Tools for Improving Your Memory

This Mind Tools section helps you to improve your memory.

The techniques it explains are particularly helpful in studying for exams or in situations where you need to remember detailed, structured information. They also make things like learning foreign languages and remembering people's names much easier.

This section is split into three parts: first of all, the introduction explains the principles behind the use of mnemonics. We then discuss a range of individual tools that you can use to remember information. Finally we discuss how to use the skills in practice to remember peoples names, languages, exam information, etc.

While you are reading these articles, have a look at the memory technique book reviews and resources on the sidebars - these will help you to develop your memory skills further.

Memory Techniques - Introduction

These tools help you to improve your memory. They help you both to remember facts accurately and to remember the structure of information.

The tools are split into two sections. Firstly we will discuss the individual tools that you can use to remember information. Secondly we discuss how to use them in practice to remember peoples names, languages, exam information, etc.

As with other mind tools, the more practice you give yourself with these techniques, the more effective your use of them will be. This section contains many of the memory techniques used by stage memory performers. With enough practice and effort, you may be able to have a memory as good. Even if you do not have the time needed to develop this quality of memory, many of the techniques here are useful in everyday life.

Mnemonics
'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. Mnemonics are methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. A very simple example is the '30 days hath September' rhyme. The basic principle of mnemonics is to use as many of the best functions of your brain as possible to store information.

Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli - images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language. We use these to make sophisticated models of the world we live in. Our memories store all of these very effectively. Unfortunately information we have to remember is almost always presented in only one way - as words printed on a page. While language is one of the most important aspects of human evolution, it is only one of the many skills and resources available to our minds.

This chapter of Mind Tools will show you how to use all these resources.

Using Your Whole Mind To Remember
By coding language and numbers in striking images, you can reliably code both information and the structure of information. You can then easily recall these later.

You can do the following things to make your mnemonics more memorable:

• Use positive, pleasant images. The brain often blocks out unpleasant ones

• Use vivid, colorful, sense-laden images - these are easier to remember than drab ones

• Use all your senses to code information or dress up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as pictures.

• Give your image three dimensions, movement and space to make it more vivid. You can use movement either to maintain the flow of association, or to help you to remember actions.

• Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image

• Use humor! Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones.

• Similarly rude rhymes are very difficult to forget!

• Symbols (red traffic lights, pointing fingers, road signs, etc.) can code quite complex messages quickly and effectively

Designing Mnemonics: Imagination, Association and Location
The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are imagination, association and location. Working together, you can use these principles to generate powerful mnemonic systems.

Imagination: is what you use to create and strengthen the associations needed to create effective mnemonics. Your imagination is what you use to create mnemonics that are potent for you. The more strongly you imagine and visualize a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. The imagery you use in your mnemonics can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember.

Association: this is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a way of remembering it. You can create associations by:

• placing things on top of each other

• crashing things together

• merging images together

• wrapping them around each other

• rotating them around each other or having them dancing together

• linking them using the same color, smell, shape, or feeling

As an example, you might link the number 1 with a goldfish by visualizing a 1-shaped spear being used to spear it.

Location: gives you two things: a coherent context into which you can place information so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another. By setting one mnemonic in a particular town, I can separate it from a similar mnemonic set in a city. For example, by setting one in the town of Horsham and another similar mnemonic with images of Manhattan, we can separate them with no danger of confusion. You can build the flavors and atmosphere of these places into your mnemonics to strengthen the feeling of location.

The Link & Story Methods - Remembering a Simple List

How to Use the Tool:

The Link Method is one of the easiest mnemonic techniques available.

It works quite simply by making associations between items in a list, linking them either with a flowing image containing the items, or with a story featuring them. The flow of the story and the strength of the images give you the cues for retrieval.

Taking the first image, create a connection between it and the next item. Then move on through the list linking each item with the next. It is quite possible to remember lists of words using association only. However it is often best to fit the associations into a story: otherwise by forgetting just one association you can lose the whole of the rest of the list.

Given the fluid structure of this mnemonic, it is important that the images stored in your mind are as vivid as possible. Significant, coding images should be much stronger that ones that merely support the flow of the story. See the introduction to this chapter for further information on making images as strong as possible.

Where a word you want to remember does not trigger strong images, use a similar word that will remind you of that word.

Example:

You may want to remember this list of counties in the South of England: Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, and Surrey.

You could do this with two approaches, the link method and the story method:

Remembering with the Link Method
This would rely on a series of images coding information:

• An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset)

• The DOoR opening to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with a SETting sun (Somerset)

• The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall)

• The CORN is so dry it is beginning to WILT (Wiltshire)

• The WILTing stalks slowly droop onto the tail of the sleeping DEVil (Devon).

• On the DEVil's horn a woman has impaled a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it

• Now the Devil feels SoRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.

Note that there need not be any reason or underlying plot to the sequence of images: only images and the links between images are important.

Remembering with the Story Method:
Alternatively you could code this information by imaging the following story vividly:

An AVON lady is walking up a path towards a strange house. She is hot and sweating slightly in the heat of high SUMMER (Somerset). Beside the path someone has planted giant CORN in a WALL (Cornwall), but it's beginning to WILT (Wiltshire) in the heat. She knocks on the DOoR (Dorset), which is opened by the DEVil (Devon). In the background she can see a kitchen in which a servant is smearing honey on a HAM (Hampshire), making it GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) and gleam in bright sunlight streaming in through a window. Panicked by seeing the Devil, the Avon lady screams 'SoRRY' (Surrey), and dashes back down the path.

Key points:

The Link Method is probably the most basic memory technique, and is very easy to understand and use. It works by coding information to be remembered into images and then linking these images together.

The story technique is very similar. It links these images together into a story. This helps to keep events in a logical order and can improve your ability to remember information if you forget the sequence of images.

Both techniques are very simple to learn. Unfortunately they are both slightly unreliable as it is easy to confuse the order of images or forget images from a sequence.

The Number/Rhyme Mnemonic - Remembering Simple Ordered Lists

How to Use the Tool:

The Number/Rhyme technique is a very simple way of remembering lists in order.

It is an example of a peg system - a system where information is 'pegged' to a known sequence (here the numbers one to ten). By doing this you ensure that you do not forget any facts, as gaps in information are immediately obvious. It also makes remembering images easier as you always know part of the mnemonic images.

At a simple level you can use it to remember things such as a list of English Kings or American Presidents in their precise order. At a more advanced level it can be used, for example, to code lists of experiments to be recalled in a science exam.

The technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which you represent numbers by things that rhyme with the number. You can then link these pictures to images of the things to be remembered.

The usual rhyming scheme is:

1. Bun

2. Shoe

3. Tree

4. Paw

5. Hive

6. Bricks

7. Heaven

8. Gate

9. Line

10. Hen

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful.

Link these images to ones representing the things to be remembered. Often, the sillier the compound image, the more effectively you will remember it - see the introduction to this chapter to see how you can improve the image to help it stay clearly in your mind.

Example:

For example, you could remember a chronological list of ten Greek philosophers as:

1. Parmenides - a BUN topped with grated yellow PARMEsan cheese

2. Heraclitus - a SHOE worn by HERACLes (Greek Hercules) glowing with a
   bright LIghT

3. Empedocles - A TREE from which the M-shaped McDonalds arches hang
   hooking up a bicycle PEDal

4. Democritus - think of a PAW print on the voting form of a DEMOCRaTic
   election

5. Protagoras - A bee HIVE being positively punched through (GORed?) by
   an atomic PROTon

6. Socrates - BRICKS falling onto a SOCk (with a foot inside!) from a
   CRATe.

7. Plato - A plate with angel's wings flapping around a white cloud

8. Aristotle - a friend called hARRY clutching a bOTtLE of wine vaulting over
   a gate

9. Zeno - A LINE of ZEN Buddhists meditating

10. Epicurus - a HEN's egg being mixed into an EPIleptics's CURe.

Try either visualizing these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. Once you have done this, try writing down the names of the philosophers on a piece of paper. You should be able to do this by thinking of the number, then the part of the image associated with the number, and then the whole image. Finally you can decode the image to give you the name of the philosopher.

If the mnemonic has worked, you should not only recall the names of all the philosophers in the correct order, but should also be able to spot where you have left them out of the sequence. Try it - it's easier than it sounds.

You can use a peg system like this as a basis for knowledge in an entire area. The example above could form the basis for a knowledge of ancient philosophy. You could now associate images representing the projects, systems and theories of each philosopher with the images coding the philosophers' names.

Key points:

The Number/Rhyme technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. It works by 'pegging' the things to be remembered to images rhyming with the numbers 0 - 9. By driving the associations with numbers you have a good starting point in reconstructing the images, you are aware if information is missing, and you can pick up and continue the sequence from anywhere within the list.

The Number/Shape Mnemonic - Remembering Simple Ordered Lists

How to Use the Tool:

The Number/Shape system is very similar to the Number/Rhyme system. It is a very simple and effective way of remembering a list in a specific order. It is another example of a peg system.

The technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by images shaped like the number. You can then associate these with the things you want to remember using striking images.

One image scheme is shown below:

1. Candle, spear, stick

2. Swan (beak, curved neck, body)

3. (rotate shape though 90 degrees!)

4. Sail of a yacht

5. A meat hook, a sea-horse facing right

6. A golf club

7. A cliff edge

8. An egg timer

9. A balloon with a string attached, flying freely

10. A hole

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

As with the Number/Rhyme scheme, link these images to ones representing the things to be remembered.

In some cases these images may be more vivid than those in the number/rhyme scheme, and in other cases you may find the number/rhyme scheme more memorable. There is no reason why you can not mix the most vivid images of each scheme together into your own compound scheme.

Example:

We can use a list of more modern thinkers to illustrate the number/shape system:

1. Spinoza - a large CANDLE wrapped around with someone's SPINe

2. Locke - a SWAN trying to pick a LOCK with its wing

3. Hume - A HUMan child BREAST feeding

4. Berkeley - A SAIL on top of a large hooked and spiked BURR in the LEE of a cliff

5. Kant - a CAN of spam hanging from a meat HOOK

6. Rousseau - a kangaROO SEWing with a GOLF CLUB

7. Hegel - a crooked trader about to be pushed over a CLIFF, HaGgLing to
   try to avoid being hurt

8. Kierkegaard - a large EGG TIMER containing captain KIRK and a GuARD from the starship enterprise, as time runs out

9. Darwin - a BALLOON floating upwards, being blown fAR by the WINd

10. Marx - a HOLE with white chalk MARks around it's edge

Key points:

The Number/Shape technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. It works by linking things to be remembered with the images representing the numbers 0 - 9. By using it in conjunction with the Number/Rhyme system, you can build potent images that can make very effective mnemonics.

