Appendix I. . .On Mnemonics
A "mnemonic" is any method that helps you remember something that
you have learned well enough to recognize, but perhaps not yet well
enough to recall. Almost all of us frequently see someone we know
we have met, but we can't think of her/his name. Almost all of us
have sat taking an exam knowing that we know an answer but it just
won't come to mind. Almost all of us have had the problem of knowing
that one thing is called "X" and the other is called "Y" but we can't
keep straight which is which. For these and a wide variety of other
potential memory failures, mnemonic techniques can be helpful.
In the above examples, the person, the question, and the object
are "stimuli" calling for learned "responses" from you. If the response
is well learned, you simply give it straightaway. For example, if I
ask you when did Columbus discover America, you may be able to answer
"1492" immediately and confidently. When you were first studying the
history of the world, you may have learned: "In fourteen hundred and
ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." If so, when asked the
question, you could recite the little poem to remind you of the date.
Thus you were introduced to one of many mnemonic techniques.
In general, a mnemonic mediates between the stimulus and the
response. Instead of S --> R, you have S --> mnemonic --> R. It is
often the case that the mnemonic does NOT produce the response that
is required. It may be just a hint, but enough to prompt your memory
of the answer. For example, a woman with a wild hair_do may make you
think "hairy" in recalling that her name is "Mary." You may remember
that the ordinate of a graph is the vertical axis and the abscissa is
the horizontal axis by noticing that your mouth opens up_and_down
when you say "ordinate," and it stretches out sideways when you say
"abscissa." Thus, a mnemonic helps you produce an answer so that you
can recognize it as being correct.
Mnemonics are of NO value for comprehension.
Knowing the names
of the axes of a graph does not explain how graphs are constructed or
how you should read information from them. You might just call them
"vertical" and "horizontal," and still have difficulty when trying to
remember which is which unless someone pointed out that the horizon
runs flat across the sky. In any event, a mnemonic can help with re_
calling information but you have to know what the information means.
Like any other skill, using mnemonics is a learned behavior that
requires lots of practice. To be sure, anyone can learn the specific
examples that are used to illustrate mnemonic techniques. But if you
want to include mnemonics in your memory repertoire, you will have to
spend a reasonable amount of time learning how to recognize those
situations for which mnemonics might be useful, which of the various
mnemonic techniques best suits that situation, and then devising some
mnemonic that is likely to work for you.
One final point: a mnemonic drops out with repeated use.
After a response is mediated a number of times, it comes to mind
directly. At the same time, ou can always fall back on the mnemonic
when you have a lapse of memory and the answer doesn't come directly
to mind.
Acronyms
An acronym is a short name formed by combining the first letters
of the complete name. UCLA, NYU, and UNM refer to universities, and
IBM, AT&T, and GM refer to companies. We sometimes sign our initials
instead of our complete signature, and we are familiar with messages
such as RSVP, BYOB, and TGIF. This basic idea can be used to devise
a mnemonic for things you want to remember.
A common example is the acronym "HOMES" to help you remember the
names of the Great Lakes. Of course, you have to know the names for
the mnemonic to help, but if you know them, their first letters spell
HOMES. This is a good place to remind you that the mnemonic may only
give a hint of the answer (in this case, just the first letter), and
the mnemonic offers no understanding. Information such as where the
Great Lakes are located, how they were formed, and what cities lie on
their banks is not included in the mnemonic. You already have to know
what you're trying to remember for a mnemonic to help.
Acronyms do not have to be perfect. Suppose we adopt the rule
that vowels do not count, and we need to remember to get milk, bread,
potatoes, and tomatoes at the store. The first letters are MBPT. If
you can think up a word (or phrase) that contains those four letters,
adding only vowels, you can remember one thing instead of four. When
order is not important, you can rearrange the letters in any way. My
first mnemonics are "bump-it," and "be empty." I like the second one
because I can make the sentence, "I don't want to 'be empty' when I
return home," as an easy-to-remember mnemonic for the occasion.
Acrostics
An acrostic is essentially the opposite of an acronym. It begins
with letters and makes words that start with those letters. Ideally,
the words combine into a sensible sentence or phrase because words
are much easier to remember than sequences of letters. Acrostics are
popular ways to remember order.
For example, many automobile license plates begin with 3 random
letters that can be made into an easy_to_remember acrostic. DHP can
"Darned Highway Patrol" and LDT might be "Look Don't Touch" or "Let's
Drive Tonight." A more challenging example arose when we were in the
Kimberly Mountain area of Outback Australia. Another tourist told me
about a good book that described the early days when Australia was a
British colony. The author's name was Durack. Having nothing with
which to write down her name, I devised the acrostic, "Down under,
Read About Colonial Kimberly" as one way to recall her name later.
