Memory Tricks Part 3: The Power of Mnemonics

The chunking method, explained in Memory Tricks Part 2, can be very easy with numbers, but when it comes to something like a shopping list these methods won’t work. This is when mnemonics can be very useful. The trick with mnemonics is to learn ‘meaningless’ materials by creatively adding meaning. The nice thing is that it can be learned by anyone, since you link your already existing knowledge in order to learn more information and to make storage easier.

Primarily, first letter mnemonics can be very useful for remembering all kind of different things. When I have to learn large lists for an exam I always take the first letter of every object and try to make a word out of it. This way, I only have to remember this word. Research showed that showing the first letter of a word, makes most people remember the word again.

An easy example I had to learn are the four uncertainty reduction strategies for social media: passive, active, interactive and self-disclosure. I made the word ‘PISA’ from it. When I saw the first letters, I could easily remember the names of the four strategies and these names referred to the content of each strategy.

Trick 1: Try to make a word of the first letters of the objects you have to learn.

Another example of these first letter mnemonics are spelling acronyms. Sometimes words can be very hard to write and by learning an easy sentence you can remember how to write it.

ARITHMETIC: A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream

BECAUSE: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

GEOGRAPHY: George Edwards’s Old Grandma Rode A Pig Home Yesterday

NECESSARY: Not Every Cat Eats Sardines, Some Are Really Yummy

RHYTHM: Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move

Trick 2: Use spelling acronyms for remember how to write a difficult word.

The same counts for list order acronyms. Sometimes you have to remember objects in a specific order. Therefore these list order mnemonics can be very useful, since they are much easier to remember than the lists itself.

Order of colours in the rainbow, or visual spectrum

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain

Order of taxonomy in biology

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach

Trick 3: Use list order acronyms for remembering specific orders.

In the last episode of Memory Tricks I will tell you about one of the most famous mnemonic tricks: the Methode of Loci. This trick learns you have you can easily remember shopping lists or to-do lists. Click here for Memory Tricks Part 4.