Mnemonics is a word of Greek origin that is formed by the combination of two terms, mnéme, which means memory and techne, which means technique. Thus, mnemonics is a procedure or a method that serves to remember something more easily. In a colloquial sense we would talk about tricks to memorize information, for example lists with words, number sequences, telephone numbers, recipes, etc.
Different approaches to mnemonics
Mnemonic techniques help to enhance memory and this allows to face diverse situations with more guarantees of success. In this way, students and opponents can use this learning as an effective tool, especially if the study subjects incorporate a large amount of concrete data.
Mnemonics can be simple entertainment, and in fact there are contests where the goal is to demonstrate a super memory.
From a therapeutic point of view, mnemonics are useful for exercising the brain and enhancing mental agility
Certain memory exercises are carried out to restore memory in some patients.
Some poker or Blackjack players use mnemonics to count cards during the course of a game and thus have very useful information to complement their strategy in the game.
An example of a mnemonic technique
Among the different techniques, we can mention one by way of example, the one known as the memory palace. It consists of creating an imaginary story in which the words in a list are successively related.
If we want to remember the words dog, airplane, lights, dream, sock, coat, and friend, we can make a story like the following: the dog got on the plane, the lights went out, and he went into a deep sleep in which there was a sock in it. coat of your friend. In this way, totally unrelated words are remembered because they are part of a story that we have created.
The role of mnemonics in the context of new technologies
If we have a computing device to store a large amount of data, we do not need to use our memory, because we know where and how to retrieve all the information we need. Memory capacity has partially lost its usefulness, as computing has replaced the human brain in many tasks.
In ancient times, a lot of knowledge was transmitted orally from generation to generation and for this, memory was used as the main information tool. Currently the memory exercise cannot be conceived from traditional schemes.
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