There are no constraints in creating mnemonics. You can combine
the acronym and acrostic methods. The first four (inner) planets, in
order from the Sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The acronym
MVEM is not very helpful. The other (outer) planets, again in order,
are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. That acronym JSUNP
is also not very helpful. Now consider the acrostic: "My very easy
mnemonic. Just spin us nine planets." You can memorize two sentences
and use the first letter of each word to help you think of planets.
Mental Imagery
A "picture in your mind's eye" can be an especially good way to
link up ideas. If the ideas are combined into a single mental image,
then recalling that image brings both ideas to mind. Notice that the
essential feature of the method is seeing the ideas interact together
in some way. Let me illustrate the use of imagery in remembering the
same name that I used earlier, Durack. My first thought involving a
"rack" was a rack of lamb. I then imagined a rose garden with a tiny
roasted rack of lamp instead of a flower on a rose bush, with dew
drops covering the bush. Hence, "dew" and "rack" could remind me of
the name when I reconstructed the mental image in a book store.
I started with this example because the suggested mental image
is somewhat bizarre. Some people find it helpful deliberately to try
to come up with strange, unusual mental images. However, research on
this issue indicates that the important feature is that the ideas are
seen as interacting in some way. If the image has to be bizarre in
order to accomplish that feature, then so be it.
Although it usually takes extra time to think up an image that
reminds you of the items, the result is a lasting memory that you can
repeat with confidence. Suppose you want to learn the capital cities
of the United States. Here are a few of my own mnemonics:
Santa Claus in a broad-rimmed Mexican hat:
New Mexico - Santa Fe
A garden with unusually tall flowers over my head:
Flor•ida - Tallahassee
The Ark filled with animals and rock•ing in high seas:
Ark•ansas - Little Rock
A pair of scissors cutting a Valentine heart in half:
Connecti”cut - Hartford
A pretty girl named Ida holding hands with many boys:
Idaho - Boise
Mental imagery is at the heart of two popular mnemonic methods.
One is called the Method of Loci because it depends on a mental image
of the locations (loci) of items to recall. Can you recall your last
family Thanksgiving dinner? Can you place the people as they were
sitting around the table? Can you mentally look around each room in
your home and count the number of lamps? Can you construct a mental
image of the floor plan of your high school so that you can trace
your usual path from one room to another? If you can do these
things, you can learn to use the Method of Loci.
(Parenthetically, I believe that skill at forming mental images
is learnable. That is to say, you can improve the ease and clarity
with which you get a picture in your mind's eye. As in all other
skills, what is required is practice. Look around the room for a
minute, and then close your eyes and try to reconstruct as much of it
as you can. Then open your eyes, look around again searching for any
objects that you had not imagined. Close your eyes again and repeat.
If you practice this in different contexts, including pictures and
ads in magazines, you will improve your mental imagery skills.)
_
To use the Method of Loci, you imagine the to-be-remembered
items in a series of familiar places. Let me use a house in which I
once lived to recall the countries in Central America. I first enter
the hallway where I hear the doorbell (Belize) ringing. In the living
room I put a picture of people fishing who got a marlin (Guatemala).
The den is a converted garage, and I imagine a car there (Honduras).
I have to open the door to the bedroom and see a tube of salve on the
bedside table (Salvador). In the bathroom, I see the mirror with my
face nicked from shaving (Nicaragua). On the dining room table is a
large bowl of cooked rice (Costa Rica), leading to the kitchen where
the sink is full of pans (Panama). Of course, your home is probably
not arranged that same way, but you can construct your own images as
you think of walking through seven rooms.
The other popular mnemonic that uses mental imagery is called
the Pegword method because it involves first learning a series of
objects that are then used to associate with the to-be-remembered
items. The first learning is easy because the words rhyme:
One is a gun. Six is a stick.
Two is a shoe. Seven is an oven.
Three is a tree. Eight is a plate.
Four is a door. Nine is a wine.
Five is a knife. Ten is a pen.
You do not have to use those words ("one" could be a "bun"), and you
can follow any familiar sequence such as the alphabet (apple, box,
car, dog, etc.) The important feature is that you can easily form a
mental image of the pegword.
Using the Pegword method again involves visualizing the pegword
and the to-be-remembered item interacting in some way. For example,
the first four (inner) planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. I
formed an image of one person aiming a gun at another person who is
pleading for mercy (Mercury). Next came an image of a well-dressed
person who is minus (Venus) a shoe. A scene containing a tree must
be the Earth. Finally, I imagine a cell door with bars (Mars). Thus
I can quickly answer such a question as, "What if the fourth planet
from the sun?" by saying to myself, "Four is a door" and then getting
the image of a door with bars leading me to the answer.
Mental imagery can be helpful in learning a foreign language.
The basic idea is to find some part of the foreign word that sounds
like an English word that you can link with the English translation
in an image. For example, the Spanish word for table is mesa. If
you form an image of a "messy table" you can remember the meaning of
mesa. The Spanish word for glass is vaso. Imagine a glass being
used as a vase with flowers in it. The Spanish word for pen is pluma
and you can visualize an old_time quill pen with a long feather or
you might see a plum being used as the cap for a pen. It is always
the case that your images will be better for you than my images and I
encourage you to spend a few minutes practicing more Spanish words.
cama - bed ventana - window zapato - shoe silla - chair
perro - dog cuchillo - knife gato - cat suelo - floor
Verbal Mediation
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, which is
why the mnemonics involving mental pictures (images) are popular.
