Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

120 Mnemonic Device

Techniques for making things more meaningful and memorable.

Mnemonic devices are used to reorganize information so that the information is simpler and more meaningful and, therefore, more easily remembered. They involve the use of imagery or words in specific ways to link unfamiliar information to familiar information that resides in memory. Mnemonic devices that involve imagery are strongest when the images are vivid, peculiar, and exaggerated in size or quantity. Mnemonic devices that involve words are strongest when the words are familiar and clearly related. Mnemonic devices are useful for remembering names of new things, large amounts of rote information, and sequences of events or procedures.1

Types of mnemonic devices ...