Practical techniques of mnemonics and memory training. Basic mnemonic techniques for remembering information

Memorizing the necessary information quickly and for a long time is a feature that is not common to everyone.

Memory is arranged in such a way that a person does not absorb boring information well, which will not bring him practical use in everyday life.

But what to do if it is necessary to memorize it, and memorization does not give results? Starting from the first grade, children have to study large amounts of information.

Today's school program differs from the Soviet complexity and richness. Children have to work hard to keep up.

Mnemonics will help improve memory, make it flawless.

Why is it so important to train a person's memory?

In addition to the school curriculum, there are many other reasons to seriously engage in memory training.

Physiological benefits of a good memory	Practical benefits	Professions where a good memory is needed
A person who develops their brain activity is more likely to remain sober in old age	Shopping list does not need to be written down	Theater and film actors forced to memorize new roles and lines
	By remembering the names of new acquaintances and colleagues, you will save yourself from an awkward situation when meeting	Teachers, university professors
	Helps you avoid getting lost in a new area	Intelligence officers, agents
	Reminding friends of situations and phrases of bygone days is funny	Police
		Medical workers
		Accountants

Important! Two-thirds of all knowledge a person receives before the age of 14.

This includes social communication skills that the child learns in school and kindergarten, knowledge about life and the universe. The school curriculum completes the list.

Then comes the period of puberty, when instincts take over the mind. The duration of this period is individual. The process of acquiring knowledge is relegated to the background.

When the period ends, the teenager is already out of school. Student years are filled with love experiences.

When the sex drive comes into play, one is less able to absorb knowledge. Puberty ends earlier, but the age of reproductive health lasts into old age. This circumstance cannot but distract.

For this reason schoolchildren and students who have fallen in love start their studies, roll into triples.

Description and characteristics of mnemonics

Mnemonics is a series of methods and techniques that allow a person to memorize large amounts of information. It contains practical tips for improving memory in children and adults. There are tutorials on this topic.

The effectiveness of mnemonics is widespread today in specialized educational institutions. The history of its appearance is rooted in the distant past.

Interesting fact! The concept itself was introduced by Pythagoras. Julius Caesar used mnemonics.

Alexander the Great and Aristotle studied it for military use.

Our ancestors, when compiling the Cyrillic alphabet, understood that if a word is tied to each letter and linked with a semantic meaning, it will be easier to remember.

Works on the development of memory in different years were published by world-famous scientists:

• Andreev.
• Geisselhart.
• Leser Franz.

Their books are still popular today. Each of them offers its own way of using mnemonics.

Exercises for the development of memory and attention in adults

Exercise "Memory Palace" is actively used by adults. It is based on the work of fantasy and the perception of visual images. Suitable for people with good visual memory.

The principle lies in the mental construction of the palace. A person remembers every room, the situation inside.

Important! When it becomes necessary to remember something, a person places the information in one of the rooms, tying it to a certain environment.

The information is stored internally. Periodically returning to the palace, a person will see his binding in all details.

Another method of mnemonics proposes to associate touch and smell with objects to be remembered.

Details are remembered better if they are attached to other senses. Perceptions last longer in memory than dry facts.

Techniques for improving memory in children

If you start to develop a good memory in a child early, he is more likely to achieve high results in school. This is the key to future success.

The benefits of developing memory in younger students:

• In young years children grasp information better.
• learned tricks mnemonics will become mechanically used throughout life.
• Development difficult school program will go faster.
• Memory development will help the child in communicating with peers, improve communication skills and brain function.
• Helps you win in various intellectual competitions, competitions, olympiads, tests.
• Enhance intellectual development and concentration of attention, due to a decrease in the load on the memorization process.

All these arguments speak in favor of early teaching children simple techniques for remembering information.

If the child easily coped with the practical application of children's techniques, you can begin to study more complex ones.

Main is the reception of rhyme. Children remember information better in the form of poems.

