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[kasturi]

Memory Improvement Tools
This section helps you to improve your memory.

The techniques it explains are particularly helpful in studying for exams or in situations where you need to remember detailed, structured information. They also make things like learning foreign languages and remembering people's names much easier.

This section is split into three parts: first of all, the introduction explains the principles behind the use of mnemonics.

We then discuss a range of individual tools that you can use to remember information. Finally we discuss how to use the skills in practice to remember peoples names, languages, exam information, etc.

The Link & Story Methods -
Remembering a Simple List

How to Use the Tool:
The Link Method is one of the easiest mnemonic techniques available.

It works quite simply by making associations between items in a list, linking them either with a flowing image containing the items, or with a story featuring them. The flow of the story and the strength of the images give you the cues for retrieval.

Taking the first image, create a connection between it and the next item. Then move on through the list linking each item with the next. It is quite possible to remember lists of words using association only. However it is often best to fit the associations into a story: otherwise by forgetting just one association you can lose the whole of the rest of the list.

Given the fluid structure of this mnemonic, it is important that the images stored in your mind are as vivid as possible. Significant, coding images should be much stronger that ones that merely support the flow of the story. See the introduction to this chapter for further information on making images as strong as possible.

The Story Method is similar, except that the images are linked together as part of a story. This makes it easier to remember the order of events and create a memorable mnemonic.
Where a word you want to remember does not trigger strong images, use a similar word that will remind you of that word.

Example:
You may want to remember this list of counties in the South of England: Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, and Surrey.

You could do this with two approaches, the link method and the story method:

Remembering with the Link Method
This would rely on a series of images coding information:
•   An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset)
•   The DOoR opening to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with a SETting sun (Somerset)
•   The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall)
•   The CORN is so dry it is beginning to WILT (Wiltshire)
•   The WILTing stalks slowly droop onto the tail of the sleeping DEVil (Devon).
•   On the DEVil's horn a woman has impaled a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it
•   Now the Devil feels SoRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.
Note that there need not be any reason or underlying plot to the sequence of images: only images and the links between images are important
Remembering with the Story Method:
Alternatively you could code this information by imaging the following story vividly:

An AVON lady is walking up a path towards a strange house. She is hot and sweating slightly in the heat of high SUMMER (Somerset). Beside the path someone has planted giant CORN in a WALL (Cornwall), but it's beginning to WILT (Wiltshire) in the heat. She knocks on the DOoR (Dorset), which is opened by the DEVil (Devon). In the background she can see a kitchen in which a servant is smearing honey on a HAM (Hampshire), making it GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) and gleam in bright sunlight streaming in through a window. Panicked by seeing the Devil, the Avon lady screams 'SoRRY' (Surrey), and dashes back down the path.

Key points:
The Link Method is probably the most basic memory technique, and is very easy to understand and use. It works by coding information to be remembered into images and then linking these images together.

The story technique is very similar. It links these images together into a story. This helps to keep events in a logical order and can improve your ability to remember information if you forget the sequence of images.

Both techniques are very simple to learn. Unfortunately they are both slightly unreliable as it is easy to confuse the order of images or forget images from a sequence

[kasturi]

The Number/Rhyme Mnemonic
- Remembering Simple Ordered Lists

How to Use the Tool:
The Number/Rhyme technique is a very simple way of remembering lists in order.

It is an example of a peg system - a system where information is 'pegged' to a known sequence (here the numbers one to ten). By doing this you ensure that you do not forget any facts, as gaps in information are immediately obvious. It also makes remembering images easier as you always know part of the mnemonic images.

At a simple level you can use it to remember things such as a list of English Kings or American Presidents in their precise order. At a more advanced level it can be used, for example, to code lists of experiments to be recalled in a science exam.

The technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which you represent numbers by things that rhyme with the number. You can then link these pictures to images of the things to be remembered



The usual rhyming scheme is:
1.   Bun
2.   Shoe
3.   Tree
4.   Paw
5.   Hive
6.   Bricks
7.   Heaven
8.   Gate
9.   Line
10.   Hen
If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful.

Link these images to ones representing the things to be remembered. Often, the sillier the compound image, the more effectively you will remember it - see the introduction to this chapter to see how you can improve the image to help it stay clearly in your mind.

