What do you want to improve first?
What’s your overall goal?
What’s your intimidate goal and what’s your long term goal?
First let’s define mnemonic and mnemonic image.
A mnemonic is whatever you use methodically to aid your memorization process, typically a technique but it could be an as simple as an acronym, or an acrostic, or the three I will teach as the strongest and more expandable techniques.
Mnemonic image: this will be an imagined concept that has personal meaning or association to an idea intended to be remembered in the future. This could be a visualization, an entire scene of events, the recall of an smell or from a song to stories. Anything can be a mnemonic image, as long as this concept is associated.
The limit of associated ideas is put by you. The image of a winged purple giant dog could be five pages worth of memories of a complex text, which, could hold more mnemonic images within, thus even an entire book or whatever is equivalent in mental data. Obviously, I don’t expect you to be able to do this today or next week. Be like a fruit plant.
There is one technique of memory organizations: that is Memory Palace or Method of Loci or Roman Room or Journey Method. Which are all the same thing. In four simple steps:
-
Select a mental location (visualized or not, these are the memory palaces which can be anything and everything).
-
Make a mnemonic of the information you want to memorize by converting it into an image. That is, create an association: idea to be memorized ↔ mental image (refer to your five senses to think of initial possibilities).
-
Place the mnemonic image within your mental location.
-
Review. Think of the mnemonic image at the location and without peeking at the information recall. With time it’ll become easier to memorize, as much of the same type of things you memorize.
Now, these are the next two types of mnemonic techniques, any other technique, uses principles this two use, so, I equate them and these are: memory peg method and link system (story method technique). Have you heard the thought that stories are good for learning? It’s because our brains, form memories, that consciously we can describe in these principles: location (where, spatial memory), imagery (our memories are every experience, thus the senses, and most importantly sight) and associations (pattern forming and pattern recognition).
When in doubt to memorization, think of locations, imagery and associations, for where do you go in your mind? how it feels or how it can
Pegs and links (quick learning) and the method of loci (to keep it for longer, forever?):
Memory peg method:
This is a memory aid that works by creating mental associations between two concrete objects in a one-to-one fashion that will later be applied to to-be-remembered information. (for more Wikipedia)
It consists of choosing a symbol, word, image, or idea in general, to which you will make a fixed association to with another idea. Generally these are used with rules, sometimes to make codes. So, how it works?
First memorize the pegs.
-
You make a list of the pegs, they could be organized or relating to a topic or not. Like the alphabet, A-Z. This are the pegs.
-
You make another list matching the first for the list. A = Apple, B = Beets…
-
Now memorize the pegged pairs. Using visualization. This will be known as peg image.
-
Use your peg list to memorize combinations of the elements of the first list.
Usage example:
To memorize: “879843625789876854167”. And having a peg list: 0-donut 1-candle 2-mug 3-trident 4-flag 5-star 6-snake 7-axe 8-hourglass 9-baloon. I like these two options for consistency of recall, to use the method of loci or link system technique. First with the Loci Method:
-
Select a mental location (a house, your body, somebody, a soap bar). As our pegs are of 1 digit, we would need as many locations (loci) as mnemonic images to be placed. (20)
-
Iterate through the locations placing your corresponding peg image.
-
Review. Recall from position one to the last and from the last to the beginning. (With experience you will build confidence for not needing to review as much)
If you were to truly memorize a list of anything like that, this method may be tedious, but it will always be as tedious as your peg list to loci relationship. I could have used my 00-99 person peg list and in addition my ruled based other two lists of actions and objects, to in a order I want as a rule memorize six digits per loci, thus using 4 locations for the same 20 digits and memorizing the digits much faster. That is known as PAO technique. With rule following always a Person (00-99) performing an Action (00-99) with or to an Object (00-99).
Link system or story method
The link system and the story method are actually two different, but I like to mingle them as one, for how they work.:
Link System:
-
Create a mnemonic image of the first element of information.
