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The Link Method is one of the easiest
mnemonic techniques available. You use it by making simple
associations between items in a list, linking them with
a vivid image containing the items. Taking the first image,
create a connection between it and the next item (perhaps
in your mind smashing them together, putting one on top
of the other, or suchlike.) Then move on through the list
linking each item with the next.
The Story Method is very similar, linking
items together with a memorable story featuring them. The
flow of the story and the strength of the images give you
the cues for retrieval.
How to Use the Tools:
It is quite possible to remember lists of words using association
only. However it is often best to fit the associations into a
story: Otherwise by forgetting just one association you can lose
the whole of the rest of the list.
Given the fluid structure of this mnemonic (compared with the
peg systems explained later in this section) it is important that
the images stored in your mind are as vivid as possible. See the
introduction to this section for further information on making
images strong and memorable.
Where a word you want to remember does not trigger strong images,
use a similar word that will remind you of that word.
Example:
You may want to remember this list of counties in the South of
England: Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon, Gloucestershire,
Hampshire, and Surrey.
You could do this with two approaches, the Link Method and the
Story Method:
Remembering with the Link Method
This would rely on a series of images coding information:
An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset)
The DOoR opening to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with
a
SETting sun (Somerset)
The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall)
The CORN is so dry it is beginning to WILT (Wiltshire)
The WILTing stalks slowly droop onto the tail of the sleeping
DEVil (Devon).
On the DEVil's horn a woman has impaled a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire)
HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it
Now the Devil feels SoRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.
Note that there need not be any reason or underlying plot to
the sequence of images: only images and the links between images
are important.
Remembering with the Story Method:
Alternatively you could code this information
by imaging the following story vividly:
An AVON lady is walking up a path towards
a strange house. She is hot and sweating slightly in the
heat of high SUMMER (Somerset). Beside the path someone
has planted giant CORN in a WALL (Cornwall), but it's beginning
to WILT (Wiltshire) in the heat. She knocks on the DOoR
(Dorset), which is opened by the DEVil (Devon).
In the background she can see a kitchen
in which a servant is smearing honey on a HAM (Hampshire),
making it GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) and gleam in bright sunlight
streaming in through a window. Panicked by seeing the Devil,
the Avon lady screams 'SoRRY' (Surrey), and dashes back
down the path.
Key points:
The Link Method is probably the most basic
memory technique, and is very easy to understand and use.
It works by coding information to be remembered into images
and then linking these images together
The story technique is very similar. It links
these images together into a story. This helps to keep events
in a logical order and can improve your ability to remember information
if you forget the sequence of images.
Both techniques are very simple to learn. Unfortunately
they are both slightly unreliable as it is easy to confuse the
order of images or forget images from a sequence.
These problems are solved using a simple "peg system"
like the Number/Rhyme Mnemonic, explained in our next article.
To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant
destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here"
list underneath.
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Time
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