When The Meaningless Becomes Meaningful: The Power of Mnemonics

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Did it ever happen to you that you could memorize something, no matter how hard you tried? That it seemed almost impossible to remember a certain piece of information, regardless of its length? If so, know that it happens to everyone and is a very frequent phenomenon. Sometimes, we have to learn meaningless items, which requires ‘learning by heart’, and the human brain does not seem to be very good at it. To remember something effectively, humans should extract as much meaning as possible from the material being learned and further connect it to their store of previous knowledge. This technique has been used by humans for centuries for the purpose of memory enhancement and is known as ‘mnemonics’.

Compared to more superficial forms of processing, meaningful processing, sometimes referred to as semantic processing, produces a stronger and more retrievable memory trace. The fact that people learn content that is meaningful to them better was first demonstrated by Bartlett (1932), who showed, through story-learning experiments, that people typically remember parts of the story with more personal significance to them and tend to forget the less meaningful parts. Semantic processing is needed for the use of mnemonics, since we try to transform meaningless items into meaningful ones.

First letter mnemonics

Many people have probably used first letter mnemonics at least once in their lives without realizing it. Students are the ones who most often use this type of mnemonic, for instance, when they have to learn a sequence of meaningless items. This type of mnemonic works by creating a meaningful sentence by taking the first letter of each word. A famous example are ‘big five’ personality traits: OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). These strategies are centered on the notion of adding meaning to the material that needs to be memorized.

Rhyme mnemonics

Sometimes, a simple rhyme adds meaning to something intrinsically meaningless and enhances the chances for creating a stronger memory trace. 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’.

Chunking

This technique is most frequently used for remembering long lists of digits. This strategy involves grouping digits into smaller units for the purpose of creating meaningful items. By combining multiple digits into one memorable chunk, this strategy not only gives the list more meaning but also minimizes the number of items that need to be remembered. For example, a chunked phone number +1–234–567–8901 is easier to remember and scan than a long string of non-chunked digits 12345678901. Another similar example could be done by chunking this sequence of digits: 1984747365. It is almost impossible to recall all of the digits correctly, as the maximum digit span is around seven. However, if we split this sequence into several chuncks, it is more likely that it will be recalled accurately. For instance, the first four digits of the sequence could be associated with George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, 747 with the famous ‘Boeing 747’, and finally 365 with the number of days in a year.

The method of loci

The method of loci involves a strategy to link a location that can be included in a visual image with an object we want to remember. It is possible to further enhance the mnemonic by finding a way to link each item with its location with the use of imagination. This strategy can be used for remembering speeches or presentations, for example, by picturing each point or idea along a path from one’s house, as this would help to memorize the order of every part of the speech.

The face-name system

The face-name system is a mnemonic technique that entails coming up with a relevant term or picture that resembles the person’s name. Then, a distinguishing facial characteristic of the person should be chosen to make an interactive image that connects that feature to the image associated with their name.

The keyword system

A technique similar to the face-name system that has been used to aid people with language learning is called the keyword system (Atkinson, 1975; Gruneberg, 1987). It includes considering an English word that is similar to a foreign word that needs to be learned in some way. For instance, the French word “herisson” means “hedgehog”. Gruneberg suggests forming an image of a hedgehog with a “hairy son”.

Peg word system

The peg-word method is another common mnemonic device for learning meaningless number lists. Each digit in this system is represented by the name of a rhyme-related object. A very popular example of this mnemonic system is ‘one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree’, and so on. Once these connections become clear, any series of numbers may be used to create a narrative involving things like shoes, buns, trees, etc.

Mila Tončić

mila.toncic01@icatt.it

Bibliography

Groóme, D., & Eysenck, M. W. (2016). An introduction to applied cognitive Psychology. In Psychology Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315732954

Drew, C. (April 6, 2023). Method of Loci (10 Examples and Definition). Helpful Professor. https://helpfulprofessor.com/method-of-loci-examples/

9 Types of mnemonics for better memory. (n.d.). https://www.learningassistance.com/2006/january/mnemonics.html#:~:text=An%20Ode%20or%20Rhyme%20Mnemonic,April%2C%20June%2C%20and%20November.