The Alphabet Technique - Remembering Middle Length Lists

How to Use the Tool:

The Alphabet system is a peg memory technique similar to, but more sophisticated than, the Number/Rhyme system. It is a good method for remembering longer lists of items in a specific order, in such a way that you can tell if items are missing.

It works by associating images representing letters of the alphabet with images you create for the things to be remembered.

When you are creating images for the letters of the alphabet, create images phonetically, so that the sound of the first syllable of the word is the name of the letter. For example, you might represent the letter 'k' with the word 'cake'.

Tony Buzan in his book 'Use Your Perfect Memory' suggests using a system for creating vivid images that you can reconstruct if you forget them. He suggests taking the phonetic letter sound as the first consonant, and then, for the rest of the consonants in the word, using the first letters in alphabetical order that make a memorable word. For example for the letter 'S' (root 'Es') we would first see if any strong images presented themselves when we tried to create a word starting with 'EsA', 'EsB', 'EsC', 'EsD', 'EsE', etc.). This approach has the advantage of producing an image that you can reconstruct if you forget it. You might, however, judge that this is an unnecessary complication of a relatively simple system. In any case it is best to select the strongest image that comes to mind and stick with it.

One image scheme is shown below:

A - Ace of spades
B - Bee
C - Sea
D - Diesel engine
E - Eel
F - Effluent
G - Jeans
H - H-Bomb, itch
I - Eye
J - Jade
K - Cake
L - Elephant
M - Empty
N - Entrance
O - Oboe
P - Pea
Q - Queue
R - Ark
S - Eskimo
T - Tea pot
U - Unicycle
V - Vehicle
W - WC
X - XRay
Y - Wire
Z - Zulu

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

Once you have firmly visualised these images and have linked them to their root letters, you can associate them with information to be remembered.

See the introduction to this chapter to see how you can improve these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind. Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the it using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems (see 7.2).

Example:

Continuing our mnemonic example of the names of philosophers, we will use the example of remembering a list of modern thinkers:

A - Ace - Freud - a crisp ACE being pulled out of a FRying pan (FRiED)
B - Bee - Chomsky - a BEE stinging a CHiMp and flying off into the SKY
C - Sea - Genette - a GENerator being lifted in a NET out of the SEA
D - Diesel - Derrida - a DaRing RIDer surfing on top of a DIESEL train
E - Eagle - Foucault - Bruce Lee fighting off an attacking EAGLE with kung
FU
F - Effluent- Joyce - environmentalists JOYfully finding a plant by an
EFFLUENT pipe
G - Jeans - Nietzche - a holey pair of JEANS with a kNEe showing through
H - H-Bomb - Kafka - a grey civil service CAFe being blown up by an H-
Bomb
etc.

Key points:

The Alphabet Technique links the items to be remembered with images of the letters A - Z. This allows you to remember a medium length list in the correct order. By pegging the items to be remembered to letters of the alphabet you know if you have forgotten items, and know the cues to use to trigger their recall.

The alphabet system takes a certain amount of learning.

The Journey System - Remembering Long Lists

How to Use the Tool:

The journey method is a powerful, flexible and effective mnemonic based around the idea of remembering landmarks on a well-known journey. It combines the narrative flow of the Link Method and the structure and order of the Peg Systems into one very powerful system.

You use the Journey Method by associating information with landmarks on a journey that you know well. This could, for example, be your journey to work in the morning; the route you use to get to the front door when you get up; the route to visit your parents; or a tour around a holiday destination. Once you are familiar with the technique you may be able to create imaginary journeys that fix in your mind, and apply these.

To use this technique most effectively, it is often best to prepare the journey beforehand. In this way the landmarks are clear in your mind before you try to commit information to them. One way of doing this is to write down all the landmarks that you can recall in order on a piece of paper. This allows you to fix these landmarks as the significant ones to be used in your mnemonic, separating them from others that you may notice as you get to know the route even better.

To remember a list of items, whether these are people, experiments, events or objects, all you need do is associate these things with the landmarks or stops on your journey.

This is an extremely effective method of remembering long lists of information. With a sufficiently long journey you could, for example, remember elements on the periodic table, lists of Kings and Presidents, geographical information, or the order of cards in a shuffled pack.

The system is extremely flexible: all you need do to remember many items is to remember a longer journey with more landmarks. To remember a short list, only use part of the route!

One advantage of this technique is that you can use it to work both backwards and forwards, and start anywhere within the route to retrieve information.

You can use the technique well with other mnemonics. This can be done either by building complex coding images at the stops on a journey, or by linking to other mnemonics at each stop. You could start other journeys at each landmark. Alternatively, you may use a peg system to organize lists of journeys, etc.

See the introduction to this section for information on how to enhance the images used for this technique.

Example:

You may, as a simple example, want to remember something mundane like this shopping list:

Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath cleaner.

You could associate this list with a journey to a supermarket. Mnemonic images could be:

1. Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat

2. Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses

3. Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat

4. End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road

5. Past garage: with its sign wrapped in kitchen roll

6. Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails

7. Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights

8. Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards

9. Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tires send up jets of tomato soup as I drive through it

10. Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the top level

11. Supermarket car park: a filthy bath is parked in the space next to my car!

Key points:

The journey method is a powerful, effective method of remembering lists of information, by imagining images and events at stops on a journey.

As the journeys used are distinct in location and form, one list remembered using this technique is easy to distinguish from other lists.

To use this technique you need to invest some time in preparing journeys clearly in your mind. This investment pays off many times over by the application of the technique.

The RomanRoom System - Remembering Grouped Information

How to Use the Tool:

The RomanRoom technique is an ancient and effective way of remembering information where its structure is not important. As an example, it serves as the basis of one of the powerful mnemonic systems used to learn languages.

To use the technique, imagine a room that you know, such as your sitting room, bedroom, office or classroom. Within the room are objects. Associate images representing the information you want to remember with the objects in the room. To recall information, simply take a tour around the room in your mind, visualizing the known objects and their associated images.

The technique can be expanded by going into more detail, and keying information to be remembered to smaller objects. Alternatively you can open doors from your room into other rooms and use the objects in them as well. As you need them, you can build extensions to your rooms in your imagination, and fill them with objects that would logically be there.

You can use other rooms to store other categories of information.

There is no need to restrict this information to rooms: you could use a landscape or a town you know well, and populate it with memory images.

See the introduction to this chapter for information on how to enhance the images used for this technique.

Example:

For example, I can use my sitting room as a basis for the technique. In this room I have the following objects:

table, lamp, sofa, large bookcase, small bookcase, CD rack, tape racks, stereo system, telephone, television, video, chair, mirror, black & white photographs, etc.

I may want to remember a list of World War I war poets:

Rupert Brooke, G.K. Chesterton, Walter de la Mare, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, W.B. Yates

I could visualize walking through my front door. Within this image, someone has painted a picture on it showing a scene from the Battle of the Somme. In the center of the picture is a man sitting in a trench writing in a dirty exercise book.

I walk into the sitting room, and look at the table. On the top is RUPERT the Bear sitting in a small BROOK (we do not need to worry about where the water goes in our imagination!) This codes for Rupert Brooke.

Someone seems to have done some moving: a CHEST has been left on the sofa. Some jeans (Alphabet System: G=Jeans) are hanging out of one drawer, and some cake has been left on the top (K=Cake). This codes for G K Chesterton.

The lamp has a small statuette of a brick WALL over which a female horse (MARE) is about to jumping. This codes for Walter de la Mare.

etc.

Key points:

The RomanRoom technique is similar to the Journey method. It works by pegging images coding for information to known things, in this case to objects in a room.

The RomanRoom technique is most effective for storing lists of unlinked information, while the journey method is better for storing lists of ordered items.

The Major System - Remembering Very Long Numbers

How to Use the Tool:

The Major Memory System is one of the most powerful memory systems available. It takes a lot of time to master, but once learned is very powerful. The technique often forms the basis of some of the extraordinary, almost magical, memory feats performed by stage magicians and memory performers.

The system works by converting number sequences into nouns, nouns into images, and linking images into sequences. These sequences can be very complex and detailed.

The building blocks of the system are the association of the numbers below with the following consonant sounds:

0 - s, z, soft-c - remember as 'z is first letter of zero'
1 - d, t, th - remember as letters with 1 downstroke
2 - n - remember as having 2 downstrokes
3 - m - has three downstrokes
4 - r - imagine a 4 and an R glued together back-to-back
5 - L - imagine the 5 propped up against a book end (L)
6 - j, sh, soft-ch, dg, soft-g - g is 6 rotated 180 degrees.
7 - k, hard-ch, hard-c, hard-g, ng - imagine K as two 7s
rotated and glued together
8 - f, v - imagine the bottom loop of the 8 as an eFfluent
pipe discharging waste (letter image of F in
alphabet system)
9 - p, b - b as 9 rotated 180 degrees.

These associations need to be learned thoroughly before going further with the technique.

Starting to use the Major System
The system operates on a number of levels, depending on the amount of time you are prepared to devote to learning the system.

The first level, which involves coding single digit numbers into small words, functions almost as a poor relation of the number/rhyme system. It is at higher levels that you can unleash the real power of the system. You should, however, learn to use this first level before moving on.

The trick with converting numbers into words is to use only the consonants that code information within the word, while using vowels to pad the consonants out with meaning. If you do have to use other consonants to make up a word, use only those that do not code for numbers - i.e. h, q, w, x, and y.

At the first level we code each number into a short noun. This is made up of the consonant coding for the number, and vowels that turn the consonant into a word. On a sheet of paper, write the numbers 0 to 9, and apply these rules to create your own memory words. Some examples are shown below:

0 - saw
1 - toe
2 - neigh
3 - ma
4 - ray
5 - law
6 - jaw
7 - key
8 - fee
9 - pie

You can use these words in association much like the other peg technique memory words.

Moving to the second level
Similar rules apply to creating a standard word from two numbers. It is best not to try to use a single number word as a root, as this can confuse the image.

Write down the numbers 01 to 99, and apply the rules to create memory words for yourself.

