9 Types of Mnemonics

	9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory By Dennis Congos, University of Central Florida http://www.learningassistance.com/2006/january/mnemonics.html
	Mnemonics are memory devices that help learners recall larger pieces of information, especially in the form of lists like characteristics, steps, stages, parts, phases, etc. We knew back in 1967 from a study by Gerald R. Miller that mnemonics increased recall. He found that students who regularly used mnemonic devices increased test scores up to 77%! Many types of mnemonics exist and which type works best is limited only by the imagination of each individual learner. The 9 basic types of mnemonics presented in this handout include Music, Name, Expression/Word, Model, Ode/Rhyme, Note Organization, Image, Connection, and Spelling Mnemonics. Music Mnemonics How many lyrics to songs do you remember? How did you come to remember them? The same method you used to recall song lyrics also can work just as well in academics. Music can used to help students recall important details to main ideas and many learners have made songs out of information when a list of items must be learned. Advertising on radio and TV uses music to help potential customers remember their products when shopping. With sufficient repetition of commercials, advertisers have discovered that when shoppers see their product in the stores that often the shopper will start reciting a oft repeated phrases from the commercial or start singing the lyrics to the promotion melody. The results has been increased sales of the product. You can make a song or jingle using any type of music you choose for any list of items. Music Mnemonics work best with long lists. For example, some children learn the ABC's by singing the "ABC" song. Other children learn all the states in alphabetical order using the "50 Nifty United States" song. Name Mnemonics In a Name Mnemonic, the 1st letter of each word in a list of items is used to make a name of a person or thing. Sometimes, the items can be rearranged to form a more recollectable name mnemonic. Examples: ROY G. BIV = colors of the spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.) Pvt. Tim Hall = Essential amino acids (Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isolucine, Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine. Expression or Word Mnemonic This is by far the most popularly used mnemonic. To make an Expression or Word mnemonic, the first letter of each item in a list is arranged to form a phrase or word. Examples: For physical laws dealing with gasses, try these: Charles' Law: For a constant volume, pressure is directly proportional to temperature. The simple way to remember Chuck is if the tank's too hot, you're blown into muck. Henry's Law: The solubility of a gas increases with pressure. To remember good old Hank, remember the bubbles in the shaken Coke you drank. Boyles' Law: At constant temperature, pressure is inversely proportional to volume. Boyle's law is best of all because it presses gasses awfully small. In English, the 7 coordinating conjunctions are For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So = FANBOYS. The order of operations for math is Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, and Subtract = Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The categories in the classification of life are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Variety = Kings Play Cards On Fairly Good Soft Velvet. For those who have to remember the order of color coding on electronic resistors: Black, Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Brown, Violet, Gray, White, Silver, Gold. Bad Boys Rile Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Welts (to) Silly Guys or Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well (in) Silver Goblets. Almost every anatomy class has to remember the eight small bones in the wrist: Navicular, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Multongular (Greater), Multongular (Lesser), Capitate, Hamate. Never Lick Tilly's Popsicle, Mother Might Come Home. Create an Expression Mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets from the sun outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Model Mnemonics In a Model Mnemonic, some type of representation is constructed to help with understanding and recalling important information. Examples include a circular sequence model, a pyramid model of stages, a pie chart, and a 5-box sequence. Models should be used in addition to words and lists because they make recall at test time much easier. With a large model such as the Krebs Cycle, it is easier to learn and remember if it is divided into quarters and learned one quarter at a time; hence, the cross hairs. Ode or Rhyme Mnemonics An Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic puts information in the form of a poem. Examples include: A commonly used Rhyme Mnemonic for the number of days in each month is: 30 days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31 Except February my dear son. It has 28 and that is fine But in Leap Year it has 29. You'd probably prefer your doctor to know the difference between cyanate and cyanide: Cyanate "I ate" and Cyanide "I died." Cyanide is a little fatal. Remember this one? In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. How is your spelling? I before e except after c or when sounding like a in neighbor and weigh Here is an easy way to remember the nerves: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, acoustic, glassopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory and hypoglossal. On Old Olympus' Towering Tops, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops Note Organization Mnemonics The way textbook and lecture notes are organized can inhibit learning and recall or promote it. In the sense that the organization of notes can promote recall, it is a memory device. Three examples of organizing note formats that promote recall are as follows: Notecards Notecards are an easy way to organize main ideas and relevant details to be recalled. If main ideas are formatted into possible test questions, notecards can give learners practice in seeing questions and recalling answers as they must do on exams. Front Back Outlines Outlines clearly separate main ideas from details. This helps organize the information in the mind making it easier to remember. I. PIAGET'S THEORY  A. Four Stages    1. Sensorimotor    2. Preoperational    3. Concrete Operations    4. Formal Operations  B. Definition of each stage    1. Sensorimotor means ........ etc. Cornell System The Cornell System is another way to use a Note Organization Mnemonic to promote recall. A vertical line is drawn 3 inches from the left margin of notebook paper. Main ideas or questions from them are placed to the left of the line and details or answers placed to the right. Questions      Answers The topic used here is from How To Study In College (3rd edition) by Walter Pauk, pages 292 300. Image Mnemonics The information in an Image Mnemonic is constructed in the form of a picture that promotes recall of information when you need it. The sillier the Image Mnemonic is, the easier it is to recall the related information. These images may be mental or sketched into text and lecture notes. Don't worry about your artistic ability. As long as you know what your sketch means, Image Mnemonics will help you learn and remember. Examples: You can use an Image Mnemonic to remember BAT (the depressant drugs mentioned above - Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers). Visualize or sketch in your notes a limp, depressed bat that took Barbiturates, Alcohol, and Tranquilizers. Picture meeting someone new at a party named John Horsley. Use an Image Mnemonic to help you remember his name. Visualize a horse sitting on a john: not pretty but effective in recall. No example provided on this one. What is a numismatist? Visualize a new mist rolling onto a beach from the ocean and beach is made of coins. Silly? Of course, but sillyography makes it is easier to remember that a numismatist is a coin collector. How about using a bad joke to help you remember? Picture two numismatists having a drink for "old dime's sake." Corny? Yes, but cornography often makes things easier to remember. Connection Mnemonics In this type of mnemonic, the information to be remembered is connected to something already known. Examples include: Remembering the direction of longitude and latitude is easier to do when you realize that lines on a globe that run North and South are long and that coincides with LONGitude. Another Connection Mnemonic points out that there is an N in LONGitude and an N in North. Latitude lines must run east to west, then because there is no N in latitude. Another Connection Mnemonic is related to sound. The 1st part of the word latitude sounds like flat and flat runs horizontal or East and West. Spelling Mnemonics Here is an example of a spelling mnemonic: A principal at a school is your pal, and a principle you believe or follow is a rule. Another commonly used Spelling Mnemonic is combined with an Ode/Rhyme Mnemonic. I before e except after c or when sounding like a in neighbor and weigh A third example deals with the problems some learners have remembering that there is an "a" in the middle of separate and not an "e." A Spelling Mnemonic combined with an Image Mnemonic may be used to spell the word sep rate using an exaggerated "a." To spell Mississippi, many learners combine a Rhythm Mnemonic with a Spelling mnemonic: M-iss-iss-ipp-i. Here are some more examples of spelling mnemonics: Geography: George Edwards's Old Grandma Rode A Pig Home Yesterday. Arithmetic: A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream. Saskatchewan: Ask At Chew An with an S in front of it. Take the 1st letter of each type of mnemonic listed above and print them below on the line to help you remember the 9 types. Have a Mnemonics Party Wanna' Practice? You become better at that which you practice. If you practice not making mnemonics…………………………………… Get some classmates or friends together and practice making mnemonics using the lists provided below. Nine times out of 10 everyone gets a side ache from laughing so hard before the exercise below is finished. Using the items below, devise a mnemonic for remembering each piece of information. Use any of the 9 types of mnemonics as a guide or combine any of the types. Try making a mnemonic without changing the order and then a few where you reorganize the items to fit your mnemonic. 9 characteristics that facilitate learning - Open-mindedness, self-awareness, tolerance, alert mind, energy, ability to set goals, willingness to take risks, self-discipline, and the capacity to value, accept, and undergo change. __________________________________________________________________________ Order of the planets from the sun out - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune Pluto _________________________________________________________________________ Going shopping - Eggs, milk, onions, butter, cucumbers, lettuce, Tide __________________________________________________________________________ Blooms 7 levels of thinking ability - recall, translation, interpretation, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation __________________________________________________________________________ The royal houses on England - Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Windsor __________________________________________________________________________ Body's excretory organs - Liver, kidneys, skin, lungs, intestines __________________________________________________________________________ Reasons why reciting notes aloud increases memory - Gets you involved, provides feedback on what you know, supplies motivation, uses many senses in learning, and promotes concentration. __________________________________________________________________________ 6 types of machines - lever, inclined plane, axle and wheel, jackscrew, pulley, & gear. __________________________________________________________________________ 6 ways to purify water - settling, filtration, coagulation, chlorination, aeration, boiling. __________________________________________________________________________ Factors that affect water evaporation - temperature, area exposed, wind, and humidity. __________________________________________________________________________ How soil fertility is restored - rotating crops, adding fertilizer, resting the soil, sweetening the soil, draining and irrigating, undoing damaged or polluted soil. __________________________________________________________________________ Major features of sole proprietorship - easy to start, can make decisions quickly, no bosses, profits are not shared, losses are not shared, and borrowing is limited. __________________________________________________________________________ Four types of chemical reactions - synthesis, decomposition, single-replacement, and double-replacement. __________________________________________________________________________ Basic steps in the scientific method - state the problem, gather information on the problem, form hypothesis, experiment to test hypothesis, record data, analyze date, and draw conclusions. __________________________________________________________________________ General properties of matter - mass, weight, volume, and density. __________________________________________________________________________ Five parts of a deciduous forest - upper stratum, lower tree stratum, shrub layer, ground layer, soil layer. __________________________________________________________________________ Four Ocean zones - intertidal, near-shore, edge of continental shelf, perpetual darkness __________________________________________________________________________ You are only limited by the restrictions that you place on your own creativity. Questions or comments? Contact the author at dcongos@mail.ucf.edu.