Example:
For example, you could remember a chronological list of ten Greek philosophers as:
1.   Parmenides - a BUN topped with grated yellow PARMEsan cheese
2.   Heraclitus - a SHOE worn by HERACLes (Greek Hercules) glowing with a
bright LIghT
3.   Empedocles - A TREE from which the M-shaped McDonalds arches hang
hooking up a bicycle PEDal
4.   Democritus - think of a PAW print on the voting form of a DEMOCRaTic
election
5.   Protagoras - A bee HIVE being positively punched through (GORed?) by
an atomic PROTon
6.   Socrates - BRICKS falling onto a SOCk (with a foot inside!) from a
CRATe.
7.   Plato - A plate with angel's wings flapping around a white cloud
8.   Aristotle - a friend called hARRY clutching a bOTtLE of wine vaulting over
a gate
9.   Zeno - A LINE of ZEN Buddhists meditating
10.   Epicurus - a HEN's egg being mixed into an EPIleptics's CURe.
Try either visualizing these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. Once you have done this, try writing down the names of the philosophers on a piece of paper. You should be able to do this by thinking of the number, then the part of the image associated with the number, and then the whole image. Finally you can decode the image to give you the name of the philosopher.

If the mnemonic has worked, you should not only recall the names of all the philosophers in the correct order, but should also be able to spot where you have left them out of the sequence. Try it - it's easier than it sounds.

You can use a peg system like this as a basis for knowledge in an entire area. The example above could form the basis for knowledge of ancient philosophy. You could now associate images representing the projects, systems and theories of each philosopher with the images coding the philosophers' names.

Key points:
The Number/Rhyme technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. It works by 'pegging' the things to be remembered to images rhyming with the numbers 0 - 9. By driving the associations with numbers you have a good starting point in reconstructing the images, you are aware if information is missing, and you can pick up and continue the sequence from anywhere within the list.

[kasturi]

The Number/Shape Mnemonic
Remembering Simple Ordered Lists

How to Use the Tool:
The Number/Shape system is very similar to the Number/Rhyme system. It is a very simple and effective way of remembering a list in a specific order. It is another example of a peg system.

The technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by images shaped like the number. You can then associate these with the things you want to remember using striking images.

One image scheme is shown below:
1.   Candle, spear, stick
2.   Swan (beak, curved neck, body)
3.   Bifocal glasses, or part of a "love heart"
4.   Sail of a yacht
5.   A meat hook, a sea-horse facing right
6.   A golf club
7.   A cliff edge
8.   An egg timer
9.   A balloon with a string attached, flying freely
10.   A hole
If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

As with the Number/Rhyme scheme, link these images to ones representing the things to be remembered.

In some cases these images may be more vivid than those in the number/rhyme scheme, and in other cases you may find the number/rhyme scheme more memorable. There is no reason why you cannot mix the most vivid images of each scheme together into your own compound scheme.

Example:
We can use a list of more modern thinkers to illustrate the number/shape system:
1.   Spinoza - a large CANDLE wrapped around with someone's SPINe
2.   Locke - a SWAN trying to pick a LOCK with its wing
3.   Hume - A HUMan child BREAST feeding
4.   Berkeley - A SAIL on top of a large hooked and spiked BURR in the LEE of a cliff
5.   Kant - a CAN of spam hanging from a meat HOOK
6.   Rousseau - a kangaROO SEWing with a GOLF CLUB
7.   Hegel - a crooked trader about to be pushed over a CLIFF, HaGgLing to
try to avoid being hurt
8.   Kierkegaard - a large EGG TIMER containing captain KIRK and a GuARD from the starship enterprise, as time runs out
9.   Darwin - a BALLOON floating upwards, being blown fAR by the WINd
10.   Marx - a HOLE with white chalk MARks around it's edge
Key points:
The Number/Shape technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. It works by linking things to be remembered with the images representing the numbers 0 - 9. By using it in conjunction with the Number/Rhyme system, you can build potent images that can make very effective mnemonics.

[kasturi]

The Alphabet Technique
Remembering Middle Length Lists

How to Use the Tool:
The Alphabet system is a peg memory technique similar to, but more sophisticated than, the Number/Rhyme system. It is a good method for remembering longer lists of items in a specific order, in such a way that you can tell if items are missing.

It works by associating images representing letters of the alphabet with images you create for the things to be remembered.

When you are creating images for the letters of the alphabet, create images phonetically, so that the sound of the first syllable of the word is the name of the letter. For example, you might represent the letter 'k' with the word 'cake'.
Tony Buzan in his book 'Use Your Perfect Memory' suggests using a system for creating vivid images that you can reconstruct if you forget them. He suggests taking the phonetic letter sound as the first consonant, and then, for the rest of the consonants in the word, using the first letters in alphabetical order that make a memorable word. For example for the letter 'S' (root 'Es') we would first see if any strong images presented themselves when we tried to create a word starting with 'EsA', 'EsB', 'EsC', 'EsD', 'EsE', etc.).