What rule of the Russian language do adults remember all their lives? Answer: "Gypsy tiptoed at a chicken."

If all the rules were folded into rhymes, people would become more literate.

Different forms of games will help improve memory in children:

• Chess.
• Charades.
• Graphic dictation.
• Children's treasure maps.
• Puzzle.

Popular memorization techniques

Memorization techniques are based on linking information to something tangible.

Remembering a phone number can be done in several ways:

1. Speak aloud. Auditory memorization will help you remember the numbers within a few minutes.

   That will make it easy to call back the number that the interlocutor dictated without writing it down on a piece of paper. The work of short-term memory will increase.

2. The use of visual memory for numbers with their separation. Some numbers seem simple because they use the numbers that are in the number of our house, the date of birth. This is training in photographic memory.
3. Dial a number on the keypad phone, you can form a word that you can type by pressing the keys used to type it.

most popular and a complex technique is the construction of a memory palace.

This method is used by people who are required to memorize a lot. The method will seem simple and convenient to you after a few workouts.

Useful video

Mnemonics are special data that are based on the specifics of human psychology and memorization rules.

The study and application of mnemonic techniques helps to better assimilate information of a different nature:

• numbers, dates;
• specific texts;
• terminology;
• personal data;
• foreign vocabulary.

The main principle of any mnemonic techniques is the substitution of abstract objects with those concepts that have a visual or sensory representation.

How does mnemonics work?

By the age of 18, millions of nerve cells and pathways form in the human brain, helping to process incoming data at the optimal time, find solutions to problems and perform standard actions with minimal mental activity. However, if you constantly use only proven skills, the brain will stop developing. Therefore, periodic shake-up for the brain is very important.

Memory in its properties is similar to a muscle, i.e. she also needs training to be in good shape, as well as the body. If you do not deal with it, then over time it will begin to fail. The more the brain is loaded, the better it analyzes and remembers information. The most effective exercises break the routine of mental activity, and stimulate interest in self-improvement.

Mnemonics have been known to mankind since ancient times. Already in ancient Greece, it was noticed that memory is interconnected with the senses. And the more emotions a person receives in the process of life, the brighter the memories will be. Therefore, when training in memorization, it is necessary to connect vivid associations.

In order for the memory to store the received data for a long time, it is necessary to replace the facts with representations that have a kinstic, visual and auditory form. That is, replace a dry fact with a bright image.

The techniques of mnemonics are quite diverse, but each of them has specific criteria:

• New. It doesn't matter what task is chosen and how difficult it is - if it is new, then the benefits from it will be great. The main goal of the reception is to get out of the familiar and ordinary zone.
• Difficulty level. As tasks, it is necessary to choose the exercise that requires mental effort, and, therefore, gives knowledge. For example, you can learn a language or learn a musical instrument.
• Interest. The more a person is fond of a new occupation, the higher the chance that this hobby will last for a long time. Remember that the level of difficulty of training should be high, but not so much as to admit that you are incapacitated. It is necessary to choose classes in increasing order.

Receptions of mnemonics with regular training give an effective result. You can remember all the contacts from the phone book, easily understand the rules of English grammar, play notes and much more.

Memorization techniques

Numbers, dates and various events associated with them can be memorized through associations with other significant figures or thanks to the Shed system. According to this approach, dates from history or house numbers can be remembered if you compose a phrase consisting of words arranged in a certain order. In this case, the letter in such a word will correspond to a certain number. For example, in order not to forget the number 896 through mnemonics, you need to compose a phrase in which the first word will have exactly 8 letters, the second will consist of 9, and so on.

With specific texts that do not lend themselves to the usual methods of memorization or memorization, mnemonic techniques will also help.

Especially the method of associations. Searching for vivid associations that will be connected with remembered information can be not only useful, but also an exciting experience. Even texts of a similar plan can be memorized in the form of rhymed lines, which also contribute to memorization. The same method can be used to memorize numbers.

