Discuss the four basic principles of mnemonics, and explain how each is able to improve your memory

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer will include the following: (1) Make things meaningful. Transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory is aided by making the information meaningful. If you encounter technical terms that have little or no immediate meaning for you, give them meaning, even if you have to stretch the term to do so. (2) Make information familiar. Connect the information to what you already know, that is connect it to information already stored in long-term memory. If some facts or ideas in a chapter seem to stay in your memory easily, associate other more difficult facts with them. (3) Use mental pictures. Visual pictures, or images, are generally easier to remember than words. Turning information into mental pictures is very helpful and the more vivid the better. (4) Form bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated mental associations. Forming images that make sense is better in most situations. However, when associating two ideas, terms, or especially mental images, you may find that the more outrageous and exaggerated the association, the more likely you are to remember it. Bizarre images make stored information more distinctive and therefore easier to retrieve. College students who use exaggerated mental associations to remember the names of unfamiliar animals outperformed students who just used rote memory. Bizarre images mainly help improve immediate memory, and they work best for fairly simple information.