BSc Computer Science dissertation 2018-19 - University of Bath, UK.
Humans increasingly rely on technological devices to store information they wish to recall at a later date, which has led to a common trend in remembering where information can be accessed instead of what it contains (“Digital Amnesia”). Despite this trend, the human memory is still relied upon for long term recall in situations where technology is absent, such as examinations, presentations and speeches. Techniques (mnemonics) such as the Mind Palace, Pegword and Chunking techniques have existed since the times of Ancient Greece and are regularly practised by memory champions for enhancing recall.
This dissertation investigates if and how technology can be used to assist memorisation, with particular focus on lessening the cognitive effort involved in practising the Mind Palace technique.
After a thorough exploration of the state of the art, this dissertation presents “Hold That Thought” (HTT): the first-known mobile-based solution for Mind Palace creation and re-enactment in a physical environment using Bluetooth location-tracking technology to assist the problem of memorising information. A user-centred approach informed its design, before a rigorous usability and experimental evaluation assessed its efficacy. The experiment is the first-known comparison between a system utilising physical spaces, the traditional Mind Palace technique and a control group. Whilst no significant statistical difference was observed in recall accuracy data, the experimental findings support the hypothesis that use of HTT requires less cognitive effort than the traditional Mind Palace technique and a control group. This dissertation is concluded by a critical review of the experimental findings and a reflection on project success before exploring avenues for future work to build on its research.
A video of the application in action can be seen here: https://youtu.be/RwE5stBE0IA.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Fabio Nemetz of the Department of Computer Science for his supervision and encouragement throughout the course of the project. His advice and suggestions have played an influential part in shaping the direction of this dissertation and have provided me with great motivation to complete it to a high standard.
I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr Alexandra Voinescu of the Department of Psychology for her investment in the project’s psychological roots - especially its literature review and experimental design. Finally, I wish to thank my parents, friends and family for their input in the form of proofreading, feedback and caffeine to keep me going. This work would not have been possible without their time and support.