The Keyword Memory System

The Keyword system is the most effective memory system for learning medical terms. I've provided examples below to show you how to use this method. A good time to use this system is when you have a term for which there is no readily-available mnemonic.

The way you use the Keyword Method is by combining the use of substitute words with visualization (a two-step process). First you convert the sound of the word into smaller, simpler concepts. Then you associate those concepts with an image representing the actual meaning of the word.

Remember that when using any of the memory systems, you must make an effort to clearly visualize the images. The images are the "cues" (or clues) that help you retrieve the information from your memory, much like the label on a file folder.

Example 1 - "ginglymoid". This word means "pertaining to or shaped like a hinged joint." If you could somehow associate the phrase "hinged joint" with this term in your memory, you'd easily be able to remember the definition. The first step with the Keyword system is breaking down the word phonetically into smaller sounds you can word with.

The word ginglymoid is pronounced "jing-lei-moyd" according to Taber's medical dictionary. Thinking carefully about the sound of this word, I realize it sounds a bit like "jingly mud" (of course, you would use whatever phrase pops into your mind).

For jingly mud, a silly but memorable image could be a gigantic bell stuck in the mud. I am trying and trying to ring it, but the mud is very thick and I'm breaking my back trying to pull it out. Try to see this in your mind's eye in great detail - what color is the bell? what metal is it made of? does it have a wooden handle? And so on.

To associate that image with the definition, I modify the picture to imagine the handle of the bell is not straight, but actually has a human elbow (a hinge) in the middle! As I pull on the bell, this elbow bends, making it even more difficult to pull the bell out of the mud.

There you have it. When I read or hear the word "ginglymoid", it will automatically make me think of "jingly mud", which instantly calls to mind the bell stuck in the mud. The image I visualized will remind me that this is no ordinary bell, but it has a hinged joint on the handle. Therefore, ginglymoid => hinged joint.

Explaining this out took a lot of words, but when you perform these steps in your mind using images, it goes very quickly.

Don't forget, you need to periodically review your image to set it firmly in your mind. It only takes a second to review an image. Review images after 10 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 2 hours, then less frequently (perhaps after one day, then one week). This will really put the image and the associated medical term into long-term memory.

Example 2 - "Minimata's Disease". This disease is a neurological disorder caused by accidental ingestion of mercury, which is a poison. To remember this fact and the name of the disease, we simply need to associate Minimata (pronounced "mee-nee-mah-tah") with mercury.

Remember that the visual images are cues, which means they don't have to include every part of the word or definition to remind you of the true meaning. If you study and understand a concept, then the visual image cue simply acts like that filing cabinet label and allows you to access the part of your memory where that information is stored.

"Minimata" sounds to me a lot like "meany mat". I picture a very mean door mat with arms, legs, and an angry face. This could be like the Welcome mat that many people have by their front doors. Now, most people know that your typical thermometer contains mercury (the silver liquid inside).

I visualize this angry mat taking a huge thermometer out of his mouth (I guess he was sick, and that's why he's mad) smashing the thermometer on the front porch. This splashes the silver mercury all over and gets broken glass everywhere, which is very hazardous.

You see with that image, it is not only silly, but it also adds exaggeration (a "huge" thermometer) as well as action (smashing the thermometer). These all help make the image more memorable.

When I read or see the phrase "Minimata's Disease", I'll realize it sounds like "meany mat". This will remind me of the mean mat who smashed his thermometer and spilled mercury every where. Oh yeah! Minimata => mercury poisioning.

http://www.medicalmnemonics.com/

Quiz-and-Recall Using Idea Maps

When facing a class that presents a large amount of detailed information, using quiz-and-recall method on the raw facts can become overwhelmingly boring; not to mention that it becomes easy to miss the bigger picture connections and ideas that will help you on an advanced test. Try this instead: organize the information into idea maps that connect the information to bigger concepts which in turn connect with each other. When studying, try to reconstruct the idea map from scratch.

As reader Dominic explains: “During an exam, the first thing I do for each problem is to ask: ‘what part of the idea map does this belong to?’ Usually the problem’s core concepts then become clear. Ever since adopting and refining the above strategy, I have received nothing lower than an A in my advanced biology classes.”

Memory circuits

Here’s the key concept about my hack that I forgot to mention earlier: ridiculous/unforgettable images/occurrences will help engrave words and formulas into memory. To achieve this, a student must actively experience the real world more. Memory circuits (as I call these links) are built on humor and actual experiences. If say, a hang glider is involved in the memory circuit, then it helps to actually go out and fly on a hang glider to remember what it feels like. A memory circuit linking a foreign-language word or engineering equation to a hang glider will be stronger if the student actually ever flew on a hang glider. Watching funny movies and amusing Youtube videos can inspire students to think more creatively when making memory circuits (and amuse more crowds at social events).

