Memory Skills Introduction
When it comes to improving your memory, it is important to practice. As you continue to practice, you will find that your memory will continue to improve. One concept that you will want to become familiar with is called mnemonics. Mnemonics can be defined as techniques which can help your remember difficult information. The goal of mnemonics is to use your brain in effective ways to store and recall information.
Our brains were developed in order to process images, smells, sounds, and colors. We use these things everyday. Our brains will store this information in a very efficient manner. While certain elements are easy for our brains to store, much of the information we receive on a daily basis will only be stored into our short term memory, and will quickly be forgotten.
The reason for this is because most of the information we receive comes in only one form. It will usually be words on a piece of paper or computer screen. While being able to read a language is important, it is just one of the elements our brains use to store information.
If you could take the words or numbers on a page and put them into a visual form, your brain would be able to store it much more efficiently. This will make the data easier to remember later. To use mnemonics effectively, you will want to associate positive images to words and numbers. Your brain will ignore images which are not pleasant. You will also want to use images which are rich in color. Images that are rich in color or texture are easier to remember than boring images which feature bland colors. Another important feature of mnemonics is that it allows you to absorb information by using more than one of your senses.
One reason why many people have trouble remembering things is because they often receive information using only once sense. For example, when you read a book, you are only getting the information visually as your eyes scan the words. However, what if it were possible to smell, taste, see, and hear the information you were reading? You would find that you could memorize larger amounts of information, becaues you would be using more than one sense in order to absorb it.
It is also important to make sure you go beyond two dimensions. Much of the information we receive is only one or two dimensions. Being able to receive information in three dimensions will allow your brain to hold on to the information and place it in your long term storage. Another thing you can do to improve your memory is increase the size of the parts of the information which are most important. An example of this would be increasing the size of important statements you read in a book. In addition to increasing the size, using humor can also make things easy to remember.
People enjoy laughter. Storing information to memory in a funny way will allow you to remove it. Another benefit to using mnemonics is that it will allow you to store information using symbols. Before you begin using mnemonics, it is important for you to know the three elements which compose it. The three most important elements of mnemonics are location, association, and imagination. When you combine these three elements together, you can create a mnemonic system which will allow you to maximize your memory skills. I will will go over each of these elements briefly and give you an idea of why they are important.
Your imagination is what you will use to make the connections which are necessary for you to remember important things. If you have a good imagination, you will be able to successfully store information to your long term memory. You can use your imagination to produce any type of image you want, as long as it can help improve your memory.
Association is the element you will use to connect concepts. By associating different concepts together, it becomes easier to commit information to memory. The location is important because it gives you a place to store the information you have received. The use of location is very important when you are using mnemonics.