MNEMONIC DEVICES

Mnemonic devices are methods for memorizing. The ancient Greek poet Simonides of Ceos is the legendary discoverer of mnemonic devices. Pleased by Simonides's praise, the twin gods Castor and Pollux called him from a banquet just before the hall collapsed. The other guests were mangled beyond recognition, but Simonides remembered the places they had been sitting and so was able to identify the dead. Such was the discovery of the method of loci (or locations). It became so much a part of the study of rhetoric that the most venerable of the Roman orators used the method of loci for memorizing their speeches. Their procedure was as follows: First, a series of locations (loci), such as those in a public building, were memorized. Second, some object was thought of to represent each important part of the oration, such as a spear to represent the tenth topic, war. Third, the image created for each topic was combined with the image of its corresponding location. The spear might be imaged as penetrating the tenth locus, a door. While making his speech, the orator thought of each location in turn and used the image seen in his mind's eye as the prompt for the next part of his address. After a few days, the images from the speech would fade from memory, but the more highly learned loci could be used to memorize a new speech.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance mnemonic devices were used not so much by orators for memorizing speeches as by scholars to classify and memorize all knowledge. This fascinating aspect of mnemonic devices is surveyed by Frances Yates (1966).

Principles of Mnemonic Learning

Most mnemonic procedures utilize the three memory processes of symbolizing, organizing, and associating. Symbolizing is finding a memorable, preferably imageable, representation for what is to be learned. In the aforementioned example, a spear represents war. Organizing involves activating a knowledge structure in memory, such as a set of loci, to which new information can be associated. The new information must then be associated to components of the knowledge structure. These knowledge-structure components, labeled mental cues, must have certain properties for mnemonic learning to be effective. Designing a mnemonic device must take into account how easily mental cues can be reconstructed, as well as how easily they can be associated with new information and how easily they can be discriminated from other mental cues (Bellezza, 1981). Visual imagery is often used by the learner to create the association between the mental cue and the symbol to be remembered.

Types of Mnemonic Devices

Higbee (1988) discusses the wide variety of mnemonic procedures and some of the research done on them. This entry attempts only a brief overview. Examples of some of the mnemonic devices mentioned appear in Table 1.

The process of organizing is particularly important when using a mnemonic technique such as the method of loci (see Figure 1), the story mnemonic, or the link mnemonic. When using the story mnemonic, a list of words is memorized by creating a story from them. The words become organized in memory by the theme and context of the story. When the list words later have to be recalled, the story can be reviewed by the learner and the list words recognized.

The link mnemonic is somewhat different from the method of loci or the story mnemonic: The successive words forming a pair in a list are associated using a visual image. Each image can be distinct and separate from the other images. All the words end up joined together in memory by visual images like links in a chain.

In other mnemonic devices the memory process of symbolizing is paramount. When memorizing numbers, a system that dates back to the seventeenth century, the digit-consonant mnemonic, can be used. In this system numbers are changed to words because words are more easily memorized than numbers. The words can then be recalled and changed back into the numbers they represent.

One of the most useful mnemonics has been the keyword mnemonic, in which symbolizing processes play an important role. The keyword mnemonic is particularly useful for learning the meanings of words. For example, when learning the word hegemony, meaning authority of one nation over others, the word must first be correctly pronounced (see Figure 2). It is pronounced something like he-GEM-oh-knee. Next, a keyword must be chosen that is familiar, meaningful, and sounds like the word to be learned. The keyword for hegemony might be gem. Next, a visual image or sentence is formed that associates the key word with the meaning of the word to be learned. In this instance, the sentence might be The nation with the most gems rules the others. When coming across the word hegemony again, the learner must first think of the word gem, which then acts as a prompt for the mnemonic sentence containing the meaning of the word.

A useful but difficult variation of the keyword mnemonic is the face-name mnemonic used for associating names and faces. First, the person's name is transformed into a meaningful and concrete keyword, such as Cushing into cushion. The keyword then has to be associated to a salient bodily feature. In this example one might think of Mr. Cushing as having a cushion on his head because of his thick hair. When meeting Mr. Cushing again, one must recognize his hair as his critical physical feature. His hair should act as a cue for the word cushion, which in turn will act as a prompt for the name Cushing.

The mnemonic devices just reviewed are used to remember facts. Other less widely known mnemonic techniques—called process mnemonics—are designed to help remember rules, principles, and procedures. Process mnemonics have been used in Japan to help teach mathematical rules and computational skills and chemical formulas. Process mnemonics incorporate symbolizing, such as representing mathematical rules (e.g., "to divide fractions, multiply by a reciprocal") with more memorable and imageable phrases ("flip the fool into the pool," which refers to a jogger who is fooling around on a diving board by standing on his head). Association is used as well. In this example, the division sign between fractions (two joggers) is associated with a diving board. Higbee (1987) provides a more complete description of process mnemonics, which can be relatively complex.

Practical Applications

The more complicated mnemonic devices, such as the digit-consonant mnemonic, the keyword mnemonic, the face-name mnemonic, and process mnemonics require study and practice in order to be effective. But little research has been performed to determine if the investment in time and effort to become proficient in these mnemonics results in improved performance in the classroom, in the work-place, in situations in which many people's names have to be remembered, and so on. However, interest in this topic seems to be growing. The keyword mnemonic has been shown to be useful to students learning classroom-type materials. This is true for both average students and students with learning disabilities (Mastropieri et al., 1987). Using the "pool" process mnemonic described above, one researcher found that after three one-hour class sessions, third graders performed calculations with fractions as well as sixth graders and better than fourth and fifth graders (Higbee, 1987).

See also:MNEMONISTS

Bibliography

Bellezza, F. S. (1981). Mnemonic devices: Classification, characteristics, and criteria. Review of Educational Research 51, 247-275.

Higbee, K. L. (1987). Process mnemonics: Principles, prospects, and problems. In M. A. McDaniel and M. Pressley, eds., Imagery and related mnemonic processes. New York: Springer-Verlag.

—— (1988). Your memory: How it works and how to improve it, 2nd edition. New York: Prentice-Hall.

Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., and Levin, J. R. (1987). Mnemonic instruction in special education. In M. A. McDaniel and M. Pressley, eds., Imagery and related and mnemonic processes. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Yates, F. A. (1966). The art of memory. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Francis S.Bellezza

Revised byMark A.McDaniel