chroot
10-15-02, 07:22 PM
(Note: If this thread is better off in a different forum, please move it.)
Anyone have any potent memorization techniques to share? And no, not silly little limmericks or anagrams like PEMDAS -- real methods that can be used to memorize any old generic stuff you'd like.
I'll start with three that I use almost routinely with excellent success:
1) Visual chaining: Say you want to link two things together mentally, so that when you see one, you can remember the other. For example, let's say you had two things, like "ostrich" and "bowtie." You would make a silly picture in your head of those two things interacting -- a giant personified ostrich with an enormous red bowtie. The wackier, the gorier, the better. This method can easily be used to link a number of things in order, like, say, the planets (sure, the planets are not hard to remember in order anyway, but it's a good way to practice the technique).
2) Number pegs: Associate the following numerals with the following sounds:
0: s, z
1: t, th, d
2: n
3: m
4: r
5: l
6: ch, j, hard g
7: k, hard c
8: f, v
9: p, b
Now use those sounds to make words out of numbers. Use those words to make images, and relate those images to the thing being memorized with visual chaining.
For example, element number 82 is lead. How do I remember this? Because 8 (f) 2 (n) makes the word fin. Since I'm an avid scuba diver, this word is meaningful to me. I simply think about a set of huge, heavy, lead fins, and how I would look as I sank to the bottom with them. The image is important, because the strength of the image determines how easy it will be to recover the thing being memorized.
Here's another: element 45 is rhodium. 4 (r) 5 (l) makes the word rail. Think about a guardrail on a highway... a road... rhodium.
This technique works extremely well for me. I have had the entire periodic table memorized for something like three years now. I never have to "refresh" the memory, and it takes only a second or two to recover any element I'd like.
(By the way, for single digit numbers, I use pictures directly... for example, 9 is a balloon on the end of a string.)
3) Locus memory: I don't use this one much, but some people swear by it. This technique requires quite a bit of refreshing for me, but maybe it would get better if I used it more.
Pick a location you're familiar with -- your school, your library, your grandmother's house, whatever. Imagine walking through each room, and seeing something different in each room -- either an object, or an action being performed. The things, of course, can be visually linked to the things you're remembering. As you mentally walk through the structure, you get reminded of each bit in turn. Just remember a path through the structure, and you remember the things in order.
You can generalize this significantly, and use made-up places. Or even go a step further, and forego using places altogether. You can use the pieces of a familiar object, and visually link things to each part of the object.
I have used this one to memorize the proper-named stars in some constellations/asterisms. For example, the big dipper is in Ursula Major, the great bear. So, I naturally use a bear as my locus. The bear has a head, a neck, front legs, and so on, and I can link the star names to each part of the body. So let's start:
The mouth of the bear is first. Alpha Ursa Majoris is called "Dubhe," which, well, sounds like "doobie." So let's imagine our bear with a nice doobie in his mouth, smoking away. You can personify the bear all you'd like.
The eye of the bear is next. Beta Ursa Majoris is called "Merak." "Mir" means "to see" in spanish, so it's an obvious connection.
This goes on all the way down to the bear's tail, Eta Ursa Majoris, or "Alkaid." Well, "Alkaid" sounds like "Al Quaeda," and it's a funny image to imagine a bear beating up Osama Bin Laden with only it's tail... at least to me.
Anyone else have any cool techniques? If you want, I can post the list of number pegs that I use, too.
- Warren
Anyone have any potent memorization techniques to share? And no, not silly little limmericks or anagrams like PEMDAS -- real methods that can be used to memorize any old generic stuff you'd like.
I'll start with three that I use almost routinely with excellent success:
1) Visual chaining: Say you want to link two things together mentally, so that when you see one, you can remember the other. For example, let's say you had two things, like "ostrich" and "bowtie." You would make a silly picture in your head of those two things interacting -- a giant personified ostrich with an enormous red bowtie. The wackier, the gorier, the better. This method can easily be used to link a number of things in order, like, say, the planets (sure, the planets are not hard to remember in order anyway, but it's a good way to practice the technique).
2) Number pegs: Associate the following numerals with the following sounds:
0: s, z
1: t, th, d
2: n
3: m
4: r
5: l
6: ch, j, hard g
7: k, hard c
8: f, v
9: p, b
Now use those sounds to make words out of numbers. Use those words to make images, and relate those images to the thing being memorized with visual chaining.
For example, element number 82 is lead. How do I remember this? Because 8 (f) 2 (n) makes the word fin. Since I'm an avid scuba diver, this word is meaningful to me. I simply think about a set of huge, heavy, lead fins, and how I would look as I sank to the bottom with them. The image is important, because the strength of the image determines how easy it will be to recover the thing being memorized.
Here's another: element 45 is rhodium. 4 (r) 5 (l) makes the word rail. Think about a guardrail on a highway... a road... rhodium.
This technique works extremely well for me. I have had the entire periodic table memorized for something like three years now. I never have to "refresh" the memory, and it takes only a second or two to recover any element I'd like.
(By the way, for single digit numbers, I use pictures directly... for example, 9 is a balloon on the end of a string.)
3) Locus memory: I don't use this one much, but some people swear by it. This technique requires quite a bit of refreshing for me, but maybe it would get better if I used it more.
Pick a location you're familiar with -- your school, your library, your grandmother's house, whatever. Imagine walking through each room, and seeing something different in each room -- either an object, or an action being performed. The things, of course, can be visually linked to the things you're remembering. As you mentally walk through the structure, you get reminded of each bit in turn. Just remember a path through the structure, and you remember the things in order.
You can generalize this significantly, and use made-up places. Or even go a step further, and forego using places altogether. You can use the pieces of a familiar object, and visually link things to each part of the object.
I have used this one to memorize the proper-named stars in some constellations/asterisms. For example, the big dipper is in Ursula Major, the great bear. So, I naturally use a bear as my locus. The bear has a head, a neck, front legs, and so on, and I can link the star names to each part of the body. So let's start:
The mouth of the bear is first. Alpha Ursa Majoris is called "Dubhe," which, well, sounds like "doobie." So let's imagine our bear with a nice doobie in his mouth, smoking away. You can personify the bear all you'd like.
The eye of the bear is next. Beta Ursa Majoris is called "Merak." "Mir" means "to see" in spanish, so it's an obvious connection.
This goes on all the way down to the bear's tail, Eta Ursa Majoris, or "Alkaid." Well, "Alkaid" sounds like "Al Quaeda," and it's a funny image to imagine a bear beating up Osama Bin Laden with only it's tail... at least to me.
Anyone else have any cool techniques? If you want, I can post the list of number pegs that I use, too.
- Warren