A few examples are shown below:

09 - z, p - zap
17 - t, ch - tech
23 - n, m - name
36 - m, sh - mesh
41 - r,s - rose
52 - l, n - line
64 - ch, r - chair
75 - k, l - keel
89 - f, p - fop
98 - b, f - beef

Taking the Major System Further
Just using double number words may be enough to make this a sufficiently powerful mnemonic for you. Alternatively you may decide to use triple number words, using the same construction rules as double number words.

Examples are:
182 - d, v, n - Devon
304 - m, s, r - miser
400 - r, c, s - races
651 - j, l, d - jellied
801 - f, z, d - fazed

Even though you can construct words from first principles each time, at this level of complexity it may be worth writing them down to make them easier to remember. You can then run through them many times to strengthen the link in your mind between the numbers and the associated words. This will help you to remember the appropriate word faster.

Using Words to Remember Long Numbers
Once you have come up with words and images to link to your numbers, you can start to apply the technique to remember, for example, long numbers. A good way of doing this is to associate Major System words with stops on a journey (see 7.1.5).

Example:

The number Pi is 3.14159265359 (to 11 decimal places). Using the major system and the journey system (see example) together, I can remember this as:

• Passing my Ma (3) by the front door of my house

• Seeing Michelangelo's David (1,4,1) sleeping under the rose bush in the garden

• Someone has tied a loop (5,9) of yellow ribbon onto the steering wheel of my car

• I see a poster with a photo of a steaming pile of sausages and mashed potato, with the title 'glorious nosh' (2,7) at the end of the road

• A lama (5,3) is grazing on grass outside the garage forecourt

• Another loop (5,9) of yellow ribbon has been tied around the railway bridge. This is getting strange!

Key points:

The major memory system works by linking numbers to consonants, and then by linking these into words. By using the images these words create, and linking them together with the journey system, large amounts of information can be accurately memorized.

Using Concept Maps to Remember Structured Information

How to Use the Tool:

Concept Maps are not formally mnemonics. They do, however, help you to lay out the structure of a topic as a clear 'shape' that you can remember easily. By seeing this shape in your mind, you can prompt yourself to remember the information coded within it.

This becomes even easier if you have coded this information using striking images. See the introduction to this chapter to see how to make information as memorable as possible.

Using Aide Memoires

How to Use the Tool:

An Aide Memoire (Memory aid) is a structured list of points or headings that should be considered when solving a particular problem. It tends to be specific to the type of problem being faced.

A good aide memoire can be a very powerful planning tool - it contains a great deal of the experience of the people who developed it. If you use a good aide memoire effectively, you can be reasonably confident that you will have considered all relevant factors. Often this makes the difference between carrying out a task effectively and making a mess of it, particularly when you are under pressure.

Aide Memoires are routinely used in areas as diverse as computer systems analysis, construction of financial proposals and military planning.

Developing an Aide Memoire
If you are solving a common problem, then a good aide memoire may already exist for it. If you cannot find a good pre-prepared one, then you may have to develop it for yourself. This is worthwhile where you need to plan a number of similar jobs.

Developing an aide memoire is an iterative process: first you start by producing what you think is a definitive list of points or headings that should be considered. Use this to plan the job. After the job is complete, review the list, and see if there are any additional points that should be included. Every time an unforeseen problem arises on a project, ask yourself whether you need to prompt yourself on it on your list.

As your aide memoire improves, so will the quality of your planning.

Example:

Business Analysts use a number of different aide memoires for designing computer software. The one used depends on the size and type of job being executed. An example of a simple one is shown below. This is used during preparation of a specification to ensure that relevant factors are considered.

Customer Requirements:

• Stated Requirement and Purpose of Enhancement

• Special Requirements

Project Analysis:

• Volumes of Data and Processing Time

• Technical Risks and Feasibility

• Implications: Hardware, Supporting software, etc.

• System-specific considerations

• Project Stages

Project Implementation

• Detailed Design

• Quality Assurance/Test Plan

• Documentation

• Training

• Installation

• Follow Up Work

The analyst will run through this list of headings while preparing a specification to ensure that he or she has considered all aspects of a problem. Where headings are not relevant they are ignored. By using and developing the aide memoire, the analyst can be reasonably confident that all appropriate project stages have been taken into consideration. This ensures that a fair price is charged for work done.

Key points:

An aide memoire is a standard list of points or headings that show what you should consider while you are planning to solve a problem. By using an aide memoire you ensure that you do not forget important factors.

Aide memoires should be improved continuously. If you find that have not included an important point, then update the list appropriately. This ensures that the next time you use the aide memoire you will remember to think about the point. This will improve the quality and depth of future planning that you carry out.

How to... Learn a Foreign Language

Systems Needed:

• Link Method

• Roman Room Mnemonic

Using the Tools:

Foreign languages are the ideal subject area for the use of memory techniques. Learning vocabulary is often a matter of associating a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in your own language.

Traditionally people have associated these words by repetition - by saying the word in their own language and the foreign language time and time and time and time again. You can improve on this tedious way of learning by using three good techniques:

1. Using Mnemonics to link words
This is a simple extension of the link method described in 7.1.1. Here you are using images to link a word in your own language with a word in a foreign language. For example, in learning English/French vocabulary:

· English: rug/carpet - French: tapis - imagine an ornate oriental carpet with a tap as the central design woven in chrome thread
· English: grumpy - French: grognon - a grumpy man groaning with irritation
· English: to tease - French: taquiner - a woman teasing her husband as she takes in the washing.

This technique was formalized by Dr. Michael Gruneberg as the 'LinkWord' technique. He has produced language books (an example is German by Association) in many language pairs to help students acquire the basic vocabulary needed to get by in the language (usually about 1000 words). It is claimed that using this technique this basic vocabulary can be learned in just 10 hours.

2. The Town Language Mnemonic
This is a very elegant, effective mnemonic that fuses a sophisticated variant of the RomanRoom system with the system described above.

This depends on the fact that the basic vocabulary of a language relates to everyday things: things that you can usually find in a city, town or village. To use the technique, choose a town that you are very familiar with. Use objects within that place as the cues to recall the images that link to foreign words.

Nouns in the town:
Nouns should be associated to the most relevant locations: for example, the image coding the foreign word for book could be associated with a book on a shelf in the library. You could associate the word for bread with an image of a loaf in a baker's shop. Words for vegetables could be associated with parts of a display outside a greengrocer's. Perhaps there is a farm just outside the town that allows all the animal name associations to be made.

Adjectives in the park:
Adjectives can be associated with a garden or park within the town: words such as green, smelly, bright, small, cold, etc. can be easily related to objects in a park. Perhaps there is a pond there, or a small wood, or perhaps people with different characteristics are walking around.

Verbs in the sports center:
Verbs can most easily be associated with a sports center or playing field. This allows us all the associations of lifting, running, walking, hitting, eating, swimming, driving, etc.

Remembering Genders
In a language where gender is important, a very good method of remembering this is to divide your town into two main zones. In one zone you code information on masculine gender nouns, while in the other zone you code information on feminine nouns. Where the language has a neutral gender, then use three zones. You can separate these areas with busy roads, rivers, etc. To fix the gender of a noun, simply associate its image with a place in the correct part of town. This makes remembering genders easy!

Many Languages, many towns
Another elegant spin-off of the technique comes when learning several languages: normally this can cause confusion. With the town mnemonic, all you need do is choose a different city, town or village for each language to be learned. Ideally this might be in the relevant country. Practically, however, you might just decide to use a local town with the appropriate foreign flavor.

3. The hundred most common words
Tony Buzan, in his book 'Using your Memory', points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards being able to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level. The 100 basic words used in conversation are shown below:

(Extract reproduced from Use Your Memory by Tony Buzan with the permission of BBC Worldwide Limited, © Tony Buzan)

Summary
The three approaches to learning foreign languages shown here can be very effective. They help to point out:

• the most important words to learn

• show how to link words in your own language to words in a foreign language, and

• show how to structure recall of the language through use of the town mnemonic.

How to... Remember Information for Exams

Systems Needed:

• The Number/Rhyme Technique

• The Number/Shape Technique

• The Alphabet Technique

• The Journey Technique

• Concept Maps

Using the Tools:

A very effective way of structuring information for revision is to draw up a full, cloud coded concept map of a subject. This will help you to see the overall structure of the topic and show you the associations between pieces of information. A good concept map can be an effective mnemonic in its own right.

The problem with this is that you can forget the label on a line on a concept map. A more reliable method is to take your concept map, and break it down into a numbered list of important points. You can then use one of the peg techniques (see links above) to remember the items on the list. Alternatively you can use the journey technique for longer lists.

By associating items on a list with a peg system or journey, you can check that you have retrieved all items held by the mnemonic. Supporting facts can be associated into images or sub-mnemonics. These could be triggered by the pegs for the peg systems, or at landmarks if you use the journey system. Alternatively you can loosely associate this information with the facts coded.

Retrieving all the facts necessary to answer an exam essay question becomes as simple as running through the mnemonic in your mind. As you go, jot down the retrieved facts that are relevant to the question. Once you have written these down, you can apply any other mnemonics you have coded, or note any associated facts and connections that occur to you. This should ensure that you have all possible information available to you, and should help you to produce a good essay plan.

How to... Remember People's Names

Systems Needed:

• The Link Method

• The Roman Room Mnemonic

Using the Tools:

Remembering people's names needs a slightly different approach from all the others explained so far in this section. The techniques used, though, are quite simple:

1. Face association
Examine a person's face discretely when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, hairline, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, complexion, etc.

Create an association between that characteristic, the face, and the name in your mind. The association may be to link the person with someone else you know with the same name. Alternatively it may be to associate a rhyme or image of the name with the person's face or defining feature.

2. Repetition
When you are introduced, ask for the person to repeat their name. Use the name yourself as often as possible (without overdoing it!). If it is unusual, ask how it is spelled or where it is comes from, and if appropriate, exchange cards - the more often you hear and see the name, the more likely it is to sink in.

Also, after you have left that person's company, review the name in your mind several times. If you are particularly keen you might decide to write it down and make notes.

Summary
The methods suggested for remembering names are fairly simple and obvious, but are useful. Association either with images of a name or with other people can really help. Repetition and review help to confirm your memory.

An important thing to stress is practice, patience, and progressive improvement.

