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Methods of memorizing material. Repetition is the mother of learning. Techniques for memorizing historical facts using mnemonics

For successful preparation for the session. But we decided not to stop there and introduce you to at least four more effective methods of quickly memorizing text or any other information. Read, think, choose the right one.

All of the following techniques are based on repeated reading. But we are not talking about haphazard and meaningless reading, but about deep work on the text.

Assimilation of the text in 4 repetitions: the GDD method

The name consists of the first letters of the names of the main stages of memorizing the text:

  1. O main thought. The text is read for meaningful perception and highlighting the main thoughts, establishing relationships between them. You don't need to take everything in the text. If necessary, the main information is underlined or written out on a separate sheet.
  2. V nonessential reading. The second reading is distinguished by increased attentiveness and thoughtfulness, you should pay attention to small details, details. The text is read slowly. The main task of this stage is to mentally tie the details to the main thoughts. At the end of the stage, you need to try to remember the main thoughts and the details already attached to them.
  3. O review... The text is scanned fluently, without in-depth reading. Viewing starts from the end. The reader mentally asks himself questions on the main points, tries to draw parallels with the information already received about the text. At this stage, a rough outline of the text is drawn up and the sequence of the main thoughts is remembered.
  4. D gadfly... Repetition of the text from memory in a certain sequence: remember the main points, gradually moving on to the details. Peeping into the text should be avoided whenever possible at this stage. Then there is a second reading with mental "serifs" in those places that the reader missed or forgot. Why did it happen? If the missing information is material, it should be worked through.

Among all methods of assimilating information, this one is suitable for texts of small volumes.

Since new information is quickly forgotten after the initial acquaintance, it is worth repeating it a little later (after a few hours on the same day or the next). Over time, the dynamics of forgetting slows down.

Reading aloud and mentally reviewing: the HPGS method

This method of quickly memorizing information is similar to the previous one, but it also has its own differences.

An experiment was carried out at Kazan University, during which the subjects formed 4 groups. The challenge for everyone is to remember the text. In the first group, the text was read aloud 4 times. In the second, the text was read aloud 3 times and mentally retold by students 1 time. In the third, the text was read twice and retold mentally twice. In the fourth, the text was read aloud only once, and 3 times was mentally retold by the listeners.

The results showed the highest memorization efficiency among students of the fourth group. The listeners of the third group remembered information a little less effectively, the second group even less, the students of the first group remembered information worse than the others.

Thanks to this experiment, the HPGC method appeared:

  1. O orientation... When reading the text, it is important to understand its main idea. If necessary, write it down or underline it, repeating it many times in memory.
  2. H shadow... When you re-read the information, you are familiarized with the information more carefully, the smaller details are highlighted, a connection is established between them and the main thoughts of the text. The main thoughts attached to details are repeated in my mind several times.
  3. O review... A quick scan of the text determines if the main thoughts and their connection to details have been correctly identified. For a deeper understanding, you can ask questions for the main parts.
  4. G lavnoe... A mental retelling is performed, and, if possible, out loud. At this stage, it is important to remember the main thoughts, to answer the questions posed.

Try to keep the number of readings to a minimum. In this case, the number of mental repetitions can be absolutely any necessary for better assimilation in memory.

Methods of memorizing large amounts of information: Cicero's method

The previous methods are suitable for working with small texts. But what if you need to quickly master and memorize whole notes, books, works?

As you might have guessed, this technique was named after Mark Tullius Cicero, a brilliant orator and great statesman of Rome, who lived in 106-43. BC.

Glory to this man was brought not only by his cleverest thoughts. In his speeches, he never used recordings, reproducing from memory a huge number of dates, facts, quotes from historical events and names.

This is one of the best methods for memorizing information due to its simplicity. It is also called room system or method of places.

The key is to mentally arrange important facts in a certain order in a familiar room. Then, if necessary, you will just need to remember that very room to fish out the necessary information. It was this technique that Cicero himself was guided by, preparing for the performances: mentally he walked around his house, placing the main provisions of the performance in it as conveniently as possible.

Before starting to master the method, it is important to choose for yourself your own sequence of traversing the rooms, so as not to get confused in your own logic of placing information.

For the first acquaintance with memorizing information in this way, try to actually walk around your house, mentally placing information in its places. Then walking around the house will not be necessary at all, it is enough to mentally repeat the route passed.

And here are some tips to help you get the information right:

  • it is best to start with your own room. Take the door as the starting point, then follow the left hand rule (examine in order everything on the left side) and slowly move further clockwise;
  • when placing information sequentially, it is worth considering stationary objects that always stand in the same places (curtains, chandelier, floor lamp, sofa, picture, photo frame, cornice, shelves, etc.);
  • you should use sequential movement not only from left to right, but also from top to bottom, since often objects are one below the other (carpet under the sofa, table under the chandelier, etc.);
  • if you need to memorize multi-level lists, use not only your home, but also the homes of your relatives, friends, the lecture hall, and even well-studied routes from home to school, to the store, etc.

