MEMORY TECHNIQUES

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Mnemonics are methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. A very simple example of a mnemonic is the '30 days hath September' rhyme. The basic principle of mnemonics, is to use as many of the best functions of the human brain as possible to code information.

The human brain evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli - images, colour, structure, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, spatial awareness, emotion, and language - using them to make sophisticated interpretations of the environment. Human memory is made up of all these features.

Typically, however, information presented to be remembered is from one source - normally words on a page. While language, words on a page, reflects one of the most important aspects of human evolution, it is only one of the many skills and resources available to the human mind.

Using Your Whole Mind To Remember
Mnemonics seek to use all of these resources. By coding language and numbers in sophisticated, striking images which flow into other strong images, we can accurately and reliably code both information and the structure of information to be easily recalled later.
This section of Mind Tools seeks to show you the techniques that enable you to use your entire mind to remember information.

The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are: Association, Imagination and Location

Working together, these principles can be used to generate powerful mnemonic systems. There are many illustrations of memory techniques and examples of areas where their application will yield serious advantage. Once you have absorbed and applied these techniques you will understand how to design and apply these principles to your field to design your own powerful, sophisticated recall systems.

ASSOCIATION
Association is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a method of remembering it. Although we can and will suggest associations to you, your own associations are much better as they reflect the way in which your mind works.
Things can be associated by:
• being placed on top of the associated object
• crashing or penetrating into each other
• merging together
• wrapping around each other
• rotating around each other or dancing together
• being the same colour, smell, shape, or feeling

Whatever can be used to link the thing being remembered with the image used to recall it is the association image.

Example:
Linking the number 1 with a goldfish might be done by visualizing a 1-shaped spear being used to spear a goldfish to feed a starving family.

IMAGINATION
Imagination is used to create the links and associations needed to create effective memory techniques. Imagination is the way in which you use your mind to create the links that have the most meaning for you. Images that I create will have less power and impact for you, because they reflect the way in which we think. The more strongly you imagine and visualize a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. Mnemonic imagination can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember what needs to be remembered.

LOCATION
Location provides you with two things: a coherent context into which information can be placed so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another: e.g. by setting one mnemonic in one village, I can separate it from a similar mnemonic located in another place.

Location provides context and texture to your mnemonics, and prevents them from being confused with similar mnemonics. For example, by setting one mnemonic with visualizations in the city of Bangalore and another similar mnemonic with images of Manhattan allows us to separate them with no danger of confusion.
So using the three fundamentals of Association, Imagination and Location one can design images that strongly link things with the links between themselves and other things, in a context that allows you to recall those images in a way that does not conflict with other images and associations.

A memory getting worse with age is true only for people who do not use their memories properly. Memory is like a muscle, the more it is used, the better it gets and the more it is neglected, the worse it gets. During education most people have to use their memories intensively both to remember facts and to pass exams. When people leave full time education, they stop using their memory as actively, and so it starts to get flaccid.

Memory works by making links between information, fitting facts into mental structures and frameworks. The more you are actively remembering, the more facts and frameworks you hold, the more additional facts and ideas will slot easily into long term memory.

A clear presentation and organization of a good lesson or training course provides a structure that is almost mnemonic in its own right. Where information drifts in as isolated facts, it will normally be forgotten simply because it is not actively fitted into a mnemonic. An important feature of memory is the imagination that allows you to construct the strong mnemonic links between things to be remembered and the cues for their recall. Of course be reliable, but keep your imagination fresh at the same time!

So memory in most people does get worse with age, but only because it is allowed to. By continuing your education throughout your life, by cultivating your mind and keeping it open to new experience, by actively fitting facts into clear and flexible frameworks, and by keeping your imagination working, your memory can get better and better as you get older.

Doing this gives you a better memory. An important thing to realise is that different people learn in different ways. The way in which people learn is often a factor determining the subjects they choose to study, instructors they relate to, and careers chosen in life.

LEARNING STYLE AFFECTS YOUR USE OF MNEMONICS
The way in which people learn affects the sort of mnemonics they should consider using to store information. The three main learning styles are: VISUAL, AUDITORY and KINAESTHETIC.

VISUAL
Visual learners relate most effectively to written information, notes, diagrams and pictures. Typically they will be unhappy with a presentation where they are unable to take detailed notes - to an extent information does not exist for a visual learner unless it has been seen written down. That is why some visual learners will take notes even when they have printed course notes on the desk in front of them. Visual learners will tend to be most effective in written communication, symbol manipulation etc. They make up around 65% of the population.

AUDITORY
Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. They will tend to listen to a lecture, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often information written down will have little meaning until it has been heard, it may help auditory learners to read written information out loud. Auditory learners may be sophisticated speakers, and may specialize effectively in subjects like law or politics. They make up about 30% of the population.

KINAESTHETIC
Kinaesthetic learners learn effectively through touch and movement and space, and learn skills by imitation and practice. Predominantly kinaesthetic learners can appear slow, in that information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods. They make up around 5% of the population.

If you are an auditory or kinaesthetic learner you may find that this emphasis on imagery leads to ineffective recall. In this case, try adjusting the mnemonics to suit your learning style. If you are an auditory learner, use auditory cues to create your mnemonics. If you are a kinaesthetic learner, imagine performing actions or using tools as the basis of memory techniques. When you are creating a mnemonic, e.g. an image or story to remember a telephone number, the following things can be used to make the mnemonic more memorable: Using positive, pleasant images. Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image.

Using humorous funny or peculiar things makes it easier to remember than normal ones. Similarly rude or sexual rhymes are very difficult to forget. Symbols can be used in mnemonics. Vivid, colourful images are easier to remember than drab ones. Use all the 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. Bringing three dimensions and movement to an image makes it more vivid. Movement can be used either to maintain the flow of association, or can help to remember actions. Locate similar mnemonics in different places with backgrounds of those places. This will help to keep similar images distinct and unconfused. The important thing is that the mnemonic should clearly relate to the thing being remembered and that it should be vivid enough to be clearly remembered whenever you think about it. Once you have mastered simple memory systems such as the number or shape system, you can use mnemonic enhancers to expand the range of the systems.

As an example, you might use the convention that encasing a mnemonic image in ice adds ten to a simple number/shape image: i.e. if you have previously linked the number 2 to the word 'wine' by using an image of a drunken swan guzzling a bottle of wine, then you can change it to link wine to 12 by imagining the swan frozen in ice.