I’m new to learning through the memory techniques discussed here, and I have a query that I’m hoping some of you could help with.
I often come across advice, whether in books or on YouTube, suggesting that to remember a word like “Quasidominance,” you should create a vivid, absurd mental picture—perhaps imagining a quasar (a super bright celestial object) that is dominating everything in space. This technique certainly helps me remember parts like “Quasi” and “Dominance,” but after a while, I still struggle with recalling the exact word. I might remember it as Quasardominance, Quasodominance, or something similar.
My question is about the finer details of these associations. Do I need to break down every sound and create a visual link for each syllable to ensure accuracy? For example, do I need to think of something else since ‘ar’ in quasar is confusing and not recommended or a separate image or association for the “ance” in “Quasidominance”? Or, is it common that once I’ve created a strong visual image, my brain will naturally fill in these gaps without extra effort on my part?
Additionally, how do I then associate the word with its definition: “A pattern of inheritance that seems due to a dominant trait but is in fact due to the mating of a person who has a recessive disorder”?
I haven’t seen much discussion on this specific aspect, so I’m curious how others approach it. Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated!
While I think your example for memorizing “quasidominance” would work, I’d suggest going with whatever images first occur to you; those will be more natural to how you think.
For instance, my very first thought was Quasimodo, the bell ringer from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” dressed up as a dominatrix. The outlandish—and easily visualized—nature of this image might make it a lot more memorable than trying to imagine a quasar! But, as they say, your mileage may vary.
You may need to break words like this down into chunks…but you may not. Sometimes it only takes a close sound to trigger the word you want to remember.
Unless you’re wanting to recall the definition verbatim, you may only need to imagine a couple of the specifics. I don’t know where you’re located, but “recessive” makes me think of recess, those times in elementary school when you got to go out on the playground and just run around for 10-15 minutes or so. So I would link my Quasimodo-dominatrix with recess: Maybe this hulking man is out there playing kickball, dressed in a latex garter belt or something. Maybe someone yells at him, “You can’t dominate us! It’s recess!” That may be all you need to trigger the key points of the definition.
Hey, nice to see that you are practicising mnemonics.
I would suggest to not focus on the details so much, like memorising all the details.
The main idea is to have fun, enjoy it and maintain the interest.
Regarding your word “Quasidominance,” , start with general images and then add details if needed. It is like remembering let’s say idea of mermaid. You dont need to memorise all details of it. Just know that it is a girl with a fish tail.
When I see “Quasidominance,” I see this a barley drink and domino
I believe you’ll have no problem figuring out that your word isn’t ‘Quasardominance’ or ‘Quasodominance’ once you’ve memorized it’s rough meaning, since that would already imply the ‘Quasi’-Part. My personal image would probably be something like Quasar (the Marvel character) domming two Ants dressed in BDSM gear
Of course, this is a comparably easy example since both ‘quasi’ and ‘dominance’ are commonly used words. Now compare that to something like ‘Cynophobia’ (fear of dogs) or ‘effervescence’, that is, compound words composed of lesser used foreign language vocabulary or long words which are hard to find matching syllables for. Not impossible since you have an exact phonetic match for ‘cyno’ in ‘sino’ (which means chinese) and ‘phobia’ is familiar to most people, but still challengen. For ‘effervescent’ I’d have Franklin Roosevelt (initials F. R.) holding out his vest and spraying perfume on it to mask the scent (since ‘F.R. vest scent’ sounds like ‘effervescent’ if you say it fast).
If you really want to go letter-for-letter on new vocabulary: That’s basically what Bruno’s memory wheels were for. You’d sacrifice some speed for better decodeability, is all.
Whatever association you use, if you practice speaking aloud the word while visualizing the associated mnemonic, and you do a very short exercise like writing a sentence with the word—and visualizing the associated mnemonic when you write the word—that’s the sort of practical activity that will set the association firmly in your mind.
As long as you’re doing practical things with the word AND visualizing the associated mnemonic at the same time, you’ll be in good shape. It’s harder to forget things once you’ve “used” them.
