I’ve looked around the net and I cannot find this. Does anyone know a resource that informs how to specifically use Mnemonics to remember academic studies?
Adair, J. (1988) Effective time management: How to save time and spend it wisely.
And studies such as this?
Thanks
A lot of books about mnemonics have at least a chapter about this.
Try this: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=mnemonics+academic
Also, keep in mind that the techniques in the Wiki can and need to be used in academic studies.
Mnemonics in academics is not basically different from mnemonics somewhere else.
The amount of mnemonics to learn might be more.
What academic studies exactly do you want specifics for?
I’m basically look for something that will assist and adapt to any study. So linking the Author name with the study name, the date and add a bit of the findings in for good measure.
Baddeley & Hitch. (1974) Working memory, etc…
I’m surprised I can’t find it online always. If I can’t find one already done I will set about making one.
The western educational systems have tended to downplay that in recent years, mainly out of the mistaken notion that teaching students how to memorize would prevent them from learning to think. When I was in China they weren’t really any better, there was a ton of rote memorization and repetition as a means to an end. That did have some benefits in that any skills learned would become more or less automatic after a while, but it leaves a lot to be desired.
In this case, I think this is less about mnemonics and more about use. Memorization is really the first step in the western concept of knowing. Usually in order to know something it means that we have the fact in our memory, we know how to apply it and we know the context in which it is applicable. Mnemonics pretty much only deals with that first bit, the rest of it is sort of up to you.
You might consider looking at Scott Young’s book Learn more study less.
Yeah, I think there’s a HUGE need for this type of book: Pass a college course with just 2 hours of study. It’s totally possible, but unfortunately mnemonic techniques are not mainstream yet, and it’s hard to say how long until they will be.
I’ve been in content marketing for a while and am an experienced writer, and I’d be more than happy to collaborate on a book like this (after June). There are plenty of brilliant minds here on the forum that could contribute and would be credited.
“See a need, fill it.”
That would be more or less impossible. There might be a handful of savants in the world that could manage that, but there’s no way that the brain is going to integrate all that information in such a short period of time.
Memorization is a key component of becoming educated, but if it were the only necessary condition then we wouldn’t need colleges any more.
I don’t want to discourage you or anybody else from trying, I’m sure there’s a ton of valuable innovations to be had in this general direction. But, you should realize that it’s the use, comprehension and integration of the materials that’s where most of the value lies. Mnemonics will help you memorize the facts and things you need to use, but it’s not going to help you out with the actual practice.
Otherwise, with uncle Google and auntie iPhone there’d be no point in college at all.
A good example is playing piano. Mnemonics can help you learn where the notes are, what the chords are and so forth, but unless you actually play, you’re not going to make any progress at all after you’ve committed all that to memory.
pfrank:
Agreed. The 2 hour idea would be a very optimistic timeframe, just for passing tests.
UNLESS you had the information already laid out in a mnemonic-friendly way (by another mnemonist who frontloaded your work for you)
In this case it’s conceivable that you could memorize all the facts in one hour. Most of our time is spent creating our flashcards, figuring out how to come up with our mnemonics, and working out our retention schedules, not doing the actual memorization itself. With all that other work done for us, it could be done.
The other hour could be spent flipping through textbooks and finding online resources like diagrams and videos (which can be sped up) to get a feel for how these facts connect.
Just some thoughts. But again, that would require someone else to have gone through the course and created an accelerated learning system for the course’s facts.
If we’re resticting ourselves to just memorizing the facts and leaving the application out of it, then I’d say that hours is probably optimistic, but possible for somebody that’s using a system. Depending upon the class that might be optimistic, some classes are more information dense than others are.
And I was being completely sincere about suggesting that people with the inclination try. While I’m pretty much positive that you won’t be able to completely succeed with that goal, there is still tons of room for innovation and improvement over the current set up. And who knows, maybe I’m wrong.
I love this metaphor, but I do think it merits pointing out that many a composer wrote brilliant music without being able to play many, or even any, instruments to save their lives.