9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory 9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory By Dennis Congos, University of Central Florida Mnemonics are memory devices that help learners recall larger pieces of information, especially in the form of lists like characteristics, steps, stages, parts, phases, etc. We knew back in 1967 from a study by Gerald R. Miller that mnemonics increased recall. He found that students who regularly used mnemonic devices increased test scores up to 77%! Many types of mnemonics exist and which type works best is limited only by the imagination of each individual learner. The 9 basic types of mnemonics presented in this handout include Music, Name, Expression/Word, Model, Ode/Rhyme, Note Organization, Image, Connection, and Spelling Mnemonics. Music Mnemonics How many lyrics to songs do you remember? How did you come to remember them? The same method you used to recall song lyrics also can work just as well in academics. Music can used to help students recall important details to main ideas and many learners have made songs out of information when a list of items must be learned.

Advertising on radio and TV uses music to help potential customers remember their products when shopping. With sufficient repetition of commercials, advertisers have discovered that when shoppers see their product in the stores that often the shopper will start reciting a oft repeated phrases from the commercial or start singing the lyrics to the promotion melody. The results has been increased sales of the product. You can make a song or jingle using any type of music you choose for any list of items. Music Mnemonics work best with long lists. For example, some children learn the ABC's by singing the "ABC" song. Other children learn all the states in alphabetical order using the "50 Nifty United States" song. Name Mnemonics In a Name Mnemonic, the 1st letter of each word in a list of items is used to make a name of a person or thing. Sometimes, the items can be rearranged to form a more recollectable name mnemonic. Examples: ROY G. BIV = colors of the spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.) Pvt.

Tim Hall = Essential amino acids (Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isolucine, Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine. Expression or Word Mnemonic This is by far the most popularly used mnemonic. To make an Expression or Word mnemonic, the first letter of each item in a list is arranged to form a phrase or word. Examples: For physical laws dealing with gasses, try these: Charles' Law: For a constant volume, pressure is directly proportional to temperature. The simple way to remember Chuck is if the tank's too hot, you're blown into muck. Henry's Law: The solubility of a gas increases with pressure. To remember good old Hank, remember the bubbles in the shaken Coke you drank. Boyles' Law: At constant temperature, pressure is inversely proportional to volume. Boyle's law is best of all because it presses gasses awfully small. In English, the 7 coordinating conjunctions are For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So = FANBOYS.

The order of operations for math is Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, and Subtract = Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The categories in the classification of life are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Variety = Kings Play Cards On Fairly Good Soft Velvet. For those who have to remember the order of color coding on electronic resistors: Black, Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Brown, Violet, Gray, White, Silver, Gold. Bad Boys Rile Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Welts (to) Silly Guys or Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well (in) Silver Goblets. Almost every anatomy class has to remember the eight small bones in the wrist: Navicular, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Multongular (Greater), Multongular (Lesser), Capitate, Hamate. Never Lick Tilly's Popsicle, Mother Might Come Home. Create an Expression Mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets from the sun outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

Model Mnemonics In a Model Mnemonic, some type of representation is constructed to help with understanding and recalling important information. Examples include a circular sequence model, a pyramid model of stages, a pie chart, and a 5-box sequence. Models should be used in addition to words and lists because they make recall at test time much easier. With a large model such as the Krebs Cycle, it is easier to learn and remember if it is divided into quarters and learned one quarter at a time; hence, the cross hairs. Ode or Rhyme Mnemonics An Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic puts information in the form of a poem. Examples include: A commonly used Rhyme Mnemonic for the number of days in each month is: 30 days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31 Except February my dear son. It has 28 and that is fine But in Leap Year it has 29. You'd probably prefer your doctor to know the difference between cyanate and cyanide: Cyanate "I ate" and Cyanide "I died." Cyanide is a little fatal. Remember this one? In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

