Spatial Memory

• The capacity to find our way around and to remember where we’ve been has come naturally to us.

• Mental maps

• The automatic place log maintained by our brains has been preserved is a product of evolution due to its clear survival value:

  • It was vitally important for our forebears to remember where they had found supplies of food or safe shelter, as well as where they had encountered predators and other dangers.
  • The elemental importance of where such things were located means the mental tags attached to our place memories are often charged with emotion, positive or negative—making information about place even more memorable.

• Our robust capacity, exploited by the method of loci, to remember where things are.

• We are far better and more experienced at spatial thinking than at abstract thinking

• Infantile amnesia