Over time, as you master this method more and more, you will be able to use more and more small objects from the rooms and find more and more secluded places to store information in your memory. But at the very beginning, it is better to limit yourself to the most noticeable objects in the room.

This method has proven itself perfectly when working with large texts, daily routine, memorizing the order of phone calls. Moreover, if important information is somehow connected with each other, and is not just a meaningless set of data, then you can reuse the same room several times.

The Cicero Method is great for memorizing numbers. True, first you have to translate the numbers from an abstract form into a more concrete one in any convenient way. And only then you can fill the places in the room with objects into which the numbers have been converted.

The huge advantage of this method is that 2-3 workouts are enough to master it, unlike many other techniques. In addition, it can be used in absolutely any situation and in any place. At the same time, the place where you are at a particular moment (audience, dacha, museum, dean's office) will serve you as a support and help. All you need is to remember in detail a familiar room or use the one in which you are at the moment.

We invite you to practice and try to reproduce the words below from memory using the Cicero method: float, napkin, curlers, grass, mirror, album, comb, book, cat, light bulb, matches, blanket, scissors, scoop. You can use the picture as a sample room:

This technique is one of the most effective methods for effective memorization of text information.

Using visual memory: the pictogram method

A pictogram is a collection of graphic images that a person comes up with in order to memorize and then reproduce any words and expressions.

The pictogram method in psychology is often used to study, diagnose and strengthen people's memory of the "visual" image (s).

During the study of thinking using the pictogram method, the following plan was developed when working with text information:

  1. Key words or short phrases are highlighted in the text, which should be written out and underlined.
  2. A pictogram is drawn for each word or phrase - a kind of image, which later will help to remember this particular word / phrase. The image here plays the role of visual association. When drawing, you should not use sketchiness, as well as unnecessary details. The picture should not contain numbers and letters. The process of creating an image should not take more than 10-20 seconds. Example: To memorize the phrase “hard work”, you can draw a hammer or a person bent under a heavy load. You can associate fireworks, flags, Christmas tree, etc. with the phrase "merry holiday".

The pictogram cannot be right or wrong. This is an association that belongs to you and was created to fulfill the main goal - to remind you of the word or phrase to which it was attached.

It is much easier to draw a drawing for a specific object (ice cream, bear, nose) than for a process or an abstract concept (development, longing, thinking). But in this case, you can easily solve the problem - you just need to assign them a more objective association, transform them into something concrete. For example, for the word "development" you can use the image of a spiral, for the word "longing" - a tear or anti-smile, for "thinking" - a light bulb, etc.

There are also words of medium complexity of concretization, for example, a school can be represented by a desk, a blackboard, a hospital - by a bed or a red cross, etc.

Before you start using the pictogram method, you need to practice. This will allow you to get your hands on the drawing and prepare for the immediate task.

Sample exercise : Draw pictograms for the words below. Please note that words of different complexity are used here. Try to draw such a picture so that after a few hours you can remember the word for which you created the picture.

Using the method of pictograms in preparation for exams, you can use a sheet of paper with pictures as a cheat sheet, which will not be scary to put on the desk at the exam itself.

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Using the Accumulation System: The Atkinson Method

But Atkinson is sure that memory should improve gradually, without sudden jumps and overloads. Therefore, the only safe and proven method of strengthening memory is the accumulation method.

The scientist proposes to leave aside all artificial methods, using only what nature itself has given us. The brain, like all muscles, needs training and gradual exertion. As the workload grows, so does the memory efficiency.

The essence of the system is as follows:

  1. The text is selected (optimally - in poetic form). On the first day, learn by heart from 4 to 6 lines.
  2. On the second day, they repeat yesterday's learned lines and additionally learn from 4 to 6 lines.
  3. On the third day, new 4-6 lines are added to those already learned.

The more repetitions, the better the new material will be remembered.

It's okay if you peep at the book from time to time. Do not be upset if something is forgotten: over time, the amount of memory will increase, memorization will become easier.

After a month, double the amount of information you are assimilating. In another month, you can triple the amount of information.

Research has shown that as a result of this technique:

  • learned knowledge remains for a long time and easily pops up in memory,
  • the ability to memorize absolutely any thing is improving all the time,
  • with the help of willpower, any information is easily remembered.

The essence of this method is nothing more than repetition. Classes are best done in the morning, as our perception is still fresh at this time of day. Train every day and you will see: in a month your brain will begin to memorize many times more information.

What is important to remember?

Multiple haphazard repetition of information is unproductive.

And memory can and should be trained! Memorizing something new is useful not only when preparing for exams, but also for life in general. Soon after the start of using the chosen technique, you can see how the brain begins to remember other information that we use in life: remember phone numbers, addresses, regulate incoming / outgoing correspondence and much more.

The secret is that after repeated training, the memory automatically begins to apply the skill of memorizing more information. And this is without the use of any mnemonic techniques and training. However, it is still worthwhile to help your brain from time to time by sorting out important and unimportant information. For example, when preparing for an exam in a discipline that will not be useful to you in real life, there is absolutely no need to teach a lot of useless information. It is enough to ask for help from people who will do it for you.

