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Memorize a Short List


Mnemonix

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Learnt this from one of Harry Lorayne's books. I learnt the association technique a long time ago, but it was a huge help.

Lets say you want to memorize a numbered list, and you want to be able to recall the 5th item easily, or any other number in the list. Let's take for example a list of 10 items.

Step 1

The first thing you need to do is think of the numbers 1 to 10 as pictures. Numbers are abstract and difficult to remember. To make them easier to remember, you'll have to give them meaning, so you can perceive them in way you can see, touch, feel, smell or hear. To do this, think of the numbers as an object that rhymes with said number.

  1. Bun
  2. Shoe
  3. Tree
  4. Door
  5. Hive
  6. Sticks
  7. Heaven
  8. Gate
  9. Wine
  10. Hen

So you'll think of the number 1 as a bun, picture it in your mind, how it feels like, how it smells like, ect, and do the same with the other numbers. When you've done this, the numbers 1 to 10, will now have meaning. The purpose of this is too see the numbers as objects that your mind can "hold on to" instead of abstract information. The rhyming in itself is a mnemonic technique so you'll find it easy to remember what word goes with what number.

Step 2

The second step is to memorize a list of 10 items the mnemonic way. Take for example what you might see in a grocery list.

  1. Soap
  2. Fish
  3. Forks
  4. Eggs
  5. Toothpaste
  6. Soup
  7. Cheese
  8. Tomatoes
  9. Hammer
  10. Cat Food

So you have a list to memorize. What you do is associate the items on the list with the words that correspond with each number. Imagine the items interacting with it's number.

Make a bizarre picture that stands out in your mind, this way it is remembered very easily. Item number 1 is soap, and the word for number 1 is bun. So what you might do is imagine eating a bun only to find out that there is a bar of soap hidden inside. Imagine that you've bitten into the soap and taste it. The association is bizarre and ridiculous, but that's the point, because these things are honestly more memorable.

Do the same with the whole list. Imagine a fish swimming in a shoe, forks hanging from a tree, ect. Make whatever association sticks out in your mind.

Step 3

Now that you've made associations for the items with their numbers, you just have to recall them. If you were asked for the 3rd item, you'll think of the tree. What was on the tree that sticks out in your mind? You'll see the forks hanging from the tree, and recall that the 3rd item on the list was Forks.

What was the 10th item? Think of the hen, what was the hen doing? Maybe you thought of a hen eating cat food, or a hen being buried in cat food. Whatever the association, if it was bizarre and out of the ordinary, remembering the items is easy.

You can even recall the items in order by thinking of the bun and it's item first, then the shoe next, and then the rest of the list. you can go backwards in order as well.

This technique is very simple and takes only a short time to make an association.

I thought I would share this simple technique. Thank you for reading, I hope this helps

:)

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Hi.

Thanks for posting.. I don't think I'll use this method though.

I can just imagine myself getting it all wrong, going into a shop and saying;

"hi, I'll have a banana flavoured toilet seat please Not chocolate! That would just be weird..

Edited by Professor T
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