The Alphabet Technique

Remembering middle length lists

© iStockphoto/YinYang

Many of us have trouble memorizing lists. Whether they're lists of names, dates, or product features, it's hard to remember everything that you need to know. This is where a tool like the Alphabet Technique is useful.

The Alphabet Technique is a memory technique that's useful for remembering long lists of items – in a specific order, so that you know when items are missing. As such, it's similar to the number/rhyme and number/shape systems.

With the Alphabet Technique, you associate colorful mental images representing letters of the alphabet with the items that you want to remember, by visualizing scenes that link them together.

By doing this, you're taking advantage of the way that your brain works. It's much easier to remember colorful, memorable mental images, than it is to remember dull facts. This is particularly the case when these images are "pegged" to a sequence that you know very well – such as the letters of the alphabet.

How to Use the Alphabet Technique

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