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Remembering

One of the best ways to remember an idea is to connect it either to something you already know or to another important concept. Our brains like to hold on to grouped ideas rather than to individual ideas. These pages provide strategies for doing so.

Pattern Finding

Our brains are pattern-finding organs. A pattern is a form, model, shape, design, or configuration. When you see a pattern, you can fit individual pieces of information into a larger structure and thereby remember the information. For example, once you recognize this logarithmic spiral pattern, you’ll see it in many places.

Logarithmic Spiral Pattern

Logarithmic Spiral Pattern

Your Turn How are spirals used in language? Do you sometimes circle around bad news before you tell it? Do some stories circle around a central idea before reaching it? Try to find more examples of spirals in each class you have throughout the day.

Sprial Images
 
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Mnemonics: Pattern Making

Mnemonics are other memory techniques that create associations in your mind. The more places information is stored, the easier it is to find again. You can use ready-made mnemonics or devise your own.

Acronyms

are words made up of the first letters in a set of other words.

HOMES

Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Acrostics

are amusing sentences made up of words that begin with the first letters in a set of other words.

Dear King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti.

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

Chaining

connects words so that one item triggers the thought of the next, and so on.

James won, and Charles won. Then the Cromwells won—then Charles too, and James too. Mary, too? William, on his third try, threw up his ’ands.

James I, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell, Charles II, James II, Mary II, William III, Anne

Numerical

sentences use words that have the same number of letters as a number you want to remember.

How I wish I could enumerate pi easily, since all these horrible mnemonics prevent recalling any of pi’s sequence more simply.

3.14159265358979323846

Rhymes

help you associate a sound with a specific word or idea.

Righty tighty; lefty loosey.

(Direction to turn bolts or lids)

Stories

use a brief narrative to trigger memory.

Pa separated the children.

(Remembering that “separate” is spelled with “pa” instead of “pe” in the center)

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

(Remembering the date 1492)

Word play

uses parts of a word to remember its meaning or spelling.

Stalactites cling tight to the ceiling. Stalagmites might reach the ceiling.

d/dx hi/lo = lohi-hilo/lo2

lo-d-hi minus hi-d-lo all over lo squared

Your Turn Go to thoughtfullearning.com/h15 to find links to mnemonic devices and generators.

 
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