Search Free Article Database:

Mnemonics help make most out of memories

By: Article Brain Editor

By: Tanya Ludlow

ROY G BIV. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles. HOMES.

Without context these phrases have little meaning, but almost everybody recognizes them as devices to help remember information as diverse as the order of the colors of the rainbow, the order of mathematical operations, the order of the planets from the sun and the five Great Lakes.

They are all mnemonics devices - techniques used to aid the memory and recall information. Charles Grah, professor of psychology at Austin Peay State University, presented a talk April 12 titled "Mnemonics: The Science and Art of Maximizing Memory" in the University Center.

His presentation was the sixth and final faculty research forum for the 2006-2007 academic year, sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs.

The forum provides an opportunity for faculty members to share their research with a broader audience than traditional forums.

In his presentation, Grah focused on the empirical research conducted over the past 20 years relating to the field of mnemonics.

The World Memory Championships have offered researchers a chance to connect with some of the most mnemonically talented, or "superior memorizers" in the world. The current world record for memorizing a randomly shuffled 52 card deck is 31 seconds. The world record for memorizing multiple randomly shuffled decks of cards is 27 in one hour.

Grah said that the research reveals that superior memorizers are not any more intellectually gifted than the average person, but that they utilize mnemonic strategies that boost their information recall. Current technology also allows researchers to examine brain function in superior memorizers versus control groups.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and especially functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveal that although there were no cognitive or structural differences between the superior memorizers and control groups, there was a significant difference in activity in the area of the brain that controls spatial memory.

In the superior memorizers this area of the brain was markedly more active during memory tasks than in the brains of the control group. Grah said that this increase in brain activity in the spatial memory area of the brain during the recall exercises reveals that superior memorizers do indeed utilize mnemonic strategies instead of simply relying on natural talent.

Spatial memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one's environment and spatial orientation.

Spatial memory is important in mnemonics as the method of loci, which is a mnemonics links system based on place. It is a popular mnemonics technique practiced since ancient times. The method of loci involves remembering an item by associating it with a specific and well-known location, most often rooms in a house.

The current World Memory Champion, Clemens Meyer, a 19-year-old student from Germany, utilized this method in memorizing 1,040 random digits in a half hour, a 300-point-long journey through his house.

Critics of mnemonics say that it encourages mechanical memorization without context, but Grah said, "Creatively employed, it can be an effective tool in education."

Although the memorization of decks of cards might have little practical application, mnemonics techniques can support higher learning because it "helps the person bring the information they need into consciousness," Grah said.