As a famous chess player from Armenia once said, memory is an exceptionally mysterious thing, as it allows him to remember games played several decades ago, but remembering your phone number is completely unrealistic. And for scientists dealing with the peculiarities of memory, it is also still a mysterious mechanism. Some of its parameters and characteristics have been identified and studied, but even more information is not yet available to us. Where are memories stored? How to activate memory? How to adjust memory storage? All these questions either do not have an answer, or scientists are just beginning to find it. Especially for those who want to develop their memory, mnemonics was invented. The exercises that this practice offers provide opportunities for self-development, self-improvement.
How to improve memory?
As scientists found out, memory mechanisms involve a huge number of neurons that form connections with neighboring tissue areas. Stimulation of the cells of the nervous system allows you to store data in short-term memory, and frequent repetition of stimulation strengthens the connections between neurons and makes themstable. This allows data to move from short-term memory to long-term storage.
Mnemonics exercises involve influencing connections in such a way that data moves from short-term memory to long-term memory. All the exercises on which the school curriculum is based are also designed for this: repeated repetition of the same thing allows you to make neural connections stronger. At the same time, it is well known that some data is much easier to remember, while others are more difficult to master. If some information is stubbornly not kept in memory, and it must be memorized, mnemonics exercises come to the rescue, which are actively used in marketing strategies, directing, and psychology.
Basic rules
As we managed to find out (and then to implement in mnemonics exercises), a person assimilates data best at the beginning of the information block and at its end. It is also easier to remember if a person gives himself the installation: “This is important!” Studies have shown that subjects were better at remembering unfinished phrases (probably, the mechanisms of thinking responsible for curiosity work here).
The more interesting the information, the easier it is to remember. An additional positive effect is the repetition of data, preferably several times. Finally, the last rule - you need to remember in practice. The more useful information is for our daily life, the more effective it will be.to be assimilated by our brain and more readily recorded by it in long-term storage. Effective memory development exercises from mnemonics take into account all of these rules (or most of them).
Why do we need mnemonics?
Most often this question comes to the mind of a person who has a good memory by nature. Nevertheless, mnemonics can be useful in this case too: for example, this method allows you to keep information that is difficult to assimilate in your head. You can quickly create an associative array, thanks to which the brain encodes information and stores it, despite the complexity for perception (for example, long numbers). It is possible to form an associative array, as can be seen from the exercises of mnemonics for memory, based on anything: touches, sounds or visual images.
Simple and effective techniques
One of the most effective methods of mnemonics is called "Memory Palace", but it is suitable only for those who tend to have a strong imagination, as well as people with a pronounced creative potential, since you have to create a whole fictional world around an object, information about which need to be learned. But mnemonics in exercises for children involves the use of much simpler, but also effective methods, of which rhyme comes first. From the school bench, she is known for memorizing the number "pi": a special poem was written that allows you to memorize this complex figure right up to the 13th character. Mnemonics in exercises for school children recommends writing simple poems forany object, the data about which you need to assimilate. Presenting it in rhyming form makes it easier to remember, while repeating the poem over and over again transfers the data to the long-term storage of information in our brain.
It is through a poem that one can remember verbs that are exceptions in our native language. Collections of words were invented in poetic form, in which complex stresses are not given to everyone and not to everyone. Through memorization of the poem, mastering the data is much easier. It is not necessary to take ready-made mnemonics exercises for beginners, you can easily compose your own poem - and it will be assimilated even better than prepared by someone.
Sounds and auxiliary objects
Quite often, mnemonics, memory development exercises are used when studying Morse code. Indeed, remembering the correct codes for all letters is very difficult. As a rule, students of Morse code resort to encoding each of the characters with sounds, in other words, they sing while mastering the alphabet. For example, to designate the first letter of the alphabet, written as a sequence of dots and dashes, they often sing “Ay-daa”, and remember the second for themselves as “Baa-ki te-kut”, since the letter “B” is encoded by a sequence of dashes and three dots.
Suitable for everyone
The option described above is a mnemonic for developing memory for adults. Exercises for children are usually easier. For example, to understand how many daysin a month, you just need to count on the knuckles. Surprisingly, this technique, invented much earlier than the word "mnemonics", fully satisfies the rules for the exercises of this methodology. To check how long a month is, you just need to clench your hands into fists and count the months on the knuckles. If it falls on a bone - 31 days, if it falls on a hollow - 30. Another funny method that allows you to remember the process of moon growth, which is not easy for human perception: if you put your finger on the month, you can understand whether the moon is now waning or growing. If the letter "P" came out, then the period of growth.
Connection between objects
Especial attention in mnemonics is riveted to the interaction of objects with each other, to the possibility of creating a sequence of even seemingly unrelated objects, sounds and phenomena. This creates a meaningful sentence that is stored in memory for a long time. A classic example from Russian grammar, which allows you to remember all the cases in the correct sequence: "Ivan gave birth to a girl, ordered to drag the diaper." It would seem that this sentence has very little meaning, but it is precisely because of the absurdity that it is easier to remember. Another good example is "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is."
The same logic available from mnemonics can be used to remember a sequence of numbers (for example, a phone number). For encoding, use the same keyboard on which the number is dialed. For each digit there is a combination of characters,recorded on the same key. You can just memorize some word that can be typed through the desired keys, and this will save the phone number in memory.
Speed reading and mnemonics
One of the important practical applications of mnemonics is the ability to read quickly. The slower a person remembers the information received, the slower he learns it, the slower he reads. Conversely, someone who can quickly remember the incoming data is also quickly able to read some text and learn from it the maximum useful information.
Teaching mnemonics requires effort and time. It is unlikely that good results will be achieved in less than six months, although it is possible to master the main ideas of the methodology in just a couple of days. It is important to be diligent about the task set for yourself and clearly understand why you need to train the brain.
Background memory
Simple exercises from mnemonics allow you to effectively train background memory. Mental counting will come to the rescue: in your free time, you can come up with small examples and calculate the total for them in your head without resorting to notes. It is also necessary to try as long as possible to keep in mind the data that caused at least some interest. If you manage to do this even without forming an associative chain, this is a certain success. When reading a book, you should concentrate on keeping several paragraphs in your memory at the same time - let's say five at once. It will not be easy at first, but over time it will give good results formemory.
If mnemonics is used to memorize verses, then there is one good tip that simplifies the memorization process: you need to repeat the information daily. That is, the best result is given by long-term memorization, stretched for weeks and even months. No need to rush, the main thing is quality. You can start with one quatrain, to which you gradually add several lines. In addition to the direct order, it is also worth remembering the reverse. This will give the best result - the poem will remain in memory for a lifetime.
Numbers, words and science
Some scientists are of the opinion that it is impossible to improve memory. This is largely due to the fact that to this day all the features of the mechanisms on the basis of which a person remembers, stores information, and applies it to his life are unknown. But the appearance of a good memory can be created if you use the capabilities of mnemonics. At the same time, it is known that a clear memorization for everyone is available in the amount of seven objects (+/- two units). This applies to sentences, words, and numbers. This amount of information is absorbed at one time, but each subsequent approach gives an increase in the amount of data remembered.
To memorize numbers, it is recommended to use an associative series. These mnemonics exercises are most useful for children. For example, the number "2" is similar in shape to a swan - this is an associative chain that allows you to put the correct spelling in your head. As soon as you manage to remember a hundred images that describe a hundrednumbers, then it will be possible to choose any images from memory to describe a variety of numbers, no matter how long they are.
