Page 3 - LN 4_Human Memory

due to absence or inappropriateness of retrieval cues that are

available/employed at the time of recall.

ENHANCING MEMORY
▪ Strategies for improving memory are called mnemonics to help you improve

your memory.

▪ Some of these mnemonics involve use of images whereas others emphasise self-

induced organisation of learned information.

▪ Mnemonics using images

✓ Mnemonics using images require that you create vivid and interacting

images of and around the material you wish to remember.
✓ The two prominent mnemonic devices, which make interesting use of

images, are

1. The keyword method and

2. The method of loci.

The keyword method
➢ Suppose you want to learn words of any foreign language.

➢ In keyword method, an English word that sounds similar to the word of

a foreign language is identified.

➢ This English word will function as the keyword.
➢ For example, if you want to remember the Spanish word for duck which

is ‘Pato’, you may choose ‘pot’ as the keyword and then evoke images of

keyword and the target word.

The Method of Loci

➢ In order to use the method of loci, items you want to remember are
placed as objects arranged in a physical space in the form of visual

images.

➢ This method is particularly helpful in remembering items in a serial

order.

➢ It requires that you first visualise objects/places that you know well in
a specific sequence, imagine the objects you want to remember and

associate them one by one to the physical locations.