The relationship between theoretical memory psychology and art of memory: a historical analysis.

The split between the theoretical branch and the practice--oriented art of memory psychology has existed for centuries. Whereas the theory of memory involved creation of elaborate models to elucidate the structure and processes of memory, in contrast the art of memory embraced techniques to enhance memory performance. One might expect a close relationship between practice and theory. This is, however, not the case. Theorists and memory artists criticized, fought, or ignored each other, as is demonstrated by examples from the 16th to the 19th century.