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How to improve your memory: Mnemonic Devices
Chapter 8 pp
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Why do we need MEMORY? Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us. ~Oscar Wilde Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation. ~Samuel Johnson What if you couldn’t create new memories? Amnesia patient: Clive Wearing How do you use your memory everyday? “National Memory Championship” – “Memoriad”
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How can I improve my memory?
The word mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word μνημονικός mnemonikos ("of memory") and is related to Mnemosyne ("remembrance"), the name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. Both of these words refer back to μνημα mnema ("remembrance").[2] Mnemonics in antiquity were most often considered in the context of what is today known as the Art of Memory. Barnes and Noble – 500+ books on improving your memory! Most explain mnemonic devices. So, I will teach you some. Let’s test your memory using different techniques. Method – just learn list of words – so can compare across methods What do you think is the most common technique students use to study? Or you may use to try to remember something? Repetition… so let’s try it Most popular answer: Mnemonic devices
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Mnemonics Tricks and strategies to help memory! Repetition Chunking
First letter technique Rhyming Visualization Keyword Link Method of Loci Pegword
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Learn the following list by ONLY reading; go through list as many times as possible
Horse – Table Island – Hat Door – Note Bear – Apple Clock – Moon Building – Dog River – Table Road - Paper Basket – Cloud Ring – Ship Snow – Window Pencil – Hammer Bread – Car Meat – Envelope Box – Garden Book - Cup
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Recall as many as possible
Horse – Island – Door – Bear – Clock – Building – River – Road - Basket – Ring – Snow – Pencil – Bread – Meat – Box – Book –
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Answers Horse – Table Island – Hat Door – Note Bear – Apple
Clock – Moon Building – Dog River – Table Road - Paper Basket – Cloud Ring – Ship Snow – Window Pencil – Hammer Bread – Car Meat – Envelope Box – Garden Book - Cup
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Repetition technique Repetition Spacing effect Why?
Forces you to pay attention Visual and verbal memory for material Spacing effect Distributed practice is best for delayed test Massed practice ok for immediate test Why? Time to consolidate info Only concentrate for so long Study under different conditions/settings Spacing effect: distributed practice is best when delay between test and study… but massed is best for immed test) You can concentrate only so long before attention wanders – no attention – no memory! Need time to consolidate information you’ve learned Need to study under different conditions (different moods, settings) Reduced time to learn material (although overall time including break is longer)
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Chunking Short-term memory capacity limit
Magic number 7 +/- 2 Memory span Remember: Or remember: Remember 7 +/- 2 CHUNKS Why helpful? Increase capacity by grouping information Gives meaning to random information 704 – charlotte area code 89 – steve smith – panthers 23 – jordan 21 – paul oneil
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First-letter techniques
Acronym: ROY G BIV: colors of the rainbow HOMES: great lakes PRICE: Sports injury Acrostic: first letter of each word of sentence is cue Music notes: Every Good Boy Deserves Fun 12 cranial nerves: OOO To Touch And Feel… Taxonomy: Kay P. Came Over For Great Sex Why helpful? Letters act as cue Chunking WHY helpful: First letter provides structure for learning – framework Make material meaningful Chunk information Provide cues – what and how many items Need to associate Acronym with information it represents: visualize homes floating on great lakes!! Associations (APA, government agencies) use acronyms First letter: Color = Cone First letter: roy g biv, sports: price: position, rest, ice, compression, elevation HOMES for great lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior Or Healthy Old Men Exercise Some Biological Classification: kingdom, phylum/division, class, order, family, genus, species. Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Auditory, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Spinal, Hypoglossal On Old Olympus’ Towering Top, A Finn and German Viewed Some Hops On Old Olympus's Towering Tops, A Fine-Vested German Viewed Some Hops Oh Once One Takes The Anatomy Final, Very Good Vacations Are Had, Oh, Oh, Oh To Take A Family Vacation! Go Vegas After Hours! Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel Very Good Velvet, Ahh, Heaven Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel Veins Going Vertically And Horizontally Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Parentheses Exponent Multiplication Division Add Subtract
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Rhyming technique When did Columbus discover America?
“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” “i before e except after c; or when sounded like a, as in neighbor and weigh” “Thirty days has September, April, June, and November” ABC’s song (rhyming and chunking) Why helpful? If can’t remember rhyme then use knuckle technique All the rest have 31 excepting February which has 28 days clear and 29 each leap year!
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Dual-coding hypothesis
2 cues: verbal and visual Visualization Picture superiority effect Effective visualization Interaction Vividness Bizarreness “HOMES” Pp107 memory book “Spring forward, fall back” : set clock forward an hour in spring; back hour in fall
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Learn the following list by creating a mental image of two items in vivid interaction
Bird – Fruit Rain – Rock Dress – Money House – Mountain Cow – Flower Corn – Gate Roof – Nest Baby – Hair Ice – Train Fence – Letter Egg – Chair Book – Water Coat – Glass Candy – Sign Rabbit – Paint Hammer - Book
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Recall Bird – Rain – Dress – House – Cow – Corn – Roof – Baby – Ice –
Fence – Egg – Book – Coat – Candy – Rabbit – Hammer - How many pairs did you remember How effective is the strategy compared to the first strategy?
