Mnemonic devices: Examples for names, numbers, and lists

Righty tighty, lefty loosey for which way a screw turns. ROY G. BIV for the colors of the rainbow. Every Good Boy Does Fine for the lines of the treble clef. Each of these is a mnemonic device, a memory aid that ties something new to something you already know, so you have a hook, or retrieval cue, to pull it back out.

Those came ready-made. The useful skill is making your own for the things adult life hands you, like a new neighbor's name, the steps for locking up a shop, or a gate code like 1030, which you'll remember once you hear it as half past ten. Different things need different hooks, so the first job is picking the right one. The second is using it again over the next few days, and that's what makes it last.

Quick answer: What are mnemonic devices?

• A mnemonic device is a memory aid that links something new, like a name, a number, or a list, to something you already know, such as a word, a picture, a rhyme, or a place.

• The common kinds are acronyms and acrostics, rhymes, chunking, face-name pictures, the keyword method, peg words, and the method of loci.

• Each kind suits a different job, so you'd use first letters when the order matters, a meaning for a number, a picture for a name or a new word, and pegs or places for a talk you have to give.

• A mnemonic gets information in fast, and testing yourself on it over the next few days is what keeps it there.

Which mnemonic device fits what you need to remember?

Start with what you're trying to remember, not with the device.

How do you make your own mnemonic device?

Making your own mnemonic doesn't have to be clever. Stanford's Center for Teaching and Learning suggests going with the first thing that pops into your head, because "it doesn't have to make sense."

1. Name the job, then pick the device. Is it an order, a number, a name, the points of a talk, or a new word? Find it in the table above.

2. Keep it small. Stanford also warns that a mnemonic harder to remember than the list itself only adds work.

3. Make the picture do something. Put the item and the hook in one scene where they touch. Britannica's example is to "imagine the pen writing on the chair," not resting beside it.

4. Say it back without looking. Close your eyes and recall the whole thing, then try again tomorrow.

How do you remember a list in order?

Acronyms and acrostics are the tools for order. "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos" doesn't tell you a thing about the planets, only which one comes next.

Say you're the last one out of a shop at night, and four steps have to happen in the right order: windows shut, lights off, alarm on, door locked. The first letters are W, L, A, and D, and a silly sentence like "Wise Llamas Always Dance" carries them. On the way to the door, you run through the llamas, and each word hands you the next step.

In one study, university students given a first-letter acronym learned an eight-step computer task faster than students without one. Once both groups knew the steps, the acronym made no difference to how fast or how accurately they did them. Its job is to get the order into your head.

How do you hold on to a number, like a gate code?

Numbers stick when you give them a meaning, the way 1030 turns into half past ten, or cut them into a few pieces you already know. That second move is chunking, and Britannica's example makes 6254391 easier to hold as 625-4391.

For a longer code, do both at once. Split it into pairs or threes, then give each piece a meaning you already carry around, like a house number or a favorite team's jersey number. The chunking technique goes deeper on breaking long strings into pieces.

How do you remember someone's name?

A name sticks when you tie it to something you can see on the person or to a word it sounds like, then make the picture move. Say you meet Rosa at a neighbor's barbecue. As you shake hands, picture her handing you a single red rose, thorns and all. Use her name once while you talk ("Rosa, how do you know Sam?"), and replay the rose as you walk away.

Names are hard to practice, since you can't exactly line up strangers to meet. Elevate's Name Recall game gives you the strangers and teaches you how to use mnemonics to remember their names. It shows you names and faces, asks you to recall them as the game goes on, and adjusts the difficulty to how you're doing. Elevate is built on answering from memory and spacing practice out, the same two habits that make a mnemonic last. Name Recall is one of the memory games in Elevate Premium.

If you'd like a few new faces to practice on every day, try Name Recall in Elevate. The yearly plan starts with a seven-day free trial.

How do you give a talk without notes?