But there are many situations in which it is easier to use words to
mediate between the stimulus and the response. In learning foreign
words, there may be a similar English word that you can immediately
relate to the correct translation. Again using Spanish (with the
verbal mediator in parenthesis):
casa-(castle)-house libro-(library)-book agua-(aquarium)-water
mujer-(mother)woman campo-(campus)-countryside taza-(tea)-cup
Verbal mediators can involve several words or a sentence. If
the stimulus starts a series of associations that eventually leads
you to the desired response, it can be better than simple repetition
of the words. For example: calle-(call a cab in the)-street. Yet
another example: ciudad-(see you down town)-city. Although a long
series may seem inefficient, you can race through those thoughts in a
split second, and they will eventually drop out as you learn.
Coding
A code uses one set of symbols to stand for another set. One
familiar code is the Morse code that uses combinations of dots and
dashes to stand for letters of the alphabet. (Actually, letters of
the alphabet are themselves codes for sounds we make in speaking and
you know that every product sold in a supermarket is coded by a set
of lines of varying widths.) The reason that coding is a potentially
useful mnemonic technique is that coded information may be easier to
remember than the original form.
There is a wide range of possible codes. Let me illustrate a
widely_used coding technique that uses letters to stand for other
letters. In this technique, there is an _ 4_arbitrary_ 5_ "code word"
that
tells you how to make the translation. You start with the code word
and then finish listing the remaining letters of the alphabet. For
example, if the code word is, "help":
Coded: H E L P A B C D F G I J K M N O Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Alphabet: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
an H stands for A, and E for B, etc. If I send you the message:
PNYNUCATTDAFPAH? you decode into DOYOUGETTHEIDEA?
which you can readily separate into "Do you get the idea?" Note that
if we agreed upon a different code word, say "forget," and further
agreed that we would finish listing the alphabet backward, the same
message would code quite differently:
Coded: F O R G E T Z Y X W V U S Q P N M L K J I H D C B A
Alphabet: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Message: GPBPIZEJJYEXGEF? I hope so.
The preceding code used letters for letters, but the codes used
as memory aids typically change from one type of symbol to another.
For example, I sometimes find it easier to code numbers into words by
using the length of the word to represent the number. Consider that
a telephone number is 296-2428. The sentence, "My telephone number
is easy to remember," has seven words with the lengths standing for
the numbers in the telephone number. If you can make up a sentence
such as that one, you can be sure people will remember your number.
Let me help you get started. First, count the letters in your
name (e.g., Frank = 5) and see if that number is in your telephone
number. Next, worry about the number 1 because that will have to be
either "I" or "a" in your sentence. If possible, try to work some
relevant word (call = 4, telephone = 9, number = 6, phone = 5) into
the sentence. "To phone Frank, just dial a number" = 255_4416.
One good way to practice this mnemonic is to combine it with
the acrostic method to remember an automobile license number. You
know that the number has 3 letters and then 3 numbers, so you make up
a six-word sentence, with the first three being an acrostic for the
letters, and the last three being coded by word length. For example:
BFG 266 = Big fish grow in little rivers.
CRD 140 = Children rarely drive a real automobile.
DLS 532 = Drive like Satan wants you to.
DLS 532 = Don't let some child get it.
It could be well worth your while to take the time to memorize
this sentence: "I know what numbers to think because one counts a
word length." That sentence decodes into 144725736146. Now if you
number the days of the week like the calendar does with Sunday as day
1, the foregoing string of numbers tells you the day of the week that
is the first of each month in a non-Leap-year beginning with January
first on a Sunday. In just a single sentence, you can memorize the
entire calendar!
For example, in such a year, on what day of the week does the
Fourth of July fall? July is the 7th month, so you recite, "I know
what numbers to think because," to learn that July 1st is the 7th day
(Saturday). It is easy enough then to figure that the 4th is on a
Tuesday. When is Christmas? The 12th word (length) has 6 letters,
so December 1st falls on a Friday. Succeeding Fridays would be 8th,
15, and 22nd. If the 22nd is a Friday, Christmas falls on Monday.
Actually, you can use that same sentence in any year except for
Leap years. All you have to do is make a mental note at the first of
the year as to what day it is. Then you adjust accordingly. Thus,
if New Years Day falls on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday, you will
have to add two days to your figuring. Thus July 1st falls on Monday
(rather than Saturday), and the 4th is therefore on Thursday. Such
is the power of mnemonics.
Coding is a versatile mnemonic device because you can fabricate
a limitless number of diverse ways to transform information. You can
fill many otherwise wasted minutes devising mnemonic codes.