Mnemonics Notes

Here are my notes on this topic:

1. Overview

• Techniques to aid memory
• encoding
• retrieving
• like interesting facts
• reduction mnemonics
• elaboration mnemonics
• Mnemosyne
• Cicero
• three kinds of memory
  •   natural memory
  •   artificial memory
  •   mechanical memory
• three kinds of mnemonics
•   naïve mnemonics
•     without training
•     rehearsal
•     chunking
•     abbreviations
•     acronyms
•   technical mnemonics
•     require training
•     effective
•     method of loci
•     EGDF
•   external mnemonics
•     cathedrals
•     illuminated manuscripts
•     frescoes
•     stained glass windows
•    stations of the cross

2. Naïve mnemonics

• rehearsal
• chunking
• chaining
•   forward chaining
•   backward chaining
• images
• visualize
• rhyme
• music
• proverbs
• nicknames
• acronyms
• acrostics

3. Technical mnemonics

• not spontaneously used
• method of loci
• journey method
• peg systems
•   number-rhyme

4. External mnemonics

• lists
• right them down
• calendars
• memos
• write on your hand
• photographs
• alarms & timers
• objects

5. Three tips

• Method of loci
• Chunking
• Distributed practice

 

^^

Mnemonics

 

1. History of Mnemonics

2. Naive Mnemonics

people do naturally; no training needed

• • rehearsal = repetition
  • little kids on way to phone

Can choose

• • leave it in short-term memory and forget it after we’re done
  • practice long enough for hippocampus to consolidate into long-term memory

Chunking

• • typically 3-4 items
  • 202 456 1414
  • break into segments, learn some each day = chunking
  • practice same thing over time = distributed practice

Chaining

• • forward
    • start at front, add to back end
    • common way to learn songs and speeches
    • easy to use
  • backward
    • start at back, add to front end
    • easy to use
    • more effective

Images

• • infographics, mind maps, clusters, cartoons
  • paintings and stained-glass windows
  • used to remind people
  • compass on a map
  • grocery store
  • images alone can be helpful
  • images work best when they are interactive
    • tree and a truck
    • don’t have to be bizarre or vivid; must be interactive
    • bizarre or unusual images tend to be interactive

Rhymes

• • also called ode mnemonics
  • well into the 14th century
    • everything but legal documents recited in rhymes and poems
    • rules of commerce, ethics, social behavior
  •  “I before E, except after C”
  • “30 days hath September, April, June…”
  • don’t have to rhyme

Music

• • Ray Charles singing the “Fifty Nifty United States”
  • Jack Sheldon singing Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m just a bill”
  • Hannah Montana’s Bone Dance
  •  “ABCDEFG” song
  • child rehearing number or random words will often sing it
  • make up own tune
    • music doesn’t have to be good, just memorable

Proverbs

• • short versions of folk wisdom
  •  “Red in the morning, sailors take warning…”
  • “Spring forward, fall back”
  • spelling knowledge: desert vs dessert; more is better

Nicknames

• • abbreviate or rename familiar places
  • parks, bridges, buildings
  • people
  • abbreviate: State or U
  • rep theater

Acronyms

• • reduction mnemonic
  • first letter of each word
    • RDO (regular day off)
    • KPI (key productivity indicator)
    • SLO (student learning outcome)
    • RADAR (radio detection and ranging)
    • MASH (mobile army surgical hospital)
  • allow lists of words to be summarized in a single word
  • Great Lakes
    • Humor, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior
    • becomes HOMES
  • American Broadcasting Company becomes ABC
  • Cable News Network becomes CNN

Acrostics

• • elaboration mnemonic
    • add more information to make whole easier to remember
    • looks like an acronym but starts the opposite way (short to long)
  • poems or sentences where the first letter of each word stands for something
  • “Every good boy does fine”
  • “On old Olympus towering top, a Finn and German viewed some hops”
    • an acrostic for OOOTTAFAGVSA
    • cranial nerves (olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, auditory, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory and hypoglossal)
  • work great for remembering the order of items
  • not for remembering the underlying information

Connections

• • already have learned some information
  • learning is the process of adding to your current knowledge base
    • if you know area codes, those numbers are easier to remember
    • or running times, swimming times, planes (737, 747, 757, B1) or sales prices
  • your body:  knuckles

Summary

• • Rehearsal, chunking and images are the big three
  • If you use them to their fullest, you might not need the other seven techniques.
  • But people are different. Try a few and see which ones work best for you.