Give each point a numbered peg or a place. Peg words are a counting rhyme in which each number stands for a thing you can picture, and Britannica's version runs from one as a bun up to seven as heaven. You hang each point of your talk on its peg with a picture.

Say you're giving a toast at a friend's wedding, and you've got four points to hit:

• One is a bun, so picture the couple splitting a giant cinnamon bun at the café where they met.

• Two is a shoe, so picture the hiking boot that floated away on the trip where everything went wrong.

• Three is a tree, so picture their initials carved in a trunk for the moment you knew they'd last.

• Four is a door, so picture yourself opening the door to their new home with a glass raised for the toast.

When you stand up, you count one to four in your head, and each peg pulls up the next point. If your talk has more points than pegs, the method of loci does the same job. You put each point in a different room of a place you know well, then walk through it in your head. It's the memory system the Greeks and Romans used.

How do you learn a new word with a mnemonic?

The keyword method links a new word to a word it sounds like, then pictures that word doing something with the meaning. Say you're reading a novel set on a river and meet "scow," a flat-bottomed boat. "Scow" sounds like "cow," so picture a cow standing on a flat-bottomed boat, drifting downstream and looking unimpressed. The next time you see "scow," the cow brings the boat with it.

The keyword method helps a new word stick fast. In a 1974 Stanford experiment, students learning 60 Spanish words got 88% right using keyword pictures, against 28% for students who studied without them. It helps most with concrete words you can picture, like boats and animals, and less with abstract ones. For more examples, see this guide to vocabulary mnemonics.

Do mnemonic devices work, and do they last?

Mnemonic devices work, and they last when you keep using them.

• A review of 35 memory-training studies in healthy older adults found that trained groups improved more than untrained ones, and no single strategy beat the others.

• A keyword picture you never revisit fades. A 2013 review of 10 study techniques reports that the keyword method's early edge disappeared when students were tested only after a delay. In one head-to-head comparison, a plain practice test did as well as the keyword method, or better a week later. The same review rated practice testing and spaced practice highest.

• In a large trial of older adults taught the method of loci, the people who showed signs of still using it after training also kept a bigger memory gain.

So build the mnemonic, then test yourself on it a few times in the first week.

1. On day one, build it and say it back once without looking.

2. An hour later, recall it again before you peek.

3. On day two, recall it once more.

4. On day four, recall it and fix any piece that's gone fuzzy.

5. On day seven, run it one last time. If it comes back whole, you can leave a longer gap before the next one.

Each time, pull it from memory instead of rereading it. That habit is called active recall, and you'll find more ways to build it in these memory training exercises.

Frequently asked questions

How many types of mnemonic devices are there?

Mnemonic devices don't come in a fixed number, and different guides group the same methods in different ways. A guide to mnemonics for vocabulary sorts them into four kinds: rhyme and sound-alike, image, keyword, and acrostic. This page sorts them by job instead.

What is the most common mnemonic?

Rhymes and acronyms are the everyday kind, and you probably know a few already. Britannica calls rhyming "a more common mnemonic device," with examples like "Thirty days hath September" and "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." A rhyme sticks even when its rule is flawed, and Merriam-Webster notes that "I before E, except after C" "isn't consistently helpful."

How do you pronounce mnemonic?

Mnemonic is pronounced nih-MAH-nik, with a silent first m. Merriam-Webster points out that the word begins with an n sound but is spelled with an m, "as in memory," which makes a handy mnemonic for spelling it.

Where does the word mnemonic come from?

Mnemonic comes from Greek. Merriam-Webster traces it to mnemonikos, from mnemon, meaning "mindful," and dates its first known use as an adjective to 1672. Britannica says mnemonics are named for Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology.

Do mnemonic devices help students?

Yes. Vanderbilt's IRIS Center says more than 40 studies over 30 years have documented the effectiveness of mnemonic strategy instruction for elementary and secondary students with mild disabilities. For an exam, build the mnemonic a week out, not the night before, so there's time to test yourself on it.