Mnemonics: Unlocking your Memory’s Potential
Mnemonics are truly the key to making the most out of the time one would spend studying a subject or learning new information. Mnemonic techniques are a great tool for learning and have been around since the Greeks cultivated much of them including the Memory Palace which was first invented by Simonides roughly 2500 years ago (Foer, 2011). What mnemonics do for a person is they enable someone to take knowledge that essentially has no meaning to them and turn it into something more memorable. By turning the meaningless information into something more memorable you are then able to recall this information with a much better success rate than would be able if you had not used these methods. Many people simply use rote memory techniques (repetition) to memorize what they need and your brain is not made for that kind of memorization, it is built for images, sounds, smells, sense of touch, and the emotions associated with those things. It is by utilizing these senses through mnemonics methods that you can make the unmemorable much more memorable.
There are many different mnemonic techniques that are available but I would like to cover three of the most commonly used. The first of which is the Method of Loci. The Method of Loci, also known as Memory Palace, is known for feats of incredible memory. According to LiteMind, Develop Perfect Memory with the Memory Palace Technique, Retrieved from Litemind, “Eight-time world memory champion Dominic O’Brien, for instance, was able to memorize 54 decks of cards in sequence (that’s 2808 cards), viewing each card only once”. The way a memory palace is used is by first finding a location you can use. Say for instance, you want to use your chi...
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...are a great tool for any student or person seeking to improve their capability of remembering the vast amount of information they are handed each and every day and should not be ignored.
Works Cited
Bakken, J., (2011). Mnemonic Strategies: Success for the Young-Adult Learner. The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning. Volume 7(2), pp. 79-85
Daniel, H. “Benefits of Mnemonics.” Benefits Of. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar 2014.
“Develop Perfect Memory With the Memory Palace Technique- Litemind.”Litemind. N.p., n.d.
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Foer, J. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.
"Limitations of Mnemonics." SkillsToolbox.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
“The Memory Institute – The Peg System (or Hook System).” The Memory Institute – The Peg System (or Hook System). N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Foer, on the other hand, makes the claim that our society’s ability to remember has slowly dwindled by means of outsourcing of ourselves. “Today, when we live in a deluge of printed words” we have no need to remember everything when we have tools that do it for us (164). We have phones that remember people’s names, addresses, and phone numbers. We have GPS systems that make remembering routes a thing of the past.
In chapter one of Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer discusses memory and persuades the reader of its importance. Foer’s primary claim is that memory is essential. Joshua Foer uses a variety of different voicing techniques to create intimate distance. He also uses a variety of analytical and stylistic techniques to emphasize the importance of his claim and to persuade the reader. He supports his argument by discussing the impact of memory on daily life, the positive effects of improving one’s memory, and the incomplete nature of our collective memory as a society without external resources.
The article “How Our Brains Make Memories” explains how traumatic events and the memories they hold can become forgotten over time. Karim Nader recalls the day that two planes slammed into the twin towers in New York City and like almost every person in the United States he had vivid and emotional memories of that day. However he knew better than to trust his recollections of that day because he was an expert on memory. He attended college at the University of Toronto and in 1996 joined the New York University lab of Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist who studies how emotions influence memory. Fast forward to 2003, Nader is now a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, where he says “his memory of
Glisky, E. (2011). Memory. In Caplan, B., DeLuca, J., & Kreutzer, J. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Mechanical or rote repetition of the information is a great way to remember this information. The more time you spend rehearsing the information the longer the information will be remembered. This is actually a poor way of remembering things because it doesn’t make the information meaningful; “surface processing”. Elaborative Rehearsal is a more effective way of remembering information through “deep processing”, which is relating the information to information you already know. This technique is used in more in the education system than maintenance rehearsal. Even with these two ways to store things we still run into filling errors. Filling errors are where your brain has filed information incorrectly. The final step in the memory process is retrieval. Retrieval is the locating of stored information and returning it into your conscious thoughts. There are a few cues that help us retrieve them, such as priming, context, and state. Priming is the nonconscious identification or words and objects, by referring in to particular representations or associations in the memory just before carrying out the action or task. The memories that come back to your conscious mind when you are in a certain place or area are called context, dependent memories. When you are in a certain emotional state you many retrieve memories of when you were also in that same emotional
Terry, W. S. (2009). Learning and memory: Basic principles, processes, and procedures (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn Bacon.
The mammalian brain contains several different memory systems, which can be divided into declarative and non-declarative memory systems. Declarative memory can be further divided into episodic and semantic memory, and non-declarative memory can be divided into priming, associative learning, and procedural memory.
Learning and memory are two topics that have held the attention of researchers for centuries. This is most likely due to the fact that they are integral to our survival, yet are unconscious processes that we take for granted every day.
Memory is such a crucial part of our survival and learning process that it has been a heavily studied subject in psychology and neuroscience. Researching and finding ways to maximize our memory potential will help us maximize our potential and be more productive in work and play settings.
1.19. Many elderly people have trouble remembering words, people’s names, and recent events. Imagine a memory-aid product. What features would it have? What technologies would you use if you were designing it?
Atkinson, R.C. & Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control process.
Flash cards are portable so I can take my study material with me any where that I
In class, we talked about how our memory can be created or changed by the power of suggestion. We also talked about how the information offered by others can also
Teachers are encouraged to develop these strategies and where possibly implement them into their teaching to help enhance student memory. This can be achieved by teaching specific memory recall strategies and when to use them, examples such as visual representations or asking the students to demonstrate what strategies they find useful, are all good ideas for teachers to take into consideration when trying to improve student memory. Strategies help students when it comes to studying what they have learned in the easiest most effective way possible; however theses strategies may become unhelpful at one point in time if a child is emotionally