And here you can watch a video on the techniques of memorizing GDD and HPGC - the most popular way to increase memory:

Mnemonics (techniques of mnemonics) are special methods of memorizing certain types of information based on the peculiarities of human psychology, as well as on the four rules of memorization that were given in previous lessons. Knowledge and use of special mnemonics will make it possible to better memorize digital information, specific texts and terms, names, persons and surnames, foreign words, expressions and much more. In this lesson, the basics of mnemonics will be sorted out, and the basic techniques and methods of memorizing various types of information will also be described.

What is mnemonics?

If you need to remember some numbers for a long time, then for this you can use the following mnemonic techniques:

Association with other familiar numbers. Dale Carnegie advises memorizing dates by associating them with significant dates that you know. For example, it is easy to remember that the Battle of Kulikovo took place exactly 600 years before the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.

Shedd system (Shed system). Small numbers, for example, historical dates or short telephone numbers, can be learned by composing a special phrase, each word in which is in a strictly defined order and has the number of letters corresponding to the memorized digit. For example, if you want to memorize the number 467, then you need to come up with a phrase in which the first word will consist of 4 letters, the second - from 6, and the third word - from 7 letters. So, the number 467 corresponds to the phrase "an elephant runs at a gallop" (4, 6 and 7 letters, respectively). Zero in this system often corresponds to a word of 10 or more letters.

Rhymes. It is often convenient to memorize a large number of numbers by creating rhymes or poems. This method is suitable if you need to memorize certain numbers for a long time, having the opportunity to spend some time on it. This way you can easily remember what signs come after the decimal point in the number "Pi".

Remembering names and faces

Very often we need to memorize people we have just met. We all tend to be nice to those who remember our name. In order to quickly and accurately memorize the names and faces of people, there are the following mnemonics.

Show interest in a person, chat a little, referring to him by name. Several rules of memorization work here. Firstly, you show interest in a person, and also get information about him, which can serve as a basis for building associations with him. Secondly, you repeat his name several times, which also improves memorization.

Association with another well-known person with the same name. For example, many of us will easily remember a person's name if he is your namesake. It is also easy to remember the names of people that match the names of your parents and good acquaintances. But even if you don't know the name of the person you want to remember, try to remember famous personalities with the same names: actors, politicians, musicians.

Selection of other modifications of his name. For example, the name Alexander has several modifications Sasha, San, Shura. As soon as the person introduces themselves, try to silently name a few modifications of their name.

The spelling of the name. Think about how a person's name is spelled - visualize it. How many letters are there in this name? What is the first letter? The answers to these questions will further strengthen the image of the person's name in your visual perception. If possible, you can even write the person's name on paper to enhance perception.

Memorizing surnames. You can memorize surnames using mnemonic techniques based on visual associations. You need to start by looking for a mental replacement or modification of the surname. For example, my surname Buyanov can be associated with the Buyan island from children's fairy tales, as well as with a violent temperament. Then some noticeable feature of a person is selected, for example, a facial feature or character trait (which is more suitable for the Buyanov surname), which must be tied to the selected surname association.

Memorizing foreign languages

Language mnemonics will be useful for memorizing words, expressions, grammar rules, verb forms, etc.

Method of phonetic associations (IPA). This method appeared due to the fact that in all languages ​​of the world there are words or parts of words that sound the same, but have different meanings. Moreover, in different languages ​​there are words that have a common origin. For example, the word look can be remembered by associating it with the similar-sounding Russian word “bow”. And when we cut the "onion", we cannot "look" at it, as our eyes are watery.

The method of interaction of all sensations (MVVO). This mnemonic approach is useful for those who want to learn how to communicate fluently in a foreign language. If the words do not automatically pop up in your memory, then you will not be able to speak the language fluently. Therefore, the main thing is not to memorize a foreign word as a translation of a native word, but to immediately associate a foreign word directly with the corresponding concept. To learn the word "cup" imagine a cup with a handle, and with the image in mind, say "cup" several times, trying not to remember the word "cup".

Information memorization technique

Organization of information

Orderly information is much easier to remember than chaotic information. So, if you need to remember what to buy at the store, the easiest way is to make a list of several items. Keeping in mind that there were 9 items on the list, your brain will search for an answer until all items are mentally ticked off.

Classify what you want to remember. Returning to the list of products, it is much easier to divide it into several subgroups, guided, for example, by the departments in the store - dairy, fish, meat, groceries, and not try to fit in memory a random set of products.

Diagrams, tables, diagrams and graphs help to remember more complex information. Composing them, you not only sort and generalize, look for similarities and differences, but also refer to spatial memory, connecting it to the memorization process.

Visualize it

Visualization is a powerful memorization tool. To name the objects in your room, you just have to mentally imagine a picture - the type of room, and now you are ready to list everything without exception. A vivid, clear mental image will help to remember names, routes, information structured by keywords.

