I have never heard of the word “mnemonics” until I am so exhausted recently and is worried about my memory may not be as sharp as when I was young after facing a daunting project challenged me so much. I went to the internet trying to figure out how to prevent memory loss – a very serious and important question during which time I finally bumped with the techniques known as Mnemonics – after doing a thorough search for what is really mnemonics techniques -I made the conclusion – this is not for me. Perhaps it works for many people.

Here is a summary of what mnemonics is all about: Mnemonics or mnemonic device is any learning technique that aids information retention. Mnemonics comprise of a groups of techniques (a device, procedure, or operation) that translate the information into a form that the brain can retain better or can be recalled more easily through “Mnemonic cues” inherent to each specific methods. Most of the time, a mnemonic is a specific reconstruction of target content intended to connect new information more closely to the learner’s existing knowledge base.

Mnemonics using verbal or auditory tricks are the most common form – they involve the application of acronyms, rhyme, acrostic (phrases). Whenever there is something to remember, no matter for what subject be it medicine, biology, physics, music or numbers and lists, mnemonics can be designed to facilitate memorization.  One simple example of using acronyms to remember the particles comprise an atom is – PEN  proton, electron, neutron.  Acrostic is a sentence or phrase in which the first letter is used as a cue to recall names of information in order. One popular example of acrostic is to remember the sequence of nine planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). They can be designed using many short sentences, one example is: My Very Easy Method Just Set Up Nine Planets

A rhyme (or ode) mnemonics puts information in the form of a poem. The method of loci is to use the familiar spatial location and associate them with new unfamiliar items to be remembered. For example, one is usually very familiar with what objects are in the room, method of loci mnemonics is to link each piece of new information he or she wants to remember to one of the loci or object in the room of their house. I did not list the example for these two, because I can not remember poems and had never practiced this trick, partly due to the fact that my native language and before graduate school education is not learned in English.

Another reason is: I do not find there are logical thinkings or logical connections in these memory tricks. They may be useful for remembering many factual knowledge. But I find I am becoming increasingly unmotivated to use these memory tricks because information lookup is so easy nowadays on the internet and because of the widespread usage of smart phones. As long as one’s job nature or a task doe not require instant retrieval of factual memory, I can always resort to the easily accessible vast knowledge base on the internet to do repetitive memory exercises, I find this is more effective for me  than to get myself  comfortable to learn the mnemonic techniques itself if my mind is not oriented to remember some types of information such as telephone numbers, long list of grocery items.

There are a variety of other mnemonic techniques not mentioned here including keywords, pegwords, spelling mnemonics, phonetic mnemonics, number-sound mnemonics, imaging, modeling, organization (notecard, flash card) or grouping/chunking (for more detail see post “types of mnemonics”). I do prefer some of them and had used them in the past to facilitate learning experience, especially in dealing with exams at school  or for understanding of systems of (theoretical or applied) knowledge. It appears that memory techniques applies to each individual differently according to the learning style model known as VAK model. VAK model categorizes learning style of an individual into three major groups: visual learners; auditory learners; and kinesthetic learners.