The Role of Association
Association is crucial to just about everything in this series. We automatically store and recall memories through associations. One memory will remind us of another. Sometimes we are aware of the associations taking place. Perhaps a song will remind you of a specific person, place, or event in your life. Events that evoke a strong emotional response often are easily remembered years afterwards. Where were you when you first heard that about the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center? Can you remember the details? Was anyone with you? What did the place look like? How did it make you feel?
I remember that I wasn’t listening to the radio in my car on the way to work that morning so I wasn’t aware of the news. When I arrived at the office everyone had solemn looks and asked me if I had heard. We found a TV and pulled it into our conference room and watched the news. I also remember I didn’t get much work done that day. But if you asked me to remember any details about the Saturday before 9/11, I wouldn’t be able to tell you a thing. It’s only because of the strong association with the historical events of the day that I’m able to recall any details about where I was and what I did.
Creating Artificial Associations
With the memories we naturally create, these associations, or links, are created automatically and are logical. But how can we easily remember things which have no natural association? The technique that has been used for thousands of years is to create artificial associations, or mnemonics. Here are some simple examples
- “Spring Forward. Fall Back.” - remembering which direction to set your clock in or out of daylight savings time
- Every Good Boy Does Fine - the notes on the treble clef
- “Righty Tighty. Lefty Loosey.” - direction to turn a screw.
These rhymes, phrases, and acrostics are cute and can be helpful, but artificial associations can be created using much more generic and powerful methods. Tomorrow we’ll look at exactly how to create these associations which will serve as the building blocks for the rest of the month.
Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents
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