How is your spelling? I before e except after c or when sounding like a in neighbor and weigh Here is an easy way to remember the nerves: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, acoustic, glassopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory and hypoglossal. On Old Olympus' Towering Tops, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops Note Organization Mnemonics The way textbook and lecture notes are organized can inhibit learning and recall or promote it. In the sense that the organization of notes can promote recall, it is a memory device. Three examples of organizing note formats that promote recall are as follows: Notecards Notecards are an easy way to organize main ideas and relevant details to be recalled. If main ideas are formatted into possible test questions, notecards can give learners practice in seeing questions and recalling answers as they must do on exams. Front Back Outlines Outlines clearly separate main ideas from details. This helps organize the information in the mind making it easier to remember. I. PIAGET'S THEORY B. Definition of each stage 1. Sensorimotor means ........ etc.

Cornell System The Cornell System is another way to use a Note Organization Mnemonic to promote recall. A vertical line is drawn 3 inches from the left margin of notebook paper. Main ideas or questions from them are placed to the left of the line and details or answers placed to the right. Questions Answers The topic used here is from How To Study In College (3rd edition) by Walter Pauk, pages 292 300. Image Mnemonics The information in an Image Mnemonic is constructed in the form of a picture that promotes recall of information when you need it. The sillier the Image Mnemonic is, the easier it is to recall the related information. These images may be mental or sketched into text and lecture notes. Don't worry about your artistic ability. As long as you know what your sketch means, Image Mnemonics will help you learn and remember. Examples: You can use an Image Mnemonic to remember BAT (the depressant drugs mentioned above - Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers). Visualize or sketch in your notes a limp, depressed bat that took Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers. Picture meeting someone new at a party named John Horsley.

Use an Image Mnemonic to help you remember his name. Visualize a horse sitting on a john: not pretty but effective in recall. No example provided on this one. What is a numismatist? Visualize a new mist rolling onto a beach from the ocean and beach is made of coins. Silly? Of course, but sillyography makes it is easier to remember that a numismatist is a coin collector. How about using a bad joke to help you remember? Picture two numismatists having a drink for "old dime's sake." Corny? Yes, but cornography often makes things easier to remember. Connection Mnemonics In this type of mnemonic, the information to be remembered is connected to something already known. Examples include: Remembering the direction of longitude and latitude is easier to do when you realize that lines on a globe that run North and South are long and that coincides with LONGitude. Another Connection Mnemonic points out that there is an N in LONGitude and an N in North. Latitude lines must run east to west, then because there is no N in latitude. Another Connection Mnemonic is related to sound.

The 1st part of the word latitude sounds like flat and flat runs horizontal or East and West. Spelling Mnemonics Here is an example of a spelling mnemonic: A principal at a school is your pal, and a principle you believe or follow is a rule. Another commonly used Spelling Mnemonic is combined with an Ode/Rhyme Mnemonic. I before e except after c or when sounding like a in neighbor and weigh A third example deals with the problems some learners have remembering that there is an "a" in the middle of separate and not an "e." A Spelling Mnemonic combined with an Image Mnemonic may be used to spell the word sep rate using an exaggerated "a." To spell Mississippi, many learners combine a Rhythm Mnemonic with a Spelling mnemonic: M-iss-iss-ipp-i. Here are some more examples of spelling mnemonics: Geography: George Edwards's Old Grandma Rode A Pig Home Yesterday. Arithmetic: A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream. Saskatchewan: Ask At Chew An with an S in front of it. Take the 1st letter of each type of mnemonic listed above and print them below on the line to help you remember the 9 types.

Have a Mnemonics Party Wanna' Practice? You become better at that which you practice. If you practice not making mnemonics Get some classmates or friends together and practice making mnemonics using the lists provided below. Nine times out of 10 everyone gets a side ache from laughing so hard before the exercise below is finished. Using the items below, devise a mnemonic for remembering each piece of information. Use any of the 9 types of mnemonics as a guide or combine any of the types. Try making a mnemonic without changing the order and then a few where you reorganize the items to fit your mnemonic. 9 characteristics that facilitate learning - Open-mindedness, self-awareness, tolerance, alert mind, energy, ability to set goals, willingness to take risks, self-discipline, and the capacity to value, accept, and undergo change. __________________________________________________________________________ Order of the planets from the sun out - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune Pluto _________________________________________________________________________ Mnemonic Devices for Helping Students By Melissa Kelly Updated January 20, 2017. Mnemonic devices are excellent tools for teachers and students to remember important facts or principles.

