photo by waffler
The first artificial association technique I’ll teach you is one that will give you practically immediate results, and can be applied to just about anything you want to remember. It is called linking and is very simple. You associate two images by connecting them visually in a manner that will be easy to recall at a later time. You can recall long lists of these images by chaining the links together. i.e. Link the first item to the second, the second to the third, the third to the fourth, and so on.
How to Build Your Chain
What you want to do is visually associate the first item in your sequence to the second, then push the first item out of your mental picture and associate the second with the third. Here are some tips for creating strong visual links between two items:
- Make your images larger-than-life, exaggerated, and absurd. An egg can be the size of airplane in your head, and it’s a lot easier to remember.
- Create an action between one item and the next. Just picturing a pencil next to a coffee mug isn’t a very strong link between those two items. Imagining the pencil moving on its own and sketching a coffee cup would probably be easier to recall.
- Use substitution. If you’re trying to link fish with hammer, why not try visualizing the fish being used as a hammer?
Ready to Try It?
This process may seem very strange and perhaps a bit difficult, but with practice it will become second nature. When you want to remember a list of items, you’ll find that you can link them quickly and imaginatively. Perhaps you aren’t convinced that this actually works. Why don’t you try it right now? I’ll give you a list of ten items. Your task is to memorize them in order using the method of linking. Remember to make your images and links vivid. Both are important factors. If each image is incredibly vivid and easy to recall, but your links are weak and difficult to remember, you’ve got a weak chain and will have difficulty recalling the entire list. Okay, here are your ten items:
- Hat
- Hen
- Ham
- Hare
- Hill
- Shoe
- Cow
- Hive
- Ape
- Woods
You might picture a tall, black top-hat resting on the ground to start things off. It falls over, and out walks a hen. The hen starts pecking at a giant ham. You might picture the ham with a large bone sticking out (which the hen is pecking on) to emphasize the link. The pecking motion annoys the ham which starts to hop away exactly like a hare. It morphs into a hare and darts down an incredibly steep hill. Out of nowhere a shoe the size of a house drops from the sky onto the hill and starts sliding down where it hits a cow which is minding her own business and grazing. The cow moos and runs away without paying much attention to where she’s going and runs right into a huge bee-hive. An ape is standing by and gets stung causing him to shriek and tear off into the woods for cover.
There really is no right or wrong way of doing this. Whatever works for you. Try creating your own story or use mine if that helps. After creating your links, review it and see if you can recall the entire story. Then without looking at the list see if you can write down the ten items from the story on a piece of paper. You might just be amazed at how easy it is to recall them. If you do have trouble, don’t despair. Go back and review the items and visualize the links. Note the weak points in your chain and strengthen them by making them more vivid. You’ll get better and faster at this with practice.
Applications of The Link
The method of linking is ideal for remembering ordered lists of any sort: grocery lists, lists of things to do, books you want to read, the major points in a speech, the presidents of the united states, the states in alphabetical order, and so on. I’ll give more examples in the coming days and show you how to use linking to do amazing things with your memory. The possibilities are endless.
Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents
2 comments ↓
Linking is great. I use “Linkword Languages” to learn Italian. It’s the best way to remember by far.
April,
I’d love to hear more about how you used these techniques to learn a language. I’m actually in the process of trying to learn a couple languages. Any tips would be appreciated.
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