“Humor” and “experience” helps a student to visualize memory circuits more vividly. When you make a ridiculous association more vivid and memorable, you can remember certain material more easily. I drew out my Latin memory circuits to enhance the visual experience, and even acted them out to help my classmates. Some thought I was crazy and that my system doesn’t work, but it will only work for you when you have the imagination and ability to visualize through 1) humor and 2) experience.

Maximizing Your Holistic Learning

Understanding holistic learning is one thing, putting it into practice is another. I’ve been learning very close to the extreme of complete holistic learning for so long that my web is pretty well interconnected. But if you haven’t been really interweaving your web, then the best way to improve your ability to learn is to start now.

Here are a few suggestions for how you can better interlink your web:

1) Ask Questions

When you are learning something, you can make associations simply by asking yourself questions. How does this information relate to what we’ve been studying? How does this information relate to other things I’ve already learned? How does it relate to other subjects, stories or observations?

Be creative and try to find several different points of reference for every idea you learn. Figure out not only what things are similar too, but why they are what they are. As this becomes a habit, you’ll find that you automatically remember information because it fits into your web of understanding. Ask yourself after you hear something whether you “get it”. If you don’t go back and ask yourself more questions for how it fits it.

2) Visualize and Diagram

One of the best ways to begin practicing holistic learning is to start drawing a diagram that associates the information you have learned. Better than taking notes during a lecture is drawing a picture for how what you are learning relates to anything else you have already learned. Once you get good at this you will be able to visualize the diagram before it is drawn, but start drawing to get practice.

When I try to understand economics it often helps me to visualize the relationship between different factors. I view cycles of money, GDP or price levels as a structure that combines all the different elements. If you can’t immediately create vivid pictures of the information, try drawing them first.

3) Use Metaphors

Anything you are learning should be immediately translated into a metaphor you already understand. When reading Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, I understood his writings by relating all the examples of statecraft and war he offered to areas of business and social relationships which I already understood.

While visualization creates tight webs that interlink within a subject, metaphors create broad webs that link completely different ideas. You might not realize how that blog article on fitness you read two weeks ago relates to math, but through making metaphors you have a huge reserve of information available to you when you need it.

4) Feel It

Another technique I’ve experimented with to improve my holistic learning is feeling through ideas. This one is a little more difficult to explain, but the basic idea is that instead of associating an idea to a picture or another metaphor, you associate it with a feeling. I’m a visual learner, so I’ve found it to be ineffective for large pieces of data, but it is really helpful for data that is otherwise hard to relate.

I used this process to easily remember the process of getting the determinant of a matrix. For you math buffs, you probably already know that the determinant of a 2×2 matrix is basically the left diagonal minus the right diagonal. I was able to associate this information into my web through a feeling by imagining what it would be like to move my hands through each diagonal on the matrix. This is an incredibly simplified example, but feeling ideas can be very useful.

5) When in Doubt, Link or Peg It

Questions, visualization, metaphors and feeling should cover about 99% of the information you need to learn. They are the most effective ways to interlink ideas. But if you still need to memorize some information that you can’t understand or relate, your fall-back can be the link and peg system.

Explaining these memory systems is out of the scope of this article, but the basic idea of the link system is to create a wacky, vivid picture relating two seemingly unrelated ideas so that a connection between them is forced. The peg system takes it a step further creating a simple phonetic system for storing numbers and dates. You can learn more about these systems here.

Dirt Roads and Superhighways

An effective web should heavily interlink between ideas of a similar subject, but it should also have links that extend between completely different ideas. I like to think of these two approaches like comparing dirt roads and superhighways. You need lots of cheap dirt roads to interconnect closely related areas and a few superhighways to connect distant cities.

When I was learning history I would make dirt roads connecting the aspects of one particular time period and culture to itself. Linking the artistic achievements of the Song Dynasty with their political situation. But I would also make highways and superhighways. I would compare Song China to India and to the politics in the United States.

Some people build a lot of dirt roads but forget the highways. They understand things well within a subject, but they can’t relate that subject outside of the classroom. Hamlet is one of my favorite literary works because in the classroom where I learned it, our teacher went to great lengths to help build superhighways. We would discuss how aspects of Hamlet related to our own life, politics and completely different areas. As a result I remember more from that play than almost any other piece of literature I studied.

The End of Studying

Studying should be like stretching before a big race. It isn’t a time to get in shape. I lied a bit when I wrote the title of this article. I do study. But I don’t do it for the same reasons that other people do. I study to ensure my web is functioning, not to start building it. Even when I do study, it is just a quick review, never an all-night cramming session.