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Answers Bird – Fruit Rain – Rock Dress – Money House – Mountain
Cow – Flower Corn – Gate Roof – Nest Baby – Hair Ice – Train Fence – Letter Egg – Chair Book – Water Coat – Glass Candy – Sign Rabbit – Paint Hammer - Book
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Keyword mnemonic Use to learn foreign language vocabulary First step:
Spanish example: Pato = Duck First step: Concrete keyword that sounds like foreign word = Pot Second step: Form visual image connecting keyword with meaning Picture: Duck wearing a pot on its head Use for any vocabulary words Try: “Skulk”: To hide or sneak around for evil reasons”
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Image–name mnemonic Use to remember name with face Example
Think of vivid word that sounds like name Link word with person’s appearance Example Rodney Flanery Image: Football player with rod in his knee, so benched and wearing flannel to stay warm Create one for your own name! Kara Bopp: Carrot jumping up and down (bopping) in front of Wofford’s main building path.
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Link mnemonic Chaining or Link system Narrative technique
First: form visual image for each item Second: associate image with next image Important to SEE associations Narrative technique Form a story using items you want to remember Appropriate for serial learning Problem: if forget one item then next items may be inaccessible too Make story to link words Milk, bread, eggs, cheese, soda Do you need to keep order or not? Create chain of associations Use when need to remember items in order List: paper, tire, doctor, rose, ball Recall Picture car driving on paper tires, tires that are running over a doctor, doctor operating on a rose, rose covered ball Need way to remember first word! The paperboy rolled a tire down the sidewalk and it hit the doctor coming to make a housecall; it knocked him into a rosebush where he picked up a ball and threw it at the boy! Instead of just each pair being separate – it is more integrated sequence Requires more time to make up story and creativity Longer lists the harder it is to keep a whole
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Method of Loci “In the first place”
1. Memorize familiar locations in natural order 2. Create visual image of word with each location 3. Recall: take a “mental walk”
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Method of Loci: Campus Map
Story of method of loci: Cicero described technique by greek poet Simonides While performing a poem at a banquet he was called out then roof of hall caved in Asked to identify dead by visualizing the table they had been sitting at Memorize physical locations and create mental images of the to-be-remembered items To remember just “stroll” through locations – “seeing” items you have placed there Remember 10 locations in order as you walk from Richardson Bld to Burwell Remember following list: apple, piano, hammer, cake, planet, pizza, kite, bus, butterfly, scissors More bizarre and more distinctive the better! Memorize physical locations and create mental images of the to-be-remembered items. To remember just “stroll” through locations – “seeing” items you have placed there.
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Begin to write only after I have given the signal, “Go”.
Richardson Bld. Apple Campus Life Piano Andrews Field House Hammer Carlisle Wallace House Cake Greene Hall Planet Daniel Bld. Pizza Carlisle Hall Kite The Row Bus Milliken Science Butterfly Burwell Bld. Scissors
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Method of Loci: Answers
Apple Piano Hammer Cake Planet Pizza Kite Bus Butterfly Scissors Locations serve as a cue Helpful for serial learning Locations should be distinct Need strong association between location and item Problem: using same locations over again can lead to confusion Independent locations so can remember them separately (in order or not)
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Peg-word technique First: use memorized concrete nouns
Rhyming words with numbers helps to remember words Second: create visual image of target word with peg-word Similar to Loci: objects instead of locations Problem: limited # peg-words Similar – link material to specific memory cues Cues are words instead of visual locations Popular pegs: rhyme of object and number (“one is a bun”) Four is a door Five is a hive Six is sticks Seven is heaven Eight is Nine is Linkword system: to help remember new vocabulary Connect word with meaning in visual image Double rate of learning vocabulary (Raugh & Atkinson, 1975)
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Think: What tricks and strategies do you use to memorize information?
You go to a party and meet lots of new people. You would like to be able to remember their face and name. How do you do it?
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Why do these techniques work to improve memory
Why do these techniques work to improve memory? What do they share in common? Which of these techniques could you realistically use to help you study for exams? Why wouldn’t you use some of them?
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Why mnemonic devices work
Attention Ensure encoding Repetition Structured retrieval cues Dual-coding cues Verbal and visual representations Visual imagery: picture superiority effect Organization “chunks” Elaboration Think about meaning and make distinctive Generation Your ideas makes it personal Pre-existing structure or framework Retrieval cues And cues how much to remember Order of information Items are practiced & thought about Notice relationships and differences Use of visual imagery Helps if strategy is practiced too
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Limitations of Mnemonics
Time How to deal with abstract material? Learning vs. retention Creative ability Interference Doesn’t help memory in general No help if you fail to use technique Does not help understanding of material Need to practice mnemonics! Pp 114 Pp124 – do not help understanding: but maybe they do? Depends on what mnemonic and how it is used – imagery can help problem solving But not intended to help with reasoning, understanding, - intended to aid memory Use them for what they are intended! Need to first
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