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An Introduction to Memory Techniques
The tools in this section help you to
improve your memory. They help you both to remember facts
accurately and to remember the structure of information.
The tools are split into two sections.
Firstly you'll learn the memory techniques themselves. Secondly
we'll look at how you can use them in practice to remember
peoples names, languages, exam information, and so on.
As with other mind tools, the more practice
you give yourself with these techniques, the more effectively
you will use them. This section contains many of the memory
techniques used by stage memory performers. With enough
practice and effort, you may be able to have a memory as
good. Even if you do not have the time needed to develop
this quality of memory, many of the techniques here are
useful in everyday life.
Mnemonics
'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. Mnemonics are techniques
for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult
to recall: A very simple example is the '30 days hath September'
rhyme for remembering the number of days in each calendar month.
The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember
information in a way that is much easier to remember.
Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli such
as images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch,
positions, emotions and language. We use these to make sophisticated
models of the world we live in. Our memories store all of these
very effectively.
Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in
modern life is presented differently - as words printed on a page.
While writing is a rich and sophisticated medium for conveying
complex arguments, our brains do not easily encode written information,
making it difficult to remember.
This section of Mind Tools shows you how to use all the memory
resources available to you to remember information in a highly
efficient way.
Using Your Whole Mind to Remember
The key idea is that by coding information
using vivid mental images, you can reliably code both information
and the structure of information. And because the images are vivid,
they are easy to recall when you need them.
The techniques explained later on in this section show you how
to code information vividly, using stories, strong mental images,
familiar journeys, and so on.
You can do the following things to make
your mnemonics more memorable:
- Use positive, pleasant images. Your
brain often blocks out unpleasant ones
- Use vivid, colorful, sense-laden images
- these are easier to remember than drab ones
- Use all your senses to code information
or dress up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can
contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings
as well as pictures.
- Give your image three dimensions, movement
and space to make it more vivid. You can use movement
either to maintain the flow of association, or to help
you to remember actions.
- Exaggerate the size of important parts
of the image
- Use humor! Funny or peculiar things
are easier to remember than normal ones.
- Similarly, rude rhymes are very difficult
to forget!
- Symbols (red traffic lights, pointing
fingers, road signs, etc.) can code quite complex messages
quickly and effectively
Designing Mnemonics: Imagination, Association and Location
The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics
are imagination, association and location. Working together, you
can use these principles to generate powerful mnemonic systems.
Imagination: is what you use to create and strengthen the
associations needed to create effective mnemonics. Your imagination
is what you use to create mnemonics that are potent for you. The
more strongly you imagine and visualize a situation, the more effectively
it will stick in your mind for later recall. The imagery you use
in your mnemonics can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like,
as long as it helps you to remember.
Association: this is the method by which you link a thing
to be remembered to a way of remembering it. You can create associations
by:
- Placing things on top of each other
- Crashing things together
- Merging images together
- Wrapping them around each other
- Rotating them around each other or having them dancing together
- Linking them using the same color, smell, shape, or feeling
As an example, you might link the number 1 with a goldfish by visualizing
a 1-shaped spear being used to spear it.
Location: gives you two things: a coherent context into
which you can place information so that it hangs together, and
a way of separating one mnemonic from another. By setting one
mnemonic in a particular town, I can separate it from a similar
mnemonic set in a city. For example, by setting one in Wimbledon
and another similar mnemonic with images of Manhattan, we can
separate them with no danger of confusion. You can build the flavors
and atmosphere of these places into your mnemonics to strengthen
the feeling of location.
MindTools.com - Join Our Community!
Our first memory techniques, the Link and Story Methods, show
how effective these ideas can be. To read about these, click "Next
article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in
the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
New Articles (Not included in the Mind Tools E-book.)
* Shows articles available in full only to Career Excellence Club Premium members
Acrostics - Memory curiosities
A full list of Mind Tools articles is available here.
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