Mnemonic rules to improve memory

In 1977, Higbee defined the term mnemonic as a system, formula, rule, or… Strategy used to aid memorization something. Mnemonic techniques are based on principles of psychology and use groups, relationships and groupings of ideas, while exploiting our visual, mental and auditory abilities.

Various studies indicate that people who use mnemonic rules improve their ability to retain information both qualitatively and quantitatively. These types of memorization “tricks” are very useful in language learning as well as in any other subject.

Thus mnemonic rules favor A Fast and long-term preservation It also improves memory thanks to the feedback it receives from the constant use of external resources. Moreover, once we learn it, it is difficult for us to forget it. It also adapts to each person’s individual needs.

It is necessary to highlight an important thing, which is that using these rules requires more than memorization, which is that if you are not familiar with them, it will require effort to carry out the tasks of the relationship and connection between the known and unknown elements.

Types of mnemonic rules

There are many different mnemonic rules, and although they are not easy to classify, they can be arranged according to some common points. Almost all of them are built on Associations or manipulation of visual and verbal elements. There are rules that use an image, sound, or even rhymes associated with something you want to remember. These are some of them:

Use the first letter of the words to memorize

This technique is useful for Save word lists It consists of creating a word by the first letter of the various items in the list. An example of this is the attempt to memorize different cities: Malaga, Granada, Seville and Cádiz and the formation of the word MGSC.

Connect numbers and letters

This trick is used for Remember dates and numbers. What you have to do is create a sentence whose words contain the same number of letters as each number you want to remember. For example, if we wanted to remember the number 2246, we could create the following sentence: “(2) The fish (2) swims (4) fast (6).”

Simple stories

According to Baddeley, it is scientifically proven that when there are words to tell a story, it will be easier to remember them. The reason is that mental associations are easier and more effective when we associate them with meaning.

Use pictures

It consists of using photographs or drawings that will be associated with the words you want to memorize. It works especially well with words that name things. To do this, we either select existing images or create them explicitly. You can also mentally visualize the word.

Create words from the first syllables

To remember a list of words, you can create a list of the first syllables of each. For example, to memorize the first column of the periodic table of elements, you might create the word HILISOPORUCEPHRA (hydrogen, lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, francium).

Convert numbers into letters

It works on retention Groups of numbers Which could be passwords. What you have to do is replace each number with a letter that resembles it. It’s a bit personal and it’s the same for a person, 7 reminds them of a T and 0 reminds them of an O, for example.

Site placement method

In this case what should be done is Link each of the words you want to remember to a place. For example, remember the word “roquefort” which mimics the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

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