The Katie Method and the Rise of People in Locations
Katie Kermode is an English memory athlete, translator, and co-developer of the IAM memory training software. She is arguably one of the most skilled memory athletes in the world, and is especially known for her expertise in memorizing random words, and international names and faces. In this article I would like to discuss what is known as the Katie Method1, a memory technique of placing designated persons in locations within one’s memory palace for reinforcing meaning and concepts.
The Development
Before I explain this method, I would like to first provide a brief background on its development. Kermode stated that it came about accidentally and that she was not intentionally trying to create a new technique. She often uses rooms as locations in her memory palaces and these rooms are associated with a specific person. As a result, during memorization these associated people frequently re-appeared in her loci. Then she further observed how certain number combinations suggested people:
“…if I had the numbers 705851 it would be ‘cool foot’ (because I use the Ben System), so I would probably imagine a specific footballer who is really cool. So I often found that the next time I used that journey, I’d imagine that person in the location again.”
The use of designated people improved her performance in competition. She went on to say, “What I found with these people popping up in the locations unintentionally was that it actually helped, because whatever comes up in the location, you can attach it to that person.” Consequently, she uses this method for all her competitive memory disciplines with the exception of Random Images2:
“Some people think this is only useful in the Words discipline, but to me they are all words, whether it’s numbers, cards, whatever, I’m just converting them into words. So this is for numbers and cards as well. Obviously it’s not useful for people using PAO or PA, as they already have a person.”
The Katie Method: How it Works
Katie Kermode inserts people in each location of her memory journeys, and with more than 2,700 competition locations she thereby uses a vast array of people categorized by those she knows in real life, celebrities, characters from every TV she has ever watched, etc.3 She organizes her competitive memory journeys according to discipline such as Cards, Numbers, Words, and so forth.
Then she makes associations with the person in the location with the information that needs to be memorized. She described her process in a 2019 interview on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast hosted by mnemonist Anthony Metivier by giving the following example:
“If I am memorizing words there might be an abstract word like ‘happiness’ and if I have a person to attach it to, it makes it much easier because I can imagine that person being happy... If there is an object, I can imagine the person using the object in some way.”4
According to this method, the locus itself plays a secondary role, her location fades into the background and it is as if she is moving from person to person because they “essentially are the location.” She remarked, “Sometimes I only have a vague awareness of what the location is anyway. Even if the image(s) is/are a person, I would just associate the people.” Therefore, she always uses the assigned person, even if a person happens to appear in the discipline’s data set.5 So now that we have briefly considered its use and development, let us further consider its benefits in memorization and some memory athletes that have adopted this approach.
The Benefits of People in Locations
In this history of memory sports, some athletes have questioned this approach by asking: “Is it really worth all this effort to think of people to include in my competitive memory palaces? However, there are at least two benefits supporting its use that have been presented despite the difficulty that may be involved in developing it, namely:
It helps one memorize abstract words more easily.
We often encounter abstract information in the process of memorization and sometimes it is challenging to quickly create associations and concrete images. For instance, I cannot put “justice” in my pocket and fold it like a piece of paper; I cannot hold “hatred” in my hands and touch its surface like an apple. But, if I had a person in a locus, I could imagine that person dressed like a judge who seeks justice or with a facial expression of hatred.
It helps improve one’s accuracy in recall.
Every memory athlete I have interviewed that adopted this approach without fail claimed that this method significantly improved their recall.6 They consistently shared that when there is a fixed person in a location there is a tendency to experience a domino-effect, when they recall the person, the sequential images follow. Kermode once stated in a 2016 interview on Nelson Dellis’ Mind Show, “once I get one word, the four words tend to all come back.”7
Notable Memory Athletes that Use the Katie Method
John Graham (2x USA Memory Champion)
In an interview on The Craft of Memory Podcast, John Graham said he reached out to Kermode who he considers the best at Words in order to learn more about her techniques. Then in the 2021 USA Memory Championships he shared some of his imagery for the 15 minute Words to Remember Event saying,
“[For] hatred, I imagined my uncle, I use people to remember words because I think applying actions and images work better with people for me. So, I actually imagined my uncle wearing a hat that is red because hatred is sort of an abstract word.”8
Braden Adams (3x Canadian Memory Champion)
Braden Adams also transitioned from the traditional memory palace construction for certain disciplines. He stated, “I use the person in location for Words and Images events. Total game changer for Words. I’m the only person I know that does it for Images.”
Prateek Yadav (12x Indian Memory Champion)
Prateek Yadav stated that he transitioned to using people in locations, and particularly for the Spoken Numbers discipline and has noticed improvement in recall:
"So, let’s say, if I have 50 locations for my Spoken Numbers, I would already have 50 people on those locations. And then on every location that person would be interacting with those two images. Initially, it could be a lot of work…but somehow it works very well for me. I feel much more relaxed and comfortable when I’m doing it.”9
Conclusion
I have surveyed the terrain of memory sports and have observed that there is an increased number of mental athletes adopting this method. Additionally, there are more and more competitors considering to incorporate it such as Don Michael Vickers who commented on the MemorySportsTV Twitch stream covering the French Memory Open 2022:
“I’m going to attempt this [technique] someday. I have a palace out of a park/soccer field I haven’t used enough, want to be a goal keeper Katie [Kermode]?”
In this article, I do not want to say that one should or should not use this method, for that is a personal decision based on various factors. On the contrary, I would like one to rather seriously consider the testimonies from memory athletes on its effectiveness. It is a technique that cannot be ignored and should cause one to at least consider experimenting with it in their personal memory training and to possibly adopt it for one or more competitive disciplines.
There is no official term attributed to this method, in this article I simply call it the Katie Method; however, Doug: @thinkaboutthebible from the Art of Memory Forum (AOM) calls it, Katie’s Locus + Subject System (KLS).
She uses a peg system for the Random Images discipline and grabs the last six.
It must be noted that in the 2019 Magnetic Memory Method Podcast at the 40:15 mark she stated she had around 1,700 locations, but has increased her number of competitive locations over the years to over 2,500. She also has a lot of other memory palaces for “memorizing general information (history, music, sports, art, etc.).” (See AOM Jun 26)
See 40:39, “Katie Kermode on Memory Competitions, and Casual, Everyday Mnemonics” episode for the full discussion.
She has people in all of her locations apart from a few loci that she does not need to use in competition as she commented, “I just haven’t assigned people to it yet.” (See AOM Jun 26).
Although the Kermode Method helps improve ones recall there are still nevertheless several memory athletes strong in the Words Discipline that do not use this method but traditional memory journeys such as Naoki Miwa, Alex Mullen, Andrea Muzii, and others.
It must be clarified that she no longer uses four images per locus (IPL) but now uses only two. Some people have mistakenly claimed that she uses five (IPL) but she does not know where that came from because she has never used five.