Images

Images

This is the threshold between quick-to-learn memory techniques and time-consuming-to-learn memory techniques. An understanding of the use of imagination to memorise information is not hard to learn.

In the article about 'Prompts', I pointed out that a diagram or a picture is easier to memorise than a sequence of text notes - and is often acceptable in an exam essay answer. There is a lot of literature about the idea of drawing revision notes as images. You can go back and forth all day over the question of how best to structure revision notes. I do agree with the idea that 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'

You might write prompt words to remind you about each paragraphs which you want to use in an exam essay answer. This article is about converting these prompts into images and then recalling those images in a sequence; because, if you can do that then you will have an easy-to-recall list of points which you want to make in an essay.

There is a 'down side' to this method though. It is far better, in my opinion, to know the structure of an essay or an argument because it makes sense to you and has a natural sequence which occurs from a basic understanding of a subject. Similarly, if you can recall diagrams and charts then you are recalling meaningful imagery - and that is great. However, what we will look at in this article is the idea of creating imaginary scenes a bit like a day-dream and then using that memorable scene to pick out the prompt images for an essay answer. It actually works quite well BUT the 'meaning' of the essay has been abandoned: the images are 'abstract'; your mind needs to piece together the meaning of the prompt images so that you can continue to write your essay.

Imagining stories in a sequence

In the article about using acrostics in a sociology essay, I introduced a 'visual trick' which was to break away from the facts of an essay and, instead, to invent a story which uses ideas relevant to the essay. So C. Wright Mills should be writing sociology books but he has such a strong IMAGINATION that he spends all day day-dreaming about an airplane crunching into a mill.

That technique allowed an essay question to be the first step in a story's sequence. In the exam, the student is asked about 'Sociological Imagination' and this makes him think about a day-dreaming sociologist. And so it begins ...: the recall of the ideas relevant to answering the essay question.

It is important that the story should have a sequence in it - typically event A will be the cause of an effect on event B. By retelling the story, event A must therefore precede event B. That sequencing is important because a pre-prepared essay answer has a necessary sequence to it; you do not want event B to be written about until event A 'lays the ground' for it.

This process of imagining a story in a sequence is also known as a 'Linked List' technique.

Representing common data

Time and time again, in modern life, there are sequences of data which it is useful to memorise. For instance, a computer password. In order to assist that type of task, it is useful to have images which are reserved specifically to represent letters of the alphabet or digits.

For instance, I use 26 images to represent the letters A to Z in upper case:

A is for Apple

B is for Beer

C is for Clock

D is for Dragon

E is for Edge (like the edge of a cliff; imagine the edge of a cliff)

Tip: Imagine a chunk of the cliff: just a section from the top -

it is easier for me to picture it in different imaginary situations that way.

F is for fence

G is for Gas canister

H is for Harp

I is for Ink

J is for Jump

K is for Keg

L is for Lens

M is for Mug

N is for Negligence

O is for Ogre (a type of giant)

P is for Prig

Q is for Quick - get-rich-quick schemer image

R is for Rigid - like a window frame which should be rigid.

S is for Cigarette - well the 'C' sounds like 'S'...

T is for Togetherness

U is for Ungainly

V is for Vagabond

W is for Wag - a wagging tail of a dog

X is for eXaggerate - eg. Pinnochio or a particular liar or an exaggerated item - like an overrated trophy

Y is for Yoga

Z is for Zig-zag path of a wasp

If I have a set of images for each month of the year and a woman named June represents June then imagining June with the image for L will remind me that my monthly password begins with 'L'. eg. June uses a camera lens.

Images can represent sounds

If you study a foreign language then you will find, sometimes, stubborn words of vocabulary which refuse to stick in your memory. If a language is experienced orally then you have no time to play with mnemonics to solve the problem; but if the language is written then you can pause on it and consider what word or phrase in English the foreign word sounds like. In this way, you have a launching pad to make a story about what the word means.

For example, the word 'rensegnements' in French means 'information'. It sounds to me a bit like 'rent segments'. I can imagine the concept of 'information' as a newspaper. I now needs a story where I rent segments of a newspaper and discover information piece-by-piece. So, in future, I will read 'rensegnements', think of 'rent segments' and remember my story which prompts me the idea of 'information'.

This technique is good for stubborn vocabulary but success in a language generally requires instant recognition of a foreign word - so I do not recommend the technique for all foreign language vocabulary. Besides, it abstracts the meaning of a word - and so a time delay and divided concentration is encountered.

Images should not duplicate

I have a system where any 2 letters of the alphabet have an image. KT is represented by the image of a kite because 'KT' is a bit like the spelling of the word 'kite'.

In another system [the 'spell 1000' system], for representing numbers from 000 to 999, I use the word 'kite' again for reasons which you will understand after you have read the 'Spell 1000' system article.

Won't I confuse this double use of the word 'kite'? In the other system, I extend the idea of a kite to mean 'Kite surf' so that the number 334 is represented by the image of somebody kite surfing. Although there is a duplication of printed word [ie. 'kite'], it does not matter because KT uses an image of a kite whereas 334 uses the image of a kite surfer.

'Advanced Memory Techniques' as a course in school

As this course progresses now, I am going to pick up on this basic principle of imagining stories in order to recall information - but the amount of effort required by you to apply the techniques will be a lot greater. I anticipate that this is the dividing line between the reader who reads this course for some quick help with exam revision, and the reader who wants to study memory techniques as a subject in its own right.

My dream would be for 'memory techniques' to be a course taught at school to young children - provided that it is a good course and not merely the best marketed course. If a student has the ability to memorise facts quickly and accurately then just think how much less painful the deadline-intensive education system would be.

To my mind, the education system puts unnecessary pressure on people to perform; it sometimes makes them believe, wrongly, that exam failure will mean failure in all aspects of their future life; but maybe the student has not yet experienced the subject which they are naturally gifted at. Or maybe the school syllabus has made a fascinating subject dull - and the student will develop a passion for it 20 years later; and then they can study the subject when they feel like it - not because someone has told them that they must magically generate a passion for the subject before a deadline in a week's time.

I look around at the financial success of the super students and the average students of my generation and I do not see a clear correlation between the two. Some people are excellent at the exam process but they might lack the social networking skills or other skills which can lead to promotion or other opportunities in life.

It seems almost criminal for an education establishment not to have 'memory techniques' as a foundation subject because it is essentially dictating that young people should be stressed out instead of having time to dually develop academically and enjoy their youth.