These powerful study tools are defined in the book Practicing Mnemonics in School Subjects (Sushma and Geetha), "Mnemonics are memory devices that help learners recall larger pieces of information, especially in the form of lists like characteristics, steps, stages, parts, phases, etc." There are many different types of mnemonics devices. The most popular mnemonics are those involving rhyme, and those involving an acrostic or phrase where the first letter of each word stands for another word. Both techniques have shown to be very effective for aiding memory. The other types of mnemonic devices could be: visual systems (creating a visual representation of the information), the mnemonic link system (creating a story based on a list), the count system (associating numbers with a series of items), and the major system (converting numbers into consonant sounds). Researcher Gerald C. Miller (1967) in his paper An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Mnemonic Devices centered his small group research on questions as to whether or not 46 high school freshman who did not use regularly use mnemonic devices would benefit academically from their use. He also questioned whether the mnemonic devices should be supplied to a student.

Miller found that when students studied by constructing their own mnemonic devices, they obtained higher test scores than if they used no mnemonic devices. In making these comparisons, however, he was able to demonstrate that when any type of mnemonic device is used, the results are better than requiring a student to construct his or her own mnemonic device. Miller's findings were corroborated in a 1996 study by Ohio Professor Francis S. Bellezza, who found that while easy material may be best learned using self-generated mnemonics, difficult material may be better remembered using pre-constructed instructor-provided mnemonics. Miller also also questioned if one type of mnemonic device was universally more effective than any other type? His research found all types of mnemonic devices were equally effective. The use of mnemonics, however, may decrease in effectiveness if the number of mnemonics used by a student increased. Following are the most popular kinds of mnemonic devices to use with your students. Included in this list are websites that will help students try to come up with their own mnemonic devices or information they want to remember throughout the year. PM Images/ The Image Bank/ Getty Images 1.

Acronym (Name) Mnemonic The acronym mnemonic is a word formed from the first letters or groups of letters in a name or phrase. In creating an acronym mnemonic, there should be an invented combination of letters with each letter acting as a cue to an idea that will be remembered. The creator of the mnemonic invents a relationship between a name and the characteristics of the topic or item that needs to be remembered. Examples: ROY G. BIV = helps students remember the order of the colors of the spectrum : Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. HOMES = An easy way to remember the five Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior OIL RIGS= to help students in chemistry remember the difference between these two terms: Oxidation It Loses (electrons) Reduction It Gains (electrons) FANBOYS= to help students remember the seven coordinating conjunctions : For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World Acrostic Mnemonic: An invented sentence where the first letter of each word is a cue to an idea you need to remember. GETTY images 2.

Expressions or Acrostic Mnemonics An acrostic mnemonic is an invented sentence where the first letter of each word is a cue to an idea you need to remember. Examples: For music: This mnemonic is used in musical notation to help students remember those treble clef notes on the lines (E, G, B, D, F) and those on the spaces (F, A, C, E): Every Good Boy Deserves Fun/FACE For biology: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species This is only one of innumerable mnemonics used to remember the order of taxonomy: King Philip Cuts Open Five Green Snakes For astronomy: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto An easy way to remember the order of the planets from the sun out: My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles For Roman Numerals: I Value Xylophones Like Cows Dig Milk I =1 Memorization Help for Students: A List of Helpful Mnemonic Devices Lines on a Treble Staff: Every Good Boy Does Fine ( E, G, B, D, F). Spaces on a Treble Staff: FACE.