How to... Remember Lists and Long Numbers

Systems Needed:

• Link Method

• The Number/Rhyme Technique

• The Number/Shape Technique

• The Alphabet Technique

• The Journey Technique

• The Major System

Using the Tools:

Remembering lists are what many mnemonics are for. You can code almost any information into these mnemonic lists - all that you need is the imagination to come up with the relevant associations.

To memorize short lists, use:

• The Link or Story Methods

• The Number/Rhyme System, or

• The Number/Shape Method

To remember intermediate and longer lists, use:

• The Alphabet Technique, or

• The Journey Technique

As with lists, using mnemonic systems, remembering numbers becomes extremely simple. There are a number of approaches, depending on the types of numbers being remembered:

1. Short numbers
The easiest, but least reliable, way of remembering numbers is to use simple Number/Rhyme images associated in a story.

A better way is to use a simple peg system, where, for example, you can associate digits from the Number/Rhyme System into positions organized with the Alphabet System.

2. Long numbers (e.g. Pi)
You can store long numbers most effectively with the Journey System. At a simple level, single numbers can be stored at each stop on the journey using Number/Rhyme or Number/Shape images. At a more advanced level you can increase the number of digits stored at each stop by using the Major System.

By using all the simple techniques together you should be able to store a 100 digit number with relatively little effort. Using the more powerful systems, holding it to 1000 digits might not be too much of a challenge.

3. Telephone Numbers
These can be remembered simply by associating numbers from the Number/Rhyme system with positions in either the Alphabet Technique or the Journey System. You can then associate these with the face or name of the person whose number you are remembering.

For example, to remember that someone's phone number is, I can imagine myself traveling to their flat: with my destination firmly in mind, I envisage the following stops on my journey:

1. Front door: the door has sprouted angel's wings, and is flying up to heaven! (7)
2. Rose bush: a small sapling (tree, 3) is growing its way through the middle of the bush.
3. Car: some bees have started to build a hive (5) under the wheel of my car. I have to move it very carefully to avoid damaging it.
4. End of road: a tree (3) has fallen into the road. I have to drive around it.
5. Past garage: Someone has nailed a door (4) to the sign. Strange!
6. Under railway bridge: the bees are building another hive (5) between the girders!

Introduction to Memory Techniques

by James Manktelow

Mnemonics are methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. A very simple example of a mnemonic is the '30 days hath September' rhyme. The basic principle of mnemonics, is to use as many of the best functions of the human brain as possible to code information.

The human brain evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli - images, colour, structure, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, spatial awareness, emotion, and language - using them to make sophisticated interpretations of the environment. Human memory is made up of all these features.

Typically, however, information presented to be remembered is from one source - normally words on a page. While language, words on a page, reflects one of the most important aspects of human evolution, it is only one of the many skills and resources available to the human mind.

Using Your Whole Mind To Remember

Mnemonics seek to use all of these resources. By coding language and numbers in sophisticated, striking images which flow into other strong images, we can accurately and reliably code both information and the structure of information to be easily recalled later.

This section of Mind Tools seeks to show you the techniques that enable you to use all of your mind to remember information.

Layout of the Memory Techniques Section

The initial articles explain the fundamentals of use of mnemonics, and how to use them most effectively. These are complemented by general articles giving the essential background to the use of memory techniques.

The next section discusses many of the most effective memory techniques currently available. Many are quite simple and easy to understand and use. Others are more sophisticated, and require a significant investment of time before their huge potentials can be realised. Mind Tools will score these, indicating their relative power and difficulty. It is for you to use these indicators to select the most appropriate strategies for your use. The best approach to this area may be to visit it several times, learning a different memory technique on each visit, and applying and experimenting with it before returning on the next visit to learn a different technique.

The final section takes a functional approach to memory techniques, suggesting strategies to apply in various fields. Some techniques, particularly those relating to language acquisition, exam/subject study, and remembering names are truly remarkable and important. Others, such as the ability to remember the order of a pack of cards, are merely amusing sidelines (unless you are a keen card-player!).

Enjoy using Mind Tools memory techniques section: your use of your memory may well amaze you!

Association, Imagination and Location

The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are:

• Association

• Imagination

• Location

Working together, these principles can be used to generate powerful mnemonic systems. This Mind Tools presentation will show illustrations of many memory techniques and examples of areas where their application will yield serious advantage. Hopefully once you have absorbed and applied these techniques you will understand how to design and apply these principles to your field to design your own powerful, sophisticated recall systems.

These principles are explained below:

Association

Association is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a method of remembering it. Although we can and will suggest associations to you, your own associations are much better as they reflect the way in which your mind works.

Things can be associated by:

• being placed on top of the associated object

• crashing or penetrating into each other

• mergeing together

• wrapping around each other

• rotating around each other or dancing together

• being the same colour, smell, shape, or feeling

• etc.

Whatever can be used to link the thing being remembered with the image used to recall it is the association image.

As an example: Linking the number 1 with a goldfish might be done by visualising a 1-shaped spear being used to spear a goldfish to feed a starving family.

Imagination

Imagination is used to create the links and associations needed to create effective memory techniques - put simple, imagination is the way in which you use your mind to create the links that have the most meaning for you. Images that I create will have less power and impact for you, because they reflect the way in which we think.

The more strongly you imagine and visualise a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. Mnemonic imagination can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember what needs to be remembered.

Location

Location provides you with two things: a coherent context into which information can be placed so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another: e.g. by setting one mnemonic in one village, I can separate it from a similar mnemonic located in another place.

Location provides context and texture to your mnemonics, and prevents them from being confused with similar mnemonics. For example, by setting one mnemonic with visualisations in the town of Horsham in the UK and another similar mnemonic with images of Manhattan allows us to separate them with no danger of confusion.

So using the three fundamentals of Association, Imagination and Location you can design images that strongly link things with the links between themselves and other things, in a context that allows you to recall those images in a way that does not conflict with other images and associations.

The Memory Fallacy

Most people believe that their memories get worse as they get older.

This is true only for people who do not use their memories properly: memory is like a muscle - the more it is used, the better it gets. The more it is neglected, the worse it gets.

While in education most people have to use their memories intensively - simply to remember facts and pass exams. When people leave full time education, they tend to cease to use their memory as actively, and so it starts to get flaccid.

How Memory Works

Memory works by making links between information, fitting facts into mental structures and frameworks. The more you are actively remembering, the more facts and frameworks you hold, the more additional facts and ideas will slot easily into long term memory.

Why Memory Doesn't Work!

Another reason for memory getting apparently worse is that outside academia information tends not to be as clearly structured as it is in education. The clear presentation and organisation of a good lesson or training course provides a structure that is almost a mnemonic in its own right. Where information drifts in as isolated facts, it will normally be forgotten simply because it is not actively fitted into a mnemonic.

Again, as people grow up they are trained out of spontaneous, imaginative behaviour: most peoples' jobs depend on them being predictable and reliable far more than on them being imaginative. An important feature of memory, though, is the imagination that allows you to construct the strong mnemonic links between things to be remembered and the cues for their recall. Of course be reliable, but keep your imagination fresh at the same time!

So memory in most people does get worse with age, but only because it is allowed to. By continuing your education throughout your life, by cultivating your mind and keeping it open to new experience, by actively fitting facts into clear and flexible frameworks, and by keeping your imagination working, your memory can get better and better as you get older.

Doing this not only gives you a better memory: think how many times you have heard this message in connection with other self-improvement methods! An important thing to realise is that different people learn in different ways. The way in which people learn is often a factor determining the subjects they choose to study, instructors they relate to, and careers chosen in life.

How Your Learning Style Affects Your Use of Mnemonics

The way in which people learn affects the sort of mnemonics they should consider using to store information.

The three main learning styles are:

• visual

• auditory

• kinaesthetic

No-one uses one of the styles exclusively, and there is usually significant overlap in learning styles. To discover your learning style, click here (links to psychometric test)

Visual Learners

Visual learners relate most effectively to written information, notes, diagrams and pictures. Typically they will be unhappy with a presentation where they are unable to take detailed notes - to an extent information does not exist for a visual learner unless it has been seen written down. This is why some visual learners will take notes even when they have printed course notes on the desk in front of them. Visual learners will tend to be most effective in written communication, symbol manipulation etc.

Visual learners make up around 65% of the population.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. They will tend to listen to a lecture, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often information written down will have little meaning until it has been heard - it may help auditory learners to read written information out loud. Auditory learners may be sophisticated speakers, and may specialise effectively in subjects like law or politics.

Auditory learners make up about 30% of the population.

Kinaesthetic Learners

Kinaesthetic Learners learn effectively through touch and movement and space, and learn skills by imitation and practice. Predominantly kinaesthetic learners can appear slow, in that information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods. Kinaesthetic learners make up around 5% of the population.

Memory Implications of Learning Styles

Most literature on mnemonics assumes the visual approach to learning styles - mnemonics are recommended to be as visually appealing and memorable as possible. If you are an auditory or kinaesthetic learner you may find that this emphasis on imagery leads to ineffective recall. In this case, try adjusting the mnemonics to suit your learning style: if you are an auditory learner, use auditory cues to create your mnemonics. If you are a kinaesthetic learner, imagine performing actions or using tools as the basis of memory techniques.

From here onwards Mind Tools will assume a visual approach to mnemonics. If you are an auditory or kinaesthetic learner, adjust these techniques appropriately to suit your personal approach to learning.

To discover your learning style, click here (links to psychometric test).

Using Mnemonics to Learn More Effectively

When you are creating a mnemonic, e.g. an image or story to remember a telephone number, the following things can be used to make the mnemonic more memorable:

• Use positive, pleasant images. The brain often blocks out unpleasant ones.

• Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image

• Use humour (perhaps linked with point 2)! Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones.

• Similarly rude or sexual rhymes are very difficult to forget!

• Symbols (e.g. red traffic lights, pointing fingers, etc.) can be used in mnemonics.

• Vivid, colourful images are easier to remember than drab ones.

• Use all the senses to code information or dress up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as pictures.

• Bringing three dimensions and movement to an image makes it more vivid. Movement can be used either to maintain the flow of association, or can help to remember actions.

• Locate similar mnemonics in different places with backgrounds of those places. This will help to keep similar images distinct and unconfused.

The important thing is that the mnemonic should clearly relate to the thing being remembered, and that it should be vivid enough to be clearly remembered whenever you think about it

Expanding Memory Systems

Once you have mastered simple memory systems such as the number/shape system, you can use mnemonic enhancers to expand the range of the systems.