3. Technical Mnemonics

• not spontaneously used by people
• require some training and practice
• can be very effective
• great for info you want to remember for a long time
• most the “memory classes” present a technical mnemonic system

Method of Loci

• • oldest mnemonic system
    • used by the ancient Greeks and Romans
  • Simonides of Ceos, famous poet
    • 477 BC, banquet
    • building collapsed killing everyone inside
    • identified everyone by visualizing where they sat
  • technique combines two elements: images and places
    • both are equally important
  • places (loci) provide the pegs or anchors to store the images
  • can remember any image when cued by a location
    • picture your house from the outside
    • front door is the “opening” of your speech
    • first room you enter is your first topic
  • method of loci is also called journey method
    • current house, imaginary house, or architectural wonder
    • childhood home
    • journey across campus, across the country or around the world
    • have specific objects at each place which can store an image
  • Romans had portable rooms or tabernacles filled with info or cues
  • Sherlock Holmes had his “mind palace” or “memory palace”
  • does a good job of:
    • learning things in order (serially)
    • being able to select a specific item (cued recall)
  • memorize the order of a deck of cards if 52 locations
  • memorize the bones of the body while you walk around the neighborhood

Peg Systems

• • takes some time to set up
  • system is quite versatile
  • pegs you hung your coat on at kindergarten
    • pegs are permanent but anything can be hung from the peg
  • Number-rhyme system
    • visual anchors that rhyme with numbers
    • sun, shoe, tree, door, hieve, tricks, heavan
    • associate a word from the list to each peg
    • make an interactive image of the peg and the target word
    • can remember the items in order or selct them at random
    • advantages:
      • recall items in any orde
      • pegs are reusable
  • Number-shape system
    • egg and spear technique
    • pegs they are assigned by shape
    • one  = candle, pencil, spear or anything with a simple vertical line
    • two = swan (curved neck)
    • three =  love heart, bosom
    • four might be a sail (4 sheets to the wind)
    • if more visual than auditory, give this tehnique a try
  • Alphabet-rhyme pegs
    • useful for spelling words
    • word-images that rhyme with letters
    • a = hay
    • b = bee
    • c = see
  • Alphabet-concrete image pegs
    • a = ape
    • b = boy
    • c = cat
    • d = dog

Translation Schemes

• • aimed at remembering numbers
    • translates numbers into words
    • digits (0 to 9) are converted into consonants
  • adaptation of the number-shape peg system
  • 1= t or d (single vertical stroke)
  • 2 = n (two lines)
  • 3 = m (3 lines)
  • 13, the t (1) and m (3) can become tim or tom or team

Link & Story Systems

• • links are visual images connected together
    • one image leads to the next in a chain of associations
    • helpful for modeling processes and cycles
  • stories are links which use sentences instead of images
    • car drives to the post office and cruises by the bakery before stopping to get its tire pressure checked

Summary

• • The disadvantages of using mnemonics, particularly technical mnemonics, include:
    • it takes a lot of effort to use them (more than most people will devote)
    • they can’t be readily applied to learning complex material (poems or stories)
    • they don’t help people remember physical sequences (dance movements, etc.)
    • they have limited usefulness for everyday tasks
    • people don’t use them; even if trained to use them

4. External Mnemonics

• memory researchers are no more likely to use mnemonics than anyone else
  • rarely called on to memorize lists of unrelated words
  • use external aids include lists and calendars
• lists
• memos
• notes
  • Post-it Notes
  • 3×5 index cards
  • write on hand
• photographs
  • don’t encode flower, flower, flower, grass, grass, grass
  • we are meaning extractors
• alarms, timers and clocks
• models
  • sequential
  • pyramid
  • pie chart
  • physical or virtual
  • brain as a fist
• physical reminders
  • string on finger
  • briefcase in front of door
• ask someone to remind you
• test prep
  • note cards
  • flash cards
  • mind maps
  • clusters
  • doodles
• outlines
  • Cornell System

5. Best of the Best

• Method of Loci
• Chunking
• Chaining