Terms and concepts can become easy to remember by using techniques such as consonance. Many words from scientific terminology have consonant "analogues" in a simpler version of the language.

Trouble remembering faces and names. What to do?

In order to fix personal data about a new person in memory and bind them to him, you can associate him with another person who is the "namesake" (parents, acquaintances, friends, politicians, actors and other personalities).

To remember the last name, you can use mnemonic techniques based on visual associations. Start by exploring the possibility of replacing or compiling an analogue of the new surname. In addition, some remarkable feature of a person that can be associated with an association can help you.

Presentation: "Know yourself. What do you know about your memory?"

The simplest of the mnemonic methods that will help fix the desired name is a combination of the following techniques: show interest in a person,

• celebrate his achievement or give a compliment,
• repeat the name again;
• associate the received information with a specific person.

Mnemonics in language learning

Take on board the method of phonetic associations, which appeared due to the fact that in every language of the world you can find words or parts of phrases that will sound about the same. In addition, in different languages ​​you can find words that have a common origin. For example, the word constantly (adverb, constantly) can be remembered if you associate it with a similar word from the Russian language “constant”.

The method of interaction of different sensations is a mnemonic approach that will be useful for those who are aimed at fluency and want to communicate in a foreign language.

According to this memorization approach, one should memorize a foreign word not as a translation from one's native language, but as an association with a unit of foreign vocabulary. In this case, the necessary concept is also remembered. For example, to memorize the three-letter word “cat”, you need to imagine a tail and paws, and, holding a similar image in your mind, say (out loud) “cat” a couple of times, trying not to think about the word “cat”.

Important: All cheat sheets should be created independently. Thus, the information is better absorbed by the brain. But if there are problems with fantasy or time, you can use ready-made techniques and templates.

How to remember historical facts using mnemonics?

Everyone remembers how difficult it was to prepare for exams in history, because remembering all the data and events is quite difficult. But this is only because they do not use mnemonic techniques to prepare for texts. In this case, we propose to combine several methods.

The first thing to do is to realize that history is not only dry dates, but a certain sequence of events. In order to remember them in the right order, you should make an associative series.

Consider, for example, the date of the fall of Byzantium - 1453.

1. Let's compose a code from numbers and letters, i.e. each number is a letter. For example, 1 - s, 4 - t, 5 - o, 3 - g. Think of a word from these letters. You can take any symbols and words.
2. Then we will encode the word by sound, i.e. a visit is more suitable for Byzantium.
3. The mention of the great empire is associated with the king.
4. Link these elements in the brain. For example, the king paid a visit to the table and it fell.

After some training and making consistent associations, the history of any empire can be learned and reproduced quite easily. It's all about practice.

Mnemonic works

Most people, having barely looked at the proposal to form the above association, will not do this, because. find it difficult. After all, to remember one date you need to come up with a story.

Of course, this process at first seems laborious, because you need to strain your imagination, which a person rarely uses in the daily rhythm. However, after 2-3 such tasks, the exercise does not seem so difficult.

The mnemonics chains work. And this is due to the fact that the memory does not store dry dates and facts, but images filled with emotions retain for a long time. This is a scientifically proven fact.

In ancient Egypt, the priests had secret knowledge about the science of imagery. They carefully kept it from the general population. Why was it so important?

If you transfer your attention from the outside to the inside and follow how thoughts are formed, you can see that they appear in the head as an image, but not in the form of a digital series. If the word "king" is easily associated with an empire and a person uses this association, then the information received will be easily remembered.

Each of the mnemonic techniques can be used to memorize any material or information. Different mnemonics constantly intersect, helping to achieve the highest result and memory training.

Mnemonics techniques are a special approach to working with information, thanks to which more information is remembered and the percentage of forgetting it decreases. Similar techniques are used to learn foreign languages, terminology, remember historical dates, numbers or personal information. The effectiveness of mnemonic memorization techniques is high, but they need to be mastered.