Lines on a Bass Staff: Good Boys Do Fine Always ( G, B, D, F, A). Spaces on a Bass Staff: All Cows Eat Grass ( A, C, E, G). Circle of Fifths: Father Charlie Goes Down And Ends Badly ( F, C, G, D, A, E, B). slide 8 of 11 Science - Elementary Names of the Planets (Including Pluto): My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). Names of the Planets (Not Including Pluto): My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nachos (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). Simple Machines: PG JAIL (Pulley, Gear, Jackscrew, Axel and Wheel, Inclined Plane, Lever). Properties of Matter: Monkeys Dance Very Well. (Mass, Density, Volume, Weight). slide 9 of 11 Science - Secondary Levels of Taxonomy: King Philip Can Order Five Greek Salads (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).

Flow of Electrons: OIL RIG (Oxidation = It Loses, Reduction = It Gains). Metric System Prefixes in Value Order: King Henry Died Drinking Chocolate Milk (Kilo=x 1000, Hecta=x 100, Deca=x 10, Deci=x 0.1, Centi=x 0.01, Milli=x 0.001). Order of Mohs Hardness Scale from 1-10: Toronto Girls Can Flirt and Other Quirky Things Can Do (Talc, Gypsum, Calcite, Fluorite, Apatite, Orthoclase feldspar, Quartz, Topaz, Corundum, Diamond). Essential Amino Acids: Ptv. Tim Hall (Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isoleucine, Methionine, Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine).

Nerves of the Eye: On Old Olympus's Towering Tops, A Finn and German Viewed Some Hops (Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Acoustic, Glassopharyngeal, Vagus, Spinal Accessory, Hypoglossal). Bones in the Wrist: Never Lick Tilly's Popsicle, Mother Might Come Home. (Navicular, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Multongular Greater, Multongular Lesser, Capiate, Hamate). slide 10 of 11 Spelling General Rule: I before E, except after C. Remembering the Difference in Principal and Principle: A principal is your PAL. A principle is a RULE. (Both end the same as their meaning). How to spell Saskatchewan: Write a S... then it's Ask A Chew An. How to spell desserts: Desserts is the opposite of being stressed. (Spell it backwards.) Spelling BECAUSE: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. Spelling ARGUMENTS: A Rowdy Girl's Underwear!!! My Eyes Need Tied Shut!

Spelling ARITHMETIC: A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream. Spelling OCEAN: Only Clowns Eat At Noon. Spelling GEOGRAPHY: General Eisenhower's Oldest Grandchild Rode A Pony Here Yesterday. Spelling RHYTHM: Rhythm Helps Your Tiny Hips Move. slide 11 of 11 Writing Steps to Editing: CUPS (Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling). Steps of the Writing Process: Pretty Dolls Rarely Ever Punch Criminals (Pre-Write, Draft, Revise, Edit, Publish, Celebrate). ◄ ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ► Mnemonic device. What is a mnemonic device? What is a mnemonic device? Mnemonics (pronounced “ne-mon’-ics") assist the memory, using a system of rhymes, rules, phrases, diagrams, or acronyms. These devices help to remember, memorize, and recall information such as names, dates, facts, or figures. They do that by turning original information into an easy, more appealing rhyme or sentence. This can be stored in your brain as an easy reference for larger “meaningful" chunks of data.

When you need to recall the original facts you can, by translating the mnemonic memory. For example: “ Roy G Biv " helps you reproduce the names and order of the colors of the rainbow. Every letter stands for a color (i.e., R for Red, O for Orange, etc.). The order is preserved by the somewhat meaningless sentence Roy G Biv. For some reason, we as humans remember relatively nonsensical combinations even better than we retain the complete, original information. – The information is translated into “meaningful" parts (chunked) – Then it is stored in our brain – Once recalled (remembered) it can be re-translated into the original data Variations Other names for a mnemonic device are memory tool, memorization aid, aid to memory, memory device, learning device, learning trick, or brain tool. They are all names for the same thing, an easy way to help use your memory, or memorize, more effectively. There is even a mnemonic for spelling the word “ mnemonic ." Interesting Fact Sometimes it’s confused with a pneumonic device, which is medical equipment used to help with respiratory problems.

