CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

Applying Your Skills

USING MNEMONICS TO ENHANCE MEMORY

When you use mnemonics to remember new information, you take personal responsibility for your learning by improving your chances of moving information from your short-term memory into your long-term memory.

Choose a class in which you need to remember a string of words or ideas for an upcoming exam. Then complete the following steps to create your own acrostic (a type of mnemonic). We’ve provided an example to get you started.

  1. Select a list of words or ideas you need to remember. Write these words in a column (vertically) and underline or highlight the first letter in each word.

  2. Identify words that begin with each of the underlined or highlighted letters.

  3. Put the words together to create a short phrase or a sentence. This is your acrostic.

  4. Use your acrostic, and then assess how well it worked. Did it help you remember the information? If not, you may need to change the words in step 2 to create something more fun, interesting, or memorable.

Example: Remembering Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development in children.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Sensory Motor Stage Six Six Penguins Cooked Falafel
Pre-operational Stage Penguins
Concrete Operational Stage Cooked
Formal Operational Stage Falafel

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