Memory is one of the solid foundations of all human consciousness and activity. Because memory preserves the experience. The more important information you can save and use later, the more effective your behavior and the higher your quality of life.
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If you just learn, cram, but cannot use this information in the future, there is no point in it. It is important to train long-term memory so that any information you need is available.
There are special techniques and methods for memory training. Anyone can learn this, it just takes time, desire and some effort. You can learn to remember so much information that it seems unreal. And for this you do not need to have phenomenal abilities and innate talents.
In this article:
What is it? The simplest examples How does it work? Associations and images Chain Location method Cicero’s mnemonic room Rhyming
What it is?
Mnemonics is memorization based on visual thinking. Mnemonic memorization is carried out in four stages. First, encoding occurs, connecting two images, memorizing the sequence, sending it to long-term memory. Mnemonics helps increase memory capacity.
Human memory can be of different types: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (or motor). Some type of memory may be predominant for you. This is exactly what mnemonics focuses on. Using different channels of perception, certain “anchors” of information are created, and it is remembered more easily and in greater volume.
The most common example of mnemonics is known to everyone from school: “every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits.” Just one sentence, simple in meaning and content, and therefore easy to remember. But it carries information about what colors are in the rainbow, and in what sequence they come after each other. It's just that learning the sequence of colors is much more difficult. And remembering one simple sentence is easy.
The work of mnemonics is based on the principle of memory from the point of view of neuro-physiological and chemical processes of the brain. Successful memorization is the creation of a new neural circuit and its consolidation.
So that the nerve impulse (the equivalent of a thought) “runs” along this chain, as if along a familiar path, easily and quickly. In order for an association to arise in the head and the necessary neural connections to be formed, the image must be three-dimensional and bright. Associations are purely individual and can be strange or ridiculous - that’s even better.
Learning mnemonics is easiest before the age of 14. Since up to this age logical thinking is still developing abstractly, and it is more plastic. Children easily create new connections and associations. Despite this fact, any person can master mnemonics.
Lifehacks
- Give in to criticism of all ideas and thoughts, then, while in search of arguments, controversial points and facts that you can grab onto, all the necessary material will be unconsciously, effortlessly stored in memory.
- Connect the necessary information and data with your experience; it is absorbed unconsciously, so it will be stored in your head for a very long time.
- In the case when you have to process large volumes of information, also from different industries, then a moment of so-called “mess in the head” may come. This usually occurs among students before an exam, when they urgently studied something, and then could not understand where whole pieces of material came from and to what topic. To prevent this from happening, try a paradoxical method - mix everything initially. That is, learn part of one topic, and move on to another, then return to the first again. This, by the way, will also serve as an excellent release for the brain; you know that a change of activity is a more favorable and useful rest than doing nothing? I mean, you’re tired of thinking, instead of watching the news or lying down, it’s better to do some physical work, then your head will “clear” faster.
- After finishing a meeting or a large piece of work, be sure to carefully consider the information received. That is, understand what you have achieved, what you still have to deal with, and how you can improve the result. In addition to being aware of your actions, you will thoroughly consolidate recently acquired data in your memory. A series of experiments were conducted at Harvard Business School, during which scientists found that if you devote at least 15 minutes a day to written reflection (I mean writing down your thoughts on paper about some task), productivity and efficiency will increase. labor will increase by almost 25%.
How it works?
The work of mnemonics consists of five stages:
- Abstract data is taken;
- Encoding occurs - connections are created between them;
- Repetition, memorization in a convenient form;
- Information decoding, decoding;
- Reproduction of the necessary information that needed to be remembered.
At first glance, the scheme seems complicated and lengthy. In fact, you choose any technique that is convenient for you. And with time and experience, the process of memorization becomes easier, it becomes like a game.
Palace of Memory
The Cicero method, the Roman room or the method of loci are names of the same mnemonic device based on the construction of a memory palace. After its creation, a person can remember large amounts of information (numbers, words, etc.) in a certain sequence. A memory palace is a kind of space with certain static objects that a person can recreate in his imagination. It sounds difficult, but in reality it is much easier than it seems. Try closing your eyes and imagining your kitchen or your workspace. Happened? Consider that you have already done the bulk of the work on designing a simple memory palace. In this article you will learn how to build a memory palace, how to use it, and what mistakes to avoid. Read more…
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Associations and images
In order to remember a list of words, you need to imagine these images and connect them into one, even a crazy story. For example, words: apple, ball, rat, wind, stone. How to remember them through associations?
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You can make the following chain: an apple was playing with a ball, the rat didn’t like it, it ran towards the ball, but the wind blew it out of the way, and the rat hit a stone. So, through building connections between images, through successive associations, you can remember any chain of words. Try experimenting with longer, more unrelated strings of words.
In addition, it also develops imagination and creativity.