From Wikipedia A mnemonic (pron.: /nəˈmɒnɨk/,[1] with a silent “m”), or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids information retention. Mnemonics aim to translate information into a form that the human brain can retain better than its original form. Even the process of applying this conversion might already aid the transfer of information to long-term memory. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often for lists and in auditory forms, such as short poems, acronyms, or memorable phrases, but mnemonics can also be for other types of information and in visual or kinesthetic forms. Their use is based on the observation that the human mind more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, physical, sexual, humorous, or otherwise “relatable" information, rather than more abstract or impersonal forms of information. The word mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word μνημονικός (mnēmonikos), meaning “of memory”[2] and is related to Mnemosyne (“remembrance”), the name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology.

Both of these words are derived from μνήμη (mnēmē), “remembrance, memory.”[3] Mnemonics in antiquity were most often considered in the context of what is today known as the Art of memory. Ancient Greeks and Romans distinguished between two types of memory: the “natural" memory and the “artificial" memory. The former is inborn and is the one that everyone uses automatically and without thinking. The artificial memory in contrast has to be trained and developed through the learning and practicing of a variety of mnemonic techniques.

Mnemonic systems are special techniques or strategies consciously used to improve memory; it helps employ information already stored in long-term memory to make memorization an easier task How Mnemonic Devices Help Us Learn - Flocabulary Mnemonic for remembering the ill fated wives of Henry VIII: Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Mnemonic device for remembering when Alaska and Hawaii entered the United States: '59 was the date, When Alaska and Hawaii became new states Mnemonic for remembering spelling: I before E except after C, and when sounding like "ay" as in Neighbor or Weigh (unfortunately there are more than 200 exceptions including 'weird' and names like 'Sheila' and 'Freidman') Mnemonic for predicting the next day's weather: Red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in morning, sailors take warning. Mnemonic for remembering the zodiac signs: The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, And next' the Crab, the Lion shines, The Virgin and the Scales. The Scorpion, Archer, and the Goat, The Man who holds the Watering Pot, And Fish with glittering scales.

Mnemonic for remembering the number of days in a month: Thirty days hath September, All the rest have thirty-one Excepting February alone: Which has twenty-eight, that's fine, Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.

Flocabulary's mnemonic for remembering the definitions of "innate" and "peregrinate": I travel on foot so I peregrinate, My love of nature's natural, so it's innate, Examples of Non-Rhyming Mnemonics Mnemonic for remembering Roman Numerals: I Value Xylophones Like Cows Dig Milk I V X L C D M 1 5 10 50 100 500 1000 Mnemonic for remembering the prefixes of metric measurements: King Henry Died Drinking Chocolate Milk Kilo - Hecta - Deca - Deci - Centi - Milli x1000 x100 x10 x0.1 x0.01 x0.001 or Kim Hit David Until David Cried Mama Kilo Hecta Deca Unit Deci Centi Milli x1000, x100, x10, x1, x0.1, x0.01, x0.001 Mnemonic device for remembering the order of operations in algebra: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Sub

traction Mnemonic for remembering the order of operations in long division: Dad, Mom, Sister, and Brother Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring-down, Some mnemonics go out of style as the information they represent changes.

