Mnemonics & Experts

Mnemonics and Experts Mnemonic Systems Extraordinary Memories Experts and Expertise Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems  Mnemonic:   A technique or device that uses familiar associations to enhance the storage and recall of information in memory All mnemonic systems are based on structuring information so that it is easily memorized and retrieved – THE KEY IS ORGANIZATION!  Types= jingle, rhyme, acronym, initial letters  Both semantic (meaning-based) and non-meaningful mnemonics can serve as memory aids Word comes from Mnemosyne (Mother of the 9 muses of arts and sciences in Greek Mythology)  Memory was the oldest and most revered of all mental skills– from which all others were derived Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005  Mnemonic Systems Method of Loci  Devised in Greece in the 6th century BC to help orators remember long speeches  Considered oldest Mnemonic  This method involves:    Identification of familiar places sequentially arranged Creation of images if the to-be-recalled (TBR) items that are associated with the places Recall by means of ―revisiting‖ the places, which serves as a cue for the TBR items There is abundant casual evidence and some empirical evidence (Bower, 1970; 72) that indicates the Method of Loci does aid recall. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Method of Loci       Bring to mind a familiar location, such as the living room in your house. Take a moment to conduct a mental walk through the room (For example, imagine walking in the door, turning right, seeing the bookcase, walking to the bookcase, looking at it, walking past it to the fireplace, looking in the fireplace, etc…). Along your route create your list of "loci" -- well defined parts of the room that you can use later to memorize things: the door, the bookcase, the fireplace, etc. Now you are faced with a list of words or ideas to be memorized-- For example, the five things that you need to buy for a birthday party (e.g. cake, candles, balloons, present and music). Form visual images for each of the words and place them, in order, on the loci in your route as you move through your living room (cake splattered on the door, candle burning on the bookcase, balloons tied to the fireplace, etc.). Imagine it as vividly as you can. To recall the words or ideas, you then take a mental walk throughout your house, asking yourself , "What is on the living room door? What's on the bookcase. What's on the fireplace?" And so on. Note: Associating the words or ideas to remember with the loci, you should try to create surprising images. Research suggests the more striking the created image, the more easily you will remember the target word or idea. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Peg Word System  Also called Peg List System  Many forms– basic idea is learn a set of words that act as ―pegs‖ on which TBR items are ―hung‖   Learn the easy to remember rhyme Associate the TBR items with the easy words in the rhyme one --- bun two --- shoe three ---tree four --- door five --- hive Need to remember: six--- stick Elephant, lion, zebra, bear, etc. seven --- heaven eight --- gate So visualize: nine --- line Elephant burger squeezed into tiny bun ten --- hen Lion dancing in ballet shoes Zebra hiding in a birch tree Bear entering the doorway of a big cave Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Support for this method found in research of Bower, 1973 Mnemonic Systems Key Word Method  Different form of peg word technique used for foreign language instruction  The key word is an English word that sounds like some part of the foreign word = used to connect the foreign word with an image of the English translation Research supports that the key word approach produced almost 2x better recall of words when tested six weeks after initial learning. (Atkinson & Raugh, 1975) Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Examples:  Spanish word ―Pato‖ (means duck) = ―pot- o‖ pot is the key word picture a duck with a pot on its head  Russian word ―Zvonok‖ (means bell) = ―zvahn-oak‖ oak is the key word picture oak tree with bells for acorns Mnemonic Systems Organizational Schemes  Mnemonic systems based on structuring information  Places, times, orthography (creating mental representations for sounds and letters– related to representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols ), sounds, imagery, meaning, semantic categories  Example: Remember the following words: church feet hand web star boy nurse apple home carpet hill nail pepper train glass Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Organizational Schemes  Visualization: church boy hill feet nurse nail hand apple pepper web home train star carpet glass Taps into LTM greater capacity to code visual information Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Organizational Schemes  chu rch boy Instead of being in church, the boy was hiding on the hill. hill He had bare feet, although the nurse told him he might step feet on a nail. In his hand was an apple on which, from time to nur time, he sprinkled with black pepper . se nail While the spider spun a web over his head, he dreamed of han running away from home. The thread of this thought went d like this– he would hide on a train until he got to the coast. app From there, he’d fly to a faraway star on a magic carpet or le by rubbing an enchanted glass. pep per we b ho Taps into LTM being structured based on meaning Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 me Semantic Story: Mnemonic Systems Organizational Schemes chu rch boy Body Parts Foods Nature hill feet apple hill feet nur hand pepper web se nail nail star han d app Places People Processed Things le church boy glass pep per home nurse carpet we b train ho Taps into STM chunking & LTM being structured based on meaning me Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005  Semantic Categories: Mnemonic Systems Additional Systems  Acronyms  Make a word out of the first letters of the TBR items (it can even be a nonsense word)  Learn a list of important cognitive psychologists SCRABBLE PLAYER VIPS Shepard, Craik, Rumelhart, Anderson, Bower, Broadbent, Loftus, Estes, Posner, Luria, Atkinson, Yarbus, Erikson, Rayner, Vygotsky, Intons-Peterson, Piaget, Sternberg  Acrostics  Make a phrase with the words comprising the first letters of the TBR items  Learn to remember biology terms Kings Play Chess On Fine Grain Sand Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Remembering Words  Often use Initial Letter mnemonic  Cranial Nerves learned for Anatomy On Old Olympia’s Towering Top, A Finn and German Vault and Hop Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Auditory, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, Hypoglossal  For the lines and spaces of the musical staff Every Good Boy Does Fine = Lines FACE = Spaces  Colors of the spectrum ROY G BIV Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet Research results support that Initial Letter Mnemonics are effective memory aids-research suggests the initial letter is most important coding for LTM storage, last letter tends to be next most important letter (Solso & Biersdorff, 1975) Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Remembering Names  Use the pronunciation of the name to create a substitute name that has rich imaginal properties   Antesiewicz --- Auntie-save-itch Caruthers — car with udders  Search for an outstanding feature and substitute a word with the feature  Balding, chubby man named Wally Kelly– w of hair line help with Wally and associate big belly with Kelly  Focusing attention is critical Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Mnemonic Systems Which is best?  