— This post was written by Tim Wheeler —

RECAP

Repetition , exaggeration, chunking, association, pictures.

Repetition

Ever been told in school repeat after me, well teachers have known this for ever. Have you ever had an ear worm that just won’t go away, this is because of repetition, songs are made that way, having a chorus. Traditional stories have been told for many years and we all know about what happened to Goldilocks because we have heard it so many times. So repetition clearly works.

Exaggeration

Tv adverts such as Go Compare (other tv adverts are available) have got us remembering them as they have taken a idea and exaggerated it. Exaggeration is a key point in public speaking, one of my favorite speakers is David Bellamy, I remember him and what he speaks about because of his exaggeration, imagine if he were a quite speaker, would we know him then? Combine exaggeration with other techniques will help you to remember.

Chunking

How do you read back your telephone number. Take the university telephone number 01752 58 58 58 and what happens if someone else reads it back to you in a different format, 01 7525 85858 odd isnt it? Chunking can work with words, or in our case formating code can be more easily remembered as chunks; function, if, then, else. We use chunks of information in all aspects of our lives.

Association

When I say the word Daisy I already relate that to the name of a cow. For you it could be the name of a friend, but it’s clear that we already associate names or words with something. Even something as abstract as a smell will jog your memory and you will be able to associate it with an item.

Pictures

Have you ever forgotten someone’s name, if you met them later in the week would you remember there face. This is simply because we are very good at remembering visual imagery. Associating things you need to remember with a picture of something is going to help you remember a lot easier. If I were going shopping and I had to remember to get tea, coffee and milk, I would associate the fact that I need to get some drinks for people that like tea or coffee and if I picture the people I want to give the drinks to, it will help me remember what I needed as I like to make them happy.

In conclusion

Over the years I have forgotten action points from meetings, even the meetings themselves! I always forget to take my phone and pass out of my pocket when I get to work and this is annoying for my colleagues as they have to get up to let me back into the office. There are many things I need to remember when developing leaning aids, the plenaries are something that have been a difficult process for me. Even though we have it written down, I still find it to be one of the hardest things I have to do. Using these processes I am confident that I will be better able to complete this task. If you would like to improve your memory I would recommend this Lynda course as It helped me to contextualise good memory techniques. Improving your memory.