Here is the old mnemonic device for remembering the order of the planets from the sun, back when Pluto was included: My Very Easy Memory Jingle Seems Useful Naming Planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto Here is a mnemonic for remembering the NEW list of planets (post-Pluto): My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nuts Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune Mnemonic for remembering groupings of animals in biology: King Phillip Could Only Find Green Socks Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Mnemonic for remembering the notes in the treble clef: The lines of the clef: Every Good Bird Does Fly (E, G, B, D, F) The spaces of the clef: FACE Mnemonic device for remembering the colors in the rainbow in order: ROY G BIV Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain Mnemonic for remembering Supreme Court Justices in the order of when they were appointed: Studying Scandals Keeps The Giant Bride Robots All Sober Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg,

 Breyer, Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor Mnemonic for remembering the vital fluids of the body: Peanut Butter With Bread Phlegm, Blood, Water, and Bile Mnemonic device for remembering the basic needs of the human body: Oh, Can Venus Flies Make Pretty Webs!

oxygen Using Mnemonics to Improve Your Memory - Memory Psychology - Psychologist World Using Mnemonics to Improve Your Memory Using Mnemonics to Improve Your Memory Remember better using the sounds of words. Posted in Memory Psychology First things first - what are Mnemonics? A Mnemonic is something which we can use to remember things much easier. As is often the case, it could be a phrase, a short song, or something that is quite easily remembered, that we use to remember something that would otherwise be difficult to remember. For example, we may use a phrase to remember a series of numbers, such as the mathematical Pi sequence (3.14159 etc) or an ordered list whose numbers or items are not easily memorized. Mnemonics are a way of remembering using association - associating easy to remember things with data.

Popular & Useful Mnemonics Colors of the rainbow/spectrum A number of mnemonic devices have been made to help people to remember the order of the colors of the spectrum, proving the power of mnemonics in revising for exams: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain This phrase, easily remembered when thought about for a few seconds, borrows the first letter of colors in the spectrum as the first letters of each of its words (e.g. R in Richard represents red, Y in York helps us to remember Yellow, etc) Sing a Rainbow Song Many readers will recall singing the 'I can sing a rainbow' song in school in order to remember the colors of the rainbow. This song is useful in remembering easily in that it uses a tune that's easy to memorize, so that we associate the list of colors as we think of the tune. Beginning music students trying to memorize the notes of the staff use the mnemonics "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE" for the lines and spaces of the Treble Clef respectively. The Bass Clef equivalents are "Good Boys Do Fine Always" and "All Cows Eat Grass".

The acronym HOMES is also a mnemonic aid that can be used to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). The famous mnemonic for approximating the digits of pi: "May I have a large container of coffee?" Counting the letters in each word yields the sequence 3,1,4,1,5,9,2,6. A longer version is: "How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!" Another notable (but shorter) version is "How I wish I could recollect pi". A famous mnemonic used by medical students to remember the cranial nerves is "On Old Olympus' Tiny Top A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops" (with variations; some say "terraced tops," some say "towering top," and "view some hops" is sometimes rendered as "vaulted a hedge"). A mnemonic used by physics students to remember the Maxwell relations in thermodynamics is "Good Physicists Have Studied Under Very Fine Teachers", which helps them remember the order of the variables in the square, in clockwise direction.

Another mnemonic used here is "Valid Facts and Theoretical Understanding Generate Solutions to Hard Problems", which gives the letter in the normal left to right writing direction. A mnemonic for remembering the number of days in the months of the year, practically a cultural universal in the United States, is "Thirty days hath September/April, June and November." (Although this is only part of a longer rhyme, this is the only part that most people remember, so they commonly complete it with words similar to "... except February, which has twenty-eight, or twenty-nine in a leap year." The full mnemonic is "Thirty days hath September/April, June and November/All the rest have thirty-one/except February alone/which has eight and a score/until leap year gives it one day more.") Another mnemonic for the days of the months is not a rhyme or a jingle, but a gestalt. Whereas the traditional mnemonic simply associates the name of the month with the number of days, this one emphasizes the sequence. The 31 and less-than-31-day months would be easy to remember if they simply alternated, but this pattern was broken in 27 B.C.

by the decision to rename the month of Sextilis to Augustus and to increase its length from 30 to 31 days. Thus the fourth 31-day month, July, is immediately followed by another 31-day month. Since the human hand has four fingers, one can, given an appropriate mind-set, perceive this pattern in a view of the knuckles of two fists, held together. The raised knuckles can be seen as the 31-day months, the dips between them as the 30-day-months-and-February, and the gap between the hands ignored. (Thus: left-hand-pinky-knuckle = January, dip = February, left-hand-ring-knuckle = March, dip = April, and so on to left-hand-index-knuckle = July; then continue with right-hand-index-knuckle = August, dip = September, etc). A curious characteristic of many memory systems is that mnemonic devices work despite being (or possibly because of being) illogical, arbitrary, and artistically flawed. "Roy" is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname "Biv" and of course the middle initial "G" is arbitrary. Why is "Roy G.

