[notaclevername]

The thing I've never understood about memory palaces or location reminders is: do you reuse the same locations all the time? If so, how do you mentally distinguish between your current memorized set, and the set you remembered a dozen times ago with the same palace?

[throwanem]

I don't know about memory palaces, but the technique I describe involves no memorization; the association isn't that strong. Once it's served its purpose and I no longer need to remember it, I quickly cease to do so, and I haven't noticed problems with overhang from past uses of the same objects.

For the same reason, I wouldn't expect this kind of - I dunno, "mnestic nudge?" - to last very reliably over significant spans of time. I can do it over spans of a few hours to a morning-and-afternoon day, but I don't recall having tried it overnight and I wouldn't want to rely solely on it if I did. I don't really know whether or how well it parallelizes, either; if I've tried that before now, I no longer recall how it went.

What I'm describing really isn't like a "memory palace" at all, even if I mentioned it in a thread about those. That concept claims quite a general and systematic sort of utility, while this is just one among a set of tools that for me also includes a pocket notebook, phone reminders, a diary, and so on. When circumstances preclude immediate access to any of the others, I use this one instead, and also by choice because without at least a bit of practice it might not work when I do need it. (Also because it's really convenient, with less friction even than pen and paper - and besides, my phone can't "remind me of something the next time I pick up my diary".)

[nestorD]

The memorized set goes away fairly easily. However, profesional mnemotechnicians who do several demonstrations a day will sometime take the time to 'destroy' the pictures in between demonstrations (setting them mentally on fire for example) in order to reduce the risk of confusion.