Improvement Techniques
Tools for memory enhancement are a big topic for infomercials these days. Who wouldn't want to be able to remember more information in their daily life? However, there are techniques that are much simpler and cheaper that people can use to remember more information. Simple techniques can help make remembering everyday things, such as a list of food or information for a history quiz, much easier.
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Chunking
When trying to remembering a list, whether that is a list or words, numbers, or anything else, a method called chunking really helps. Only a certain amount of items can be remembered in short-term memory at a time (seven plus/minus two) and by chunking items together, more items can be remembered.
Practice Chunking
Mnemonics
Mnemonics are strategies used to help make remembering easier. Some common mnemonics include acronyms, acrostics, stories, and rhymes.
Acronyms are formed by using the first letter of different items into a word. Remembering a single word is much simpler than remembering multiple items. By associating the letters to items, remembering is made simpler.
Practice making Acronyms
Acrostics are sentences made by using the first letter of different words. A common acrostic children learn in music class is "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge". The sentence helps make the letters on a music staff, EGBDF, easy to remember in order. When making acrostics, the crazier the sentence, the easier it is to remember.
Rhymes help make many things easier to remember; why else would we be remember to remember the thousands of lyrics of songs? However, making rhymes to remember things can be difficult for some people. But for those with a knack for music, it's a great tool for remembering dates, people, word, etc. Children learn their alphabet by learning the letters to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Stories are also a good way to remember information. By putting words into an interesting and somewhat outrageous (the crazier the story is, the easier the brain remembers it) story, a person processes the information. The story is just an aid that helps remember the specific data.
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Imagery
Visualizing information often helps people remember them better, especially if they are visual learners. Any time someone thinks of what their friend looks like, or gives someone directions, or thinks of their last birthday party, that person is using imagery. By using imagery techniques consciously, items can be remembered more effectively during retrieval. Common imagery methods include the method of loci, the link method, and the peg-word method.
Method of Loci- This method has been used for hundreds of years. When using this method, a person might imagine himself walking through a familiar place, such as their way to school. As they walk along they imagine each item on their list at particular places. When the list is required to be remembered later, the person does the mental walk through their route remembering the items as they go.
Example: As you come home from school you always enter through the main door into your living room, walk down the hall to the kitchen, go up the stairs and walk through your sister's room to get to yours. Let's say you are trying to remember the colors of the rainbow in order. You can picture your living room painted red with red furniture and even your red dog sitting at his usual place. Next you can picture the hallway painted orange. At the kitchen you can picture a counter filled with bananas, lemons and pitchers of lemonade. The process can be continued to remember all types of information.
Link Method- This method can be used by linking the different items of a list with each other. Suppose you are trying to remember lettuce, tomatoes, peanut butter, eggs, broccoli and juice. You can make a crazy meal: a sandwich made of bread with lettuce, tomatoes, eggs and peanut butter with a side of broccolis and juice. The image of the crazy sandwich will stay fresh in your mind for when you have to remember it later.
Peg Word Method- This method is used by first remembering a rhyme that correlates numbers with words to for pegs: one with bun, two with shoe, three with tree, four with door, etc. The words bun, shoe, tree, and door are pegs. Next imagine the pegs with the items that you are trying to remember. Let's ay you are trying to remember the same foods mentioned above under the Link Method. Now imagine a sandwich made of the bun and eggs, or peanut butter in your shoe, or trees growing tomatoes. If the same peg word is used every time, associating it with other words becomes easy.
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Other Simple Techniques
A variety of other methods can be used for processing information which helps making remembering easier.
*Place importance on a memory. By telling your brain it is important, you are more likely to remember it.
*Rehearsing information is a common and simple way. Making flashcards is a great way to rehearse information.
*Continuing to practice material, or over learning, is another good process.
*Learning information in short sessions over a period of time is called distributed practice. This is the opposite of cramming and is a much more effective way for retaining information.
*Minimizing interference while studying is also a big help when trying to remember later. People often remember information better if they don't learn other information right before or after their studying. Studying in a quiet area or sleeping right after studying are good ways to minimize interference.
*Thinking about the meaning of material and paying attention while learning also helps people remember it better later on. By elaborating information or connecting the information to other things, people go through deep processing and the more information is processed, the easier retention is.
*Organization is a major way to improve memory. Organizing material into concept maps or outlines helps space out the information and it is easier to remember.
