Psychology in Action
Mnemonics-Memory Magic
JOURNEY QUESTION 7.9 What are mnemonics?
Just imagine the poor biology or psychology student who is required to learn the names of
the 12 cranial nerves (in order, of course). Although the spinal nerves connect the brain to
the body through the spinal cord, the cranial nerves do so directly. Just in case you wanted
to know, their names are: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens,
facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory, and hypoglossal.
As you might imagine, most of us find it difficult to successfully encode this list. In the
absence of any obvious meaningful relationship among these terms, it is difficult to apply the
memory strategies we discussed earlier in the chapter and tempting to resort to rote learning
( learning by simple repetition ). Fortunately, there is an alternative: mnemonics (nee-MON-iks)
(Baddeley, Eysenck,& Anderson, 2009; Radvansky, 2001). A mnemonic is any kind of memory
system or aid. The superiority of mnemonic learning as opposed to rote learning has been
demonstrated many times (Saber & Johnson, 2008; Worthen & Hunt, 2010).
Some mnemonic systems are so common that almost everyone knows them. If you are
trying to remember how many days there are in a month, you may find the answer by reciting, “Thirty days hath September….” Physics teachers often help students remember the
colors of the spectrum by giving them the mnemonic “Roy G. Biv”: Red, Orange, Yellow,
Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. The budding sailor who has trouble telling port from starboard
may remember that “port” and “left” both have four letters or may remind herself, “I left
port.” And what beginning musician hasn’t remembered the notes represented by the lines
and spaces of the musical staff by learning “F-A-C-E” and “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”
Generations of students have learned the names of the spinal nerves by memorizing the
sentence “On Old Olympus’ Towering Top A Famous Vocal German Viewed Some Hops.
This mnemonic, which uses the first letter of each of the cranial nerves to generate a nonsense
sentence, indeed produces better recall of the cranial nerves. Such acrostics are even more
effective if you make up your own (Fry, 2012). By practicing mnemonics, you should be able
to greatly improve your memory with little effort.
Here, then, are some basic principles of mnemonics:
1. Make things meaningful. In general, transferring information from short-term memory to
long -term memory is aided by making it meaningful. If you encounter technical terms that have little or no immediate meaning for you, give them meaning, even if you have to stretch
the term to do so. (This point is clarified by the examples following this list.)
2. Make information familiar. Another way to get information into long-term memory is
to connect it to information already stored there. If some facts or ideas in a chapter seem
to stay in your memory easily, associate other more difficult facts with them.
3. Use mental pictures. Visual pictures, or images, are generally easier to remember than
words. Turning information into mental pictures is therefore very helpful. Make these
images as vivid as possible (Radvansky,2011).
4. Form bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated mental associations. Forming images that make
sense is better in most situations. However, when associating two ideas, terms, or especially
mental images, you may find that the more outrageous and exaggerated the association, the
more likely you are to remember. Bizarre images make stored information more distinctive
and therefore easier to retrieve (Worthen & Marshall,1996). Imagine, for example, that
you have just been introduced to Mr. Rehkop. To remember his name, you could picture
him wrearing a police uniform. Then replace his nose with ray gun. This bizarre image will
provide two hints when you want to remember Mr. Rehkop’s name: ray and cop.
This technique works for other kinds of information, too. College students who used
exaggerated mental associations to remember the names of unfamiliar animals outperformed
students who just used rote memory (Carney & Levin, 2001). Bizarre images help improve
mainly immediate memory, and they work best for fairly simple information (Fritz et al.,
2007). Nevertheless, they can be a first step toward learning.
A sampling of typical applications of mnemonics should make these four points clearer to you:
Example 1 Let’s say you have some new vocabulary words to memorize in Spanish. You
can proceed by rote memorization (repeat them over and over until you begin to get them),
or you can learn them with little effort by using the keyword method, in which a familiar
word or image is used to link two other words or items (Fritz et al.,2007; Pressley, 1987). To
remember that the word pajaro (pronounced PAH-hah-ro) means bird, you can link it to a
“key” word in English; Pajaro sounds a bit like “parked car-o.” Therefore, to remember that
pajaro means bird, you might visualize a parked car jam-packed full of birds. You should try
to make this image as vivid and exaggerated as possible, with birds flapping and chirping
and feathers flying everywhere. Similarly, for the word carta (which means “letter”), you
might imagine a shopping cart filled with postal letters.
If you link similar keywords and images for the rest of the list, you may not remember
them all, but you will get most without much more practice. As a matter of fact, if you have
formed the pajaro and carta images just now, it is going to be almost impossible for you to
see these words again without remembering what they mean.
What about a year from now? How long do keyword memories last? Mnemonic memories
work best in the short run. Later, they may be more fragile than conventional memories.
That’s why it’s usually best to use mnemonics during the initial stages of learning (Carney
& Levin,2003; Fry,2012). To create more lasting memories, you’ll need to use the techniques
discussed earlier in this chapter.
Example 2 Suppose you have to learn the names of all the bones and muscles in the human
body. To remember that the jawbone is the mandible, you can associate it to a man nibbling,
or maybe you can picture a man dribbling a basketball with his jaw (make this image as ridiculous
as possible). If the muscle name latissimus dorsi gives you trouble, familiarize it by turning
it into “the ladder misses the door, sigh.” Then picture a ladder glued to your back where the
muscle is found. Picture the ladder leading up to a small door at your shoulder. Picture the
ladder missing the door. Picture the ladder sighing like an animated character in a cartoon.
This seems like more to remember, not less; and it seems like it would cause you to misspell
things. Mnemonics are an aid, not a complete substitute for normal memory. Mnemonics are
not likely to be helpful unless you make extensive use of images (Worthen & Hunt, 2010). Your
mental pictures will come back to you easily. As for misspellings, mnemonics can be thought
of as a built-in hint in your memory. Often, when taking a test, you will find that the slightest
hint is all you need to remember correctly. A mnemonic image is like having someone leaning
over your shoulder who says, “Psst, the name of that muscle sounds like ‘ladder misses the door,
sigh.” If misspelling continues to be a problem, try to create memory aids for spelling, too.
Here are two more examples to help you appreciate the flexibility of a mnemonic
approach to studying.
Example 3 Your art history teacher expects you to be able to name the artist when you are
shown slides as part of exams. You have seen many of the slides only once before in class.
How will you remember them? As the slides are shown in class, make each artist, s name into
an object or image. Then picture the object in the paintings done by the artist. For example,
you can picture Van Gogh as a van (automobile) going through the middle of each Van Gogh
painting. Picture the van running over things and knocking things over. Or, if you remember
that Van Gogh cut off his ear, picture a giant bloody ear in each of his paintings.
Example 4 If you have trouble remembering history, try to avoid thinking of it as
something from the dim past. Picture each historical personality as a person you know right
now (a friend, teacher, parent, and so on). Then picture these people doing whatever the
historical figures did. Also, try visualizing battles or other events as if they were happening
in your town, or make parks and schools into countries. Use your imagination.
How can mnemonics be used to remember things in order? Here are three techniques that
are helpful:
1. Form a story or a chain. To remember lists of ideas, objects, or words in order, try
forming an exaggerated association (mental image) connecting the f