Mnemonics (mnemonics techniques) are special methods of memorizing certain types of information, based on the peculiarities of human psychology, as well as on the four rules of memorization that were given in previous lessons. Knowledge and use of special mnemonics will allow you to better remember digital information, specific texts and terms, names, faces and surnames, foreign words, expressions and much more.
This lesson will cover the basics of mnemonics, and also describe the basic techniques and methods for memorizing various types of information.
Mnemonics (mnemonics): what it is and how to master it
The method of quick memorization is called mnemonics. The combination of various techniques allows you to remember vast amounts of information. Many students, engineers, scientists and ordinary people dream of acquiring such abilities for personal purposes.
Recently, amazing people have been shown on TV who, in one minute, remember 100 cards drawn at random or a hundred small details. Such abilities look like real magic to ordinary viewers.
The secret is that these people have mnemonics. They do not hide the fact that they have completed mnemonics courses and claim that these trainings can develop super-memory in anyone.
An important advantage of technology for memory development is that anyone can master its techniques. Superpowers or specific knowledge are not needed for this. The training will help adults, teenagers and children. It’s easy to train your memory at any age, you just have to want it.
Mnemonic training begins at any age. How successfully you will learn memorization techniques depends only on the time you spend and the effort you put in.
The most important thing is to understand the patterns of memorization, learn the basic principles and apply mnemonics practically. You should constantly improve your skills and not stop there.
You can study mnemonics on your own, using online sources, for free. In this article we will talk about the general possibilities of using mnemonics and reveal some of its secrets.
Examples of practical application
Mnemonics are often used to memorize rules, formulas, and numerical values in various sciences. First of all, it's a great memory workout. Secondly, it is ideal for children to fully master the school curriculum in individual subjects. Those who were lucky enough to study with teachers familiar with these methods forever remembered the exception words in the Russian language, the Pythagorean theorem in geometry, and many other truths that ideally everyone should know by heart. If teachers do not have the skills to work with these techniques, parents can use them themselves to help their child learn.
Some of the most striking examples of mnemonic techniques in different academic disciplines will help you.
How to work with them. Almost all of them are based on the techniques of rhyming and consonance. So, all children need to do is memorize funny rhymes - and the rules themselves will be remembered almost for the rest of their lives. You'll see: they will read them to their grandchildren later.
Russian language
Mathematics
Other items
Similar techniques and methods of mnemonics exist for almost all academic disciplines and spheres of life:
- in music - to remember the sequence of notes;
- in traffic rules;
- in military affairs (formulas for hit accuracy taking into account side winds and target speed);
- in the transport sector (colors of navigation lights on board aircraft and ships);
- in telephony (numbers where numbers are replaced by letters corresponding to them on the telephone keypad).
Mnemonics are invaluable when learning a foreign language. It will make the task easier for schoolchildren, students, and adults. The OPSHACOM rule, for example, will make it much easier to understand and remember the canonical order of placing several adjectives before a noun in English.
Mnemonics
In two words, mnemonics is the art of memorization. Mnemonics are techniques and methods of memorization.
Some effective methods have been known to you since childhood. Acrostic method helps the student remember the colors of the rainbow once and for all. Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits. The first letter of each word in this nursery rhyme is the same letter as the color of the rainbow. And everyone knows that the rainbow has seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
Using this technique, our ancestors learned the letters of the alphabet. Now this verse is not used, because the letters are already called differently.
Mnemonic phrases help you remember the rules of syntax: putting on clothes, putting on Nadezhda. I can't bear to get married.
A bisector is a rat that runs around the corners and divides the corner in half. These nursery rhymes will help us understand how mnemonics work.
In order to remember well, mnemonics experts advise using a system of images or associations . This is how Einstein's name is associated with physics. The name Ivan sounds similar to sofa. The number eleven is similar in appearance to drumsticks and Chinese chopsticks. Love is associated with the heart.
The story writing method helps you remember unrelated words. Eg:
- A pineapple;
- Drum;
- Crocodile;
- Fan;
- Brick.