Memory stages
Mnemonics are quite fascinating; you can use it to perform intellectual tricks, surprising your family and friends: for a challenge, learn 1,000 decimal places of Pi, the depth of all seas, or the largest stars. But it’s even better to use this technique not just for entertainment, but for real benefit. To do this, you need to learn to load the information “taken” by mnemonics into long-term memory.
How to learn so that you remember for a long time:
- Learn in small portions - 5-7 units of information. This is the optimal amount of data that can fit in short-term memory before we transfer it to long-term memory.
- Repeat each block several times until you can play it at high speed, and only then move on to the next one. Having connected 2-3 blocks, run them again together and again bring them to high speed.
- When repeating, don’t go through the entire list, focus only on problem areas. For convenience, you can write down words, terms or formulas on cards - put aside those that you do not remember within 2-3 seconds and go through them separately.
- Repeat the learned information for a week - 2-3 times a day will be enough.
Chain
This mnemonic technique is similar to the previous one. Only here you need to imagine images of the proposed words “clinging” to each other. Using the previous example of words, we get the following chain: an apple holds a ball, a rat clings to the ball, the wind blows on the rat, a stone rolls in the wind. You can come up with your own version of the same chain by slightly changing the “nature of connection” of the words.
The general idea is that all words and images should line up one after another according to the principle of the fairy tale “turnip”. It is important to imagine the images and how exactly they “hold”. Then the whole chain will be remembered.
Location method
This method is considered the most advanced. To remember a chain of words, you simply place these images in your home. To begin with, imagine that each “location” of your home corresponds to a number. For example, the front door is 1, the doormat is 2, the shoe rack is 3, the clothes hanger is 4, the bedside table in the hallway is 5.
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Now “hide” the images in your hallway. Hang an apple on the door, put a ball on the doormat, put a rat on the shoe rack, the wind blows between the jackets on the hanger, and there is a stone in the bedside table in the hallway. So, by connecting the familiar and the new together, you can easily remember a chain of words.
You can do the same with the route to work or your favorite store. Distribute the familiar road into locations, and assign a word or image to each. It looks like a children's game of “Cossacks - robbers”.
The best books on mnemonics
Finally, a small selection of useful books on the topic:
- Joshua Foer “Einstein Walks on the Moon. The Science and Art of Memory"
- Boris Nikolai Konrad “How to remember everything! Secrets of the world champion in mnemonics”
- Anton Moguchiy “The most complete training book for brain development! New trainings for the mind”
- Ilya Melnikov “The best ways to remember”
- Stanislav Muller “Remember everything: secrets of supermemory. Book-simulator”
- Anton Moguchiy “Use your brain 100%! Book-simulator for the development of the mind and memory”
Even more books for memory development can be found in our separate publication.
Cicero's mnemonic room
This is Cicero's method of memorizing the orator. He never used cheat sheets in his speeches, reproducing from memory many facts, quotes, historical dates and names. When preparing for speeches, Cicero walked around his house and mentally placed the key points of the speech in it. This technique was called the mnemonic room.
In order to remember the required amount of information, for example, you need to memorize several dates and events before a speech (at work or an exam), you need to distribute these facts and dates throughout your apartment or house. You need to create a certain sequence of the story - which fact follows which, the sequence of events. Then you need to choose a specific route in the apartment.
As you walk through it, in certain corners of the rooms, you will remember pieces of the whole story. For example, the first event will be “stored” by the window of your room, the second - on the bed, the third - in the chest of drawers, the fourth - in the closet, the fifth - on the threshold, and so on, depending on the volume of facts.
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In the process of memorizing, you can write down information in portions, as it were, and put it in the right places. It is important to follow the route exactly, and not just scatter facts on shelves. This is how coding happens. Remembering the route, you will be able to tell the whole series of events and facts, dates and names.
Exercises
Finally, we have moved on to the most interesting and useful thing - practice. And yes, useful advice: it is not the amount of time you spend on one memory training that is important, but regular practice. Try to practice for 10–15 minutes every day, then you will quickly see the result.
Encoding letters with numbers
This is the oldest mnemonic technique. Its meaning is to encrypt a letter with a number. For example, 1 - once - the letter “P”, 2 - two - “D” and so on until 9. But let’s call the nine itself “M” - a lot.
In this way, you can encrypt one word, or even an entire sentence. For example, take the number 583,567: 5 – “p”, 8 – “v”, 3 – “t”, 6 – “w”, 7 – “s”. Let's break it down into pairs 58-35-67. Now we encode it into words. The first number in the pair corresponds to the first syllable, the second to the second: REPEAT THE CROWD SIX TIMES. You understand the coding principle, right?
Associations
Our brain is very complex and interesting. Often, in order to remember some little thing, it is important to compare it with something. For example, you want to remember the name of a potential employer, but the problem is that your memory for names is overwhelming... And here in front of you is Eleanor Evgenievna. Well, how can you remember this?!
