Memorization

Techniques
One to Remember
Content
Expectations.......................................................................................................................... 4
Learning cycle ....................................................................................................................... 4
Four learning levels according to Bateson ............................................................................. 5
Test of Short-Term Memory................................................................................................... 5
Memory Basics: 3 Types of Memory...................................................................................... 6
Limbic System ....................................................................................................................... 6
4 Fundamentals for Effective Learning .................................................................................. 7
Principle of Mnemonics ......................................................................................................... 7
The Link System.................................................................................................................... 8
Exercise: The Shortcut to Long Lists ..................................................................................... 9
Sensory Channels ............................................................................................................... 10
How to Remember Names and Faces easily ....................................................................... 11
Name-Picture Database ...................................................................................................... 14
Rhythm is it! – Structuring the material to be learned .......................................................... 15
Rhythm is it! – The Impact of Repetition on your Memory .................................................... 16
The Method of Loci.............................................................................................................. 17
Exercise: Preparing and delivering a presentation ............................................................... 18
Reading and Links............................................................................................................... 19
Transfer to your everyday work ........................................................................................... 20

Memorisation Techniques 3
Expectations
What are your 3 key expectations of the seminar?

Learning cycle

Your notes

4
Four learning levels according to Bateson
Description Example
Level 0

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Test of Short-Term Memory

Write down all of the words you can remember

Memorisation Techniques 5
Memory Basics: 3 Types of Memory

Source: Grüning (2009): Garantiert erfolgreich lernen

(Engl: Successful learning guaranteed).

Limbic System

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4 Fundamentals for Effective Learning
Your comments

1. Relaxation:

2. Motivation / concentration:

3. Comprehension and association:

First Principle for improving retentiveness:

Whenever you want to remember something,
you have to connect it with something you
already know.

Principle of Mnemonics
As a rule, our short-term memory stores 7 units of information at once, plus/minus 2. Based
on that, it would be impossible to remember a wordlist like this in one go

In order to take in information for a longer time, it has to be stored in the long-term memory.

Our memory saves a lot of information, but only a fraction of it is consciously accessible. A
lot of information is stored, but cannot actively be retrieved – it is activated by chance, e.g. by
a smell, a particular situation.

The “trick” with mnemonics lies in the setting of “anchors”, by which we can make the stored
information actively retrievable. In doing so, we connect the new input with familiar, safely
stored information, and the familiar serves as an anchor for the new information. Through
this we circumvent our short-term memory. Because as the anchors are already saved in our
long-term memory, we can now basically absorb endless amounts of information without the
limitation of 7 units of information.

Memorisation Techniques 7
The Link System

With this technique the pieces of information to be remembered are linked together like links
in a chain. Item 1 is connected with item 2, item 2 with item 3 etc. Thus emerges a chain of
items that are fixed, even in their order.

This technique is made especially effective by visualizing the items to be remembered. With
abstract items, vivid words that are similar in sound or meaning have to be found.

The following 5 steps are necessary for the items in a list of words to become firmly
embedded:

Your comments
1. Visualize the items.

2. Make them big in your mind’s eye.

3. Make them colorful.

4. Make them bizarre.

5. Add a motion – to link one item to

the next.

Example
The words to be memorized are: sofa – tomato – suntan lotion – book – fear.

 The sofa is visually connected with the tomato. (a large old green sofa and on it a
bouncing sun-ripened bright red tomato.)
 Tomato is connected with the suntan lotion, and the suntan lotion with the book, the book
with fear. (The tomato bounces so heavily that it bursts on impact and juice pours out.
Upon closer inspection it is not normal tomato juice, but thick suntan lotion that is
dripping into the large open book, which is trembling with fear under the sofa.)

Disadvantage of the technique

If the chain is broken in just one place because one link has been forgotten, it is often difficult
to remember the remaining items from that point. On the other hand it is a technique that can
be applied quickly and without any great effort

Techniques that instead make use of fixed values for anchoring require a certain amount of
preparation time because this kind of framework has to first be mentally constructed.

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Exercise: The Shortcut to Long Lists
Visualization Motion to link to the next
item

Wallpaper

Mountains

Skirt

String

Ice cream

Scissors

Nail

Clock

Nurse

Perfume

Elephant

Prison

Mirror

Suitcase

Plant

Memorisation Techniques 9
Energy

Safe

Bowler hat

Beard

Iceberg

Sensory Channels

Zu r An z e i g e wi rd d e r Qui c k Ti m e ™
De k om p re s s or „“
b e n öti g t.

1. Visual: The eyes – the sense of sight

2. Olfactory: The nose – the sense of smell
3. Auditory: The ears – the sense of hearing
4. Kinesthetic: The whole body / the skin as the largest sensory organ – the sense of
touch
5. Gustatory: The tongue/palate – the sense of taste

Your notes

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How to Remember Names and Faces easily
(inspired by Ron White, twice U.S. Memory Champion)

Step 1: Focus

When you meet new people for the first time, and would like to remember their first and last
names as soon as possible, the main thing above all is to fully concentrate on this person
and their name for a moment. You can adopt this focus, by always repeating the question
internally “What is her/his name?” before and while shaking hands / greeting someone.

Step 2: File

When you greet this person, make a mental note of a facial feature that stands out -
something that immediately jumps out at you. Commit to memory what this is, and by which
this person can also be recognized later on.

Feature: Glasses Feature: Distinctive eyebrows

Name: Frank Peters Name: Mick Ball

And what do you notice about this person?

