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A mnemonic (SAMPA /n@manIc/ in US or /ni:mQnIc/ in UK) is a memory aid. Mnemonics are often verbal, are sometimes in verse form, and are often used to
remember lists. Mnemonics rely not only on repetition to remember facts, but also on creating associations among easy-to-remember
constructs and lists of data. The word mnemonic shares etymology with Mnemosyne, the name of the titan who
personified Memory in Greek mythology.
Examples of simple mnemonics
One common mnemonic device for remembering lists consists of an easily remembered word, phrase, or rhyme whose initials or
other characteristics are associated with the list items.
- The personal name Roy G. Biv helps us to remember the order of the colors in the spectrum. In England "Richard Of York Gave
Battle In Vain" is popular (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green,
Blue, Indigo, Violet).
- Beginning music students trying to memorize the notes of the staff use the mnemonics "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE"
for the lines and spaces of the Treble Clef respectively. The Bass Clef equivalents are
"Good Boys Do Fine Always" and "All Cows Eat Grass".
- The acronym HOMES is also a mnemonic aid that can be used to remember the names
of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan,
Erie, Superior).
- Stellar classification uses a peculiar group of
letters, easily remembered using the phrase, "Oh Be A Fine
Girl, Kiss Me Right Now
Sweetie."
- Many mnemonics have been devised for remembering the digits of pi, consisting of phrases or
verses in which successive digits of pi are obtained by counting the number of letters in each word. (Fortunately, the first
thirty digits of pi contain no zeroes). Some are:
- "May I have a large container of coffee?" (May = 3, I = 1, have = 4, etc.)
- "How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!"
- "How I wish I could recollect pi easily today".
- See "Poe, E.: Near a Raven" for an extreme example.
- A famous mnemonic used by medical students to remember the cranial
nerves is "On Old Olympus' Tiny Top A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops" (with variations; some say "terraced tops," some say
"towering top," and "view some hops" is sometimes rendered as "vaulted a hedge"). Obscene versions have also been devised.
- A mnemonic used by physics students to remember the Maxwell relations in thermodynamics
is "Good Physicists Have Studied Under
Very Fine Teachers", which helps them remember the order of the variables in
the square, in clockwise direction. Another mnemonic used here is "Valid Facts and
Theoretical Understanding Generate Solutions to
Hard Problems", which gives the letter in the normal left to right writing direction.
- A way of remembering biological groupings in taxonomy is the phrase
"Kings Play Cards On Fat
Green Stools." Another mnemonic for this purpose is "Kids
Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green
Spinach." The letters stand for Kingdom,
Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and
Species.
- A mnemonic for remembering the number of days in the months of the year, practically a cultural universal in the United
States, is "Thirty days hath September/April, June and November." (Although this is only part of a longer rhyme, this is the only
part that most people remember, so they commonly complete it with words similar to "... except February, which has twenty-eight,
or twenty-nine in a leap year." The full mnemonic is "Thirty days hath September/April, June and November/All the rest have
thirty-one/except February alone/which has eight and a score/until leap year
gives it one day more.")
- Another mnemonic for the days of the months is not a rhyme or a jingle, but a gestalt. Whereas the traditional mnemonic simply associates the name of the month with the number of days,
this one emphasizes the sequence. The 31 and less-than-31-day months would be easy to remember if they simply
alternated, but this pattern was broken in 27 B.C. by the decision to rename the month of Sextilis to Augustus and to increase
its length from 30 to 31 days. Thus the fourth 31-day month, July, is immediately followed by another 31-day month. Since the
human hand has four fingers, one can, given an appropriate mind-set, perceive this pattern in a view of the knuckles of two
fists, held together. The raised knuckles can be seen as the 31-day months, the dips between them as the
30-day-months-and-February, and the gap between the hands ignored. (Thus: left-hand-pinky-knuckle = January, dip = February,
left-hand-ring-knuckle = March, dip = April, and so on to left-hand-index-knuckle = July; then continue with
right-hand-index-knuckle = August, dip = September, etc).
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A curious characteristic of many memory systems is that mnemonic devices work despite being (or possibly because of being)
illogical, arbitrary, and artistically flawed. "Roy" is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname "Biv" and of
course the middle initial "G" is arbitrary. Why is "Roy G. Biv" easy to remember? Medical students never forget the arbitrary
nationalities of the Finn and German. Any two of the three months ending in -ember would fit just as euphoniously as September
and November in "Thirty days hath...", yet most people can remember the rhyme correctly for a lifetime after having heard it
once, and are never troubled by doubts as to which two of the -ember months have thirty days. A bizarre arbitrary
association may stick in the mind better than a logical one.
More complex mnemonic techniques
A mnemonic technique is one of many memory aids that is used to create associations among facts that make it
easier to remember these facts. Popular mnemonic techniques include mind
mapping and peg lists. These techniques make use of the power of the visual cortex to simplify the complexity of memories. Thus simpler memories can
be stored more efficiently. For example, a number can be remembered as a picture. This makes it easier to retrieve it from
memory. Mnemonic techniques should be used in conjunction with active
recall to actually be beneficial. For example, it is not enough to look at a mind map; one needs to actively reconstruct it
in one's memory.
Other methods for remembering arbitrary numbers or number sequences use numerological (lit. number+word) systems such as the abjad,
where each numeral is represented by a consonant sound.
An example of a widely used system for memorizing numbers as words is the major system.
Number Rhyme system
This is an example of a "Peg list". It is useful for remembering ordered lists, especially for people with strong auditory
learning styles. The following numbered list is static. Note the rhyme of the digit and the word (one/bun,
two/glue, and so on). The items you wish to remember should be associated with each word. A similar system
utilizing a combination of this and the preceding "abjad" system can easily yield numbers through 100 or higher (ex. 76 lash, 77
lilly)
- bun
- glue
- tea
- door
- hive
- bricks
- heaven
- slate
- line
- pen
Egg and Spear or Number Shape system
This is another peg system, much like the number-rhyme system but more suitable for those with visual learning styles (a
one looks like a candle; a two looks like a swan, and so on).
- Candle, spear
- Swan
- Bosom
- Sail
- Hook
- Club
- Cliff
- Sand clock
- Flag
- Egg
Other mnemonic systems
History of mnemonics
The Ars memoriae (art of memory) practised in the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance periods
relied on the capacity of the brain for recalling spatial detail. The principle was to initially memorise some large building,
the more architectural elaboration of rooms, passages and niches it had the better — the so-called 'Memory Palace'.
Mnemonic images could be placed about this palace to link to items that you wanted to remember, ususally in symbolic form, with
the images as striking as possible to enable recollection. To recall something, the practitioner mentally moved around the
palace, reviewing the images in order. This was an essential technique of rhetoricians and preachers.
A reference to this technique survives to this day in the common English phrases "in the first place", "in the second place",
and so forth.
External links
The following links contain additional information, some of which could be added to this or related pages. Some link to
additional pages; it might be helpful add those links here:
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