Some of you may read this article and start thinking that going to the trouble of drawing out diagrams and thinking hard about metaphors to practice holistic learning is going to take too much time. I believe the opposite is true. I have saved a lot of time using these techniques so that school has become just a minor time investment in the overall work I do each day. Practice holistic learning and you can spend less time cramming and more time actually learning.

Looks like I can’t help but start a bit of controversy. ;)

I’ve addressed many of the confusions and concerns this article has generated with a follow up post on what holistic learning is, precisely, and how you should really be using studying to learn. Ultimately holistic learning isn’t about passing exams but understanding anything, a skill anyone can use.

Check it out here: Studying and Holistic Learning

Edit: April 26, 2006 – Wait! There’s more. Check out the Holistic Learning E-Book for 27 Full Pages. Full color illustrations and best of all, it’s completely free.

Check it out here: Holistic Learning E-Book

Edit: September 10, 2008 – Still want more? I’ve written a full e-book guide covering holistic learning, answering common questions, dozens of techniques, productive studying skills and exercise templates to get you started onto holistic learning. Plus, if you don’t love the book, it comes with a 120-day money back guarantee.

Check it out here: Learn More, Study Less
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/Programs/HolisticLearningEBook.pdf

Pegging

Whenever the subject of why some people learn faster comes up, I get a whole host of common answers:

1. Some people are just naturally smart. (Often implying you can’t improve)
2. Everyone is “smart” in there own way. (Nonsense, research indicates different “intelligences” often correlate)
3. IQ is all in the genes. (Except IQ changes with age and IQ tests can be studied for, like any other test)

There may be some truth to these claims. But, I don’t believe that means that average learners are doomed to mediocrity. I’ve met and heard of many people who went from middle to spectacular students after changing their learning habits and finding motivation.

Considering the upcoming launch of my rapid learning program, I wanted to share my favorite tactics to learn faster, retain information better or just enjoy the process of learning more:

Genius (or Crazy?)#1 – Pegging (or How Mental Magicians can Perfectly Recall Hundreds of Numbers)

One of my favorite learning tactics, that is rarely mentioned, is pegging. This is a great tool for remembering numbers, provided you practice it.

The systems I’ve seen typically work with a special cheat sheet. This is a list of the digits 0-9 which each correspond to the sound of a consonant. All you need to do is memorize the corresponding consonant and digit match (e.g. 0 = t, 1 = s, 2 = k, 3 = r, etc.)

From there, you can translate any series of numbers into a series of letters. Now all you need to do is make groups of letters into nouns by adding vowels between the consonants. So 201 becomes, k-t-s, which can become “kites”, for example.

Then, once you have your string of nouns, you just need to create a story that combines each of the nouns in a sequence. To translate them back you only need to remember the story and decompose the objects back into their original digits.

#2 – Metaphor (Juliet is the sun… or is she a chemical formula?)

Here’s a quick way to separate the rapid learners from the average learners. Ask them to give you an analogy for whatever they are learning. The rapid learners probably have already thought of at least one analogy, application or metaphor. Slower learners usually are baffled by the question.

Linking ideas allows you to retain them longer and understand them better. Shakespeare isn’t the only one who should be making connections between ideas.

#3 – Total Immersion (Or How a Guy Can Become Fluent in 8 Languages)

Benny Lewis became fluent in eight languages in under a decade. More, his current goal is to become fluent in a new language in under 3 months. When I asked him how he achieved this his answer was straightforward: “I stop speaking English. I do everything in the language I want to learn.”

When you’re totally immersed in a subject (or language), even if you’re lost, you’ll learn far faster than everyone who just dabbles.

#4 – Visceralization (What does a derivative look like?)

When we were kids, we played with crayons and drew pictures of fantastic things that never existed outside our imagination. What happened?

Now most of us feel embarrassed if we try to imagine anything exciting or creative with what we learn. This is, I believe, a key reason many people struggle scholastically. They try to memorize exactly the way they were taught, instead of visualizing the material in an inventive way.

When I recently had to write a test on international labor law, a key topic was the International Labor Organization. Rather than memorize facts, I drew a picture of a creature which had three heads for each of the sections of the ILO, one with 4 mouths for each of the different delegates. In all, I managed to incorporate a page of notes into one picture.

Learning only needs to be boring because you make it that way.

#5 – Linking (Or How to Remember a Grocery List Without the Paper)

Like pegging, linking is another trick mental magicians use. The idea here is that you form a chain, linking each item in a sequence to the next item. You form these links by imagining bizarre and surreal pictures which combine the two elements.