Some techniques work well for some types of material, while others work well for other types (Herrmann, 1987)    Paired Associates = imagery Free recall = story mnemonic Serial Learning = method of Loci  Some research suggest that Method of Loci, Peg Word and Acrostics are about equally effective (Garcia and Diener, 1993) Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Extraordinary Memories  Photographic memory:  The ability to totally recall images, sounds or objects in memory with great accuracy and in seemingly unlimited volume  Cannot discount that this is possible, however:   No empirical research to support this Cases of extraordinary memory studied have all turned out to be due the use of powerful memory strategies (some type of mnemonic) Research shows there are effective memory strategies which can be learned to achieve powerful memory, however:    Takes tremendous amount of practice to achieve levels of mastery Good memory is domain specific (skill at remembering names does not lead to better memory for things read) Practicing a particular memory strategy leads to skill at using that strategy does not lead to “good memory”  Not a matter of having “good memory” or “bad memory” may be good at remembering some things and have poor recall for others; varies between people Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Extraordinary Memories  Types of reported extraordinary memory:  Eidetic:  The ability to recall extraordinarily detailed and vivid visual images  Synthesia:  Sensory information from one modality (auditory) evokes a sensation in another modality (visual)  People with unusual or extraordinary memories:   Professional Mnemonists consciously apply a mnemonic technique Spontaneous Mnemonists capacities seem to have developed naturally without conscious effort Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Extraordinary Memories Case Studies  Shereshevski (―S‖ or ―S.V.‖)  Could remember a list of 70 words after studying them for about 3 minutes — and could still remember them several months later Also had synesthesia Used method of loci     Elizabeth (―E‖)  Eidetic imagery (photographic memory)  Can visualize exactly a picture, scene, or poem  This type of memory is believed to be very rare V.P.  Expansive memory  136 IQ, easily remembered poems, maps, etc.  Did not seem to rely on visual mnemonics, used language Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Experts and Expertise  Expert:  A person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully  Expertise:  A capability of a person to perform an operation or skill in a limited domain with exceptional results when compared to others capable of performing the same operation/skill Curious: As people become more proficient at a task, they seem to use less of their brain! Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Properties of Expertise   Domain specificity  Extensive knowledge of a specific domain (such as chess, figure skating, biology, etc)  Research on Chess experts show they have up to 50,000 patterns of moves stored in LTM (Simon & Gilmartin, 1973) Extensive Practice  Deliberate practice is needed to gain expertise in a novel domain  Neurological evidence that practice effects actual brain growth (violinists showed increased development of right cortical regions related to left hand)  Development of Tactics   Tactical Learning: learning the sequences of actions required to solve a specific problem/ parts of a problem; method to accomplish a particular goal  Research suggest that as people become more practiced at a task, shift from computation (frontal cortex) to retrieval (posterior cortex) Strategic Learning: learning how to organize one’s problem solving  Research shows novices differ in the use of optimal problem-solving strategies and order of applying strategies, with experts more proficient based on speed and correctness Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Properties of Expertise  Proceduralization  Experts switch from explicit use of declarative knowledge to direct application of procedural (implicit) knowledge Three Stages of Skill Acquisition (Andersion, 1983):  Cognitive Stage  Development of declarative memory commit to memory set of facts related to the skill  Associative Stage  Errors in initial understanding are eliminated  Connections among various elements required for successful performance are strengthened  Autonomous Stage  Procedures become more automated and rapid (automaticity occurs); requires less attention & fewer processing resources  Since experts operate at this stage, perform operations/skills fast Research comparing experts and novices show:  Novices verbally rehearse stages, experts don’t  Novices perform step-by-step, experts don’t --often skip/combined steps  Novices perform slower, experts faster Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005   Properties of Expertise  Problem Perception Chi, Feltovich & Glaser, 1981  See and represent problems at a deeper level  Experts perceive large, meaningful patterns  Experts see past surface features of problems to underlying laws and principles (deeper principles = more predictive method of solution)  Experts fully evaluate a problem from many angles  Use STM/LTM effectively Groot, 1995; Chase & Simon, 1973  Experts display enhanced memory capacity for a domain  Better ability to store problem information in LTM and retrieve it  Experts utilize larger, cohesive, meaning-based chunks (remember the chess players) and recognize patterns of elements that repeat in many problems Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005 Properties of Expertise  Use STM/LTM effectively, Continued  Three principles that explain extraordinary LTM memory of experts (Chase & Ericsson; 1982)  Mnemonic Encoding Principle (organization)  Experts create better/more semantic chunks of information by using existing knowledge to meaningfully organize incoming information Experts use extensive knowledge of a domain to develop abstract, specialized methods for systematically recalling meaningful patterns from LTM– allows the expert to anticipate informational needs of a familiar task and store new information in a format that will facilitate retrieval Practice increases the speed at which experts recognize and encode patterns of information. Experts also recall information from LTM more quickly than novices.  Retrieval Structure Principle (access)   Speed-up Principle (speed)   Experts often use Self-monitoring skills   Metacognition: Thinking about thinking Experts carefully monitor how well their performance corresponds to correct performance and where deviations exist (Ericsson et al., 1993) Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005