorization.

Bottom line? Memory skills aren't entirely innate — they're likely highly learnable. You can practice using the method of loci and see how you fare on a memory test on The New York Times website.

People have been using the loci method to memorise text and numbers for 2,500 years. The more vivid your imagination, the easier it will be.

The method of loci, also called the journey method, memory palace, or "mind palace" (as popularised by Sherlock Holmes), involves placing a mnemonic image for each item to be remembered at a ...

Total recall using loci method The pre- and post-test results revealed significant improvements in memory and other cognitive functions, suggesting the effectiveness of the method.

In an effort to understand how people pulled off these amazing, seemingly impossible feats, Foer spent the better part of a year training his memory using the method of loci.