Modern Techniques for Memorization

A mnemonic is a technique or tool for mentally classifying and linking information so you can easily recall it later. It takes the unfamiliar and redefines it in familiar terms as images, silly sentences or small groups of facts that, when put together, can help you remember the whole. According to MindTools.com, the human brain can have difficulty encoding, or processing to memory, the written word. If you take what you read and put it into terms that you can visualize or associate with other terms, you will more easily remember the information.

Word Games

• One way to memorize something is to assign it an acronym, using the first letter of each item in the group of things you need to recall. For instance, if you need to memorize a shopping list that includes carrots, lettuce, onions, watercress and nuts, think "CLOWN." The word can even be gibberish, such as "MECHY" for milk, eggs, cheese, ham and yams. You can also do this with sentences, assigning a word to the first letter of each item you need to remember. Your shopping list would then become something like, "Can't like onions without nectarines."

Chunking

• Chunking involves breaking down large quantities of information into smaller parts that are easier to remember. Chunking as a strategy works well with numbers; you probably already practice it with phone numbers or your Social Security number. The first chunk of the Social Security number is three digits, the second is two, and the third is four, so you likely recall the whole number as three separate series of digits, rather than as one memorized nine-number sequence. Although your brain can sort a good deal of information, it responds well to bite-size portions.

Method of Loci

• The method of loci is a mnemonic that brings new information into old and familiar norms to make it easier to remember. The method associates and sorts information in the mind spatially. Using the same example of the shopping list, mentally place the five items of your list in various places along your route to the grocery store. This will help you recollect the items once you get to the store by retracing your route. Imagine that the carrots are sitting in your driveway and you have to roll over them to be on your way. You see a head of lettuce at the stop sign on the corner. The park bench you drive by every day is constructed of onions, the pond is not made of water but watercress, and the nuts are the pedestrians you pass on your way, their heads now shaped like almonds.

Other Visionary Games

• Another trick with imagery is to use something about whatever it is you need to remember in a mental picture. Instead of just remembering the acronym "CLOWN" to recall carrots, lettuce, onions, watercress and nuts, join it in your mind with an image of a clown. If you need to remember that you left your car on the fourth level of a parking garage, imagine something that typically comes in fours, like the tires on the car that you are going to need to find again.