For a simple list like Milk -> Honey -> Apples, you would need to form a link between milk and honey, which you could imagine a giant cow that had bees which came from its udders instead of milk. For the honey and apples, you could imagine an giant apple beehive swarming with tiny apple seeds.

Like pegging this technique can go far beyond the scope of this article. I’ve used it successfully to remember lists of abstract principles that need to be memorized in a sequence for tests.

#6 – The 5-Year Old Method (Try explaining quantum physics to a first grader)

Most rapid learners know how to simplify an explanation. Obviously, actually explaining your masters thesis to a first grader might be impossible. But the goal is to reduce the complexity, by explaining, breaking down and using analogies, so that someone far below your current academic level could understand it.

If you can teach an idea, you can learn that idea.

#7 – Ambiance Catalysts (Or How Drinking a Pint Can Improve Your Studying)

Cal Newport, wrote about the importance of context when studying. If you lock yourself away in a library to get work done, no wonder you’re going to hate it. If the ambiance is appealing, it can push you to get working.

He suggests even going to a quiet bar with your reading material and ordering a beer.How’s that for a more inviting study setting?

#8 – Diagrams (Who said doodling in class was wrong?)

It turns out doodlers perform better in mental retention tests than non-doodlers. I would add even that if the drawings you create in a class are related to the course material, you would probably learn even better.

#9 – Speed Reading (Or How to Read 70 Books in a Year)

Speed reading is less about speed and more about control. Just as racecar driving is more about controlling speed for tight turns, rather than just hitting the accelerator.

If you want to speed read, the basics are:

1. Use your finger as a pointer to underline the text as you read it. This reduces the impact of saccades and distractions in slowing your reading time.
2. Practice reading books faster than you can comprehend, by moving your finger faster. This “practice skimming” helps you improve your comprehension at higher reading rates.
3. Stop subvocalizing. Practice reading faster than you can say the words aloud in your head. Subvocalization can help at slower speeds, but if you require it to read, you’re top speed will be reduced.

Memory Skills

I do this too, but when I try to explain this to other people they chalk it up to me being ‘nerdy’ or exceptionally ’smart’, and go back to their cramming.

Basically what works the best for me is to use whatever comes to mind whenever I first encounter a piece of information and link it to the actual definition, meaning, or application of that information.

Whenever I see, hear, or encounter anything at all, my mind cannot help but have some kind of reaction to it, a knee-jerk reflex thought that comes up. This reflex thought is usually totally unrelated to the idea being learned. I then do a little linking of that reflex thought to whatever is being learned. What then happens is that the next time I encounter that same information, if I haven’t already learned the true meaning or application of it, then at the very least the same knee-jerk reflex thought will pop up. From there it’s a simple matter of recalling that little link I manufactured to the actual information.

Once the information has been truly learned, I find that the knee-jerk reflex thought fades away and is replaced by the actual information.

Of course when in class sometimes the new information comes so quickly that there is no time to sit and think of a way to link the reflex thought to the information, or there’s no time to even have a reflex thought, so I have to take the time to do the linking myself at home when I’m studying the info at my own pace.

A little example, the Chinese term for ‘Hello’ is ‘Ni Hao’. Now my reflex thought at the moment for the sound ‘Hao’ used as a greeting is an American Indian like you see in the movies waving his hand in the air and going ‘How’. So now I imagine a really flexible Chinese kung fu guy meeting someone on the street, lifting his knee in the air to wave it and going ‘Knee How!’ as a greeting.

So what’s in that little image there. First I linked the sound by finding two other words that sounded the same but had a different meaning for me. I also added the detail of a Chinese guy so that I know it’s the Chinese language, and the kung fu added in for good measure because in my mind a kung fu guy is really flexible and can lift his knees really high, and kung fu originated in China so there’s that link to the country again. Now the next time I hear or see ‘Ni Hao’ in Chinese I have so much stuff in my brain to link to, aurally and visually, that it’s almost impossible for me to not remember what it means or how to use it. If I were a tactile learner I would even go so far as to imagine meeting someone on the street, lifting my own knee in a circle and saying ‘Knee How!’. And it’s a funny, interesting image for me, so I have fun thinking it up and have no trouble recalling it.

So where in there am I being ‘nerdy’ in any way? I’m actually linking the information to stuff I watch in my free time, to movies I watch for fun. I didn’t have to study anything before to have something to link the Chinese word to.

If you’ve lived for any length of time and can use your memory, then there are millions of moments, images, sounds, smells, and other tidbits in your mind that you can draw from and use when learning new information.

