Prep 11

Mnemonics

5 things you need remember from this class session:

• History of Mnemonics
• Naïve Mnemonics
• Technical Mnemonics
• External Mnemonics
• Best of the Best

Class 11 Notes

Here are my notes on this topic:

History of Mnemonics

Naïve 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.

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

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

Class 11 Terms

Mnemonics

• abbreviate
• acronym
• acrostic
• alarms
• alphabet-concrete image pegs
• alphabet-rhyme pegs
• anchors
• ape (a)
• b = bee
• b = boy
• bizarre images
• cat (c)
• childhood home
• chunking
• compass on a map
• Cornell note taking system
• cued recall
• cues
• desert vs dessert
• distributed practice
• doodling
• egg and spear technique
• elaboration mnemonic
• external aids
• external mnemonics
• first letter
• flash cards
• hay (a)
• hippocampus
• images
• infographics
• interactive images
• journey method
• knuckles
• link & story Systems
• loci
• meaning extractors
• memory palace
• method of loci
• mind maps
• mind palace
• mnemonics
• models
• music
• naive mnemonics
• nicknames
• note cards
• notes
• number-rhyme system
• number-shape system
• ode mnemonics
• peg
• peg systems
• photographs
• places
• poems
• proverbs
• RADAR (radio detection and ranging)
• RDO (regular day off)
• reduction mnemonic
• rehearsal
• reminders
• repetition
• rhyme
• see (c)
• sentences
• serial recall
• Simonides of Ceos
• singing
• single vertical stroke
• song
• stained-glass windows
• stories
• string on the finger
• t (1)
• taberancles
• team (13)
• technical mnemonics
• translation schemes
• visualization
• word-images
• write things down

Class 11 Terms

• “30 days hath September, April, June…”
• “ABCDEFG” song
• “Every good boy does fine”
• “I before E, except after C”
• abbreviations
• acronyms
• acrostics
• alarms
• alphabet-rhyme pegs
• bizarre images
• chaining
• chunking
• clusters
• Cornell note taking system
• doodling
• egg and spear technique
• elaboration mnemonic
• external aids
• external mnemonics
• flash cards
• hippocampus
• images
• infographics
• interactive images
• journey method
• link & story systems
• meaning extractors
• memory palace
• method of loci
• mind maps
• mnemonics
• models
• naive mnemonics
• nicknames
• note cards
• notes
• number-rhyme system
• number-shape peg system
• ode mnemonics
• outlines
• peg systems
• photographs
• pie chart
• poems
• proverbs
• pyramid
• reduction mnemonic
• rehearsal
• repetition
• rhymes
• serial recall
• singing
• stained-glass windows
• stories
• technical mnemonics
• translation schemes
• visualization

Best of the best