As an example, you might use the convention that encasing a mnemonic image in ice adds ten to a simple number/shape image: i.e. if you have previously linked the number 2 to the word 'wine' by using an image of a drunken swan guzzling a bottle of wine, then you can change it to link wine to 12 by imagining the swan frozen in ice.

First Stage Expansion

Tony Buzan, in his book 'Use Your Memory', suggests the following scheme. Modify it to reflect the way that your mind works so that the images created are as vivid as possible:

                               Mnemonic Enhancers applied to:

                      Simple Peg System                  e.g. Major System

                                         Normal Range

                            0 - 9                              00 - 99

Imagine  image:

1. Frozen in ice:           10-19                              100 - 199

2. Covered in thick oil     20-29                              200 - 299

3. In flames                30-39                              300 - 399

4. Pulsating Violently      40-49                              400 - 499

5. Made of Velvet           50-59                              500 - 599

6. Completely transparent   60-69                              600 - 699

7. Smelling good            70-79                              700 - 799

8. In a busy road           80-89                              800 - 899

9. Floating on a cloud      90-99                              900 - 999

As another example, you could link 'compact disk' to the number 38 by imagining an egg timer (8) with its middle going through the centre of a CD, engulfed in flames (30-39). Perhaps you could strengthen the image by imagining the play of the light of the flames off the grooves of the CD.

This list of images can be remembered in correct order by using a simple peg system.

Expanding this approach again

Once you understand this technique, you can expand it again and again. For example you could take it to the next level by associating the images produced with a strong and vivid colour, for example:

                                  Mnemonic Enhancers applied to:

                       Simple Peg System                  e.g. Major System

                                          Initial Range

                             0 - 9                               00 - 99

                                    First Level Expanded Range

                             00-99                              000 - 999

Imagine image coloured:

1. Red                       100-199                           1000 - 1999

2. Orange                    200-299                           2000 - 2999

3. Yellow                    300-399                           3000 - 3999

etc.

The expansion here might be red - 1, orange - 2, yellow - 3, green - 4, blue - 5, indigo - 6, violet - 7, white - 8, grey - 9, and black - 0. If you prefer to use colours in a different way, then do so!

Keep on expanding the method

You might to decide to expand this system to additional level by associating sounds to the images (e.g. a soprano singing, wind chimes, etc.); by associating smells; linking friends to images; etc.

Summary

So by using these techniques to expand mnemonics, you can significantly enhance the power of simple systems and the volumes of information that can be held.

At a particular complexity of image you may find that mnemonic enhancers become too complex or unwieldy - maybe after using three or four enhancers together you find that the system breaks down. This will be individual to you, and is for you to decide. This is perhaps the stage to start investigating some of the more powerful memory systems.

Hints On Memory Techniques

This section covers a few general hints on the use of memory systems:

1. One-Way or Two-Way links

Bear in mind that in some cases you may want the link to work both ways - for example if you are using a peg system (e.g. number/rhyme) to link 2 to Henry VIII, you may not want to always link Henry VIII with the number 2 (i.e. the opposite way across the link).

If, however, you are linking the word the French word 'chien' with the English word 'dog', you will want to ensure that the link runs in the opposite direction - i.e. that the English word 'dog' links with the French word 'chien'.

2. Remember to use location to separate similar mnemonics

By setting an application of a memory system in one location and clearly using that location as a background, you can easily separate it from a different application of the same memory system set in a different place.

3. Why mnemonics might fail

Typically you may forget things that you have coded with mnemonics if the images are not vivid enough, or if the images you are using do not have enough meaning or strength for you to feel comfortable with.

Try changing the images used to more potent ones, and read the section on Using Mnemonics more Effectively.

4. Retrieving lost information

You may find that you need to remember information that has either been lost because part of a mnemonic was not properly coded, or that simply was not placed into a mnemonic. To try to recall the information, try the following approaches:

• In your mind run through the period when you coded the information, carried out the action, or viewed the thing to be remembered. Reconstructing events like this might trigger associations that help you to retrieve the information.

• If the lost information was part of a list, review the other items in the list. These may be linked in some way to the forgotten item, or even if unlinked their positions in the list may offer a different cue to retrieve the information.

• If you have any information such as general shape or purpose, try to reconstruct the information from this.

• If all the above have failed, take your mind off the subject and concentrate on something else completely. Often the answer will just 'pop into your mind', as your subconscious has worked away on retrieving the information, or something you have been working on sparks an association.

Mind Tools Memory System Grades

The memory systems explained in this section are used for different purposes, require different investments of time to learn and effort to use, and have different levels of effectiveness.

To help you through the systems and put them into context, we have graded them under the following categories:

Ease of Use              - how easily and quickly can the method be applied?

Effectiveness            - how good is it for retaining information?

Power                    - how much information can be reliably coded?

Learning investment      - i.e. how much effort does it take to learn the 

                           system before it can be used?

Who should use           - some of the more sophisticated systems are only 

                           worth learning if you are really interested in 

                           memory techniques. Others should be useful for 

                           everyone

Please note that this grading is necessarily subjective - as stated earlier, different people have different learning styles, different approaches to subjects, different brains and different life experiences. You may find that what we find to be difficult you find easy, or vice versa. Consider these grades to be general guides.

The Link Method

The Link Method is one of the easiest mnemonic techniques available, but is still quite powerful. It is not quite as reliable as a peg technique, as images are not tied to specific, inviolable sequences.

It functions quite simply by making associations between things in a list, often as a story. The flow of the story and the strength of the visualisations of the images provide the cues for retrieval.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - Very simple

Effectiveness            - Moderate

Power                    - Low

Learning investment      - Very low

Who should use           - Anyone

How to use

Taking the first image, imagine associations between items in a list. Although it is possible to remember lists of words where each word is just associated with the next, it is often best to fit the associations into a story: otherwise by forgetting just one association, the whole of the rest of the list can be lost.

As an example, you may want to remember a list of counties in the South of England:

Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Surrey

This could be done with two approaches, the pure link method, and the story method:

The Link Method

This would rely on a series of images coding information:

• An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset).

• The DOoR opens to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with a SETting sun (Somerset).

• The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall).

• The CORN is so dry it is beginning to WILT (Wiltshire).

• The WILTing stalks slowly fall onto the tail of the sleeping DEVil (Devon).

• On the DEVil's horn a woman has impailed a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it.

• Now the Devil feels SoRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.

Note that there need not be any reason or underlying plot to the sequence of images: all that is important are the images and the links between images.

The Story Method

Alternatively this information may be coded by vividly imaging the following scene:

An AVON lady is walking up a path towards a strange house. She is hot and sweating slightly in the heat of high SUMMER (Somerset). Beside the path someone has planted giant CORN in a WALL (Cornwall), but it's beginning to WILT (Wiltshire) in the heat. She knocks on the DOoR (Dorset), which is opened by the DEVil (Devon). In the background she can see a kitchen in which a servant is smearing honey on a HAM (Hampshire), making in GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) and gleam in bright sunlight streaming in through a window. Panicked by seeing the Devil, the Avon lady panics, screams 'SoRRY' (Surrey), and dashes back down the path.

Given the fluid structure of this mnemonic, it is important that the images stored in your mind are as vivid as possible, and that significant, coding images are much stronger that ones that merely support the flow of the story. See the section on using mnemonics more effectively for further information on making images as strong as possible.

This technique is expanded by adding images to the story. After a number of images, however, the system may start to break down.

Summary

The Link Method is probably the most basic memory technique, and is very easy to understand and use. It is, however, one of the most unreliable systems, given that it relies on the user remembering the sequences of events in a story, or a sequence of images.

It is not always immediately obvious if an image is missing from the sequence, and if an element is forgotten, then all following images may be lost as well.

The Number/Rhyme System

The Number/Rhyme technique is a very simple way of remembering lists of items in a specific order. It is an example of a peg system - i.e. a system whereby facts are 'pegged' to known sequences of cues (here the numbers 1 - 10). This ensures that no facts are forgotten (because gaps in information are immediately obvious), and that the starting images of the mnemonic visualisations are well know.

At a simple level it can be used to remember things such as a list of English Kings or of American Presidents in their precise order. At a more advanced level it can be used to code lists of experiments to be recalled in a science exam.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - very easy

Effectiveness            - effective

Power                    - only codes 1-10 items without use of enhancement

Learning investment      - low

Who should use           - everyone

How to use the Number/Rhyme Technique

This technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by things that rhyme with the number, and are linked to images that represent the things to be remembered.

The usual rhyming scheme is shown below:

  1 - Bun

  2 - Shoe

  3 - Tree

  4 - Door

  5 - Hive

  6 - Bricks

  7 - Heaven 

  8 - Skate

  9 - Line

  10 - Hen

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

These images should be linked to images representing the things to be remembered, for example a list of ten Greek philosophers could be remembered as:

    1 - Parmenides - a BUN topped with melting yellow PARMEsan cheese

    2 - Heraclitus - a SHOE worn by HERACLes (Greek Hercules) glowing 

                     with a bright LIghT

    3 - Empedocles - A TREE from which the M-shaped McDonalds arches 

                     hang hooking up a bicycle PEDal

    4 - Democritus - think of going through a DOOR to vote in a 

                     DEMOCRaTic election.

    5 - Protagoras - A bee HIVE being positively punched through 

                     (GORed?) by an atomic PROTon

    6 - Socrates -   BRICKS falling onto a SOCk (with a foot inside!) from a 

                     CRATe.

    7 - Plato -      A plate with angel's wings flapping around a white cloud

    8 - Aristotle -  a friend called hARRY clutching a bOTtLE of wine 

                     possessively slipping on a SKATE (sorry Harry!)

    9 - Zeno -       A LINE of ZEN buddhists meditating

    10 - Epicurus -  a HEN's egg being mixed into an EPIleptics's CURe.

Try either visualising these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own.

Once you have done this, try writing down the names of the philosophers on a piece of paper. You should be able to do this by thinking of the number, then the part of the image associated with the number, then the whole image, and finally then decode the image to give you the name of the philosopher. If the mnemonic has worked, you should not only recall the names of all the philosophers in the correct order, but should also be able to spot where you have left philosophers out of the sequence. Try it - it's easier than it sounds.

Applying the Number/Rhyme Technique

You can use a peg system like this as a basis for knowledge in an entire area: the example above could be a basis for a knowledge of ancient philosophy, as images representing the projects, systems and theories of each philosopher can now be associated with the images representing the philosophers names.

