Memorising
There are many situations where we need to memorise facts and information. These include learning a foreign language, revising for an examination, giving a speech, as well as remembering simpler things like people's names and bank card PIN numbers. Fortunately there are many so-called mnemonic techniques available which can help us with these. You will probably be familiar with some of these techniques from your school days. For example, most of us are able to remember the colours of the rainbow by using a mnemonic such as 'Richard of York gave battle in vain'. Here the initial letters of the seven words give us the colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This example demonstrates two elements of memorisation: imagination and association. Thus you create a sentence (imagination) using words starting with the initial letters of the colours (association). Particular aspects of memorisation are explored elsewhere, as follows:
RecommendationsHaving a good memory is so vitally important that it is well worth experimenting with some of the mnemonic systems which are available. The 'Developing your memory' reference below will provide you with helpful background information and useful links. Further InformationFor further information on memorising see:
| ||||||||||||||||
The power of the human memory is one of our most fascinating and wonderful attributes. We are sometimes dramatically made aware of this when twenty or more years on from our childhood we can be whisked back in our mind's eye to an old school room merely by getting a faint whiff of a particular disinfectant or furniture polish.