If you need to remember many names and associate them with faces, highlight in each person a characteristic feature that catches the eye, and mentally attach a "tag" with a name to it. As you try to keep the route in mind, put red check marks in your mind on notable details along the way. Our brain best of all "clings" to strange, unusual images, therefore, the more ridiculous the picture is, the better. The technique of "snapshots" is based on the visualization technique, when the things necessary for memorization are organized into a kind of picture, from which a photograph is mentally taken.

If you are not a visual, try to memorize information using your usual channel of perception - through sounds, smells, sensations. So, remembering the road, highlight not a bright detail, but the sound with which the tram crosses the unevenness on the rails, the smell of a bakery on the corner, and the like.

Rhyme

Small children learn the alphabet easily because it is rhymed. There are hundreds of funny rhymes in the world that make it possible to remember certain things - irregular verbs, body muscles, exception words. Come up with your own poems and the funnier the better, because our brain loves to “have fun” and it will remember a funny ridiculous rhymed text better than the necessary, but serious information.

For example, in order to memorize the stress in complex words, someone thought of the following rhyme: The phenomenon rings on Wednesdays. Having accepted the contract over the years, he gave the escort experts the airport petition

Use abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms keep information compact. It is easier to remember the United States than the United States of America, to keep in memory GLONASS rather than the Global Navigation Satellite System. If, for example, you need to memorize the names of rivers or mountain peaks, organize their first letters into a sonorous word, best of all, one that evokes a pleasant association in you. Do not try to give meaning to the abbreviation, if it does not work out, it will still remain in your memory. For example, the meaningless word DAMAN, denoting the order of stress in verses of three-syllable sizes, is still easier to remember than the fact that a verse in which the stress falls on the first syllable is called dactyl (YES), on the second - amphibrachia (AM), and on the third - anapest (AN).

How to memorize numbers and formulas

For those who constantly need to quickly memorize large arrays of numbers, a technique was invented, according to which each number corresponds to an image, selected according to the most convenient for memorizing association. So, a two for someone is a swan, a seven is a saber, a four is a chair, and so on. To memorize a series of numbers, come up with a story about them and fix it in memory with a vivid picture. For example, 274 is a swan with a saber climbed onto a chair. Agree, this is not so easy to forget.

According to this technique, you can easily remember the formulas, also representing the Latin letters and symbols (subtraction, addition, division, etc.) in the form of any animals or objects.

Remembering just a long number, divide it into "pieces" of 3-4 digits. Scientists have long proven that this amount of information is ideal for our brain.

Remember through "pleasant"

To remember something boring and uninteresting, try to find some bright, important pair for it. For example, if you love ancient Greek philosophy, and you have to study the history of China, remember that Confucius was 10 years younger than Socrates.

Make up stories

Make up short stories to memorize a sequence. For example, to quickly remember in what order the classification of organisms is: - kingdom; - type of; - Class; - detachment; - family; - genus; - species, you can use the following sentence: "Tsar Timofey appreciated kvass with juice, rum and vodka."

You can also select a keyword in each sentence from the text that you need to remember and make a funny story about these "keys". So you can memorize the theses on which you have to "restore" the report. To make the story better remembered, imagine it in the form of a cartoon, comic book, or travel story.

Home of your memory

The technique that combines several mnemonics at once is known under different names - "temple of memory", "house of memory", "storage". Its essence lies in the fact that you organize the storage of information, "stuffing" it in the drawers of the chest of drawers in your house, on the tiers in the temple, on the shelves in the storage. Choose some place well known to you and "fix" pieces of information, material, visualizing their position in a familiar environment. This way you can memorize any amount of information for a long time, because in order to “remember everything”, you just need to call up the “storage” in your memory. This method is universal, so you can memorize the stages of human development and the list of products for cooking.

Memory cards

Memory cards, or mind maps (in English they are called mind maps), are another way of memorizing large amounts of information without memorizing, combining several methods at once. These cards "build" by drawing in the center a central image associated with the main idea, and branching off several secondary ones from it, revealing it in more detail, clarifying it. Memory cards are drawn in different colors, they connect key concepts in them, place numbered lists, but try to keep the number of sub-items and “branches” no more than 5–7.

The human brain uses only 10% of its capabilities, the rest of the brain's potential remains unused. A person who has a good memory and who can memorize a huge amount of incoherent information does not use any secrets to reveal the remaining 90% of the brain's abilities.

Practical application of mnemonics

It is enough to train your memory for 15-20 minutes daily. Use proven memorization techniques.

The modern world of computer technology and information requires a huge amount of memorization of accurate information. These can be e-mail passwords, the digital code of a program or file. In this case, it is simply necessary to accurately memorize and reproduce numerical and alphabetic information.

It is also required to memorize poems and texts according to the school literary curriculum. Poems are a good training for memory, increase the vocabulary of rhymed words, develop creativity.

Having a trained memory, you can learn more than one foreign language in a short time.