Biv" easy to remember? Medical students never forget the arbitrary nationalities of the Finn and German. Any two of the three months ending in -ember would fit just as euphoniously as September and November in "Thirty days hath...", yet most people can remember the rhyme correctly for a lifetime after having heard it once, and are never troubled by doubts as to which two of the -ember months have thirty days. A bizarre arbitrary association may stick in the mind better than a logical one. More Complex Mnemonic Techniques A mnemonic technique is one of many memory aids that is used to create associations among facts that make it easier to remember these facts. Popular mnemonic techniques include mind mapping and peg lists. These techniques make use of the power of the visual cortex to simplify the complexity of memories. Thus simpler memories can be stored more efficiently. For example, a number can be remembered as a picture. This makes it easier to retrieve it from memory. Mnemonic techniques should be used in conjunction with active recall to actually be beneficial. For example, it is not enough to look at a mind map; one needs to actively reconstruct it in one's memory. Other methods for remembering arbitrary numbers or number sequences use numerological (lit.

number+word) systems such as the abjad, where each numeral is represented by a consonant sound. An example of a widely used system for memorizing numbers as words is the major system. Egg and Spear or Number Shape system This is another peg system, much like the number-rhyme system but more suitable for those with visual learning styles (a one looks like a candle; a two looks like a swan, and so on). Candle, spear Memory and Mnemonic Devices | Psych Central Home » Library » Memory and Mnemonic Devices Memory and Mnemonic Devices By Psych Central Staff ~ 2 min read Mnemonic devices are techniques a person can use to help them improve their ability to remember something. In other words, it’s a memory technique to help your brain better encode and recall important information. It’s a simple shortcut that helps us associate the information we want to remember with an image, a sentence, or a word. Mnemonic devices are very old, with some dating back to ancient Greek times. Virtually everybody uses them, even if they don’t know their name. It’s simply a way of memorizing information so that it “sticks” within our brain longer and can be recalled more easily in the future.

Popular mnemonic devices include: The Method of Loci The Method of Loci is a mnemonic device that dates back to Ancient Greek times, making it one of the oldest ways of memorizing we know of. Using the Method of Loci is easy. First, imagine a place with which you are familiar. For instance, if you use your house, the rooms in your house become the objects of information you need to memorize. Another example is to use the route to your work or school, with landmarks along the way becoming the information you need to memorize. You go through a list of words or concepts needing memorization, and associate each word with one of your locations. You should go in order so that you will be able to retrieve all of the information in the future. Acronyms An acronym is a word formed from the first letters or groups of letters in a name or phrase. An acrostic is a series of lines from which particular letters (such as the first letters of all lines) from a word or phrase. These can be used as mnemonic devices by taking the first letters of words or names that need to be remembered and developing an acronym or acrostic.

For instance, in music, students must remember the order of notes so that they can identify and play the correct note while reading music. The notes of the treble staff are EGBDF. The common acrostic used for this are Every Good Boy Does Fine or Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. The notes on the bass staff are ACEG, which commonly translates into the acrostic All Cows Eat Grass. Rhymes A rhyme is a saying that has similar terminal sounds at the end of each line. Rhymes are easier to remember because they can be stored by acoustic encoding in our brains. For example: In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. Thirty days hath September, All the rest have thirty-one, Save February, with twenty-eight days clear, And twenty-nine each leap year. Chunking & Organization Chunking is simply a way of breaking down larger pieces of information into smaller, organized “chunks” of more easily-managed information. Telephone numbers in the United States are a perfect example of this — 10 digits broken into 3 chunks, allowing almost everyone to remember an entire phone number with ease.