And then the main processor turns on: so, Eleanor... Let’s remember, for example, our favorite book from childhood “The Wizard of Oz” with the heroine Ellie, we add “hole”, in the summer you saw a badger’s nose sticking out of the hole. And we remember the funny grandfather Zhenya - the neighbor who chased you around the yard... We compare: cloudless childhood, Ellie, the hole, grandfather Zhenya. And, again, we get: EleoNora Evgenievna!
The same associations can be used to remember anything. The “hanger method” is also attributed to this: several words are “attached” to one number in the memory and memorized. For example, 1 - elephant, actor, father, 2 - go, watch, 3 - Victor, Fedor, 4 - Dobronravov, Volya, Ivanov. What happens? When you need to remember “watch actor Fyodor Dobronravov,” we remember the combination of numbers 2134.
Coming up with rhymes
It's much easier to remember everything with rhyme. Since childhood, we learned poems at school to develop memory. If you need to remember something, try to put it into rhyme: yesterday we ate five dumplings, today we sat down, lost weight, tomorrow together we will go buy dumplings again. It’s a joke, of course, but housewives can remember a whole list like that!
Or: show me the pliers, give me the screwdriver and hold the screw, so that I don’t forget the drill tomorrow, I’ll repeat everything again... This is in case you need to take pliers, a screwdriver, a screw and a drill to work. =)
Have you ever learned acrostics? This is when a verse begins with the first letters that make up the word. For example:
Just unwrap the husks
My eyes are already getting wetter,
In addition, my nose itches more.
This is also a mnemonic technique that helps to remember meaning, lists, characteristics, etc.
Phonetic associations
This method helps you remember new words in another language. You find a consonant word and make up a sentence, verse or phrase with it. Let me give you an example from life. For a long time my son could not remember the word living room. I explained to him that when it’s raining, you want to sit in the living room and chat over a cup of tea. Since then, “rain room” is an association with the word “living room” in English.
This method works well for beginners who want to memorize as many words as possible. There is evidence that in one hour of training an adult can remember up to 50 words using this method.
Step by step, by practicing these methods, you effectively develop your memory, and this happens in a short period of time.
History method
This has long been a well-known method, an exercise for memorization. The gist of it is that you compose the words that you need to remember into one story. Funny stories are generally compiled with a bang! But there is one drawback - it is difficult to remember a large amount of information.
Let me give you an example. You need to remember the words: computer, socks, closet, dirt, batteries, dumplings, girl, bull. And so you start to fantasize.
The girl Lenochka was returning home from school. It was getting dark outside, she was in a hurry, when suddenly she splashed out in the mud! Helen landed there with her feet up to her ankles, so that her boots and even her socks were wet and dirty.
She came home and immediately put her shoes in the closet, put her socks on the radiators, and ran to eat. For dinner there were delicious dumplings, Lenochka ate like a bull. The day ended quickly, but she still managed to play a little on the computer.
Repetitions
In pursuit of improving memory and brain function, do not forget about repetition - this is the most common exercise that helps you remember something. This is how we teach poems, theses, and excerpts from a book.
Let me tell you a secret: scientists have long discovered a way to maximize effective memorization through repetition! You need to learn the text, then repeat it after 15–20 minutes. The second repetition is after 6-8 hours, and the third is after a day.
Mental arithmetic
And a little about this method. Nowadays such arithmetic is very common among parents who want to raise their children to be geniuses. Mental arithmetic came to us from Japan, and it is indeed a very effective way to quickly calculate huge examples.
Children learn to solve examples using special abacus. Memorizing the location of the accounts, the combinations of fingers, when calculating in their minds, they no longer add up the numbers, but simply imagine and rearrange them with their fingers. You can master such an account in 2 years maximum - a year for addition, subtraction, a year for multiplication and division. Why children? Because our brain is already geared towards calculating numbers, not finger combinations.
A video about mnemonics techniques and exercises will help you sort out all the information and understand how each method works.
Rhyming
There are techniques for memorizing through sound. For example, it is easier to remember some complex rule or law of physics with the help of a funny rhyme: “A body pressed into water bulges out with the force of the water pushed out by the body pressed there,” this is how Archimedes’ law sounds. It’s definitely easier to learn, and you’ll remember such jokes for a long time.
Or, for example, when studying foreign languages. Many foreign words are consonant with Russian ones and this can be taken advantage of by creating associative connections. For example, the French verb travailler means "to work." It sounds similar to our Russian word “tram”. The tram moves along given rails, this can easily be associated with the meaning of “work”. Or the sound of the French “travaille” is close to the word “labor”. That's how it will be remembered.
Using these popular and simple memorization methods, you can learn languages, exact sciences, and remember large amounts of information. An excellent memory saves time, energy and helps you be more successful and erudite.
From what age is it used?
Children can develop phenomenal memory from the age of 3-4 years. At this age, the child has already accumulated a vocabulary.
During the learning process, teachers can use mnemonic tables that help children “store” individual images in their memory (including separating objects by color).