Mnemonic techniques will allow you to double the volume of new foreign words. Having studied English, you can easily use it as a matrix for memorizing words in German or another language.

Some information about the memory mechanism itself

Human memory has well-studied boundaries. Psychologists have found that memory is divided into operational, long-term and short-term. From the sensory receptors of perception (vision, hearing), an imprint of the real world enters the short-term memory. With the help of focused attention, information is imprinted, recognized and compared in RAM. In RAM, as in short-term memory, a limited number of elements is retained, seven plus or minus two elements for 30 seconds.

Then the information is encoded into cognitive structures (meaning) or recoded and sent to long-term memory, where it is stored for the whole life.

The better and more efficient the coding of information, the longer it is remembered and the faster it is retrieved from this storage. The content of short-term memory is constantly changing, new elements supplant old ones. Temporary erasure of already processed information in the course of thinking is a protective function of the brain against constantly incoming sensory stimuli from the outside world.

If it were not for the erasure of old traces of information, the brain would be greatly overloaded. And for this reason, the amount of memory never changes. Sometimes there is a superimposition of one information on top of another, and the information is mixed, for example, when you are continuously viewing different texts. In this case, memorization errors may occur. The lack of use of this or that memorized information leads to its absolute erasure. Often, mentally repeating it, on the contrary, leads to constant stimulation of the corresponding neural connections in the brain.

There are various techniques of mnemonics that make it possible to effectively use all the possibilities of memory.

School methods of memorizing educational material were based on multiple repetition. This mechanical memorization was time consuming with poor results. And incomplete understanding of the material led to the fact that it was quickly destroyed and erased in memory. Therefore, one of the rules of strong memorization is the comprehension of the memorized information.

The rapid assimilation of new information is facilitated by already familiar information that has something to do with it. For example, if a person is studying medicine or psychology, then new information about diseases or mental disorders will fall into the same context nearby. Information is assimilated into the same memory cells as previously acquired knowledge.

Such a rapid assimilation of new information is due to the fact that in our minds there are already ready-made generalizations - concepts, the necessary set of associations, on which others are strung.

It is necessary to clearly systematize your memory training classes. If you are studying a foreign language, repeated classes should not be with a large gap in time. If you study once for two days in a row, and then rest for five days, then new information will be forgotten and erased from memory faster than new information will be gained. Thus, the level of memory development will remain low. Therefore, you need to practice every day for 15-20 minutes.

For a better understanding of the information, try to organize it into a logical structure like a tree. A more general knowledge (word, concept) can be used as a tree trunk, and further from it, according to the principle of branches, to augment more specific ones. If you are learning words, try to combine them into one semantic field. Or by the degree of abstractness (for example, the date of foundation of Vologda is 1147 - Vologda, foundation, date, 11 47).

The natural language of our consciousness

Any symbolic language (language of mathematics, language of native speech) is an artificially created communication system. A child who does not know how to read and write until some time remembers everything with the help of pictures - images. Therefore, the most natural for human consciousness is the image. This is the very immediate code to remember.

Our consciousness perceives all information in a figurative form. The image of objects, numbers, words appears in our consciousness much faster than conceptual structures and thinking are included. A retained image in memory for a stimulus, without observing the most real object, is called submission.

Thus, memorization mnemonics are aimed at:

  • maximum development of imaginative thinking;
  • the creation of stable supporting associations;
  • an increase in the time of concentration of consciousness (attention).

With Wikium, you can organize the training process in the basics of mnemonics according to an individual program

Attention training

Exercise 1.
Bring the palms of your hands together, leaving a distance of 1 centimeter between them. After a while, a sensation of warmth appears between the palms. Try to concentrate on this sensation, stopping the flow of thoughts. Don't think about anything at this point.

Exercise 2.
Exercise attention with breathing. Sit back in the chair. Breathing should be even and calm. Then try to follow the rhythm of your breathing. Slowly observe the moment of inhalation, exhalation.

Exercise 3.
Another method helps in training attention. You need to concentrate on your entire body image. Walk mentally over the body: how the hands lie and are relaxed, what sensations are in the legs. Try to feel the warmth of your body from head to toe.

Image manipulation. Basic techniques of mnemonics

The basic techniques of mnemonics are based on the visualization of memorized information. When reading, in order to remember the entire text, try to translate each word into a picture in your imagination. With the help of mental actions, try to consider the resulting image from all sides. For example, imagine a book. Turn it over mentally. Consider what color it is, by thickness.

Visual images can be connected with each other. The connection between them is memorized by the brain, and if necessary, remember the entire chain of images, it is enough to remember one of the key ones. In this case, the brain will give out all the material remembered in the images for the stimulus.

Reception overlay images

There is a technique for creating a matrix by imposing images. A link is created that allows you to remember the weak connections between the stimulus and the memorized information. This mnemonic technique is used to learn foreign words. In this case, images of different modalities are superimposed - visual and acoustic.

