Remembering Numbers

Day by day our lives are becoming more and more complicated. No matter what, one has to remember at least a few bank account numbers, telephone numbers etc.,

How does one remember numbers?

Using mnemonic systems, remembering numbers becomes extremely simple.

There are a number of ways of approaches, depending on the types of numbers being remembered:

1. Short numbers

These can be stored in a number of ways:

The easiest is to use simple Number/Rhyme method associated in a story.

A simple peg system can be used, associating numbers from the Number/Rhyme method, organized with the Alphabet system.

2.Long Numbers

This can be remembered using the Journey System. At a simple level, numbers can be stored at each stop on the journey using e.g., the Number/Shape system.

Using all the simple techniques in concert, there is no reason why you should not be able to store a 100-digit number with relatively little effort. Using the more powerful systems, holding it to 1000-digits might not be too much of a challenge.

Five principles to improve Memory

There are five basic principles you can apply in forming your mental pictures, which will help you make your associations strong and long lasting. These are quite similar to the ones suggested in the mnemonic system.

1. Out of Proportion: In all your images, try to distort size and shape. In the first exercise, you were told to picture a “Huge” sausage or a “gigantic” tie. Conversely, you can make things microscopically small.

2. Substitution: In the first exercise, we suggested that you visualize of a football, or pens growing on a tree instead of leaves. Substituting an out of place item in an image increases the probability of recall.

3. Exaggeration: Try to picture vast quantities in your images. For example, we used the word ‘billions’ (of bananas).

4. Movement: Any movement or action is always easy to remember. For example, we suggested that you saw yourself cutting a sausage and gallons of ink squirting out and hitting you in the face.

5. Humour: The funnier, more absurd and zany you can make your images, the more memorable they will be.

Applying and combination of these five principles when formatting your images will help make your mental associations truly outstanding and memorable. At first you may find that you need to consciously apply one or more of the five principles in order to make your pictures sufficiently ludicrous. After a little practice however, you should fine that applying the principals becomes an automatic and natural process.

How to improve memory

Attempts to improve memory are now new. For centuries, man has been trying out ways and means to improve his memory because he has realize the importance of having a good memory, was devised by the Greeks a long time ago.

While there are many methods that keep appearing from time to time, there are some, which have proved there efficacy. They remain popular because of the ease and practically of implementing them. Of these, mnemonic, link system and pegging are the most popular.

One thing that needs to be mentioned here is that there are no quick fix methods available for improving memory. These methods have to be practiced with sincerity and regularity in order to apply then effectively. Just as with any self-improvement process, memory improvements needs consistent efforts and take a little time to make an impact. So, don’t expect overnight results or you will be disappointed!

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.