Mnemonics

Mnemonics are memory aids people use when trying to learn or remember something. It can be used to remember lists, steps, or facts. Learning needs organization to move from short-term memory to long-term memory and mnemonics are one way to provide that organization. Mnemonics 3 Mnemonics Mnemonics are memory aids people use when learning (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000), and can be used to assist people in learning steps for activities and remember numerous facts. Learning needs organization, in what we know, in the material we are learning and linking these two concepts so new information can be recalled from long-term memory (Baddely, 1990, pp. 175-176). Mnemonics are one way to provide that organization. Bucks County Community College (1999) offers the following examples of mnemonics for students to use to improve their memories. Acronym – a combination of letters used as a hint in remembering with each letter standing for a word. Acrostic – a sentence used as a hint in remembering with the first letter of each word used as a clue to what needs to be remembered. Rhyme-Keys – a list of “peg words ” where each word represents a number and images are developed to link what needs to be remembered to the “peg word.” Loci Method – a series of locations in a room or locations passed on the way to work used to remember items in a list. Keyword Method – using an English word to remember a foreign word by seeing the image and linking the foreign word to the English word. Image-Name Technique – linking a physical characteristic to a person’s name in order to remember that person’s name. Chaining – developing a story where each stage of the story is a link to what your need to remember (Keeley, 1999). Mnemonics have been used since ancient times by the Greeks and Romans who employed the Method of Loci to remember long speeches. This method required matching the items that needed to be remembered to a series of places or loci (Yates, 1966/1996, p. 18). It was the invention of the printing press making information easily accessible that caused the use of mnemonics for memory to drop (Tuttle & Haliniak, n.d.)