Reception of increasing and decreasing images

It is necessary to take a more complex image and put a simpler one there. A complex image can be reduced if necessary. For example, imagine a thermometer, consider it in detail: divisions, numbers, a mercury column. We increase the mercury column and you can hang a bucket on it. Then roll up all the small parts back to their normal size.

Reception of transformation of images

Imaginary objects can also be transformed. Thicken, lengthen. Add different details. This is necessary in order to be able to reuse them.

Creation of artificial associations

Combine several different images into one picture that can be remembered as one element. At the same time, you can connect from 3 to 5 images together.

Natural associations

Natural associations are created by the brain in everyday life. All objects that we see in our environment already create a certain connection with each other. The setting of a well-studied room, or the well-known path from home to work through the park, can become a supporting association for memorizing the necessary information, stringing it onto furnishings. To reproduce this information, you need to remember a familiar area or room.

Symbolization

Symbolization is a technique for memorizing abstract words that are difficult to visualize. Use well-known symbols:

  • the dove is the symbol of peace;
  • the symbol of death is a skull;
  • etc.

You can use loose association to create symbols. Further, you can use a generalized image (symbol) to string together smaller and more specific associations, increasing the semantic field.

Memorizing numerical information

For this, a ready-made matrix of images is prepared in advance. Which will correspond to the numbers. For example:

  • 1 - card;
  • 2 - glass;
  • 3 - bird.

But it is more effective to use their graphic image and similarity with other objects to indicate numbers. Let's say:

  • 0 - can be designated as a clock, a globe, which has a round outline resembling this number.
  • 1 - candle, pencil, nail;
  • 2 - a swan, a chess horse;
  • etc.

Eidetica

From the word "eidos" - an image. This memorization technique is based not only on the figurative perception of the world, as in childhood, but also on the attachment of mental material. The child has more developed curiosity and a sense of surprise at everything new. Therefore, especially new and interesting information stimulates neural connections the most.

Events that are accompanied by a feeling of joy are remembered most vividly. Therefore, strive to make your associations as interesting as possible.

It is advisable, on the basis of the memorized material (for example, numbers), to come up with an unusual story that will combine all artificial associations together.

When memorizing foreign words, try to imagine how this word makes you feel. The sound of this word. The child remembers all the surrounding information with emotions, internal sensations, and not logic. The receipt of positive emotions from images is also reflected at the chemical level by the release of the hormone of pleasure (endorphin). The material is consolidated in the structure of the brain.

You can supplement your imagination with a drawing by drawing what the poem is talking about.

Complex and long words and numbers need to be analytically dissected. Two-digit numbers can be added, getting a new number - a code for storing numbers in memory. For example, to remember the foreign word spring, you can break it down into sp - ring, it turns out that the word “spring” also contains the word “ring”. To memorize the number 315, you can get a new number 3 + 1 + 5 = 9, so you need to remember not three numbers, but one.

In general, the use of mnemonics at first will be some additional mental work for you, but this is exactly what you need - in the end you will form those mental images that you can successfully memorize. Over time and with the improvement of skills, the use of mnemonics will be easy, and the result will be more guaranteed. As we noted above, regular training is the key to success. Train for success.

Since ancient times, people have attached great importance to the ability to memorize and store information, rightly believing that a person's success in anything depends on it. In the era of Antiquity, the process of memorization was considered a real art, which was patronized by one of the nine muses - Mnemosyne. Therefore, the art of preserving knowledge in memory was called mnemonics, and management techniques - mnemonic, or mnemonics.

The process of memorization is the basis of our memory, and in order to master the art of mnemonics, you need to be well versed in how its laws work.

Have you ever noticed that our memory is selective? Something is memorized easily and quickly, and some information, despite persistent cramming, does not want to linger in my head. The thing is that memorization works in different ways, in fact, there are two completely different types of memorization, subject to different laws.

Involuntary memorization

Thanks to him, a huge amount of information is stored in our memory, and practically without any effort, and often unconsciously. Obtaining the necessary knowledge without making any work is the dream of all schoolchildren and students. However, in order for the information to be memorized involuntarily, a number of conditions are required:

  1. The main one is the following: we involuntarily remember what attracts our attention - vivid, unusual information related to our interests or that caused a strong emotional response.
  2. The information included in the activity is easier to remember. That is, when we need knowledge not just for memorization (as often happens at school and at the university), but for fulfilling professional duties or doing what we love. In this case, the brain quickly evaluates the knowledge gained as important and necessary, and they are fixed in memory, and their constant participation in activities ensures long-term storage. So, the teacher who reads the course memorizes its material faster and better than the student who listens to it.

Memory is associative in nature. This means that in the process of memorization, conditionally-temporal connections (associations) arise between new and existing information in the brain. It acts as a kind of anchor that holds knowledge. But for this there must be a connection between the new and the old. For absolutely new information that has no connection with our experience, involuntary memorization does not work.

And if these conditions are absent, then it is necessary to make efforts to memorize and use different ones.