The sillier the image, the more effectively you will remember it - see the article on Using Mnemonics More Effectively to see how you can dress up the picture to help it stay clearly in your mind.

Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the it using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems.

Summary

The Number/Rhyme technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. By driving the associations with numbers you can ensure complete recall of all items on a list as you will know if some have been missed (because there will be holes in the number sequence).

The Number/Shape System

The Number/Shape system is very similar to the Number/Rhyme system. As with the Number/Rhyme system it is a very simple and effective way of remembering lists of items in a specific order. It is another example of a peg system.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - very easy

Effectiveness            - effective

Power                    - only codes 1-10 items without use of enhancement

Learning investment      - low

Who should use           - everyone

How to use the Number/Shape Technique

This technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by images shaped like the number, and are part of a compound image that also codes the thing to be remembered.

One image scheme is shown below:

  1 - Candle, spear, stick

  2 - Swan (beak, curved neck, body)

  3 - (rotate shape though 90 degrees!)

  4 - Sail of a yacht

  5 - A meat hook, a sea-horse  facing right

  6 - A golf club

  7 - A cliff edge

  8 - An egg timer

  9 - A balloon with a string attached, flying freely

  0 - A hole

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

As with the Number/Rhyme scheme, these images should be linked to images representing the things to be remembered. We will use a list of more modern thinkers to illustrate the number/shape system:

    1 - Spinoza - a large CANDLE wrapped around with someone's SPINe.

    2 - Locke - a SWAN trying to pick a LOCK with its wings

    3 - Hume - A HUMan child BREAST feeding.

    4 - Berkeley - A SAIL on top of a large hooked and spiked BURR in the 

        LEE of a cliff

    5 - Kant - a CAN of spam hanging from a meat HOOK.

    6 - Rousseau - a kangaROO SEWing with a GOLF CLUB

    7 - Hegel - a crooked trader about to be pushed over a CLIFF, 

        HaGgLing to try to avoid being hurt.

    8 - Kierkegaard - a large EGG TIMER containing captain KIRK and a 

        GuARD from the starship enterprise, as time runs out.

    9 - Darwin - a BALLOON floating upwards, being blown fAR by the 

        WINd.

    10 - Marx - a HOLE with white chalk MARks around it's edge

Try either visualising these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own.

In some cases these images may be more vivid than those in the number/rhyme scheme, and in other cases you may find the number/rhyme scheme more memorable. There is no reason why you could not mix the most vivid images of each scheme together into your own compound scheme.

See the article on Using Mnemonics More Effectively to see how you can dress up these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind.

Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the it using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems.

Summary

The Number/Shape technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. Used in conjunction with the Number/Rhyme system it can be used to generate potent images that can help to make well-coded mnemonics extremely effective.

The Alphabet Technique

The Alphabet system is a peg memory technique similar to, but more sophisticated than, the Number/Rhyme system. At its most basic level (i.e. without the use of mnemonic multipliers) it is a good method for remembering long lists of items in a specific order in such a way that missing items can be detected. It is slightly more difficult to learn than the Number based techniques.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - moderate

Effectiveness            - quite good

Power                    - moderate - codes 1- 26 items without use of 

                           enhancement

Learning investment      - moderate

Who should use           - brighter individuals

How to use the Alphabet Technique

This technique works by associating images representing and cued by letters of the alphabet with images representing the items to be remembered.

The selection of images representing letters is not based on the starting character of the letter name. Images are selected phonetically - i.e. so that the sound of the first syllablle of the image word is the name of the letter, eg. we would represent the letter 'k' with the word 'cake'.

Tony Buzan in his book 'Using Your Memory' suggests using a system of using the first pictorially vivid image suggested by taking the letter name root, and then coming up with words based by advancing the next consonant in alphabetic order (e.g. for the letter 'S' - root 'Es', we would first see if any strong images presented themselves when we tried to create a word starting with 'EsA', 'EsB', 'EsC', 'EsD', 'EsE', etc.) This has the advantage of producing a mnemonic image that can be reconstructed if forgotten, however you may judge that it is an unnecessary complication of a relatively simple system, and that it is best to select the strongest image that comes to mind and stick with it.

One image scheme is shown below:

A - Ace of spades

B - Bee

C - Sea

D - Diesel engine

E - Eagle

F - Effluent

G - Jeans

H - H-Bomb

I - Eye

J - Jade

K - Cake

L - Elbow

M - Empty

N - Entrance

O - Oboe

P - Pea

Q - Queue

R - Ark

S - Eskimo

T - Tea pot

U - Unicycle

V - Vehicle

W - WC

X - XRay

Y - Wire

Z - Zulu

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

Once firmly visualised and linked to their root letters, these images can then be linked to the things to be remembered. Continuing our mnemonic example of the names of philosophers, we will use the example of remembering a list of contemporary thinkers:

   A - Ace     - Freud - a crisp ACE being pulled out of a FRying pan (FRiED)

   B - Bee     - Chomsky - a BEE stinging a CHiMp and flying off into the SKY

   C - Sea     - Genette - a GENerator being lifted in a NET out of the SEA

   D - Diesel  - Derrida - a DaRing RIDer surfing on top of a DIESEL train

   E - Eagle   - Foucault - bruce lee fighting off an attacking EAGLE with 

                 kung FU

   F - Effluent- Joyce - environmentalists JOYfully finding a plant by an

                 EFFLUENT pipe

   G - Jeans -   Nietzche - a holey pair of JEANS with a kNEe showing 

                 through 

   H - H-Bomb -  Kafka - a grey civil service CAFe being blown up by an H-

                 Bomb

   etc.

Try either visualising these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. Although the images are quite laboured, they are good enough to give the cues for the names being coded.

See the article on Using Mnemonics More Effectively to see how you can improve these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind.

Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the it using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems.

<H4)SUMMARY< H4>The Alphabet System is the most complex and difficult of the peg systems, requires a longer preparation period and is more difficult to code than either the Number/Rhyme System or the Number/Shape system. It is, however, more powerful in that it allows you to code and remember a list of up to 26 items before you have to start using Mnemonic Multipliers. You may, however, judge that it is more effective to use a simpler peg system with multipliers than to use the Alphabet System without them: this is your choice.

The Journey System

The journey method is a powerful, flexible and effective mnemonic based around the idea of remembering landmarks on a well-known journey. In many ways it combines the narrative flow of the Link Method and the structure and order of the Peg Systems into one highly effective mnemonic.

Because the journey method uses routes that you know well, you can code information to be remembered to a large number of easily visualised or remembered landmarks along the routes. Because you know what these landmarks look like, you need not work out visualisations for them!

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - moderate

Effectiveness            - good

Power                    - powerful

Learning investment      - moderate

Who should use           - everyone

How to Use the Journey Method

The journey method is based on using landmarks on a journey that you know well.

This journey could, for example, be your journey to work in the morning, the route you use to get to the front door when you get up in the morning, the route to visit your parents, or a tour around a holiday destination. It could even be a journey around the levels of a computer game. Once you are familiar with the technique you may be able to create imaginary journeys that fix in your mind, and apply these.

Preparing the Route

To use this technique most effectively, it is often best to prepare the journey beforehand so that the landmarks are clear in your mind before you try to commit information to them. One way of doing this is to write down all the landmarks that you can recall in order on a piece of paper. This allows you to fix these landmarks as the significant ones to be used in your mnemonic, separating them from others that you may notice as you get to know the route even better.

You can consider these landmarks as stops on the route. To remember a list of items, whether these are people, experiments, events or objects, all you need do is associate these things or representations of these things with the stops on your journey.

Example

For example, I may want to remember something mundane like a shopping list:

Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath cleaner.

I may choose to associate this with my journey to the supermarket. My mnemonic images therefore appear as:

1.  Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat

2.  Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes 

    around the roses.

3.  Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat.

4.  End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road

5.  Past garage: with sign wrapped in kitchen roll

6.  Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by 

    their tails.

7.  Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights

8.  Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards.

9.  Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tyres send up 

    jets of tomato soup as I drive through it.

10. Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the  top level.

11. Supermarket car park: a filthy bath is parked in the space next to my 

    car!

Extending the Technique

This is an extremely effective method of remembering long lists of information: with a sufficiently long journey you could, for example, remember elements on the periodic table, lists of Kings and Presidents, geographical information, or the order of cards in a shuffled pack of cards.

The system is extremely flexible also: all you need do to remember many items is to remember a longer journey with more landmarks. To remember a short list, only use part of the route!

Long and Short Term Memory

You can use the journey technique to remember information both in the short term memory and long term memory. Where you need to use information only for a short time, keep a specific route (or routes) in your mind specifically for this purpose. When you use the route, overwrite the previous images with the new images that you want to remember. To symbolise that the list is complete, imagine that the route is blocked with cones, a 'road closed/road out' sign, or some such.

To retain information in long term memory, reserve a journey for that specific information only. Occasionally travel don it in your mind, refreshing the images of the items on it.

One advantage of this technique is that you can use it to work both backwards and forwards, and start anywhere within the route to retrieve information.

Using the Journey System with other Mnemonics

This technique can be used in conjunction with other mnemonics, either by building complex coding images at the stops on a journey, linking to other mnemonics at the stops, moving onto other journeys where they may cross over. Alternatively, you may use a peg system to organise lists of journeys, etc.

To enhance the images used for this technique, see the article on Using mnemonics more effectively.

Summary

The journey method is a powerful, effective method of remembering lists of information, whether short or long, by imagining images and events at stops on a journey.

As the journeys used are distinct in location and form, one list remembered using this technique is easy to distinguish from other lists.

Some investment in preparing journeys clearly in your mind is needed to use this technique. This investment is, however, paid off many times over by the application of the technique.Introduction

The Roman Room Mnemonic

The Roman Room technique is an ancient and effective way of remembering unstructured information where the relationship of items of information to other items of information is not important. It functions by imagining a room (e.g. your sitting room or bedroom). Within that room are objects. The technique works by associating images with those objects. To recall information, simply take a tour around the room in your mind, visualising the known objects and their associated images.

The Roman Room technique serves as one of the bases of the extremely effective language mnemonic systems described elsewhere within Mind Tools.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - easy

Effectiveness            - effective

Power                    - quite powerful

Learning investment      - moderate

Who should use           - people needing to store unstructured information 

                           on a topic.

