Remember Lists of Words with the Memory Trick

The memory trick, which is similar to the method of loci, is a 2500 year-old way to memorize lists of words that are as many as 10, 25, or even 100 items long. It can be done simply by spending about 30 minutes memorizing certain pictures. After that, you will be able to remember at least 25 words forward, backward, or out of order.

Steps

Matching Pictures with Words

Think of twenty-five picture-words. Here's an idea for the first five. Keep in mind, they can be anything you want or can easily memorize:

  1. Number one - visualize a solitary, lonely lighthouse, one that stands way off by itself. It even looks like a "1."
  2. Number two - eyeglasses. Think of it as "two, two eyes, two glasses for reading."

  3. Number three - stool. A stool usually has three legs. That's why it's a symbol for three.
  4. Number four - window. Four, because it is a rectangle with four sides and four corners. It may even have four panes.
  5. Number five - hand. A hand has five fingers.

Memorizing the Word-Pictures

  1. Spend about half an hour memorizing their parts in the list. Repeat them in your head. Start by saying "one" and picturing the lighthouse in your head. Then "two" and picturing eyeglasses in your head, etc. Test yourself by making a list of random words (25 of them) and trying to remember them by putting each word with the corresponding picture. If number one on your list is a lion, try picturing a lion roaming around your lighthouse. If number five is a car, try picturing a giant hand waving out the back of the car.

  2. After putting the words with pictures, say the list to yourself a few times. Ask someone to call out the numbers one through 25 forward, backward, and out of order, so you can say the list to them.

Tips

  • Linking pictures to something humorous or physically painful helps with remembering your list.
  • Another easily memorable technique is to use a common set of word-number pairs, such as: 1=bun, 2=shoe, 3=tree, 4=door, 5=hive, 6=sticks, 7=heaven, 8=gate, 9=vine, 10=pen
  • The crazier your words with pictures are, the more you will be able to remember them. A cat (corresponding with the number 9, for 9 lives) shampooing itself will definitely make an impression. You are more likely to remember something strange.
  • Instead of imagining these colorful images, consider whispering them to yourself.
  • The picture-words can be anything that makes you think of the number. Anything that looks like a one, or sounds like one or even is part of a song with one, can be used for one.
  • Alternatively, instead of associating pictures with numbers (i.e. Lighthouse = 1, glasses = 2, etc as suggested here), it can help if you memorize letters of the alphabet. Since we all grew up saying "A for Apple, B for Bell" etc, the association of objects with letters is considerably easier to make than objects with numbers. Drawback of course is that this is limited to a list of 26 or fewer items.
  • write a sentence with the words your working on.

Warnings

  • Although this method will help you memorize items, it is always a better idea to read material to understand it better.

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