Voluntary memorization

Purposeful, deliberate preservation of information most often requires, especially if we need to preserve the received data for a long time.

Arbitrary memorization has a multi-stage structure:

  • Getting to the first level of short-term memory, information is stored for a short time, just enough for the brain to assess its relevance and importance - from 30 seconds to several minutes.
  • For knowledge to be consolidated and transferred to the level of long-term memory, temporary connections between the foci of excitation in the cerebral cortex are required.
  • In the case of involuntary memorization, they arise on their own, but when there are no conditions for their occurrence, then we must take care of their purposeful creation.

That is, voluntary memorization presupposes various techniques and techniques for consolidating and storing acquired knowledge in memory. One of these techniques is known to everyone and used constantly, starting from school. This is a repetition technique. If the new information is repeated several times, then this causes multiple passage of the nerve impulse along the chain of neurons in the brain, and those very temporary connections are formed.

But this method is laborious, ineffective and only suitable for small amounts of information. And try, for example, to memorize a textbook of psychology or physics. Have you tried it already? How successful? Most likely not, unless yours is. In addition to laboriousness and inefficiency, the method of repeated repetition leads to a situation where there is a feeling that the head is swollen from the abundance of information, and new knowledge is not assimilated. This is not due to an overflow of long-term memory - its volume is huge. And with short-term and operational overload, which are associated with information processing.

If you want to master the art of mnemonics, then it is better to abandon the practice of memorization altogether, and use more effective techniques and techniques.

Associative-shaped techniques

Methods of memorizing information, which are based on associative memory and are considered the most ancient. These techniques arose when our ancestors still had poorly developed abstract-logical thinking. Therefore, image-based memorization is simple, convenient, and even a small child can use it.

By the way, the ancient associative-shaped methods of memorizing and reproducing information are passed down from generation to generation, and some have come down to us. And I think you use them sometimes. These are the so-called memory knots. By tying a knot, placing a cross in the palm of our hand, or winding a thread around our finger, we repeat what we need to remember. At this time, an associative connection is established in our brain between the “knot” sign and specific information. And then, as soon as we see this "knot", something that we should have remembered immediately pops up in our head.

In the distant past, there was even a knotted letter, where each knot tied in a special way meant a certain information block. And the man talked, fingered the braid with knots, remembering what to talk about next. The role of "knots" could be played by shells, multi-colored pebbles, drawings on the board.

Nowadays no one remembers a large amount of information with the help of "knots". But some techniques related to the activation of associative-figurative thinking can be advised.

Techniques for memorizing numbers

Many people find it difficult to memorize numbers. The point is not only that this abstract, most often dry information, but also that it does not require the work of thinking. Unless, of course, this is a digital example or a math problem. And what is not processed by the brain in any way, is not included in mental activity, is remembered the worst of all.

If you use images associated with them instead of numbers, then the memorization process is greatly simplified, moreover, active mental activity contributes to memorization.

Images-associations are usually individual in nature, everyone can come up with their own, the main thing is that they are interesting and bright. For example, the number 32 is easy to remember, because these are 3 funny geese. And if 732, then the geese follow the hunched over grandmother (number 7). The image for the number 31 can be a three of horses, which is driven by a coachman. But such a picture can be thought of for a more complex digital series 324-17-05: three cheerful geese were sitting on a chair, and a hunched-over granny with a stick brought them a dish and a ladle.

Images should be as lively and mobile as possible, try to get a meaningful picture, a kind of cartoon. This will significantly increase the efficiency of memorizing and subsequent reproduction of information.

If you are at odds with figurative thinking, then numbers can be associated with words that begin with the same letter or have as many letters as you need to remember. For example: 457 - "Peter loves fishing."

Associations can be meaningful, and numbers are easier to remember if you link them (establish a connection) to the house and apartment number, birthday and year of birth, school number, etc.

Memorizing names and word groups

Associative-shaped techniques are also suitable for memorizing names. The principle is still the same - the establishment of connections-associations with the images that have arisen in the brain.

The success of this technique is possible only if the associations, firstly, are vivid, and secondly, associated with a specific person. For example: Mikhail Belov is a polar bear. This is the easiest option. But Irina Stroganova is more complicated. What can you think of here? Strict and vulnerable (if the characteristics match), slender and ruddy, scary and swears, planes and draws, etc.

Often there is a problem with memorizing a list of unrelated words. When memorizing, you need to establish a figurative or semantic connection between them. For example, listing the items we need to buy: bread, sugar, printer paper, thread and nails. We make a sentence: "Bread with sugar, wrapped in paper and tied with threads, hang on a nail."

Memorizing text

A large text is, of course, more difficult to remember, and you should not try to memorize it verbatim. Associative-shaped techniques will help in this case. These include the same famous Cicero's "Roman Room" method, which can be used to memorize the text of a message, lecture or speech at a seminar. Its essence is as follows.

Carefully read the text of the message, at the same time breaking it into small pieces - semantic parts. Each part should contain a key idea that can be summed up in a short phrase. By the way, this elaboration of the text will help to remember it.

