Mnemonic games

Index
This section Index

Mnemonic index
Mnemonic and eidetic memory games

Puzzle
Logic games

Cards
Pyramid, Solitaire cards games

Math
Games for mind development

IQ test
Test your mind ability

Relax movies
Relax and meditation

There are a variety of mnemonic techniques, including keywords, peg-words, acronyms, loci methods, spelling mnemonics, phonetic mnemonics, number-sound mnemonics, and Japanese ?Yodai? methods. An example of a spelling mnemonic is to learn the phrase ?Because Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants? to remember the spelling of the word ?because?, or ?A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream? to remember the spelling of the word ?arithmetic?. There are many variations on the peg-word method, but they are all based on the same general principle. People learn a series of words that serve as ?pegs? on which memories can be ?hung.? In one popular scheme, the peg-words rhyme with numbers to make the words easy to remember: One is a gun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive, six is sticks, seven is heaven, eight is a plate, nine is wine , and ten is a hen. To learn the same grocery list, one might associate gun and bread by imagining the gun shooting the bread. Two is a shoe, so one would imagine a milk carton sitting in a giant shoe, and so on. When you need to remember the list of groceries, you simply recall the peg-words associated with each number; the peg-words then serve as retrieval cues for the groceries.

In their research Scruggs and Mastropieri synthesized the results of twenty-four experimental investigations of mnemonic instruction in special education settings. They found that the overall effect size of these combined investigations was 1.62 standard deviation units. According to them this was the highest measure of treatment effectiveness reported at the time. For comparison, Kavale and Forness reviewed previous quantitative syntheses of special education interventions, reporting overall effect sizes ranging from -0.12 to +0.58, for such interventions as reduced class size, special class placement, psycholinguistic training, perceptual-motor training, stimulant and psychotropic drugs, and diet interventions. Also compare Scruggs? and Mastropieri?s finding with the overall size effect for systematic phonics instruction, reported by the National Reading Panel as 0.32 for LD children and 0.15 for low-achievers from 2nd to 6th grade.

Scruggs and Mastropieri demonstrate, first of all, that memory can be trained, and second, the importance of memory training in helping learning-disabled children. There are, however, at least two problems in improving memory by means of mnemonic instruction. The first problem is that it overlooks the sequential fashion of learning. Mnemonics instruction is, to a large extent, instruction in memory techniques, which should be taught only after the skill of memory has been learned. It can be compared to a child being taught soccer tactics, such as the ?wall pass,? while he has not yet adequately mastered the skill of passing the ball. As stated in Knowabout Soccer, ?No matter how good your passing technique, if the quality of your passing is poor, your technique will not be effective.? The second problem is that by teaching the child to use memory crutches, the result is, as Scruggs and Mastropieri acknowledge, ?On more complex applications, generaliza tion attempts have been less successful.? If the skill of memory is taught, however, the child can apply it in any situation.

Audiblox is a system of cognitive exercises that teaches the skill of memory — the skill of short-term memory, long-term memory, visual memory and auditory memory — which makes it possible for a person to apply his memory in any situation.

Audiblox can be applied one-on-one and in a group setting.

For more information on Audiblox visit Audiblox2000.com

Short terms memory

D. E. Lyman wrote:

For many centuries it was felt that mind-brain with its memory component was like a muscle ? if you exercised it enough, it became bigger, healthier, and more efficient [cf. chapter three]. When I was young, most college-bound high school students were forced to study Latin. They were told that this study was good exercise for their brains and memories. With enough study of Latin, they would be able to learn practical disciplines more efficiently. Today, the analogy of memory and muscle causes chuckles of amusement at the innocence and simplicity of former educational and psychological theory. Today, most students of cognitive psychology believe that memory is physically determined. Individual differences allow for some small improvement, but generally a good memory remains good and a poor memory remains poor. Not much hope for the learning disabled here.

However, some modern researchers feel that memory can improve dramatically with training. (They studiously avoid the muscle analogy or the word exercise. Who wants to be laughed at?)

Perhaps that is why the role that memory training can play in preventing and overcoming learning disabilities is grossly underestimated.

In their article Scruggs and Mastropieri evaluated the results of mnemonic instruction in learning disabilities intervention, and concluded, ?mnemonic instruction delivers the greatest learning increases seen in the history of learning disabilities intervention research.?

Defined in broad terms, a mnemonic is a device, procedure, or operation that is used to improve memory. Defined in narrow terms ? and what Scruggs and Mastropieri mean by the word ? a mnemonic is a specific reconstruction of target content intended to tie new information more closely to the learner`s existing knowledge base and, therefore, facilitate retrieval.

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