Tips: Improve Memory Retention by Chaining

for-knight-to-won, for-once-one-fights. night-owl-to-tree find-three-eggs-too

It has been 15 years, since I left Singapore and to these days I still can remember my credit card number that I used there! The credit card account, which since I have cancelled, would have been deleted, shredded, and buried for eternity. But these numbers stuck in my head.

This is not a new concept. I have read it years ago (well at least 15 years ago) the technique of improving your memory by chaining things together. The idea is to associate things you want to remember with something else. Something else that will make you remember. Something that will catch your mind. Something interesting. I can't remember my boss' surname (there is nothing impressive about him) but I can still remember our tech guy - David "McGyver" McGhee. Yes, because I associated him with McGyver - he seemed to be able to fix anything in the company.

For numbers, I use the phonetic technique - a technique that links each number to its similar phonetic sounds, for example:

0 - zero, sorrow, oh, owl, none, awe, awesome
1 - one, once, won, ace
2 - two, to, too
3 - three, tree
4 - four, for
5 - five, fight, find
6 - six, sick
7 - seven, steven
8 - eight, egg, ate
9 - nine, night, knight

Then, base on each number's phonetic sound, you try to come up with some story. The one that makes sense to you. For example,

one-night-sick-knight sorrow-steven to-awe(some)
One(1) night(9) a sick(6) knight(9), sorrow(0) Steven(7) soared to(2) awesome(0). That is 1969-07-20, the date that man landed on the moon.

Now try again, and see if you can decipher my credit card number?


References and Reading Materials

1. Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PET-image.jpg
2. memoryimprovementcentral.com | Boost Your Memory by Using the Link Method
3. ezinearticles.com | Memory Techniques for Better Information Retention

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