Phrases

Occam's razor 
 (also written as Ockham's razor and in Latin lex parsimoniae) is a problem-solving principle devised by William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347). It states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Other, more complicated solutions may ultimately prove correct, but—in the absence of certainty—the fewer assumptions that are made, the better.
The application of the principle can be used to shift the burden of proof in a discussion. However, Alan Baker, who suggests this in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is careful to point out that his suggestion should not be taken generally, but only as it applies in a particular context, that is: philosophers who argue in opposition to metaphysical theories that involve allegedly “superfluous ontological apparatus”. Baker then notices that principles, including Occam’s Razor, are often expressed in a way that is not clear regarding which facet of “simplicity” — parsimony or elegance — is being referred to, and that in a hypothetical formulation the facets of simplicity may work in different directions: a simpler description may refer to a more complex hypothesis, and a more complex description may refer to a simpler hypothesis.
Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference is a mathematically formalized Occam's Razor:

Shorter computable theories have more weight when calculating the probability of the next observation, using all computable theories which perfectly describe previous observations.
In science, Occam's Razor is used as a heuristic (discovery tool) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models rather than as an arbiter between published models. In the scientific method, Occam's Razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; the preference for simplicity in the scientific method is based on the falsifiability criterion. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there is always an infinite number of possible and more complex alternatives, because one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypothesis to prevent them from being falsified; therefore, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are better testable and falsifiable.

The Hegelian Dialectic and its use in Controlling Modern Society

realnewsaustralia.com
April 8, 2013
What exactly is the Hegelian Dialectic? Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a 19th century German philosopher who devised a particular dialectic, or, method of argument for resolving disagreements. His method of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments is a system of thought process still use to this day.
To put it simply, the basis of Hegelianism dictates that the human mind can’t understand anything unless it can be split into two polar opposites. Good / Evil, Right / Wrong, Left / Right.
For example when people are talking about 2 political parties, Labor or Liberal, what they’re actually referring to, without realising it, is the thesis and the antithesis based off the Hegelian Dialectic. The only real debate that occurs is just the minor differences between those two parties. Nothing is said or done about the issues that neither left or right is discussing. This in particular will become more apparent as the election draws near



Another form of the Hegelian Dialectic is Problem – Reaction – Solution. Most of us unwittingly fall victim to it all too often and sadly if we don’t stop, we will continue to lose our free will and liberties. It has been widely used by our governments and corporations around the world. You could say that in terms of controlling the masses, and society in general, it’s deployment has been an effective tool in keeping humanity in check.
Almost all major events in history employ the Hegelian Dialectic of:
Problem – manufacture a crisis or take advantage of one already in place in order to get the desired Reaction of public outcry whereby the public demands a Solution which as been predetermined from the beginning.
A classic example is 9/11.
Only when you break the left/right paradigm and come to the realisation that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the whole fake, and not to mention contradictory, war on terror was the desired outcome for the neo-conservatives within the Bush administration and the whole military industrial complex. They in fact stated in their own white papers the need for another catastrophic and catalysing event like a “new Pearl Harbour”.
Here’s a more current example of the Hegelian Dialectic is use. In Australia at present both of the main political parties on the eve of the upcoming election on September 7 are discussing “Boat People”. A derogatory term used to describe refugees and asylum seekers displaced by war or other hardships. I don’t believe they constitute what you would call a “crisis” as the statistics clearly show they aren’t, but for the purpose of this example, our Government is telling us they are a problem. The media is used to play up this problem in order to instigate a reaction (debate) in the public domain on how to tackle it. Both the opposition and ruling party offer their solution.
Again we see that the only real debate occurring is just the minor differences between those two parties. Nothing is said or done about the many other more important issues that neither left or right is discussing.
In order to avoid falling victim to the Hegelian Dialectic from now on you must remember the process involved. Anytime a major problem or issue arises in society think about who will gain or profit from it. Then remove yourself from the equation and take a step back to look at it from a third party perspective. See the so-called “problem”, look at who is reacting, why and in what way. Then look for who is offering up the solution.
When you do this from now on you’ll quickly see the real truth instead of the false truth they wanted you to see