What is mnemonics

The memorization process is based on the formation of new neural circuits in the brain between existing ones. This allows you to memorize new information, and then work with it: find solutions to practical problems, derive new theories, analyze facts (see). However, the capabilities of the brain are limited by the amount of information stored in a unit of time, and, as a rule, new data is quickly forgotten in the absence of regular repetition.

Memory is analogous to a human muscle. If it is constantly trained and loaded, then the work improves. Therefore, people have developed a number of techniques, thanks to which information is intensively remembered (see). One of the clearest examples of such techniques is the visualization of new facts and giving them an emotional coloring.

Interesting to know: useful learning techniques.

Note: what are and how to develop it.

Any mnemonic memorization technique has the following characteristics:

1. Novelty. The more unusual the method, the more time you will have to spend on studying it.
2. Difficulty of learning. Techniques for improving memory, in which a hierarchy of folders with various branches is built in a person’s memory. The method is effective, but hardly suitable for a beginner.
3. Interest in the method is not the last value.

The choice of a specific technique is determined by the purpose of training, which will be discussed in more detail below.

Mnemonics for teaching foreign vocabulary

Mnemonics are often used to learn foreign words. One of them is a way to search for sound associations that exist in each of the existing languages, which is associated with the commonality of their origin. Yes, the English word constantly, translated as "constantly", consonant with the Russian word "constant", which means a constant variable. And that's just the simplest trick.

The second common technique for facilitating the study of a foreign language is the interaction of sensations, built on memorizing an unfamiliar word not as an ordinary translation, but as an association with a familiar lexical unit. For example, learning the word dog, imagine a large wagging tail or paws, without concentrating on the word "dog".

It is important to note that the best option is to independently come up with associations and specific approaches to words (see). This allows the brain to turn on faster and speed up the learning process.

Mnemonics and dates

Remembering dates is associated with people with the lessons of history, when a large number of events had to be learned for each historical era. More often, such a process caused discomfort, but mnemonic techniques help, one has only to combine several methods together.

When starting to study dates, it is important to understand that this is not just a collection of abstract numbers, but a certain chronological sequence that carries meaning. Therefore, the first step is to compile an associative series.

It is better to consider the reception on a specific example. The fall of Byzantium took place in 1453 and was an important historical event. How can you make it easier to remember these numbers?

1. Make an association between any letters and numbers: 1 - g, 4 - o, 5 - p, 3 - a. This allows you to build associations between the number series and the word "mountain". The word can be anything.
2. The second variant of mnemonics is to use sound association. Byzantium collapsed, and with it the word “visit” is most consonant, which can be used in this case.
3. If we are talking about a great country, then it is better to make an association with a queen or a king.
4. Now it remains to tie everything together in the form of some kind of bright association. For example, the Queen paid a visit to a mountain, but the mountain collapsed.

If this association is repeated, then a stable neural circuit is created in the head, which ensures long-term storage of information.

Do mnemonics work?

Many people, having seen such techniques, believe that mnemonics is a complex system remote from life, which is suitable only for a few. After all, to remember just one date, I had to invent a story with a queen, a mountain and a visit.

It looks like a bunch of different words. However, in practice things are a little different. Constant training allows fantasy to quickly invent associations. It takes a little time, and facts and words are remembered faster and stored in memory for a long time.

Important information: with the help of exercises.

Weakly check your own and do exercises to improve it?!

Interesting and helpful! for children and adults.

The constant use of mnemonic techniques allows not only to remember a specific fact or word, but also has a positive effect on a person’s thinking and fantasy. A person finds creative methods for solving problems, becomes proactive. Therefore, in many states, they begin to teach such techniques at school, as children quickly grasp the techniques, begin to use them with pleasure.

Summarizing

It is important to remember that mnemonics is an additional tool that you need to learn how to use, and it is better to do it in practice. Theoretical reasoning and criticism of memorization techniques do not allow us to evaluate the method in practice, so many people have an undeserved skepticism about this kind of learning.

