User:Chriswaterguy/Learning techniques

I plan to check these before going much further with this page:

wikipedia:Mnemonics
refs on this site
Memory Improvement Tools
Wikibooks & Wikibooks:Wikiversity on learning techniques?

Word Association

wikipedia:Word Association, wikipedia:keyword technique?

Peg lists

google "Mega memory"

Peg lists are good for anything in a sequence (e.g. for lyrics, lines in a play, each peg can remind you of a key idea) or

any list of things (shopping list)
anything to do with numbers (e.g. learning to count in another language... though you wouldn't develop a peg list just for this)
remembering the key points of a book, article or lecture, without taking notes. (You can then more easily recall and digest the information... but it's wise to write down anything you need to soon after the lecture.)
remembering questions you plan to ask (or look up) at the end of a lecture. (You may want a second peg list for this, if you're already using one for remembering the lecture.)

Shape list

This doesn't use rhyming, so the one system works regardless of language - useful if teaching non-English speakers.

The Number/Shape System offers one image scheme:

 1 - Candle, spear, stick
 2 - Swan (beak, curved neck, body)
 3 - (rotate shape though 90 degrees!)
 4 - Sail of a yacht
 5 - A meat hook, a sea-horse facing right
 6 - A golf club
 7 - A cliff edge
 8 - An egg timer
 9 - A balloon with a string attached, flying freely
 0 - A hole

Loci (house list)

The common method is to memorise a few items (say 4) in each room, for several rooms. Use a house or building you know very well. I used to live in a 5 bedroom house, so I'm using that.

I'm confident in my memory, and I like to push myself, so I'm making it 10 pegs in each room, and using the front of the house, back garden, hallway and the cafe next door to bring it up to 10 rooms, making a 100 peg list. I'm adding things that weren't actually there, as long as they're vivid, distinctive images - and especially if they're associated with the person whose room it was.

I follow consistent rules, starting at the entrance point and moving clockwise; starting at the front of the house and moving back, then up;starting with the object on the furniture, then the furniture.

Note, this reflects my eccentric mind, and this approach may not suit you. The specifics definitely won't suit you if you did't live in this house.

**My house list**
	-1	-2	-3	-4	-5	-6	-7	-8	-9	+10
0-	gate	garden bed	crepe myrtle tree	bench	doorbell	house number	welcome mat	metal security door	peep hole	green door
1-	card swiper	poster on door	trapdoor in floor	camera	bed	lamp	drawers	sword?	old timold wardrobe	Venetian mask
2-	pizza phone table	green sofa	bookshelf	storm picture	grey sofa-bed	stereo	TV	vase	copier-coffee table
3-	rice-bin	ladle	cereal bowl	table	chair	fridge	dishrack/tap?	stove	knife rack	jar of cinnamon quills
4-
4-
4-
4-
4-
4-
4-

Miscellaneous

Nothing special here - I just like remembering things. Having the facts available can make it easier to understand history & stuff.

Canada's provinces: Quiet Nerds Burp Only Near School. Which helps you remember the four founding provinces of Canada. Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, & Nova Scotia. (Thanks Bart.) - which are also the ones along the bottom right. Full bottom line: Brian and Sandy Made Out Quietly Near Nelly. map

Add links for misc stuff... so-so: http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/29579 Is there a mnemonics wiki?

Music

I'd like to learn a guitar one day - to prove that old dogs can learn new tricks. I did a couple of years of piano as a kid, then one more at 18. Knowing the intervals is useful...

These are ascending intervals (there's another set of descending ones), for those of us who can recognize them quickly on written music but are still terrible sight-singers. In order, the intervals (the part outside the parentheses above) are: Not clear on the meaning of this... check with a musician.

Ones in bold are tunes I recognise:

**Music intervals**
Interval	Example
minor third	"Lullaby, and goodnight..."
perfect fourth	"Here comes the bride..." (That Mozart piece...?)
augmented fourth (diminished fifth)	"Mari(a, I just met a girl)..."
perfect fifth	"O-we-o. O-o-woh." "God rest ye merry gentlemen..."
major sixth	"My Bon(nie lies over the ocean)..."
minor seventh	"There's a (place for us)..."
octave	"Some... where... (over the rainbow)"

Language

General good advice: Remembering foreign language vocabulary

Indonesian

See Indonesian/Adding vocabulary with word association

Thai

Thai/Adding vocabulary with word association