In the world of vast information flows, there is no particular need to remember the necessary data because the most essential of them can be obtained without effort, for example, by sending a query to the search bar of the Internet browser.
The brain of the modern person is rearranged on energy saving — it is a kind of way to protect the consciousness from the overload, gigabytes of information, which day by day becomes more and more, it is everywhere: in smartphones, computers, TV, on billboards, in the radio playing in transport, etc.
Attention shifts to more straightforward ways of getting the information we don’t remember. Consequently, we lose the ability to think and record what we see. There is such a thing as digital autism, one of the features of which is just the lack of developed memory.
But we can not always be online; from time to time, there are situations when it is necessary to remember something: for students at exams, specialists of different profiles in the performance of their duties, the applicant at the interview, scientists at the conference. The ability to remember can be built up; for this; there are various techniques of mnemotechnics or mnemonics available to absolutely everyone.
What is mnemonic engineering?
The art of remembering through special techniques and techniques based on the construction of connections and associations is mnemotechnics or mnemonics, which is the same thing. It differs from cramming, i.e., technical memorization, in the ability to recover information by recreating a logical sequence in the head, replacing abstract objects and facts with concepts and notions.
Mnemotechnics allows you to remember information for a long time and expands the so-called “operative memory” of the person. It has been proven that rote learning is effective in the short term, i.e., it fixes information in memory for a short period. For example, a student who has memorized the theory facts for an exam without understanding them is likely to forget them soon once the focus of attention shifts from the subject. This fact is a problem for professional education: future professionals need to absorb the complete information received, which cramming in most cases does not help.
What opportunities do mnemotechnics offer?
The concept of mnemotechnics must be on the lips of many people — it has become actively used in the age of excessive information in the environment. Still, not many people dare to master the skill of memorizing because they do not understand why it is necessary.
The art of memorizing information is mainly mastered by those who need it directly: pupils, students, doctors, linguists, professors, and experts in various fields. With the help of mnemotechnics in language teaching, one can quickly memorize words, so its principles are used in almost all programs of language schools.
As already mentioned, the art of mnemotechnics improves the working memory of the human brain, and the crinkles begin to work more efficiently:
- important matters and promises are remembered;
- essential facts are remembered;
- attention is not scattered;
- credits and exams can be prepared for faster;
- shopping lists can be memorized;
- any topic can be thought through in greater depth without gadgets and notes.
Mnemonic technology promotes attention, imagination, imaginative thinking, and visualization ability. In mastering the art of mnemonics, both hemispheres are activated, whereas the average person in everyday life is dominated by only one:
- The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for logical thinking and intelligence, orderliness, and conventionally technical direction;
- The right hemisphere is responsible for creativity, color perception, imagination, spatial relations, and images.
How do you learn mnemonic techniques?
1. Self-study
Let’s start with the most straightforward, independent learning of the mnemonic technique. This is mastering some techniques and regular training — after all, mnemonics involves developing skills.
The first thing to decide why you need to learn mnemonics: to memorize words, and facts, to teach a child, or to master the art on their own, as they say, for themselves. Then, based on the need to identify the best techniques. Or use them all together.
Here is a look at the basic universal memorization techniques used in various training programs.
2. Initial letters or the edge effect
Most people remember information from the beginning and end of a structural series. The effect was documented by the German scientist Hermann Ebbinghaus in. The essence of the method of marginal memory is the fixation in remembrance of what is said at the beginning and the end.
Experiments have shown: that the maximum efficiency of the brain falls at the beginning of the cognitive process (reading, lecture, viewing the news), then decreases and is fixed again at the end. Likewise, built a news feed: if a pleasant and positive events have not occurred, so as not to leave the audience a bitter aftertaste, the last scene is always put some nice roll — pay attention to this technique.
3. Miller’s rule
Psychologist George Miller in the 20th century conducted a series of experiments with a group of people and found the following: on average short-term memory can hold 9 binary numbers, 8 decimal numbers, 7 letters of the alphabet and 5 simple words at the same time. A total of 7±2 elements. This rule is used in mnemonics and training programs of all kinds.
If you need to remember something, try to have no more than seven elements (subgroups, subjects, facts, etc.) More than that, the working memory may not record in full.
4. The Isolation Effect (Restorff)
This method of remembering is based on fixing in memory one object that stands out the most among the information items offered. In other words, the more expressive the object, the easier it is to remember. This technique is used by PR people, advertising specialists, marketers, trying to highlight the product being sold in the mind of the consumer and to emphasize its importance.
When studying and structuring information using the Restorff method, try to single out facts, elements into groups and fix their image. Do this so that the groups are not similar to each other, so that each of them becomes vivid and memorable.
5. Rhymes and Rhythms
The technique of rhyming is used in the study of foreign languages. The method of memorization is familiar to everyone from early childhood, when we learned our first rhymes. Agniya Barto, Korney Chukovsky wrote especially for children, so the rhymes “Bull Goes, swaying,” “Fly-Tsokotukha” are memorized by the rhythm and simple rhyme.
When learning mnemotechnics yourself, you should try this method of memorization. To the desired information, pick up the rhyme and memorize the words in pairs, they can also be connected to the motif of some song. The number of the car, phone or intercom can be divided into bars: “three-four-five,” “eight-five-one,” so it’s easier to remember atypical combinations of numbers.
Inite
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- Meditation mode. We all know how difficult it is not to be distracted when learning something new. So make it a nice bonus. Turn on meditation mode in Inite, earn tokens and grow!
- We appreciate your ideas. Many people would like to develop their memory, but not everyone knows how. Share your idea and progress on learning mnemotechnics in Inite and monetize your impulse to learn!
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