Let's come up with a funny story about how a pineapple played a drum, the crocodile didn't like it, he ran towards the drum, but the fan blew him out of the way, and the crocodile hit a brick.
Moreover, the more crazy the story, the sooner it will be remembered.
Very close to this technique is Chain . It involves putting images in a chain in your mind. The pineapple is holding a drum, the crocodile is biting the drum, a fan is hanging on its tail, and a brick is lying at the foot of the fan.
By imagining such a funny picture in your mind, you will quickly remember five words. In the same way you can memorize 10, 20, 100 unfamiliar words.
The most advanced method of memorization is considered to be the Location method . To use it, you should remember in your mind the familiar furnishings of your apartment and designate for yourself all the places with some number. The front door will be number 1, a rug with a pair of shoes will be 2, a cassette with clean shoes will be 3, a coat rack will be 4, a shelf for hats will be 5.
If we now attach a pineapple to the door, put a drum on the rug, put a crocodile in the cassette, hang a fan on a hanger and hide a brick on the shelf between the hats, we will also remember these words that we heard recently for the first time.
You can also think about the route you take every day to work.
Using mnemonics
The secrets of mnemonics are useful to everyone, because with the help of developing intellectual endurance they instill the most important skill - the ability to learn. A preschooler will be able to memorize poems and songs faster and be better prepared for school. Having improved memory and attention, the student will study independently and complete homework faster than his peers. An adult, having mastered technologies for working with information, will be able to master a new profession or regularly improve his skills faster than his colleagues.
In addition, mnemonics keep our brain in good shape, synchronize the hemispheres, and initiate the development of new neural connections, ensuring the prevention of age-related changes. By practicing mnemonics, you develop your imagination and become a more valuable employee because you think outside the box and make creative decisions.
Mnemonics exercises for beginners
Advice for beginning audiences: stay calm. To learn new information, you must remain calm. This is necessary so that unnecessary emotions and anxiety do not get mixed up with the associations that you build in your head for coding. In addition, it will be difficult to understand for yourself which method suits you best.
It is useful for a beginner to understand the principles of mnemonics and choose appropriate techniques. It has been noticed that it is more difficult to remember isolated objects and unrelated numbers. It is easier to remember the connections between objects. It is good to connect already known information with new information.
It is easier to remember logical, figurative, emotional, vivid associations, rather than the objects themselves. Through these connections, information is easier to find in memory and reproduce.
If there are no such connections, they need to be created. This is the essence of memorization in mnemonics.
Mnemonics works as follows:
- abstract data is taken;
- connections are created between them - coding occurs;
- memorization, repetition in a convenient form;
- decoding, decoding;
- reproduction of the necessary data that needed to be remembered.
This is the sequence in which data is processed. Beginners should not be intimidated by this seemingly complex process. If you practically start applying the advice of the masters, it turns out that it is not as difficult as it seems.
Mnemonics allows beginners to use those images and associations that are closer to them, and it is easier to retain them in memory.
Formation of mental images
Source
Visualization is the most important aspect of memorization and memory in general[]. The brain is constantly making predictions. To do this, he builds images, visualizes the surrounding space (this is where the phenomenon of prophetic dreams comes from). This process does not require tension, there is no need to look at certain objects or specifically meditate - you just do it.
You want a new car and imagine yourself in it. Or you want to eat chocolate cake, you will instantly imagine the sweet taste. Moreover, for the brain it doesn’t make much difference whether you really see a certain object or just imagine it - thoughts about food create an appetite, and a scary old man jumping from a cabinet in a computer game - the desire to hit and run away.
However, you are clearly aware of the difference between a real image and an imaginary one - these two processes occur in parallel in the brain (which is why you do not break the monitor while playing). To train your memory, you need to think consciously in a similar way.
Just think about what it looks like what you're trying to remember. If you can think of a cat, you can equally think of a HUGE, 3D, WHITE and detailed cat with a red ribbon around its neck. You don't need to specifically imagine a story about a white cat chasing a ball of thread. One large visual object is enough - this mental image forms a new connection in the brain. You can use this method when reading - one visual image per short chapter of the book. In the future, remembering what you read will become much easier. Perhaps you will remember this article precisely because of the BIG WHITE CAT.
