Are mnemonics for long lists really helpful?

[redqueen]

I use one for the strings on a guitar, and that was very helpful... but for twelve things, and some of the letters repeat?

Is that really that helpful?

I don't want to bother trying to remember the mnemonic if it's not going to help... it will be hard enough remembering the actual things.

[Richardo]

1. What a timely post, redqueen! I just read about that this morning....

:D


:hi:

[redqueen]

2. Hahahaha...

exactly!

:hi:


Also, that's just the alphabet. Pfft!

[BurtWorm]

3. Refresh my memory:

What are mnemonics?



:crazy:

Seriously, I was thinking about this yesterday when I was trying to remember four items to get from the store, and I remembered the game picnic, where you go around a circle adding things to a list of things to bring to a picnic. You're supposed to make a picture of the item and match it to a numeral.

Somehow.

I couldn't remember how. :evilfrown:

[redqueen]

4. It's like Roy G. Biv for remembering the colors in a rainbow...

you make up a word or phrase to remind you of the first letters of all the words in the series.

For rainbows: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet

If the colors were magenta, marigold, mauve, green, grey, etc. etc. etc... how helpful would it be? I think it's silly and I think I'm not going to bother on this one.


Now I want to try that numeral thing though... but not with this. Or maybe, cause they are numbered... hmmmm... I'll see how it goes. :)

[BurtWorm]

6. I see what you're saying.

I guess it depends what you're trying to remember.

I'm blown away by stories I've heard about how Roman orators would remember whole books by building huge houses in their heads and putting sections of the book in each room. To remember them, they would just "walk" through the "house" stopping at each room and taking out the sections in sequence.

[redqueen]

7. I've heard of that system...

fascinating stuff. Maybe I'll try that instead of the mnemonic... thanks!

[trof]

5. I still remember True Virgins Make Dull Companions, and 'HOMES'

for the Great Lakes.
Huron, Ontario, etc.
The 'True Virgins' are the various corrections made from magnetic compass heading to arrive at your 'true' heading.

Oh yeah, and 'cold and low, look out below' had to do with altimeter settings.
Sometimes they help.

[redqueen]

8. Yeah the short ones do for sure.

I'm just not so sure about this one with the long series and repeating letters.

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. The first one that came to mind is for a list of twelve things...

.
... and it was immensely helpful -- probably has been for tens of thousands of people,
if not more.
.
On old Olympus' towering tops, a fat assed German viewed some hops.
.
A mnemonic for the facial nerves, only about a third to a half of which I can amember
now, but helped when I needed it.
.
"I before E" and "There's an 'end' at the end of "friend" are two others that have
helped.
.
Because of the pace and rhythm -- many people can probably spell Mississippi as fast
as they can spell Ohio.
.
The Moody Blues put out the album "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour".
.

[redqueen]

10. Hah, that's exactly the one I'm not sure I want to use.... the cranial nerves.

I was leaning more toward the gorgeous vixens one cause it has extra info re: functions of the nerves.

[trof]

11. M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I, crooked letter-crooked letter-I,

Humpback letter-humpback letter-I.
:-)

[MiddleFingerMom]

13. I think you've confused "Mississippi"...

.
... with "Milli Vanilli".
.

[TheMightyFavog]

12. CCS POPILAPS

My Mnemnomic for remembering obscenity as defined by Miller v. California (1973)

A work is obscene if, by Contemporary Community Standards is Patently Offensive, in the Prurient Intrest, and has no redeeming Literary, Artistic, Political, or Scientific value

[MiddleFingerMom]

14. Rearranged...

.
CCSPOPILAPS becomes "LAPS PIPCOCS".
.
I think that means something really, REALLY filthy. I think my
hormones are getting pruriented all over the place.
.
So the people supposedly PROTECTING us from those things... seem to be
exposing us to yet MORE of them.
.
Probably secretly replacing our coffee with Folger's Crystals, too.
.