Have you heard of mnemonic devices? Even if you’re not familiar with the term, I bet you’ve come across the concept. These are memory techniques that help you remember words, phrases, dates, historical events and more. Essentially, they’re tricks that help to retain information and stimulate recall. They’ve been used for centuries. You may even already use some of them. The fact is that they work. That’s why we keep returning to them again and again. Let’s take a look at some of the most useful ones and examine how mnemonic devices can help your memory.
Acrostic
An acronym is a mental stimulation strategy that uses the first letter of words or phrases to form a sentence. Doing so helps you to call those particular answers to mind when you need them. For example, one common acrostic is, “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” This has been used for decades to help children remember the names of the planets. The first letter of each word in the sentence corresponds to the planet names in order from the sun. (Of course, you’ll have to throw out the pizzas, now that the astronomers have decided that Pluto isn’t actually a planet — it’s a dwarf planet).
Chunking
Chunking helps you arrange large amounts of information into smaller batches you can work with more easily. Short-term memory only allows us to retain about seven pieces of information for any length of time. That’s why it makes sense to “chunk” or cluster large amounts of data into smaller bunches for organization. You can do that by placing things into categories, or by finding creative ways to separate them. Telephone numbers are a good example because we tend to separate the 10 digits into segments of three, three and four. That’s much easier to recall than a line of 10 numbers.
Music
Have you ever put information to a tune to help you remember it? I bet you have. Why! Because it works. Songs stick in your head. Just think of the jingles you hear on TV or radio. This is a particularly useful strategy when you have long lists to remember. Just think of the ABCs Song. Wasn’t it easy to remember the letters that way? Imagine trying to memorize 26 letters all at once.
Rhyme
Another nifty technique is to make rhymes out of the information you want to recall. The acoustic encoding of our brains makes it easier to retain lines of prose that end in the same sound. This type of encoding allows us to store and retrieve information far more readily. You probably learned, “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” back in elementary school. Or how about, “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November…” One or both have probably stuck with you to this day.
These are some of the most common mnemonic devices used to help improve your memory. There are many more. Start practicing these as you encounter information you want to remember. Try them out and see which work best for you.