But how can you remember many things in a row in this case? Matthias Ribbing, a multiple Swedish memory champion and one of only 200 people worldwide to claim the title of “Grandmaster of Memory,” suggests the following method. Let's say you need to keep ten tasks in your memory at the same time. Think about ten things that you should remember, visualize them vividly and clearly: finish a piece of code, pick up your child from kindergarten, go grocery shopping, etc. For each task, take the first image that comes to mind (a monitor with a code, a child, a bag of groceries, etc.).
Imagine a bicycle. Mentally enlarge it and imagine that it is as big as an SUV. Then place each visual task image (item) in a separate part of the bike, connecting them so that “front wheel” becomes synonymous with “bag of groceries,” “frame” becomes synonymous with “monitor with code” (life is at work!) and etc.
The brain will build a new stable connection based on the image of a fantastic bicycle, and it will be much easier to remember all ten (or more) things.
How to remember lists
The techniques described help you remember lists. We sometimes have to take a long list of groceries with us to the store, which is awkward to hold in our hands and difficult to remember.
The list of necessary things for the trip and the performance plan also look like a list. People also like to remember anecdotes and stories, tricks. You can remember useful information in the form of lists.
It is more convenient to remember all this using mnemonics.
This technique allows you to remember lists for a short time.
Let's remember the first ten words by what they look like:
- Pillar, lantern;
- Swan;
- Butt, ear;
- Upside down chair, flag;
- Hook;
- Cherry;
- Poker, stick;
- Woman, guitar;
- Balloon;
- Golf.
The second ten – by sound:
- Order, God One;
- Creature;
- Trio;
- Crap;
- Heel;
- Pole;
- Seeds;
- Wasps;
- Virgo;
- Despot.
We need to remember the list:
- Fur coat;
- Beet;
- Herring;
- Potato;
- Bike;
- Sausage;
- Candies;
- Soda;
- Jam;
- Milk.
To remember these words, let’s imagine a fur coat hanging on a lantern, a beet in a swan’s beak, a herring slapping its butt, a potato sitting on a chair, a bicycle with a hook in the tire. And for each word you need to come up with your own crazy story connecting it with numbers from 1-10.
The more fun and unexpected the story, the sooner it will be remembered. The brain notes everything unusual and extraordinary.
Link the next ten of the list with numbers from 11 to 20.
List:
- Telephone;
- Coach;
- TV;
- Bed;
- Octopus;
- Shirt;
- Mittens;
- Mousetrap;
- Pie;
- Honey.
Let's imagine an order with an image of a telephone, in which a terrible creature rides. A TV with a trio dancing on the screen. The bed where the Devil sleeps. The octopus grabs the heel. The shirt is hanging on a pole. The mittens are full of seeds. Wasps caught in the mousetrap. The virgin baked a pie. The despot feeds everyone with barrels of honey.
Now let's try to reproduce the list and see that we can do it, even scattered.
For different ages
For preschoolers
Mnemonics are actively used by educators and speech therapists for the development of speech in kindergarten with the help of mnemonic squares and mnemonic tracks. First, the child must name what is shown in the picture (visual associations are triggered and at the same time the vocabulary is replenished). Then he composes sentences and entire stories using several illustrations at once (the grammatical speech is enriched). The most complex one in this chain is the mnemonic table, which helps a preschooler learn a full-fledged poem.
For school age children
The education system is the most fertile field for the use of mnemonics. In order to assimilate huge amounts of information on various subjects, consonance and rhyme will be useful for developing the memory of schoolchildren, examples of which are in the tables above. Starting from the age of 10, experts advise parents and teachers to gradually teach children the methods of Cicero and Aivazovsky. You can also use other exercises: creating your own language, developing cuneiform, password recall and others.
For adults
For the development of memory for adults, it is already too late to learn poetry in order to remember the sequence of cases in the Russian language. They need more complex techniques, working with numbers, visual and auditory detail of what is happening. The pinnacle of perfection will be mastering the Giordano system or at least trying to take part in the correspondence round of the mnemonics competition.
