Memory Strategies Flashcards
Can you list 3 or more different memory strategies?
- Mnemonic techniques (Acronyms, Acrostics, Ryhmes, Chunking)
- Method of Loci (eg. memory palace)
- Mind Maps
- Peg words
What is the mnemonic technique?
Where large amount of information (usually verbal/written) are stored by using association to help remember.
What is an acronym?
Where a word or sentence is formed from the words that you want to remember (eg. Roy G. Biv) for Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet - the colour of the rainbow
What is an acrostic?
A poem or sentence created where the first letter of each word to remembered is used.
Never Eat Shredded Wheat - The directional points of a compass.
How might you use rhymes to help remember information.
Just by associating acoustic information (music or tempo) to things you are rehearsing can help recall.
Children sing the alphabet to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - why not try it now?
Method of Loci. What is it?
A form of visual imagery where you use Elaborative rehearsal to picture information at a familiar location (loci). eg. you might remember the characters of a novel sat in your home dressed oddly and talking in foreign accents and being generally weird and very visual to help you remember them.
What is a mind map?
Tony Buzan (1993) developed a visual tool to help you group, encode and recall key information. You start with a key topic in the middle and branch out writing other key terms and information along the branches of the map.Using colour to make the mind map more distinct and unique is effective as is limiting the amount of information you write into the map.
Peg words - how might they be helpful?
By using elaborate visual images that are linked to ‘peg words’ information may be easier to recall.
Creating an image that sound like the numbers 1-10 (eg. 2 could be shoe) and then associating them with the piece of information to remember. (eg. if you wanted to remember that Einstein came up with the general theory of relativity you could picture him standing at the blackboard with relatively big SHOES on.
2 - shoe - Einstein wears ‘relatively’ the big shoes when at the blackboard developing his theories
Is there any research that support the use of memory strategies?
- Chase et al (1981) found that when associating digits, using running times to help remember a sequence of digits adds meaning to otherwise meaningless information.
- Gruneburg (1973) found that 30% of students used Mnemonics with ‘first letter’ methods being the most popular
- O’Hara et al (2007) found that training in methods such as the method of loci had long term memory benefits for older adults.
What do we mean by elaborative rehearsal?
When trying to store information it is better if the information is elaborate / colourful / meaningful / vivid / saucy / unique. It means that the ‘nature’ of the rehearsal is different. If you were to imagine Scooby Doo dressed in pink with a tall white hat standing at your front door telling you the answer to a question you would be more likely to store and therefore recall the information (you might not be able to get it out of your head).
Why might the organisation of material in a mind map help us to remember?
Organisation has a key role in memory, especially when hierarchies are used which allows the brain to create the associations that help store the information and recall it.