For better memorization, various mnemonic techniques are widely used. essence mnemonic techniques is that the memorized material is structured in a certain way. So, the year of the French Revolution - 1789 - is easy to remember by highlighting the structure of the date (the sequence of numbers 7, 8, 9). In addition, the rhyming of words also contributes to memorization.

Let's look at some of the main memorization techniques:

• association method.
  Remembering a date, for example, can be associated with an event that is well remembered: so many years before or after so many years after. In this case, the strength of associations and their number are of decisive importance. The more diverse and numerous the associations, the more firmly they are fixed in memory. So, irrational, strange, illogical associations contribute to better memorization.
• Link method.
  It consists in combining the key words of the text into a single holistic structure, into a single story.
• Place method.
  It is based on visual associations; you need to clearly imagine the object to be remembered, and combine its image with the image of a place that is easily "extracted" from memory. This method does not require logical associations, it is based on associations dictated by the sequence of objects and places. First of all, you need to choose a permanent "route". This may be the road to the place of work, the location of the rooms in the apartment and individual "places" inside the room (sofa, carpet, closet). To begin with, a set of 15-20 places, clearly numbered in a certain sequence, is enough. Then, along the "route" well known to you, you place the objects that you need to remember, and fix their visual images in memory. Thus, the memorization of the necessary material in a certain sequence is achieved. The method is effective when it is difficult to "break" the memorized objects according to some attribute. This method was widely used by ancient Roman orators.

These techniques can significantly increase the amount of material memorized by a person. This method of memorization and assimilation of information is based on the enrichment of ordinary repetition with internal and oral pronunciation and retelling of what has been read.

First stage- main ideas. When you first read a chapter in a textbook or other book, aim to highlight the main points of the text and their relationships.

Second step- careful reading. Once again you read the chapter, but now very carefully, "catching" the details that can and should be tied in the form of branches to the main thoughts. At the same time, mentally repeat the entire scheme of the main thoughts in their interconnection.

Third step- review. Again you turn to the textbook and do not read, but look through it, and in the opposite direction, from the end to the beginning. Along the way, check and repeat the connection of the main thoughts with each other and in detail, mentally asking yourself preliminary questions about these connections, immediately answer them and check the answers in the text. This backward pass will "grab" the information in your brain like cement.

Fourth step- fine-tuning. Putting the book aside, you repeat all the material from memory, following from one main idea to another according to the scheme learned by this time and recalling each time the details associated with the corresponding thought. You need to repeat not in images, but speaking articulately to yourself, even better - aloud, even if in fragments and fragments of speech, and not in full sentences.

Note 1. For reliability, the last stage can be divided into two. At the first stage, you perform the indicated actions with the textbook at hand, stopping after each large piece, looking there, mastering the material for the last time, auto-correcting and thoughtfully and carefully adjusting the missing, but necessary material into your knowledge system, how it has developed (and after all that has been done it came with a guarantee). After completing this procedure, immediately repeat everything as indicated in the description of the stage, without a textbook.

Note 2. Oddly enough, it helps a lot if, going through all the steps described above, they do not sit with a textbook (or without it) at the table, but walk with it (or without it) around the room, perhaps in circles. By the way, those to whom this helps should use this technique, regardless of the method of memorizing the material.

Note 3. If something is not remembered, do not be upset. The method allows for as many repetitions of the entire cycle or any of its stages as necessary.

Keyword Method

Associated with mnemonics, i.e. with techniques aimed at remembering information, regardless of its meaning, as if they were things or visual objects. The method works only after training, complete mastery of it and bringing its use to automatism (like all mnemonic methods).