Mnemonics for memory development for adults: the best exercises
You can come up with different memorization techniques. If the number of letters in a word is counted as a number, then you can remember a complex long number. For example, the root of two: 1.4142135623. A funny poem will help with this.
“I’m Dusya, I’m a fool, but I found the root of two.”
Methods of mnemonics called Rhyming help you remember boring laws of physics. “A body pressed into water bulges out with the force of the water pushed out by the body pressed there,” this is Archimedes’ law.
Consonance techniques are suitable for learning foreign words. The word Swing is to swing, similar to the Russian pig. Imagining a pig swinging on a swing, let us remember the English word for a long time.
Long English words can be broken down into short ones for easier memorization.
Mnemonics methods for memorizing texts
Cicero, going to his next public performance, always followed the same road. The road was familiar to him, from bush to pebble. The key words with which the blocks into which Cicero divided the texts began, he pronounced in his mind in those places that he remembered along the route.
To memorize texts, learn the route you take every day to work or school. Keywords should be associated with points on the road that you remember by heart. It is good to divide the text into paragraphs or chapters, small parts. Then you will be able to surprise your friends and teachers by reciting the text without errors.
Online course “Mnemonics”
The online course “Mnemonics” is 15 lessons from Vikium, after which you will be able to:
- Master mnemonics and use them in everyday life.
- Remember as much necessary information as you like.
- Learn foreign languages faster and easier.
- Learn more effectively in all areas of life.
- Memorize phone numbers by ear.
- Learn poems instantly.
- Amaze your friends with your abilities.
The course includes:
- 7 online trainers for mnemonics.
- A set of key memorization techniques.
- Introductory and final tests.
- Memory development program.
The training costs 920 rubles.
If you don't like the course, you will get your money back within 7 days.
There is a review article on Wikium on our blog, read:
- Brain simulators and courses Vikium - the most detailed and honest review of the online learning platform + reviews
Well, are we studying?
The best books on mnemonics
Arthur Dumchev “Remember everything. A practical guide to memory development"
This book contains examples of exercises in different ways to develop quick memorization. Arthur memorized the number Pi up to 22529 digits.
Using the author's advice, readers learn to find solutions to complex problems in their minds and operate with long digital chains. Intelligence moves to a new level.
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Roger Sipe, Brain Development. How to read faster, remember better and achieve greater goals"
The collection of the famous author, teacher of strategies and tactics of self-development, presents a number of innovations and methods for better memorization and quick reading.
Roger Sipe Prices Brain Development. How to Read Faster, Remember Better, and Achieve Bigger Goals
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Joshua Foer Einstein Walks on the Moon. The Science and Art of Memory"
The book tells the story of the period of time that the author spent studying his own memory abilities. For a whole year he revealed internal potentials, hidden mechanisms, protective nuances and trained.
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Tony Buzan "Super Memory"
The author invites the reader to develop the ability to remember, preserve, and reproduce. Tony Buzan's instructions and advice lead to such results when the memory mechanism serves for a long time and without fail.
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Dominic O'Brien "How to develop Super Memory"
Any person, if desired, can remember vast amounts of information, in numbers, events, lists, and in the form of texts. If you don’t believe me, we recommend trying to work with your memory using the O’Brien method. The exercises will give a unique result in a few weeks.
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Denis Bukin “Development of memory using the methods of special services”
The work was released for those who have difficulty remembering information. Denis Bukin teaches how to improve the capabilities of the mind, become bolder in a team, more effective in a career, family, and maximize the potential of thinking.
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Stanislav Matveev “Phenomenal memory. Methods of remembering information"
Scientists have proven that the ability to remember is trained even more successfully than the biceps. When you start to forget something, you need to train your brain. This gap in your biography can be easily corrected if you read the recommendations of the memory champion among Russians.
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Christine Loberg, Mike Beister "Quick Mind. How to forget what is unnecessary and remember what is necessary"
The path to great success is opened by the talent to remember well and process voluminous information faster than others. These talents can be developed, the author believes, by offering unusual ways and interesting exercises.