Since short-term human memory is limited to approximately 7 items of information, placing larger quantities of information into smaller containers helps our brains remember more, and more easily. Organizing information into either objective or subjective categories also helps. Objective organization is placing information into well-recognized, logical categories. Trees and grass are plants; a cricket is an insect. Subjective organization is categorizing seemingly unrelated items in a way that helps you recall the items later. This can also be useful because it breaks down the amount of information to learn. If you can divide a list of items into a fewer number of categories, then all you have to remember is the categories (fewer items), which will serve as memory cues in the future. Imagery Visual imagery is a great way to help memorize items for some people. For instance, it’s often used to memorize pairs of words (green grass, yellow sun, blue water, etc.). The Method of Loci, mentioned above, is a form of using imagery for memorization. By recalling specific imagery, it can help us recall information we associated with that imagery. Imagery usually works best with smaller pieces of information. For instance, when trying to remember someone’s name you’ve just been introduced to.

You can imagine a pirate with a wooden leg for “Peggy,” or a big grizzly bear for “Harry.” Related Articles Mnemonic Devices Mnemonic Devices Mnemonic devices, found in the “Giving It” stage of B-SLIM, are part of HOW the teacher decides to teach. The amount of information students receive over the course of the language learning process can be staggering. For this reason, it is essential to find ways of helping students chunk and remember concepts; by creating mnemonic devices when possible, teachers will be helping their students remember information for longer and in the process will also be teaching students a particular type of learning strategy. In this section we will explain what mnemonic devices are, look at the role they play in distinguishing between memorizing and remembering and explain their role in the language class. What is a mnemonic device? The word mnemonic is derived from the Greek word mnemonikos, which means “of memory”. A mnemonic device is a memory aid that can greatly facilitate the learning of a second language. Mnemonics can take many forms, including acronyms, poems, etc. What is the difference between memory, memorize and remember? In B-SLIM, it is crucial to differentiate between memory, memorize and remember.

You can memorize something and memorizing is part of remembering, but remembering is bigger and broader and means you have made some sort of personal connection. How can mnemonics be used in the language classroom? A mnemonic device is 1.0 and 2.0. This means that the teacher wants to present things in a way that will help the students remember it (which relates back to the power of the first impression). With experience, the teacher should have learned pedagogic content knowledge, meaning the way to best present a concept, whether it is grammar, vocabulary or a cultural point. The goal is to determine how you can best present the concept so that the students will remember it the longest. As teachers, there are certain activities that we try and think will be successful, but then may realize that students are struggling or didn’t understand the concept as well as we had hoped. Seeing that the students are struggling in this ways causes the teacher to try and figure out a way to make that concept clearer next time. This means, therefore, that it is up to the teacher to try, through mnemonic devices that are very broad, to make it clearer. Simultaneously, students have the responsibility of trying to remember.

Teachers and students NEED to differentiate, memorize and remember. Often we hear people say “I’ll memorize that,” and they mean remember, but their comment doesn’t have that nuance. We need to remember that there are things we need to memorize; this isn’t a bad thing, but we need to go beyond this and using our cognitive capacity to just memorize everything doesn’t serve us well. There is evidence that people who are excellent memorizes have difficulty applying what they have memorized. We as teachers need to use mnemonic devices and need to draw them out of students to find out what they can do to help themselves remember; this process is part of helping students develop learning strategies. Rebecca Oxford’s work on learning strategies includes an entire section devoted to memory strategies; she talks about creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing well and employing action. Watch the video of this language teacher; how does she use mnemonics in her language classroom? What other mnemonic devices have you heard of or have you used to learn a language? (time 1:04)

Question: What does a mnemonic device help you do?
Answer: Remember