The method is based on the fact that in each phrase one or two keywords can be highlighted, remembering which you immediately remember the whole phrase, and for each paragraph, this is a key phrase by which you can easily remember the paragraph you read once. Phrase and paragraph - here the concepts are conditional, corresponding not to real phrases and paragraphs of the text, but approximately corresponding in volume to subsections and units of information that you would like to learn from it. That is, these are, as it were, paragraphs and phrases of a text that you yourself would mentally want to create and assimilate based on the materials of the present. Key words are markers of the meaning of the whole phrase and together they should form a logical sequence, something like a story within a story (or its skeleton), which carries the main meaning of the entire text. It is this inner, or folded, story that you must remember firmly; since it is much shorter than the actual presentation, it is easier to do so. And when you reproduce this inner story (and the minimum power of memory that almost everyone has), you can easily remember and expand the entire presentation. Stages of work on this method.

1. When reading the text, organize its content into sections.

2. Choose a main keyword for each section, fasten to it similarly selected keywords for phrases to be remembered (from your point of view).

3. A very important step! Immediately "scroll" the link several times: the keyword node - the entire section corresponding to it - again the node. Here you can even look into the tutorial for auto-correction.

It is at this stage that a strong connection takes root in your brain between keywords and the material that should be drawn after them.

4. Mentally, and at first it is better in writing, compose the entire sequence of keywords. Adjust and comprehend its internal relationship (i.e., identify and internalize the relationship between each adjacent keywords and build up the corresponding interconnected segment with the following keywords until it covers the entire sequence). Repeat each individual relationship and the entire chain of relationships until you remember it firmly. Repeat, comprehend and learn this sequence as a separate whole.

5. Formulate a question for each keyword, linking it to the corresponding phrase/section. Again, repeat this relationship several times, folding and expanding the information, but this time - together with the entire sequence, moving from its beginning to its end.

6. The step is optional. In order to maximize the consolidation of the material, do the same in a quick and simplified way, but from the end to the beginning.

After a few hours, running the chain, expand it into a text and retell it. To be sure, you can repeat the same the next day. Now, finally, that's it.

Mnemonics (mnemonics techniques) 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 allow you to better remember digital information, specific texts and terms, names, faces and surnames, foreign words, expressions and much more. In this lesson, the basics of mnemonics will be discussed, and the main techniques and methods for remembering various types of information will be described.

What is mnemonics?

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

Association with other familiar figures. Dale Carnegie's advice is to memorize dates by associating them with significant dates 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, such as 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 a number of letters corresponding to the remembered digit. For example, if you want to remember the number 467, then you need to come up with a phrase in which the first word will consist of 4 letters, the second - of 6, and the third word - of 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 any 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 remember certain numbers for a long time, having the opportunity to spend some time on this. So you can easily remember which characters come after the decimal point in the number "Pi".

Remembering names and faces

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

Show interest in the person, chat a little, addressing him by name. There are several memorization rules at work here. First, you show interest in a person, and also receive information about him, which can serve as the basis for building associations with him. Secondly, you repeat his name several times, which also improves memorization.

An association with another person well known to you with the same name. For example, many of us will easily remember the name of a person if he is your namesake. It is also easy to remember the names of people who match the names of your parents and good friends. But even if you don't know the name of the person you want to remember, try to remember famous people 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. Once the person has introduced himself, silently try to name a few modifications of his name.

Name spelling. Think about how a person's name is spelled - imagine it visually. How many letters are in this name? What is the first letter? The answers to these questions will further fix 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 comprehension.

Remembering surnames. You can memorize surnames using mnemonic techniques based on visual associations. You need to start with the search for a mental replacement or modification of the surname. For example, my surname Buyanov can be associated with 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 a character trait (which is more suitable for the surname Buyanov), which must be tied to the selected surname association.

Memorization of foreign languages

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

Method of phonetic associations (MPA). 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 (look) can be remembered by associating it with the similar-sounding Russian word "bow". And slicing the “onion”, we cannot “look” at it, as our eyes water.

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 don't automatically pop into your memory, you won't 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 concept corresponding to it. To learn the word "cup" imagine a cup with a handle, and keeping the image in your mind, say "cup" several times, trying not to remember the word "cup".