It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, which is why the mnemonics involving mental pictures (images) are popular. But there are many situations in which it is easier to use words to mediate between the stimulus and the response. In learning foreign words, there may be a similar English word that you can immediately relate to the correct translation. Again using Spanish (with the verbal mediator in parenthesis):
| casa-(castle)-house | libro-(library)-book | agua-(aquarium)-water |
| mujer-(mother)woman | campo-(campus)-countryside | taza-(tea)-cup |
Verbal mediators can involve several words or a sentence. If the stimulus starts a series of associations that eventually leads you to the desired response, it can be better than simple repetition of the words. For example: calle-(call a cab in the)-street. Yet another example: ciudad-(see you down town)-city. Although a long series may seem inefficient, you can race through those thoughts in a split second, and they will eventually drop out as you learn. Coding
A code uses one set of symbols to stand for another set. One familiar code is the Morse code that uses combinations of dots and dashes to stand for letters of the alphabet. (Actually, letters of the alphabet are themselves codes for sounds we make in speaking and you know that every product sold in a supermarket is coded by a set of lines of varying widths.) The reason that coding is a potentially useful mnemonic technique is that coded information may be easier to remember than the original form.
There is a wide range of possible codes. Let me illustrate a widely-used coding technique that uses letters to stand for other letters. In this technique, there is an arbitrary "code word" that tells you how to make the translation. You start with the code word and then finish listing the remaining letters of the alphabet. For example, if the code word is, "help":
| Coded: | H E L P A B C D F G I J K M N O Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
| Alphabet: | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
an H stands for A, and E for B, etc. If I send you the message:
PNYNUCATTDAFPAH? you decode into DOYOUGETTHEIDEA?
which you can readily separate into "Do you get the idea?" Note that if we agreed upon a different code word, say "forget," and further agreed that we would finish listing the alphabet backward, the same message would code quite differently:
| Coded: | F O R G E T Z Y X W V U S Q P N M L K J I H D C B A |
| Alphabet: | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Message: GPBPIZEJJYEXGEF? I hope so.
The preceding code used letters for letters, but the codes used as memory aids typically change from one type of
symbol to another. For example, I sometimes find it easier to code numbers into words by using the length of the word to
represent the number. Consider that a telephone number is 296-2428. The sentence, "My telephone number is easy to
remember," has seven words with the lengths standing for the numbers in the telephone number. If you can make up a
sentence such as that one, you can be sure people will remember your number.
Let me help you get started. First, count the letters in your name (e.g., Frank = 5) and see if that number is in your telephone number. Next, worry about the number 1 because that will have to be either "I" or "a" in your sentence. If possible, try to work some relevant word (call = 4, telephone = 9, number = 6, phone = 5) into the sentence. "To phone Frank, just dial a number" = 255-4416.
One good way to practice this mnemonic is to combine it with the acrostic method to remember an automobile license number. You know that the number has 3 letters and then 3 numbers, so you make up a six-word sentence, with the first three being an acrostic for the letters, and the last three being coded by word length. For example:
BFG 266 = Big fish grow in little rivers.
CRD 140 = Children rarely drive a real automobile.
DLS 532 = Drive like Satan wants you to.
DLS 532 = Don't let some child get it.
It could be well worth your while to take the time to memorize this sentence: "I know what numbers to think because one counts a word length." That sentence decodes into 144725736146. Now if you number the days of the week like the calendar does with Sunday as day 1, the foregoing string of numbers tells you the day of the week that is the first of each month in a non-Leap-year beginning with January first on a Sunday. In just a single sentence, you can memorize the entire calendar!
For example, in such a year, on what day of the week does the Fourth of July fall? July is the 7th month, so you recite, "I know what numbers to think because," to learn that July 1st is the 7th day (Saturday). It is easy enough then to figure that the 4th is on a Tuesday. When is Christmas? The 12th word (length) has 6 letters, so December 1st falls on a Friday. Succeeding Fridays would be 8th, 15, and 22nd. If the 22nd is a Friday, Christmas falls on Monday.
Actually, you can use that same sentence in any year except for Leap years. All you have to do is make a mental note at the first of the year as to what day it is. Then you adjust accordingly. Thus, if New Years Day falls on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday, you will have to add two days to your figuring. Thus July 1st falls on Monday (rather than Saturday), and the 4th is therefore on Thursday. Such is the power of mnemonics.
Coding is a versatile mnemonic device because you can fabricate a limitless number of diverse ways to transform information. You can fill many otherwise wasted minutes devising mnemonic codes.