Using Mnemonics More Effectively

When you are creating a mnemonic, eg., an image or story to remember a telephone number, the following things can be used to make the Mnemonic more memorable:

      Use positive, pleasant images. The brain often blocks our unpleasant ones.

      Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image.

•       Use humor! Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones.
•       Similarly rude or sexual rhymes are very difficult to forget!
•       Symbols ( e.g., red traffic lights, pointing fingers, act.,) can be used in mnemonics.
•       Vivid, colorful images are easier to remember than drab ones.
•       Use all the sense 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 can be used either to maintain the flow of association or can help to remember actions.
•       Locate similar mnemonics in different places with background of those places. This will help in maintaining similar images distinct and unconfused.

The important thing is that the mnemonics should clearly relate to the thing being remembered and that it should be vivid enough to be clearly recalled whenever you think about it.

Mnemonics – Memory Improvement Technique:

The Ancient Greeks developed basic memory systems called Mnemonics, a name derived from there goddess of Memory, Mnemosyne. In the ancient world, a trained memory we s an immense asset, particularly in public life. There were no convenient devices for taking notes and early Greek orators delivered long speeches with great accuracy because they learned the speeches using Mnemonics system.

The Greeks discovered that human memory is largely an Associative process – wick works by linking things together. For example, think of a pineapple. The moment your brain registers the work ‘pineapple; it recalls the shape, color, taste, texture and smell of that fruit. All these things are associated in your memory. When you recall what you had for lunch yesterday, that may remind you of something someone said during lunch, which may recall the memory of some background music which was playing, which may evoke something which occurred ten years ago, and this can go on and on. This association does not have to be logical – they can be completely random or absurd. In fact, the more absurd the association,  the better the recall.