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How to Use Mnemonics. Standing in the wrong parking lot looking for your car -- again?
You're not losing your mind, but you may find these memory devices useful. You will need
List Concentration Acronyms Acrostics and rhymes. Step 1. Break information into small
bites and memorize, then add another item and build a list. Write the information down
in small groups and repeat it. Reading and then reciting words takes the few seconds
necessary to convert short-term recognition to long-term memory. Step 2. Try the Method
of Loci, which involves memorizing landmarks and surroundings and the items in the room
or location. Practice mentally going about a location, picking up objects you have set
near architectural specifics. Step 3. Group information with related things you already
know, so the association with old knowledge helps you remember new information . Studies
suggest that there is less interference and less loss of memory when the information taken
in is associated with other similar facts or things. Step 4. Link a face with a name
by noting and committing to memory distinctive facial characteristics. Step 5. Rely on acronyms,
to remember the Great Lakes -- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior -- for instance.
Use small packets of shortcut information to trigger the larger supply. Step 6. Create
acrostic links by making up silly sentences that create a sort of acronym shortcut. Remember
the grocery list with "Mean Mr. Mustard sleeps on the dock," so that you recall: mayo, mints,
mustard, saltines, and dog food. Step 7. Rhyme words to hold them in mind, like "I before
E except after C." Make up songs that rhyme the words you don't want to lose. Step 8.
Practice remembering things constantly, as a personal challenge or a game. Go out of
your way to test your ability and improve it. Did you know Greek orators conceived of
the Method of Loci around the fifth century BCE, when Simonides of Ceos was able to identify
the bodies after a building collapsed because he had noted where all the people had been
standing.