This approach has the advantage of producing an image that you can reconstruct if you forget it. You might, however, judge that this is an unnecessary complication of a relatively simple system. In any case it is best to select the strongest image that comes to mind and stick with it.

One image scheme is shown below:
A - Ace of spades
B - Bee
C - Sea
D - Diesel engine
E - Eel
F - Effluent
G - Jeans
H - H-Bomb, itch
I - Eye
J - Jade
K - Cake
L - Elephant
M - Empty
N - Entrance
O - Oboe
P - Pea
Q - Queue
R - Ark
S - Eskimo
T - Teapot
U - Unicycle
V - Vehicle
W - WC
X - X-Ray
Y - Wire
Z - Zulu

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

Once you have firmly visualised these images and have linked them to their root letters, you can associate them with information to be remembered.

See the introduction to this chapter to see how you can improve these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind. Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the it using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems (see 7.2).

Example:
Continuing our mnemonic example of the names of philosophers, we will use the example of remembering a list of modern thinkers:
A - Ace - Freud - a crisp ACE being pulled out of a FRying pan (FRiED)
B - Bee - Chomsky - a BEE stinging a CHiMp and flying off into the SKY
C - Sea - Genette - a GENerator being lifted in a NET out of the SEA
D - Diesel - Derrida - a DaRing RIDer surfing on top of a DIESEL train
E - Eagle - Foucault - Bruce Lee fighting off an attacking EAGLE with kung
FU
F - Effluent- Joyce - environmentalists JOYfully finding a plant by an
EFFLUENT pipe
G - Jeans - Nietzche - a holey pair of JEANS with a kNEe showing through
H - H-Bomb - Kafka - a grey civil service CAFe being blown up by an H-
Bomb
etc.

Key points:
The Alphabet Technique links the items to be remembered with images of the letters A - Z. This allows you to remember a medium length list in the correct order. By pegging the items to be remembered to letters of the alphabet you know if you have forgotten items, and know the cues to use to trigger their recall.

[kasturi]

The Journey System
Remembering Long Lists

How to Use the Tool:
The journey method is a powerful, flexible and effective mnemonic based around the idea of remembering landmarks on a well-known journey. It combines the narrative flow of the Link Method and the structure and order of the Peg Systems into one very powerful system.

You use the Journey Method by associating information with landmarks on a journey that you know well. This could, for example, be your journey to work in the morning; the route you use to get to the front door when you get up; the route to visit your parents; or a tour around a holiday destination. Once you are familiar with the technique you may be able to create imaginary journeys that fix in your mind, and apply these.
To use this technique most effectively, it is often best to prepare the journey beforehand. In this way the landmarks are clear in your mind before you try to commit information to them. One of the ways of doing this is to write down all the landmarks that you can recall in order on a piece of paper. This allows you to fix these landmarks as the significant ones to be used in your mnemonic, separating them from others that you may notice as you get to know the route even better.

To remember a list of items, whether these are people, experiments, events or objects, all you need do is associate these things with the landmarks or stops on your journey.

This is an extremely effective method of remembering long lists of information. With a sufficiently long journey you could, for example, remember elements on the periodic table, lists of Kings and Presidents, geographical information, or the order of cards in a shuffled pack.

The system is extremely flexible: all you need do to remember many items is to remember a longer journey with more landmarks. To remember a short list, only use part of the route!

One advantage of this technique is that you can use it to work both backwards and forwards, and start anywhere within the route to retrieve information.

You can use the technique well with other mnemonics. This can be done either by building complex coding images at the stops on a journey, or by linking to other mnemonics at each stop. You could start other journeys at each landmark. Alternatively, you may use a peg system to organize lists of journeys, etc.

Example:
You may, as a simple example, want to remember something mundane like this shopping list:

Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath tub cleaner.

You could associate this list with a journey to a supermarket. Mnemonic images could be:
1.   Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat
2.   Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses
3.   Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat
4.   End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road
5.   Past garage: with its sign wrapped in kitchen roll
6.   Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails
7.   Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights
8.   Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards
9.   Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tires send up jets of tomato soup as I drive through it
10.   Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the top level
11.   Supermarket car park: a filthy bath tub is parked in the space next to my car!
Key points:
The journey method is a powerful, effective method of remembering lists of information, by imagining images and events at stops on a journey.

As the journeys used are distinct in location and form, one list remembered using this technique is easy to distinguish from other lists.

To use this technique you need to invest some time in preparing journeys clearly in your mind. This investment pays off many times over by the application of the technique

[kasturi]

The Roman Room System
Remembering Grouped Information

How to Use the Tool:
The Roman Room technique is an ancient and effective way of remembering information where its structure is not important. As an example, it serves as the basis of one of the powerful mnemonic systems used to learn languages.

