Using Mnemonics To Improve Our Memory

Using Mnemonics To Improve Our Memory

Everyone wants to improve their memory. Perhaps you are one such person but you do not want to rely on drugs to do this. One way to improve your memory is to rely on mnemonics instead.

What are mnemonics? Mnemonics are actually methods used to recall hard-to-remember information by encoding them in a way so that they are less difficult to remember.

Complex stimuli are perceived by our senses, and then absorbed by our brains as memories. These memories are actually complex models of the stimuli.

The difficulty is that much of the information is presented to us nowadays as written words. Our brains find it hard to absorb written information, thus we find written information hard to remember.

Mnemonics works by relying on strong mental images to encode data. Thus, the information can be easy to remember at will.

If you choose mnemonics as your memory tool, do the following:

• Rely on positive and agreeable images to encode the data since your brain is more likely to remember these.

• Employ dynamic images which depend heavily on your senses.

• Encode your image in three dimensions (with space and movement) so they are easier to recall.

• Overstate the size of vital aspects of your mental image.

• Humor is terrific at making something easier to remember. The funnier it is, the easier it is to recall.

• You can also use symbols to encode complicated messages in a simpler form.

You must bear in mind that imagination, association and location are the 3 main principles upon which mnemonics are founded.

Imagination is employed to produce and enhance the associations required to make satisfactory mnemonics. If you have a vivid imagination, you will remember the mnemonics better.

Association is the way that you match what you have to remember to the method of recollecting it. You could sort through the information so that it has a certain order to it (i.e. placed beside one another; set on top of one another; ranked according to beauty – the ways the information could be ordered are endless.)

Through the third principle, which is location, you gain a coherent context where you can place data so it is grouped together. Location also allows you to differentiate one group of mnemonics from another.

So next time you need to remember something important, make life easier for yourself - create a mnemonic.