Mnemonics
Mnemonics (pronounced “ne MON iks”) are various methods or tricks to aid the memory. Mnemonics tend to fall into four basic categories:
- Acronyms. New words created from the first letters of several words can be helpful in remembering. The Great Lakes can be more easily recalled by remembering the word HOMES for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
- Acrostics. An acrostic is a verse in which certain letters of each word or line form a message. Many piano students were taught the notes on the treble clef lines (E, G, B, D, F) by remembering the acrostic “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.”
- Rhymes or songs. Do you remember learning “Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31, excepting February alone. It has 28 days time, but in leap years it has 29” or a similar ditty? If so, you were using a mnemonic rhyming technique to remember the number of days in each month.
- Visualization. Visualization is used to associate words, concepts, or stories with visual images. The more ridiculous the image, the more likely you are to remember it. So use your imagination to create mental images when you’re studying important words or concepts. For example, as you’re driving to campus, choose some landmarks along the way to help you remember material for your history test. The next day, as you pass those landmarks, relate them to something from your class notes or readings. A white picket fence might remind you of the British army’s eighteenth-century approach to warfare, with its official uniforms and straight lines of infantry, while a stand of trees of various shapes and sizes might remind you of the Continental army’s less organized approach.
Mnemonics works because it makes information meaningful through the use of rhymes, patterns, and associations. It imposes meaning where meaning might be hard to recognize. Mnemonics provides a way of organizing material, a sort of mental filing system. It’s probably not needed if what you are studying is very logical and organized, but it can be quite useful for other types of material.
Although mnemonics a time-tested way of remembering, the method has some limitations. The first is time. Thinking up rhymes, associations, or visual images can take longer than simply learning the words themselves through repetition. Also, it is often difficult to convert abstract concepts into concrete words or images, and you run the risk of being able to remember an image without recalling the underlying concept. Finally, memory specialists debate whether learning through mnemonics actually helps with long-term knowledge retention and whether this technique helps or interferes with deeper understanding.
IN THE MEDIA
In The Media
The 1997 film Good Will Hunting, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, tells the story of a 20-year-old South Boston laborer, Will Hunting, an unrecognized genius. After Will assaults a police officer, he is “punished” by being forced to see a therapist (played by Robin Williams) and to study advanced mathematics. In one scene Will’s girlfriend, Skylar (played by Minnie Driver), in trying to understand his brilliance, asks him whether he has a photographic memory.
For Reflection: Although being a genius like Will isn’t realistic, what kinds of strategies can you use to improve how well you can master and retain information?