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Neal Barnard, Brain Nutrition. An effective step-by-step technique for enhancing brain efficiency and strengthening memory"
Ten percent of elderly people over the age of seventy have Alzheimer's disease. Neal Barnard recommends healthy eating and exercise to stave off disordered thinking, dementia and memory loss.
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Angels Navarro “Memory does not fail. Tasks and puzzles for the development of intelligence and memory"
After getting acquainted with this work, you will learn about the work of the brain, how to maintain clarity of thinking until the last days of life. Angels Navarro suggests solving interesting puzzles, unusual tasks and synthesizing new connections between neurons in the cerebral cortex.
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Harry Lorraine, Jerry Lucas “The Development of Memory. The classic guide to improving memory"
You can achieve real records in various areas of life when you read this simple guide. Potential memorization abilities, the ability to process large amounts of text, numbers and figures will be revealed.
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Kinds
If you plan to use mnemonics, keep one important point in mind. This is a whole science that has developed over several centuries. It has a rich history of development and there are many directions in it. In the same books dedicated to this art, they are often intertwined with each other. The authors offer sets of exercises, some of which relate to folk techniques, others to the classics. Such heterogeneity leads to the absence of a system.
Don't step on this rake. Choose one of the areas in accordance with your goals, objectives and individual characteristics and master it first. If things go well, then continue practicing using a different method.
Folk
The techniques of folk mnemonics are familiar to most people, as they have become firmly established in their lives, and many do not even suspect it. These are those rhymes with exceptions to the rules that they learned at school, the phrase about the hunter and the pheasant with the colors of the rainbow that set the teeth on edge. Road signs on the street, symbols on a computer desktop, the alphabet - these are all codes for developing memory in order to better remember and reproduce the necessary information faster.
Acrostic
Someone comes up with their own systems for learning a foreign language or chemical reactions, telephone numbers or significant dates - all this reflects the essence of everyday, or folk, mnemonics.
Classical
This is the very first system of mnemonics that has come down to us in written form. It dates back to 86 BC. e. At that time it was an integral part of rhetoric. Speakers used it to deliver long speeches accurately and without hesitation.
One of the most striking examples is Cicero's method. His opponent was Quintilian; he advocated for those people who had poorly developed visual and associative memory and who could not use Cicero’s technique. Quintilian proposed other alternatives to storing information, but was unable to formalize them into a separate system. However, it was they who later became the basis for the development of pedagogical mnemonics.
Pedagogical
The antipode of classical mnemonics. It finally took shape only in the 16th century, thanks to the Cambridge University teacher P. Ramus. This direction was closer to ordinary people, so it became widespread. There was no need to make complex visual associations here. Her main techniques were:
- repeated reading of the text and repeating it out loud;
- taking notes;
- redrawing illustrations;
- play activities;
- creation of didactics.
Methods of pedagogical mnemonics are still used in the modern education system.
Circus
The second name is variety. A narrow circle of people (it all started with circus troupes) creates its own system for coding the material. Anything can be used: language, gestures, facial expressions, intonation. The task is to transfer information from the assistant to the performer so cunningly that no one notices. These techniques are now actively used by scammers, telepaths, and psychics.
Sports
Since 1997, mnemonics competitions have been held annually in Cambridge. This direction has special specifics. Each participant is a guru in a specific area. Some reproduce binary numbers from memory, others recite poems 300 pages long by heart. As a rule, the winners end up in the Guinness Book of Records. The best in their field are determined by two indicators: memorization speed and volume.
Modern
The main representative of this direction is the Giordano mnemonic system. It is quite complex, based on scientific research in neurobiology about the brain and memory as a higher mental function. Here are just some of its provisions:
- development of electrical (neural) memory;
- mental operation “Connecting images”;
- the concepts of “Memorization Meaning” and “Accurate Information”;
- associations consisting of a foundation and auxiliary elements;
- system of internal stimulation of the cerebral hemispheres;
- multi-level schemes of reference images;
- constant training of memorization skills.
Mnemonic rule for remembering the number of days in a month using your knuckles
Don't remember what happened 5 minutes ago? Our short-term memory is to blame for this. What it is and ways to improve it is in our separate article.