-
Create a 1. mnemonic image of the second element of information and connect it to the first.
-
Use the new mnemonic image and connect it to next element of information as you convert the elements into images.
-
Review.
Story method:
It’s the same link system but you add rules, you use a protagonist image for example, you can add another rule. This protagonist image can be anything, from a person to a fairy to a symbol, this image is not a mnemonic image, this is a rule image.
-
Visualize your protagonist image.
-
Protagonist image will interact with a mnemonic image of the first element.
-
Protagonist image will interact with the next image, as in an story and the following element till the end.
-
Review.
Example:
Random words memorization:
“library apartment definition income insurance gate requirement freedom power message surgery vehicle cheek activity ad writer interaction computer office quantity”
Story method:
1-health, 2-impression, 3-perception, 4-drama, 5-problem (the numbers are for illustration purposes)
A man 1"takes a heart" and 2"puts it on the face of a transient person which leaves marks" all over the face then 3"the man stares at this" (imagine the same person as before) 4"person who makes strange faces of overwhelming happiness and overwhelming dread" and 5"the man pulls out a black box out of the person" (as Smith insert his hand inside Neo, The Matrix)
Now, 1,2,3,4,5 this are the parts where I placed the meaning, the heart for health and dirtying the face as impression (which have various meanings). The real memorization happens with consciously you stare at the word in question, then create the image for it and then you put it in the story. You can do this with actual text of any complexity even for abstract images, symbols, things that you don’t understand but want it as is, in your head.
Link system:
“1-Thor eats a Legend of Zelda heart and through his lighted hammer towards a wall, 2-leaving marks over there and then the wall ends up breaking and 3-giant eye gets out of it and 4-a voice is heard saying “for a thousand years I’ve been dormant…” and 5-a sphere of power comes from where the sound comes (problem).”
The difference between link system and story method is how you make your rules. I invented the protagonist image, just for this post, though it’s useful even as a general method for other memorization purposes.
The link system and story method can be used for list memorization and even texts, albeit you need to have a good understanding on how to associate ideas and recognize them in your mind.
Conclusion:
The method of loci is the strongest and oldest method, and before the Greeks it appeared in other forms, some even suggests some historical structures were designed in certain ways for aiding in memory. And since the Greeks, the strength of the technique has been always in the well use of images and other aids in tandem with the method of loci.
For the method of loci has a lot of spatial memory activation, LOCATION principle. The link system forces you to imagine and connect otherwise unrelated things, IMAGERY and ASSOCIATION principles. If you combine them, like me you’d be able to memorize things rather quickly, and by things, I mean important things, not for competition purposes (benefits are contextual).
Quick tips:
-
As you memorize, recall, as long as there’s not speed constraints.
-
Text memorization: once organized, make chunks of your text with or w/o meaning, convert these into images, choose to connect or not with the link system or simply place the mnemonic images in mental locations. In depth…
-
Definitions can be memorized as texts, but get more the gist than verbatim, as definitions are temporal and contextual. More text memorization tips answering definitions problem
-
Retain what’s read: everything is a memory palace even mnemonic images themselves. As you read, visualize even if you’re reading mundane or tedious scientific papers, as long as you understand what you read or bits of it (if objective = understanding), visualize and visualize and be aware when you make connections. Use the medium and tools you’re using to read, the place where you’re sitting, use distracting thoughts and anything that comes to mind as a memory palace, try to review but focus on reading and understanding. Expectations: what you read can comeback as a distracting thought in another activity (and what you visualized and memorized will remain there).
-
You can create completely imaginary memory palaces. Endless resources in the internet, check here, check in the forum, check in Pinterest (YES!!!).
-
Not that I think is needed most of the time but here some math memorization: Formulas 101 and even my tips could be simplified…
-
What are connotations? Or how to come up with mnemonic ideas quickly.
*This post was first intended for r/memorypalace but it’s over 10000!!!