To use the technique, imagine a room that you know, such as your sitting room, bedroom, office or classroom. Within the room are objects. Associate images representing the information you want to remember with the objects in the room. To recall information, simply take a tour around the room in your mind, visualizing the known objects and their associated images.
The technique can be expanded by going into more detail, and keying information to be remembered to smaller objects. Alternatively you can open doors from your room into other rooms and use the objects in them as well. As you need them, you can build extensions to your rooms in your imagination, and fill them with objects that would logically be there.

You can use other rooms to store other categories of information.

There is no need to restrict this information to rooms: you could use a landscape or a town you know well, and populate it with memory images.

See the introduction to this chapter for information on how to enhance the images used for this technique.

Example:
For example, I can use my sitting room as a basis for the technique. In this room I have the following objects:
table, lamp, sofa, large bookcase, small bookcase, CD rack, tape racks, stereo system, telephone, television, video, chair, mirror, black & white photographs, etc.

I may want to remember a list of World War I war poets:
Rupert Brooke, G.K. Chesterton, Walter de la Mare, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, W.B. Yates

I could visualize walking through my front door. Within this image, someone has painted a picture on it showing a scene from the Battle of the Somme. In the center of the picture is a man sitting in a trench writing in a dirty exercise book.

I walk into the sitting room, and look at the table. On the top is RUPERT the Bear sitting in a small BROOK (we do not need to worry about where the water goes in our imagination!) This codes for Rupert Brooke.

Someone seems to have done some moving: a CHEST has been left on the sofa. Some jeans (Alphabet System: G=Jeans) are hanging out of one drawer, and some cake has been left on the top (K=Cake). This codes for G K Chesterton.

The lamp has a small statuette of a brick WALL over which a female horse (MARE) is about to jumping. This codes for Walter de la Mare.

etc.

Key points:
The Roman Room technique is similar to the Journey method. It works by pegging images coding for information to known things, in this case to objects in a room.

The Roman Room technique is most effective for storing lists of unlinked information, while the journey method is better for storing lists of ordered items.

[kasturi]

The Major System - Remembering Very Long Numbers

How to Use the Tool:
The Major Memory System is one of the most powerful memory systems available. It takes a lot of time to master, but once learned is very powerful. The technique often forms the basis of some of the extraordinary, almost magical, memory feats performed by stage magicians and memory performers.

The system works by converting number sequences into nouns, nouns into images, and linking images into sequences. These sequences can be very complex and detailed.

The building blocks of the system are the association of the numbers below with the following consonant sounds:     Improve

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0 - s, z, soft-c - remember as 'z is first letter of zero'
1 - d, t, th - remember as letters with 1 downstroke
2 - n - remember as having 2 downstrokes
3 - m - has three downstrokes
4 - r - imagine a 4 and an R glued together back-to-back
5 - L - imagine the 5 propped up against a book end (L)
6 - j, sh, soft-ch, dg, soft-g - g is 6 rotated 180 degrees.
7 - k, hard-ch, hard-c, hard-g, ng - imagine K as two 7s
rotated and glued together
8 - f, v - imagine the bottom loop of the 8 as an eFfluent
pipe discharging waste (letter image of F in
alphabet system)
9 - p, b - b as 9 rotated 180 degrees.

These associations need to be learned thoroughly before going further with the technique.

Starting to use the Major System
The system operates on a number of levels, depending on the amount of time you are prepared to devote to learning the system.

The first level, which involves coding single digit numbers into small words, functions almost as a poor relation of the number/rhyme system. It is at higher levels that you can unleash the real power of the system. You should, however, learn to use this first level before moving on.

The trick with converting numbers into words is to use only the consonants that code information within the word, while using vowels to pad the consonants out with meaning. If you do have to use other consonants to make up a word, use only those that do not code for numbers - i.e. h, q, w, x, and y.

At the first level we code each number into a short noun. This is made up of the consonant coding for the number, and vowels that turn the consonant into a word. On a sheet of paper, write the numbers 0 to 9, and apply these rules to create your own memory words. Some examples are shown below:
0 - saw
1 - toe
2 - neigh
3 - ma
4 - ray
5 - law
6 - jaw
7 - key
8 - fee
9 - pie

You can use these words in association much like the other peg technique memory words.

Moving to the second level
Similar rules apply to creating a standard word from two numbers. It is best not to try to use a single number word as a root, as this can confuse the image.

Write down the numbers 01 to 99, and apply the rules to create memory words for yourself.

