“Memory Palaces Revisited: Traditional and Virtual Approaches for ADHD”

From August 9–10, 2025, the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP) took place in Vancouver, Canada. At the conference, Anika Jewst presented the paper “Virtual and Traditional Memory Palaces in Recall with ADHD”, which will be published in the ACM Transactions on Applied Perception and additionally received the Best Paper Award – Honorable Mention.

SAP is an interdisciplinary conference that combines knowledge, methods, and insights from perception research and computer science to address questions from psychology, perception, and neuroscience in the fields of computer graphics, computer vision, and virtual reality.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a widespread neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. People with ADHD often experience impairments in working memory, affecting their ability to store and process information. A commonly used cognitive strategy to support memory performance is the method of loci (memory palace), a technique in which one mentally moves through a familiar space to encode and recall information.

With the help of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), more accessible and engaging alternatives can be created. However, previous research on virtual memory palaces has not specifically focused on individuals with ADHD, and only a limited number of studies have examined the effectiveness of the memory palace technique as a memory aid for this group.

In an experiment with students diagnosed with ADHD, both the traditional memory palace technique and a VR version were tested to assess their impact on a memory task. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of a VR memory palace may depend on prior experience with VR systems, familiarity with the virtual environment, and with the method itself. Nevertheless, the results also indicate that the memory palace technique has the potential to improve memory performance in individuals with ADHD.

Here is the publication:https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3748824