Six types of mnemonics

Just to bore you to death here are all the different methods of triggering your memory.


Music Mnemonics

The same method you used to recall song lyrics also can work just as well in academics. Music can used to help recall important details to main ideas and many learners have made songs out of information when a list of items must be learned. Advertising on radio and TV uses music to help potential customers remember their products when shopping. With sufficient repetition of commercials, advertisers have discovered that when shoppers see their product in the stores that often the shopper will start reciting a oft repeated phrases from the commercial or start singing the lyrics to the promotion melody. The results has been increased sales of the product. Music Mnemonics work best with long lists like 'ABC'.


Expression/Word Mnemonics

This is by far the most popularly used mnemonic. To make an Expression or Word mnemonic, the first letter of each item in a list is arranged to form a phrase or word.

For example: remembering the order of the planets from the sun outward:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto becomes My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets.


Model Mnemonics

In a Model Mnemonic, some type of representation is constructed to help with understanding and recalling important information. Examples include a circular sequence model, a pyramid model of stages, a pie chart, and a 5-box sequence. Models should be used in addition to words and lists because they make recall easier.


Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic

An Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic puts information in the form of a poem. A commonly used Rhyme Mnemonic for the number of days in each month is:

30 days hath September, April, June, and November.
All the rest have 31
Except February my dear son.
It has 28 and that is fine
But in Leap Year it has 29.


Image Mnemonics

The information in an Image Mnemonic is constructed in the form of a picture that promotes recall of information when you need it. The sillier the Image Mnemonic is, the easier it is to recall the related information. These images may be mental or sketched into text and notes.


A cheery example: You can use an Image Mnemonic to remember BAT (depressant drugs Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers). Visualize or sketch in your notes a limp, depressed bat that took Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers.


Connection Mnemonics

In this type of mnemonic, the information to be remembered is connected to something already known. Examples include remembering the direction of longitude and latitude is easier to do when you realize that lines on a globe that run North and South are long and that coincides with LONGitude. Another Connection Mnemonic points out that there is an N in LONGitude and an N in North. Latitude lines must run east to west, then because there is no N in latitude.


Rivetting stuff.