Mnemonics

The majority of things in a person's every day life are not stored in memory. The storage of memory is a process that can be broken down into three steps. First a memory is encoded, then it is stored, and the last process is retrieval. Encoding is the process of transferring something to memory. Because it is not possible for someone to encode every detail of every memory, how can someone focus on encoding specific details? The use of mnemonic devices can help encode things to memory. A mnemonic can help an individual recall information by using a strategy of some sort. I think this is an important concept because it helps people remember certain things they need to know easier. An example of a mnemonic could be remembering the word "HOMES" so encoding Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior as the Great Lakes is easier. A real life example I have used before is when I was first learning guitar, my instructor gave me a simple way of remembering the string names in order. The string order goes EBGDAE, so my instructor taught me the mnemonic "Eat Bacon Go Dancing And Exercise." Although today I know the names of the strings without using this mnemonic that I learned years ago, it is still something that I have encoded and I will always remember it.

Grace Eicher