A few examples are shown below:
09 - z, p - zap
17 - t, ch - tech
23 - n, m - name
36 - m, sh - mesh
41 - r,s - rose
52 - l, n - line
64 - ch, r - chair
75 - k, l - keel
89 - f, p - fop
98 - b, f - beef

Taking the Major System Further
Just using double number words may be enough to make this a sufficiently powerful mnemonic for you. Alternatively you may decide to use triple number words, using the same construction rules as double number words.

Examples are:
182 - d, v, n - Devon
304 - m, s, r - miser
400 - r, c, s - races
651 - j, l, d - jellied
801 - f, z, d - fazed

Even though you can construct words from first principles each time, at this level of complexity it may be worth writing them down to make them easier to remember. You can then run through them many times to strengthen the link in your mind between the numbers and the associated words. This will help you to remember the appropriate word faster.

Using Words to Remember Long Numbers
Once you have come up with words and images to link to your numbers, you can start to apply the technique to remember, for example, long numbers. A good way of doing this is to associate Major System words with stops on a journey (see 7.1.5).

Example:
The number Pi is 3.14159265359 (to 11 decimal places). Using the major system and the journey system (see example) together, I can remember this as:
•   Passing my Ma (3) by the front door of my house
•   Seeing that someone has dared (1,4,1) to sleep under the rose bush in the garden
•   Someone has tied a loop (5,9) of yellow ribbon onto the steering wheel of my car
•   I see a poster with a photo of a steaming pile of sausages and mashed potato, with the title 'glorious nosh' (2,7) at the end of the road
•   A lama (5,3) is grazing on grass outside the garage forecourt
•   Another loop (5,9) of yellow ribbon has been tied around the railway bridge. This is getting strange!
Key points:
The major memory system works by linking numbers to consonants, and then by linking these into words. By using the images these words create, and linking them together with the journey system, large amounts of information can be accurately memorized.

[kasturi]

Using Aide Memoires

How to Use the Tool:
An Aide Memoire (Memory aid) is a structured list of points or headings that should be considered when solving a particular problem. It tends to be specific to the type of problem being faced.

A good aide memoire can be a very powerful planning tool, as it will contain a great deal of the experience of the people who developed it. If you use a good aide memoire effectively, you can be reasonably confident that you will have considered all relevant factors. Often this makes the difference between carrying out a task effectively and making a mess of it, particularly when you are under pressure.

Aide Memoires are routinely used in areas as diverse as computer systems analysis, construction of financial proposals and military planning.    Improve

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Developing an Aide Memoire
If you are solving a common problem, then a good aide memoire may already exist for it. If you cannot find a good pre-prepared one, then you may have to develop it for yourself. This is worthwhile where you need to plan a number of similar jobs.

Developing an aide memoire is an iterative process: first you start by producing what you think is a definitive list of points or headings that should be considered. Use this to plan the job. After the job is complete, review the list, and see if there are any additional points that should be included. Every time an unforeseen problem arises on a project, ask yourself whether you need to prompt yourself on it on your list.

As your aide memoire improves, so will the quality of your planning.

Example:
Business Analysts use a number of different aide memoires for designing computer software. The one used depends on the size and type of job being executed. An example of a simple one is shown below. This is used during preparation of a specification to ensure that relevant factors are considered.

Customer Requirements:
•   Stated Requirement and Purpose of Enhancement
•   Special Requirements
Project Analysis:
•   Volumes of Data and Processing Time
•   Technical Risks and Feasibility
•   Implications: Hardware, Supporting software, etc.
•   System-specific considerations
•   Project Stages
Project Implementation
•   Detailed Design
•   Quality Assurance/Test Plan
•   Documentation
•   Training
•   Installation
•   Follow Up Work
The analyst will run through this list of headings while preparing a specification to ensure that he or she has considered all aspects of a problem. Where headings are not relevant they are ignored. By using and developing the aide memoire, the analyst can be reasonably confident that all appropriate project stages have been taken into consideration. This ensures that a fair price is charged for work done.

Key points:
An aide memoire is a standard list of points or headings that show what you should consider while you are planning to solve a problem. By using an aide memoire you ensure that you do not forget important factors.

Aide memoires should be improved continuously. If you find that have not included an important point, then update the list appropriately. This ensures that the next time you use the aide memoire you will remember to think about the point. This will improve the quality and depth of future planning that you carry out.

[mahendra]

tnx very useful postings u hv done but as form 3 days pc was under repair n just seen yr postings n it is very very lengthy hence would read later sorry but it is is useful can be seen from the topic but in my case if memory is improved u all would suffer as i would be taunting u all fro every things when i remember more abt u all n me just kidding tnx