Mnemonics
9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory
By
Dennis Congos
University
of Central Florida
We knew back in 1967 from a study by Gerald
R. Miller that mnemonics increased recall.
He found that students who regularly used
mnemonic devices increased test scores up to 77%!
Many types of mnemonics exist and which type
works best is limited only by the imagination of each individual learner.
The 9 basic types of mnemonics presented in
this handout include Music, Name, Expression/Word, Model, Ode/Rhyme, Note
Organization, Image, Connection, and Spelling Mnemonics.
1. Music Mnemonics
How many lyrics to songs do you remember? How
did you come to remember them?
The same method you used to recall song
lyrics also can work just as well in academics.
Music can used to help students recall
important details to main ideas and many learners have made songs out of
information when a list of items must be learned.
Advertising on radio and TV uses music to
help potential customers remember their products when shopping.
With sufficient repetition of commercials,
advertisers have discovered that when shoppers see their product in the stores
that often the shopper will start reciting an oft repeated phrases from the
commercial or start singing the lyrics to the promotion melody.
The results have been increased sales of the product.
You can make a song or jingle using any type
of music you choose for any list of items.
Music Mnemonics work best with long lists.
For example, some children learn the ABC's by singing the "ABC" song.
Other children learn all the states in
alphabetical order using the "50 Nifty United States" song.
2. Name Mnemonics
In a Name Mnemonic, the 1st letter of each
word in a list of items is used to make a name of a person or thing.
Sometimes, the items can be rearranged to
form a more recollectable name mnemonic.
Examples:
ROY G. BIV = colors of the
spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo,
Violet.)
Pvt. Tim Hall = Essential amino
acids (Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isolucine,
Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine.
3. Expression or Word Mnemonic
This is by far the most popularly used
mnemonic.
To make an Expression or Word mnemonic,
the first letter of each item in a list is arranged to form a phrase or word.
Examples:
For physical laws dealing with gasses, try
these:
Charles' Law: For a constant
volume, pressure is directly proportional to temperature.
The simple way to remember Chuck is if the
tank's too hot, you're blown into muck.
Henry's Law: The solubility of a
gas increases with pressure.
To remember good old Hank, remember the
bubbles in the shaken Coke you drank.
Boyles' Law: At constant
temperature, pressure is inversely proportional to volume.
Boyle's law is best of all because it presses
gasses awfully small.
In English, the 7
coordinating conjunctions are For, And, Nor, But, Or,
Yet, So = FANBOYS.
The order of
operations for math is Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide,
Add, and Subtract = Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
The categories in the
classification of life are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order,
Family, Genus, Species, Variety = Kings Play
Cards On Fairly Good Soft Velvet.
For those who have to
remember the order of color coding on electronic resistors: Black, Blue,
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Brown, Violet,
Gray, White, Silver, Gold.
Bad Boys Rile Our
Young Girls, But Violet Gives Welts
(to) Silly Guys
or
Bad Beer Rots Our Young
Guts But Vodka Goes Well (in) Silver Goblets.
Almost every anatomy
class has to remember the eight small bones in the wrist: Navicular, Lunate,
Triquetrum, Pisiform, Multongular (Greater), Multongular
(Lesser), Capitate, Hamate.
Never Lick Tilly's Popsicle,
Mother Might Come Home.
4. Model Mnemonics
In a Model Mnemonic, some type of
representation is constructed to help with understanding and recalling
important information.
With a large model such as the Krebs Cycle, it is easier to learn and remember if it is divided into quarters and learned one quarter at a time; hence, the cross hairs.
5. Ode or Rhyme Mnemonics
An Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic puts information
in the form of a poem. Examples include:
A commonly used Rhyme
Mnemonic for the number of days in each month is:
30 days hath September, April, June, and
November.
All the rest have 31
Except February my dear son.
It has 28 and that is fine
But in Leap Year it has 29.
You'd probably prefer
your doctor to know the difference between cyanate and cyanide: Cyanate
"I ate" and Cyanide "I died." Cyanide is a
little fatal.
Remember this one? In
1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
How is your spelling?