How to use the Roman Room System

Imagine a room that you know well: perhaps this is your sitting room, a bedroom, an office, or a classroom. Within this room there are features and objects in known positions. The basis of the Roman Room system is that things to be remembered are associated with these objects, so that by recalling the objects within the room all the associated objects can also be remembered.

For example, I can imagine my sitting room as a basis for the technique. In my sitting room I can visualise the following objects:

table, lamp, sofa, large bookcase, small bookcase, CD rack, tape racks, stereo system, telephone, television, video, chair, mirror, black & white photographs, etc.

I may want to remember a list of World War I war poets:

Rupert Brooke, G.K. Chesterton, Walter de la Mare, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, W.B. Yates

I could visualise walking through my front door, which has a picture on it of a scene from the Battle of the Somme, with an image of a man sitting in a trench writing in a dirty exercise book.

I walk into the sitting room, and look at the table. On the top is RUPERT the Bear sitting in a small BROOK (we do not need to worry about where the water goes in our imagination!) This codes for Rupert Brooke.

Someone seems to have done some moving: a CHEST has been left on the sofa. Some jeans (Alphabet System: G=Jeans) are hanging out of one draw, and some cake has been left on the top (K=Cake). This codes for G K Chesterton.

The lamp has a small statuette of a brick WALl over which a female horse (MARE) is about to jumping. This codes for Walter de la Mare.

etc.

Expanding the Roman Room System

The technique can be expanded in one way, by going into more detail, and keying images to smaller objects. Alternatively you can open doors from the room you are using into other rooms, and use their objects to expand the volume of information stored. When you have more experience you may find that you can build extensions to your rooms in your imagination, and populate them with objects that would logically be there.

Other rooms can be used to store other categories of information.

Moreover, there is no need to restrict this information to rooms: you could use a view or a town you know well, and populate it with memory images.

For information on making the images used more effective, see the section on using mnemonics more effectively.

Summary

The Roman Room technique is similar to the Journey method, in that it works by pegging images coding for information to known images, in this case to objects in a room or several rooms.

The Roman Room technique is most effective for storing lists of unlinked information, whereas the journey method is most effective for storing lists of related items.

The Major System

The Major Memory System is one of the two most powerful memory systems currently available. It requires a significant investment of time to learn and master, however once it is learned it is extremely powerful. It is the application of mainly this system that forms the basis of some of the extraordinary, almost magical, memory feats performed by magicians and memory technicians.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - Difficult

Effectiveness            - Very Effective

Power                    - Very Powerful

Learning investment      - Significant

Who should use           - People prepared to invest significant time in 

                           learning the system.

How to use

The system works by converting number sequences into nouns, nouns into images, and linking images into sequences. These sequences can be very complex and detailed.

The building blocks of the system are the association of the numbers below with the following consonant sounds:

 0 - s, z, soft-c - remember as 'z is first letter of zero'

 1 - d, t, th - remember as letters with 1 downstroke

 2 - n - remember as having 2 downstrokes

 3 - m - has three downstrokes

 4 - r - imagine a 4 and an R glued together back-to-back

 5 - L - imagine the 5 propped up against a book end (L)

 6 - j, sh, soft-ch, dg, soft-g - g is 6 rotated 180 degrees.

 7 - k, hard-ch, hard-c, hard-g, ng - imagine K as two 7s rotated and glued 

     together

 8 - f, v - imagine the bottom loop of the 8 as an eFfluent pipe discharging 

     waste 

     (letter image of F in alphabet system)

 9 - p, b - b as 9 rotated 180 degrees.

These associations really must be learned before proceeding.

The system operates on a number of levels, depending on the amount of time a user is prepared to devote to learning the system. The first level, the coding of single digit numbers into consonants and small words, functions almost as a poor relation of the number/rhyme system. It is at higher levels that the power of the system is unleashed, however this level must be assimilated first.

The trick with the conversion into words is to use only the consonants that code information within the word, while using vowels to pad the consonants out with meaning. By choosing letters for your word in the preferential order AEIOU you stand a better chance of being able to reconstruct the image word if you forget it.

If consonants have to be used to make a word, use only those that are not already used - i.e. h, q, w, x, and y

1. Single number words:

The first level codes single numbers into a short noun made up of the number consonant sound and some vowels. On a sheet of paper, write the numbers 1 to 9, and apply these rules to create your own memory words. An example is shown below:

 1 - toe

 2 - neigh

 3 - ma

 4 - ray

 5 - law

 6 - jaw

 7 - key

 8 - fee

 9 - pay

These words can be used in association much like the other peg technique memory words.

2. Double number words:

Similar rules apply to creating a standard word from two numbers. It is best not to try to use single number word as a root, as this can confuse the image.

Add to your list of numbers 1 to 9 the numbers 10 to 99, and apply the rules to create memory words for yourself. A few examples are shown below:

 17 - t, ch - tech

 23 - n, m - name

 36 - m, sh - mesh

 41 - r,s - rose

 52 - l, n - line

 64 - ch, r - chair

 75 - k, l - keel

 89 - f, p - fop

 98 - b, f - beef

3. Triple number words

Just using double number words may be enough to make this a sufficiently powerful mnemonic for you. Alternatively you may decide to use triple number words, using the same construction rules as double number words.

Examples are:

 182 - d, v, n - Devon

 304 - m, s, r - miser

 400 - r, c, s - races

 651 - j, l, d - jailed

 801 - f, z, d - fazed

Even though words can be constructed from first principles it may be worth writing them down at this level of complexity, and running through them many times to strengthen the link in your mind between the numbers and the associated words. This will enable you to recall the number word faster.

Applying these images

Once you have devised words and images to link to your numbers, you can start to apply the technique to remember long numbers, etc. At as simple level you might decide just to remember a long telephone number. To do this you might just associate a few images together using the link or story technique. Alternatively, to remember a really long number, you might associate words made up of the components of these numbers with stops on a journey (see the journey technique).

Summary

The major memory system works by linking numbers to consonant sound groups, and then by linking these into words. By using the images these words create, and linking them together with another memory system, large amounts of information can be accurately memorised if properly coded.

The Dominic System

The Dominic System is a variant (constructed by Dominic O'Brien) of the Major memory system. As with the Major system it requires a significant investment of time to learn and master, however once it is learned it is extremely powerful.

While the Major system uses words and images based on these words, the Dominic system uses images of famous or known people, and actions associated with them, to code numbers into complex images. This recognises that many people store information on people much more effectively than information on objects.

The Dominic system can code information a little more densely than the Major system, however the choice of which to apply is very much a matter of personal taste.

Mind Tools Mnemonic Grades:

Ease of Use              - Difficult

Effectiveness            - Very Effective

Power                    - Very Powerful

Learning investment      - Significant

Who should use           - People prepared to invest significant time in 

                           learning the system, who prefer images of people 

                           over images of objects.

How to use

The system works by converting numbers into letters, and letters into the initials of people, and initials of people into their mental images, and actions associated with them.

The building blocks of the system are the association of the numbers below with common initial letters of names:

 1 - A

 2 - B

 3 - C

 4 - D

 5 - E

 6 - S (!)

 7 - G

 8 - H

 9 - N

 0 - O

These associations really must be learned before proceeding.

Once these number-letter associations have been learned, the next stage is to write down the numbers 00 - 99, and next to them the letters that correspond to them. The next stage is to write down next to each pair of initials the name of a person with those initials whom you recognise. This might be a fictional or historical character; a famous actor, musician, or politician; or may be a friend, a member of your family, or a work colleague. Next to them write down a characteristic action associated with them.

Examples might be:

 15 - AE - Albert Einstein - thinking

 18 - AH - Adolph Hitler - invading France

 23 - BC - Bill Clinton - giving White House press conference

 36 - CS - Charles Schultz - drawing Snoopy

 52 - EB - Ernst (stavro) Blofeldt - stroking cat

 etc.

This is quite a difficult exercise - perhaps look through a personal video or book collection for ideas. Compiling a list of all initials for all numbers may take a number of days.

Where you cannot find the appropriate initials for numbers, use numbers associated with people - e.g. James Bond is 007, so associate him with 07.

This is quite a culture-sensitive thing: ideas I suggest are unlikely to be of much benefit to anyone outside my immediate culture.

Once you have completed your list, read through it so that the initials, names and actions are coherently and easily associated with each other, both from the numbers to the people and actions, and vice versa. Remember that you do not have too store a sharp image of or detail on the named character: your mind stores the identity of people almost independently of detail on them such as the faces.

Applying these images

Once you have learned these number - initial - person - action links, you are ready to apply them. Application can use the following methods:

• 2 digit number: associate the person whose initials code for the number. e.g. for 23, associate 'Bill Clinton'

• 3 digit number: associate the person and an action from the number/shape systeme.g. for 182, associate Adolph Hitler riding a Swan

• 4 digit number: associate a person and an action e.g. 5236, associate Ernst Blofeldt, drawing Snoopy (the action for Charles Schultz)

• 5 digit number: as 4 digit with associated number/shape

• 6 digit number: as 4 digit with another associated person.

Images can also be associated by using the techniques described in Expanding memory systems, and by storing images using e.g. the journey system.

Summary

The Dominic system is used to code numbers using the initials of well- known people, and is remembered by association of these with images of these people and their typical actions.

It is a very powerful technique, but needs a large investment of time to learn and prepare to unleash its full power.

Learning Foreign Languages

Foreign languages are the ideal subject area for the use of memory techniques: the process of learning words is essentially a matter of association - associating what is initially a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in a language that we understand.

Traditionally this association has been carried out by repetition - saying the word in ones own language and the foreign language time and time and time and time again.

This whole tedious way of acquiring vocabulary can be eliminated by three good techniques:

1. Using mnemonic techniques to link foreign and own-language words: the Linkword technique

2. The Town Language Mnemonic

3. The hundred most common words.

Systems Needed

Before we explain how to remember vocabulary, you will need to understand the principles of:

1. 1. The Roman Room memory system

2. 2. The link memory method.

Explanation of Language Mnemonics

1. The LinkWord Technique

The LinkWord technique uses an image to link a word in one language with a word in another language. The following are examples of use of the LinkWord technique:

 English:French vocabulary

      rug/carpet - tapis -  image of an ornate oriental carpet with a tap as the 

                            central design woven in chrome thread

      grumpy - grognon -    a grumpy man groaning with irritation

      to tease - taquiner - a wife teasing her husband as she takes in the 

                            washing.