Feature: Red hair

Name: Leonie King

Memorisation Techniques 11
Step 3: Transform names into pictures – Name-picture database

The next step is a matter of transforming the names of the person into an internal picture. It
is highly recommended to establish an inner name-picture database for the most common
first names and always use the exact same picture for these names, like for example:

Vince
Quince

Lisa
Mona Lisa

Suzanne
Sizzling pan

Beatrice

Bee

Oliver

Olive oil

Max
Axe

Mick

Mickey Mouse

Leonie

Lioness

Frank

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First and last names:
You can also establish a database like this for the more common last names. Additionally, it’s
a good idea to transform sounds and pictures, directly associated with the name, into a
picture – and spontaneously in your mind’s eye make up a story, from the picture made by
the first name and the last name.

Mick Ball: Mickey Mouse catches balls.

Leonie King: The lioness puts on a king’s crown.

Frank Peters: ____________________________________________

Exotic first and last names

Here it’s recommended to immediately transform into a picture, sounds or visuals associated
with the name (rhymes, similarity, sounds like…).

Step 4: ACTION

At this point in the memorization process, it is a matter of linking the (name-) picture with the
outstanding facial feature of the particular person, ideally along with ACTION, a motion – in a
colorful, and by all means bizarre overall picture.

Mickey Mouse jumps back and forth on the eyebrows, trying to catch balls being thrown at
him. (Mick Ball)

The red hair turns into the red fur of a lioness that is putting on a king’s crown. (Leonie
King)

Step 5: Review

Repetition – immediately after meeting someone, at the end of the day (“Who did I meet
today?”) and again and again.

Memorisation Techniques 13
Name-Picture Database

Name Associated Picture

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Rhythm is it! – Structuring the material to be learned
One way of structuring the material to be learned is mind mapping, a method by which
instead of writing things down in a linear fashion, the subject matter is transferred onto a
labeled tree diagram – and thereby immediately putting it into a structure connected by
associations. By doing this the main statements per branch are reduced down to the core
statement.

Mind mapping was introduced by the British psychologist Tony Buzan. Since then, many free
and some chargeable computer programs have appeared on the market, also for
Smartphones and tablet computers, with which you can create mind maps and then also
export them into other programs, like e.g. Excel.

Mind mapping can be used for many different things: For collecting ideas and brainstorming,
for structuring texts, drafting a speech or presentation, writing minutes, and for planning and
organization.

Mind mapping is great for learning, memory training and also for exam revision, as it is a
creative way of developing an overview of the material, which is simple and easy to grasp. If
you then go back and focus again on the mind map by systematically repeating the material,
the structure is imprinted on your memory as both an overall picture as well as semantically,
and can be remembered for long periods of time.

When developing a mind map, one branch should not have more than seven sub-branches
going off it. That way you can, when studying, memorize mind maps photographically, and in
an exam situation go through and retrieve them systematically in your thoughts.
Through the sub-branching of the main branches, associative clusters are created that can
be easily learned and recalled.

In order to optimize retention, symbols and pictures can and should also be integrated into
the mind map.
Mind maps are also good for learning foreign languages, foreign words and specialist
vocabulary. The linking of words and terms with pictures, and with each other, help with
retention.

Memorisation Techniques 15
Rhythm is it! – The Impact of Repetition on your
Memory

One study has shown that during a break, your learning initially increases. During that period
of rest the new information is linked to what is already known.

That means that when you resume your study after the break, you will for a short time have
more conscious knowledge:

Afterwards however there is a sharp drop in the curve (approx 80% of the details are
forgotten within 24 hrs). These are average values.

The drop in amount remembered can be prevented by using a good repetition technique.

Amount remembered

Time

Source: Grüning (2009): Garantiert erfolgreich lernen.

(Engl: Successful learning guaranteed.)

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The Method of Loci
Advantage of this method is that the selected anchors are fixed. Unlike the linking method,
the system of memorizing is not dependent on the previous item, but the items are linked to
fixed anchors.

10 “locations” on the body are defined and gone through:

 Hair
 Eyes
 Nose
 Mouth
 Throat
 Shoulders
 Chest
 Hands
 Knee
 Feet

A word list is now linked with the various body parts:

The 10 last host cities of the Summer Olympics (as of: 2016)

City Link to a body part

1. Rio (2016)
2. London (2012)
3. Peking (2008)
4. Athens (2004)
5. Sydney (2000)
6. Atlanta (1996)
7. Barcelona (1992)
8. Seoul (1988)
9. Los Angeles (1984)
10. Moscow (1980)

Memorisation Techniques 17
Exercise: Preparing and delivering a presentation
1. Read the article and underline the important information for your presentation.
2. Memorize this information with the help of the Loci technique.

Information Link to which body part

3. Give a brief presentation on the article memorized and speak freely (without using your
notes).

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Reading and Links
English

 Joshua Foer: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering
Everything. Penguin, 2012.
 www.brainathlete.com

German

 Christian Grüning: Garantiert erfolgreich lernen: Wie Sie Ihre Lese- und Lernfähigkeit
steigern. Verlag Grüning, 2009.
 Compakt Redaktion: Das große Buch der Lerntechniken: Konzentration steigern.
Gedächtnis trainieren. Lernstrategien anwenden. Prüfungen bestehen. Compact, 2005.

Memorisation Techniques 19
Transfer to your everyday work
Toolbox
On this page, write down the tools, theories, and tips that can be useful to you in your daily
work.

In the right-hand column, write down typical work situations and tasks where you can apply
these tools.

Tool Tips for applying Typical tasks

Transfer plan
Which three key elements from the seminar would you like to implement next week?
In what specific situations?

In the second week, write down your results and how successful you were.
Content Situation Level of success

1.

2.

3.

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