For me all it really requires to be able to create these kind of connections is to be playful enough to let yourself be silly for a while. I think everybody has the ability to imagine, play, and be silly. Weren’t we all kids before? Anybody can do this, you just have to disregard what you’ve been taught in school to be the proper way to ’study’ and do something that really works.

It’s just that ’studying’ in our minds has become so far detached from the idea of ‘fun’ and ‘play’ that we refuse to allow the two to become linked together, and studying becomes a boring and tedious chore for us. When it becomes boring and tedious, then learning becomes difficult.

Your brain doesn’t like boring and tedious, it likes to be stimulated, it likes fun and interesting! So why work against your brain when it’s so much easier to work with it?

It’s like taking your car up a mountain. You could turn the car off and push the car up the mountain. You’d probably still get to the peak if you persevered, but the car really wasn’t meant to be used that way. You’d have it much easier if you just got in the car, put on some music, turned on the ignition and cruised your way up.

The Link Method

This is the first post on memory techniques that I personally have used as a student, I claim no ownership of any of the techniques, but have found them extremely useful and feel that they should be shared and known widely.

The Link Method

This is useful for remembering a list eg. Chores or a shopping list. By necessity, it’s ordered so it can be used to memorize lists which must be in a specific order. Presidents of the United States for example.

You may wish to memorize the last 5 Presidents of the United States in reverse order

• George Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George Bush Snr
• Ronald Reagan
• Jimmy Carter

What you do is create visual images that are easily memorable, the wackier the better. You also need a trigger which will help you know that you’re recalling the correect list.

I would personally use the American flag, being English, it’s less common to me and therefore more memorable.

Follow through the story to memorise the above list.

Picture a glorious waving American flag, but theres a small Bush fire and somebody uses the flag as a desperate attempt to put the fire out, waving frantically. He then realises, hilariously may I add, that the only thing he has lots of is Bills! So he starts throwing all his bills onto the fire: Gas, Rent, Electric. Lots of red-titled FINAL REMINDER letters . But the Bush fire spreads to more bushes, becoming larger and mysteriously growing a beard (Bush Snr)!

A fire engine comes in with a howling squeal and Ronald Mcdonald appears in familiar clothing and make up and puts the fire out with a hose. As his fireman coworkers drive off, Ronald is left alone with a sad look on his face (painted), he hops into a Formula 1 styled go-Cart (Jimmy Carter), and rides into the sunset.

Run through that story in your head a few times. Can you remember the trigger, the story, the list? If you can then well done, if not then you may need a little more help from the following list.

Keys to effective memorisation

• Be in a relaxed state of mind before you begin - It is hard to focus a noisy mind.
• Really get into the story - Laugh, get upset and outraged if you have to. Emotional involvement helps memory alot.
• If you wish to commit these stories to Long-term memory, I’d reccommend reviewing them at decreasingly regular intervals eg. in 2 days, 5 days. 2 weeks after that, 6 weeks after that. This will suit you if you’re taking a 3 year course at University but if you want to memorise just to pass an upcoming exam then you should use the same method, but over a shorter period of time (1 day, 3 days, 1 week…).
• Have a memorable trigger - What usually works well as a memory trigger is the first thing that comes to mind. This can be fun in its own, kind of like a word-association game. If you wanted to remember the order of the Zodiac for an exam, what first comes to mind? Use that. Let’s say that its the moon. In an exam, if the question “What comes after Aries in the Zodiac?” comes up, you immediately remember your trigger and the rest falls into place like proverbial dominoes.
• Its effective to pick links to the things you’re trying to memorise before you actually start creating a story as you may start a story and then realise that you have no picture for a certain item, or that you do but it doesn’t fit in with the rest of your story.

The most important step

Run through your mental stories, writing out the list regularly. I can’t tell you how important this stage is. As cliché as it sounds, memory IS like a muscle, you must work it regularly to reap the benefits. Also, eventually you will realise that the story isn’t necessary and the links have been made in your brain and its an automatic process, this feels great.

Limitations

This works well for ordered lists, but for longer lists, and lists that don’t have to necessarily be in order there are other more effective techniques. You can’t skip to a position and remember it either, you have to go through Bush, Clinton, and Bush to get to Ronald Mcdonald, whilst in other techniques you don’t.

It’s fun

You’ve got to admit, this is way more fun that rote memorisation, trying to pound information through your brain tissue. It’s a fun process! honestly, you have to become really creative. The worst that can happen is that its less effective than your current technique of memorisation, the best that can happen is that you have fun whilst revolutionising the way you look at memory. Do you feel lucky, punk?

http://richardshelmerdine.com/blog/2009/09/29/advanced-memory-the-link-method/