Imagine a room you know well, for example, your own apartment with all furnishings, furniture, accessories, etc.

  • Enter the apartment.
  • Start reading the text again and at the same time "lay out" the selected pieces of text on different furnishings, remembering to repeat the main ideas. For example, you place the introduction on the mirror on the right, and the next passage on the nightstand under the mirror. You will place the next piece on the shoe rack. Remember what it is about? Then go from the hallway to the room and continue to lay out the text.
  • Having placed all the semantic pieces, once again look around the apartment, check if they are all in their places, using short phrase-ideas for this.
  • Then imagine that you go out the door and lock it, and now no one can change the order of the parts.

This method is very effective, but it only works if you are good enough to speak, that is, to communicate your thoughts on the merits of the matter, and know the terminology if you have a scientific message. After all, you did not memorize your report literally.

The method of Cicero's "Roman Room" is also called the method of places. It is based not only on figurative-associative memorization, but also on semantic memorization. Semantic techniques are currently considered basic for memorizing a large amount of textual information.

Semantic memorization technique

This type of memorization is based on one of the fundamental laws of memory: in order for information to be preserved, the brain must work on it. And semantic memorization just presupposes active mental work on the material. And this, by the way, does not like the method for those who would like to learn how to assimilate complex information easily, without making any effort. It doesn't work that way. Mastering any activity requires effort, and the mnemonic is no exception.

Semantic techniques are mainly related to memorization of the text. They are largely individual and depend both on the characteristics of a person's thinking and on the nature of the material that needs to be remembered. But there are a few general rules that should be followed:

  • Remember, you need the information you want to remember. Convince yourself of this. Nothing hinders the assimilation of knowledge so much as the conviction of its uselessness.
  • Try to understand and comprehend the text. If the presentation is too complicated, then, while reading, "translate" it into a language that is more convenient for you.
  • Do not cling to individual words, phrases, formulations. Focus on memorizing the meaning, and this is impossible without understanding.
  • Highlight the main points and do not be lazy to draw up a plan. It will help you comprehend the text and sort out the main semantic units on the shelves. Observe a logical sequence when moving from point to point, awareness of the connections between points reduces the amount of time to memorize.
  • Supplement the main thoughts with examples, they are always remembered better than dry theoretical formulations. If there are not enough examples in the text, come up with them yourself. Use your experience, information from books, films, professional activities.
  • Ask questions, they are great for activating thinking and helping to understand difficult material. Reason, argue with the author and with yourself. Imagine an invisible interlocutor and discuss the most controversial points with him.
  • Always take notes. Firstly, it will allow you to focus on the main thing, because you will not write down everything, but only the essential. Second, a more organized and linear written language will allow you to organize and organize the information you memorize. Thirdly, writing down also connects motor memory to semantic memory, which significantly increases the efficiency of memorization.

To some, these tips will seem too complicated. But if you form the habit of working in this way with any text, then everything will be remembered easily and simply, and it will take a little time. At least less than reading the same text three times. And the efficiency of storing information will be much higher.

Do not forget that semantic memorization requires a well-developed, fluent speech and a decent vocabulary. But you will develop this quality if you follow the advice on organizing semantic memorization.

Reception versification

Along with the well-known and widespread methods of mnemonics, there are quite original, but also effective ones. One of these methods is the method of versification - this is rhyming, versification. I think you've noticed that a poem is easier to remember than a prose text. The main reason here is rhyme (although rhythm matters too). Rhymes play the role of hooks that stretch out the next line. In this case, connections-associations are also established, but they are of a sound and rhythmic nature.

This technique is widely used in school to memorize rules and laws. For example, the well-known phrase "Pythagorean pants are equal on all sides" helps to remember that the square of the hypotenuse of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of its legs. And this is from the Russian language:

Drive, hold, watch and see
breathe, hear, hate
and depend, and twirl,
and offend and endure.
Will you remember, friends,
They cannot be conjugated with "e".

In general, the versification technique can be used to memorize any small amount of information. For example, the sequence of colors in the rainbow spectrum: "How Once Jacques the Bell-ringer Broke the Lantern with His Head." This rhymed line is less well known, but more interesting than the familiar one: "Every Hunter Wants To Know Where The Pheasant Sits."

And this is the order of the planets in the solar system: "We Know, Yulia's Mom Sat On Pills in the Morning." But to come up with rhymed memos can be advised to those who generally like to write poetry.

Very often, after studying the information about the techniques of mnemonics, people are skeptical and in no hurry to use them. Why? Not because they do not believe in their effectiveness, but because they believe that it is easier and faster to repeat 25 times than to compose a poem, draw up a plan or come up with a vivid living picture, and even more so to reflect on a complex and boring text. You have to think about it!

That's it! And why do you needlessly zadolbleny, fragmentary (all the same will not be remembered) information? The techniques proposed here are not just mnemonics, they develop thinking and create the habit of correct, meaningful memorization. With their help, you can truly master the art of mnemonics.

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