The Art of Remembering

Barbara Awbrey, M.A. Ed.

Goode-Pasfield Center for Learning and Teaching

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Mnemonics
 A weird word that means “memory tool”.
Mnemonics are methods for
remembering information that is
otherwise difficult to recall. Mnemonics
use as many of the best functions of your
brain as possible to store information.

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 Memories
 Colors
While written language
 Smells is one of the ways we
 Tastes communicate, it is only
 Touch one of the skills and
 Feelings resources available to
our minds.
 Shapes

“Elephant” OR

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Researchers say:

By using all your senses, but especially your ability to create

visual images, you can increase your power to memorize.

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Be Careful
 Your Brain Can Read This:
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd
waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the
hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht
oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt
tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll
raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but
the wrod as a wlohe.

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 What tricks do you use?

 “I before e, except after c”

 HOMES
 S-U-C-C-E-S-S
 “30 days hath September….”
 Tying a string around your finger
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Now you can start
making up your own
mnemonic devices
Recommended: Breakthrough Learning (1995) by Scott Bornstein

• Use positive pleasant images

• Use vivid colorful silly images
• Use three-dimensional
images
• Exaggerate the size of the
images
• Use humor
• Use symbols (traffic lights,
pointing finger)

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1.The Similar Traits Technique
2. Peg Systems
3. Forming Sentences from the 1st
letters of the words
4.The Link & Story Method

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Two words you would like to remember and link in your mind:

RICHMOND - VIRGINIA
Find things they have in common (e.g., second letter “i”; eight letters)
Find smaller words within the words:
RICH MAN - VIRGINIA

Make up a sentence or short visual/story:

“The rich man drinks gin and lives in Virginia”

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Now try this one:

BUSCAR - TO LOOK FOR

**The similar traits technique is a good way to study for matching tests.

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•Uses something you know (and won’t forget) to “hang” new information on;

•Pairs old information with new information in a visual format;

•Good for remembering items in order;

•Common pegs: the alphabet; numbers; furniture in your house

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You need to remember:

1. Bun (“one is a bun”) 6. Bricks

2. Shoe (“two is a shoe”) 7. Heaven
3. Tree (“three is a tree”) 8. Gate
4. Door “etc. 9. Line
5. Hive 10. Hen

Form a picture in your mind of each item. Make the picture vivid,
detailed, and colorful.

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 Now, write down a list of things to remember, such as a shopping list
(used here). It could be a list of body parts for Anatomy class, a list of
scientists, or a list of the chemicals in the periodic table of the elements
(any list).

1. Coke
2. Laundry Detergent
3. Tomatoes
4. Chicken
5. Hamburger
6. Paper Towels
7. Kleenex
8. Cookies
9. Bread
10. Lean Cuisine

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Next create a picture in your mind containing the first item on your shopping
list (coke) with the word “bun” (which goes with #1). In this case, you imagine a
picture of a bun with Coke. The image must be detailed. For example, what kind
of bun is it? Hamburger, hot dog? With seeds on top, without? What color is it?
Perhaps you have imagined a hot dog bun with a small bottle of coke lying in it
instead of a hot dog. Next, create a picture of laundry detergent and a shoe
(two is a shoe). Decide what kind and color of shoe (high top, tennis, women’s,
men’s, red, white), What does the detergent look like? Is it in a box? A bottle?
Perhaps you are picturing a men’s high-top, red basketball shoe, with detergent
bubbles coming out of the top, Etc.

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 The Alphabet Peg System

A – Ace of spades N - Entrance

B – Bee O - Oboe
C – Sea P - Pea
D – Diesel engine Q - Queue
E – Eel R – Ark
F – Effluent S – Eskimo
G – Jeans T – Tea Pot
H – Harley U - Unicycle
I – Eye V - Vehicle
J – Jade W - WC
K – Cake X – X-ray
L – Elephant Y - Wire
M - Empty Z – Zebra

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 1. Blackboard
2. Light switch
3. Floor
4. Ceiling
5. Book
6. Telephone
7. Door
8. Window
9. Chair
10. Water cooler

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In this technique, which most students have learned in school, the first
letters of a list of words that need to be remembered are taken out to form
a silly sentence or another word that is easy to remember.

For example, if one is trying to remember the planets of the solar system:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

Take the letters M, V, E, M, J, S, U, N and P and form a sentence:

“My very extravagant mother just sent us nine pizzas”

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The Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Eerie, Superior

=H O M E S

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 Strategies we use to solve problems:
Trial and error; algorithms; heuristics; insight

T, A, H, I “Teachers always have insight”

Famous psychologists:
Bandura, Maccoby, Loftus, Sperry, Rodin

B, M, L,S, R “Be more like a special rat”

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Works by making associations between items in a list, linking them in a
story, or a flowing image.

The counties of England: Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon,

Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Surrey:

 An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset)

 The DOoR opening to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with a SETting
sun (Somerset)
 The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall)
 The WILTing stalks slowly droop onto the tail of the sleeping DEVil
(Devon)
 On the DEVil’s horn a woman has impaled a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire)
HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it
 Now the Devil feels soRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.

Note that there need not be any reason or underlying plot to the sequence
of images: only the images and the links between them are important. OR

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Alternatively you could code this information by imaging the following story
vividly:
An AVON lady is walking up a path towards a strange house. She is hot and
sweating slightly in the heat of high SUMMER (Somerset). Beside the path
someone has planted giant CORN in a WALL (Cornwall), but it’s beginning to
WILT (Wiltshire) in the heat. She knocks on the DOoR (Dorset), which is
opened by the DEVil (Devon). In the background she can see the kitchen in
which the servant is smearing honey on a HAM (Hampshire), making it GLOSsy
(Gloucestershire) and gleam in the bright sunlight streaming through the
window. Panicked by seeing the Devil, the Avon lady screams ‘SoRRY’ (Surrey),
and dashes back down the path.

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Summary:
 Mnemonics means “memory tool”;
 Using visual images paired with items to
remember is a powerful tool;
 Some mnemonics techniques include:
1. Similar traits
2. Peg systems
3. Forming sentences and words
4. Link & story method

 Make visual images funny, colorful, 3-D,

“cartoonish”
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