THINKING SKILLS

Memory techniques: Acronyms

"Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain"

The sentence you have just read is how most children in England learn the colours of the rainbow. The first letter of each word "R..O..Y..G..B..I..V" gives us the colours of the rainbow in correct order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. It is a simple truth that a meaningful sentence is easier to remember than a list, and this applies at any age, not just when we are young.

So, if you have an ordered list you want to memorise, take the first letters and turn them into a phrase. The more sing-song (diddly, diddly, diddly dum) the better, because songs are even easier to remember than sentences.

The system is not perfect. If several of the words to be memorized start with the same letter you can come unstuck. Also, if your list is too long (more than about 15 items) it becomes difficult to invent a meaningful sentence. However, we all use acronyms because they really are very powerful. If you can use your creativity, afew minutes is all it takes to memorise an acronym which should remain fixed in your head for the rest of your life.

I came accross another great example of learning with Acronyms when learning Scuba Diving. Before every dive, you need to go through a checklist to see if everything is OK.

Bouyancy
Weights
Releases
Air
Final Check

I found it easiest to remember 'Black and White Royal Air Force' (actually I just remember a black and white photograph of my father standing next to a plane wearing his RAF uniform) which gives me the first letters of each word. This has made remembering the five item checklist drill so much easier than it would otherwise have been.

THINKING SKILLS

Memory techniques: Acronyms

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