The technique was formalised by Dr. Michael Gruneborg. LinkWord language books have been produced in many language pairs to help students acquire the basic vocabulary needed to get by in a language (usually about 1000 words). It is claimed that using this technique this basic vocabulary can be acquired in just 10 hours.

2. The Town Language Mnemonic (Editor's Choice)

This is a very elegant, effective mnemonic designed by Dominic O'Brien that fuses a sophisticated variant of the Roman Room system with the LinkWord system described above.

The fundamental principle rests on the fact that the basic vocabulary of a language relates to everyday things: things that are typically found in a small town, city, or village. The basis of the technique is that the student should choose a town that he or she is very familiar with, and should use objects within that place as the cues to recall the images that link to foreign words.

Nouns in the town

Nouns should be associated to the most relevant locations: the image coding the foreign word for book should be associated with a book on a shelf in the library. The word for bread should be associated with an image of a loaf in a baker's shop. Words for vegetables should be associated with parts of a display outside a greengrocer's shop. Perhaps there is a farm just outside the town that allows all the animal name associations to be made.

Adjectives in the park

Adjectives should be associated with a garden or park within the town: words such as green, smelly, bright, small, cold, etc. can be easily related to objects in a park. Perhaps there is a pond there, a small wood, perhaps people with different characteristics are walking around.

Verbs in the sports centre

Verbs can most easily be associated with a sports centre or playing field. This allows us all the associations of lifting, running, walking, hitting, eating, swimming, driving, etc.

Remembering Genders

In a language where gender is important, a very elegant method of remembering this is to divide your town into two main zones where the gender is only masculine and feminine, or three where there is a neutral gender. This division can be by busy roads, rivers, etc. To fix the gender of a noun, simply associate its image with a place in the correct part of town. This makes remembering genders so easy!

Many Languages, many towns

Another elegant spin-off of the technique comes when learning several languages: normally this can cause confusion. With the town mnemonic, all you need do is choose a different city, town or village for each language to be learned. Ideally this might be in the relevant country, however practically it might just be a local town with a slight flavour of the relevant country, or twinned with it.

3. The hundred most common words

Tony Buzan, in his book 'Using your Memory', points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards learning to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level.

Click here to see the 100 basic words.

Summary

The three approaches to learning language shown here can be extremely effective in helping to learn a foreign language, in terms of pointing out the most important words to learn, showing how to link words in your own language to words in a foreign language, and showing how to structure recall of the language through use of the town mnemonic.

The 100 basic words

The 100 basic words used in conversation are shown below. These typically comprise around 50% of all words used:

1. a, an      2. after      3. again      4. all        5. almost

6. also       7. always     8. and        9. because    10. before

11. big       12. but       13. (I) can   14. (I) come  15. either/or

16. (I) find  17. first     18. for       19. friend    20. from

21. (I) go    22. good      23. goodbye   24. happy     25. (I) have

26. he        27. hello     28. here      29. how       30. I

31. (I) am    32. if        33. in        34. (I) know  35. last

36. (I) like  37. little    38. (I) love  39. (I) make  40. many

41. one       42. more      43. most      44. much      45. my

46. new       47. no        48. not       49. now       50. of

51. often     52. on        53. one       54. only      55. or

56. other     57. our       58. out       59. over      60. people

61. place     62. please    63. same      64. (I) see   65. she

66. so        67. some      68. sometimes 69. still     70. such

71. (I) tell  72. thank you 73. that      74. the       75. their

76. them      77. then      78. there is  79. they      80. thing

81. (I) think 82. this      83. time      84. to        85. under

86. up        87. us        88. (I) use   89. very      90. we

91. what      92. when      93. where     94. which     95. who

96. why       97. with      98. yes       99. you       100. your

From: 'Use Your Memory', Tony Buzan, BBC Books, London, ISBN Mind Maps

Using Mnemonics for Exams

A very effective way of structuring information for revision is to draw up a full, colour coded of the subject. This will enable you to see the overall structure of the topic, and make associations between information. A good colour coded Mind Map can be an effective way of remembering information in its own right.

Using Mnemonics

The problem with this is that you can forget the label on a line on a Mind Map. A more reliable method is to take your Mind Map of a subject, and break it down into a list of important points and facts on a large sheet of paper. This list can be ordered into general subject areas. This list should be numbered. Beside all the important facts you can note down associated and supporting information.

Coding exam subjects into Mnemonics

By associating items on a list with a peg such as a number, we can check that we have retrieved all items held by a mnemonic. This numbered list can be remembered using some of the mnemonic techniques explained in Mind Tools:

For simple, short lists, use a simple peg system, such as:

• The Number/Rhyme Technique

• The Number/Shape Technique

• The Alphabet Technique

For longer lists we can use The Journey System, remembering key facts at each stop in the journey. Supporting facts can be associated into images or sub-mnemonics triggered at these stops in the journey system, or can be loosely associated in general memory to be retrieved by the cues of the main facts.

Using Mnemonics in Exams

By using mnemonics, retrieving all the facts necessary to answer an exam essay question becomes as simple as running through the mnemonic in your mind, jotting down the retrieved facts that are relevant to the question. Once you have written these down, you can apply any sub-mnemonics you have coded, or jot down any associated facts and connections that occur to you. This should ensure that you have all possible information available to you, and should go a long way towards producing an essay plan.

Remembering Names

Remembering names requires a slightly different approach to all the others explained so far in this section, however is relatively simple when approached in a positive frame of mind.

The following techniques can be used:

1. Face association

Examine a person's face discretely when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, hairline, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, complexion, etc.

Create an association between that characteristic, the face, and the name in your mind. The association may be to associate the person with someone you know with the same name, or may be to associate a rhyme or image from the name with the person's face or defining feature.

2. Repetition

When you are introduced, ask for the name to be repeated. Use the name yourself as often as possible (without overdoing it!). If it is unusual, ask how it is spelled, or where it is comes from, and if appropriate, exchange cards - the more often you hear and see the name, the more likely it is to sink in.

Also, after you have left that person's company, review the name in your mind several times. If you are particularly keen you might decide to make notes.

Summary

The methods suggested for remembering names are fairly simple and obvious, but are quite powerful. Association either with images of a name or with other people can really help recall of names. Repetition and review help it to sink in.

An important thing to stress is practice, patience, and progressive improvement in remembering names.

Remembering Lists of Information

Remembering lists of information are what many of the mnemonics described in this section are all about. Almost any information can be coded into these mnemonic lists - all that is needed is the imagination to come up with the relevant associations.

The following section explains the best techniques that can be used to remember particular lists:

Short Lists:

• The Link Method

• The Number/Rhyme System

• The Number/Shape Method

Intermediate Lists

• Simple Journey Method

• The Number/Rhyme Method

• Extended Number/Shape Method

• Alphabet System

Longer Lists

• Journey Method

• Extended Number/Rhyme Method

• Extended Number/Shape Method

• Extended Alphabet System

Remembering Words, Lines and Speeches

There are two main techniques for remember quotations and lines:

1. Repetition

Professional actors are said to learn lines most effectively by rereading a play or parts in a play many times over a short period. As an example, they may read something to be remembered 5 to 10 times a day over 4 days.

2. Keyword/Journey System

An alternative approach using mnemonics is to use the journey system, with a stop for each line.

At each stop you can either code the key images or words, or can adopt a technique where you associate each word in the line.

Subject-Specific Mnemonics

Mind Tools has yet to find effective mnemonics for a number of subject types. We hope to expand the subject-specific are or this site significantly in the future. If you know of, or have developed a good general purpose mnemonic in a specific subject area, please EMail Editor@mindtool.demon.co.uk with details, or use the comments facility within this site

Remembering Numbers

Using mnemonic systems, remembering numbers becomes extremely simple.

There are a number of approaches, depending on the types of numbers being remembered:

1. Short numbers

These can be stored in a number of ways:

The easiest, but least reliable, is to use simple Number/Rhyme images associated in a story.

A simple peg system can be used, associating numbers from e.g. the Number/Rhyme System, organised with, eg. the Alphabet system.

More accurately, they can be remembered as one or a few images using the Major system, or as e.g. one image in the Dominic System.

2. Long numbers (e.g. Pi)

This can be remembered using the Journey System. At a simple level, numbers can be stored at each stop on the journey using e.g. the Number/Shape system. The amount of digits stored at each stop can be increased initially by using either the Major System or the Dominic Method, and enhanced still further by using simple techniques to Expand Memory Systems.

Using all the simple techniques in concert, there is no reason why you should not be able to store a 100 digit number with relatively little effort. Using the more powerful systems, holding it to 1000 digits might not be too much of a challenge.

Remembering Telephone Numbers

These can be remembered simply by associating numbers from e.g. the Number/Rhyme system with positions in a peg system such as the Alphabet System, or the Journey System, and by further associating these with the face or name of the person whose number is being remembered.

For example, to remember that Kathryn's phone number is, I can imagine myself travelling to her flat: with my destination firmly in mind, I envisage the following stops on my journey:

1. Front door: the door has sprouted angels wings, and is flying up to heaven! (7)

2. Rose bush: a small sapling (tree, 3) is growing its way through the middle of the bush.

3. Car: some bees have started to build a hive (5) under the wheel of my car. I have to move it very carefully to avoid damaging it.

4. End of road: a tree (3) has fallen into the road. I have to drive around it.

5. Past garage: Someone has nailed a door (4) to the sign. Strange!

6. Under railway bridge: the bees are building another hive (5) between the girders here!

Remembering Dates

Dates can be remembered as short number sequences as described in the article on Remembering Numbers, associated with the event to which they relate. The number of the millennium is often not needed.

Remembering Playing Cards

Once you are familiar with the Journey system, remembering the order of a pack of playing cards becomes relatively simple.

Before you try to do this, you should prepare a journey in your mind that has 54 stops. Ensure that the stops are fresh and firm in your mind.

The next step is fairly simple - what you need to do is have an image in your mind representing each of the cards. Counting an ace as 1, and the 10 as zero, you can create a picture in your mind of an image from the Number/Shape system for the numbers Ace - 10. For the jack, queen and king, the images on the playing card are ready-made mnemonic images. The suits similarly can be represented by the suit symbols.

For example, the two of hearts can be represented by a white swan with a red heart painted on its side. The ten of spades could be a hole with the handle of a spade sticking out.

It is a good idea to prepare all the images to be used beforehand, as remembering cards during a card game will have to be done quite rapidly.

As cards come up, associate the card images with the stops on your journey.

Easy!

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