I before e except after c
or when sounding like a
in neighbor and weigh
Here is an easy way
to remember the nerves: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear,
trigeminal, abducens, facial, acoustic, glassopharyngeal,
vagus, spinal accessory and hypoglossal.
On Old Olympus'
Towering Tops, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops
6. Note Organization Mnemonics
The way textbook and lecture notes are
organized can inhibit learning and recall or promote it. In the sense that the
organization of notes can promote recall, it is a memory device.
Three examples of organizing note formats
that promote recall are as follows:
Notecards
Notecards are an easy way to organize main ideas and relevant details to be recalled. If main ideas are formatted into possible test questions, notecards can give learners practice in seeing questions and recalling answers as they must do on exams.
Front
Back
Outlines
Outlines clearly separate main ideas from
details. This helps organize the information in the mind making it easier to
remember.
I. PIAGET'S THEORY
A.
Four Stages
1.
Sensorimotor
2.
Preoperational
3.
Concrete Operations
4.
Formal Operations
B.
Definition of each stage
1.
Sensorimotor means ........ etc.
Cornell System
The Cornell System is another way to use a
Note Organization Mnemonic to promote recall.
A vertical line is drawn 3 inches from the
left margin of notebook paper. Main ideas or questions from them are placed to
the left of the line and details or answers placed to the right.
Questions
Answers
The topic used here is from How To Study In College (3rd edition) by Walter Pauk, pages 292 300.
7. Image Mnemonics
The information in an Image Mnemonic
is constructed in the form of a picture that promotes recall of information
when you need it.
The sillier the Image Mnemonic is, the
easier it is to recall the related information.
These images may be mental or sketched into
text and lecture notes. Don't worry about your artistic ability.
As long as you know what your sketch means,
Image Mnemonics will help you learn and remember. Examples:
Visualize or sketch in your notes a limp,
depressed bat that took Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers.
Picture meeting
someone new at a party named John Horsley.
Use an Image
Mnemonic to help you remember his name. Visualize a horse sitting on a
john: not pretty but effective in recall. No example provided on this one.
What is a numismatist? Visualize a new
mist rolling onto a beach from the ocean and beach is made of coins.
Silly? Of course, but sillyography
makes it is easier to remember that a numismatist is a coin collector.
How about using a bad joke to help you
remember? Picture two numismatists having a drink for "old dime's
sake."
Corny? Yes, but cornography often
makes things easier to remember.
8. Connection Mnemonics
In this type of mnemonic, the information to
be remembered is connected to something already known.
Examples include:
Another Connection
Mnemonic points out that there is an N in LONGitude and an N
in North. Latitude lines must run east to west, then because there is no
N in latitude.
Another Connection Mnemonic
is related to sound. The 1st part of the word latitude sounds like flat
and flat runs horizontal or East and West.
9. Spelling Mnemonics
Here is an example of
a spelling mnemonic: A principal at a school is your pal, and a
principle you believe or follow is a rule.
Another commonly used
Spelling Mnemonic is combined with an Ode/Rhyme Mnemonic.
I before e except after c
or when sounding like a
in neighbor and weigh
A third example deals
with the problems some learners have remembering that there is an "a"
in the middle of separate and not an "e."
A Spelling Mnemonic combined with an Image
Mnemonic may be used to spell the word separate using an exaggerated
"a."
To spell Mississippi,
many learners combine a Rhythm Mnemonic with a Spelling mnemonic:
M-iss-iss-ipp-i.
Here are some more examples of spelling
mnemonics:
Geography: George Edwards's
Old Grandma Rode A Pig Home Yesterday.
Arithmetic: A Rat
In The House May Eat The Ice Cream.
Saskatchewan: Ask At Chew An with an S in front of it.
Dennis
Congos
Dennis
is currently a learning skills specialist and academic advisor at the
University of Central Florida. He has also served as a Supplemental Instruction
(SI) Coordinator for 18 years and is a Nationally Certified SI Trainer. He has
trained staff from over 100 institutions in setting up and running SI programs.
Dennis has consulted on learning skills and SI in England and in Jordan. He has
also published 24 articles in professional journals on college level learning
skills and SI. He has been director of a counseling center, learning center and
career development center and has presented at many conferences on learning
skills and SI.
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