Creating a mnemonic device involves

How to Create Mnemonic Devices That Help Your Students Remember – CourseArc

Students can often feel overwhelmed by the extent of new information and concepts that they are exposed to throughout a course. As an instructional designer, it’s your responsibility to help learners remember and retain key information and take-aways from your courses.

One handy set of memory tools are known as mnemonic devices.

What Are They?

Mnemonic devices are helpful memory cues that are often made up based on the specific details of the lesson at hand. They’re often funny (and sometimes outrageous), which helps create an indelible memory association between concepts and retention.

One of the earliest mnemonics that many children are exposed to is this rhyming couplet:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November

By re-phrasing the problem of remembering the number of days in a given month into an easily recalled rhyme, you’ve given learners a simpler way to remember which months have 30 days — and, by extension, which months don’t.

When developing your course content, you can include mnemonics to help your students relate to, learn, and remember new information. Here are four practical methods for devising mnemonic devices in real-life situations.

Mnemonic Acronyms

If your lesson involves a checklist of information, you can introduce an acronym to help students remember the content keywords of that lesson.

For example, if you’re conducting workplace training on “how to deal with a fire on the factory floor,” you can create an acronym that covers the proper sequence in which they should respond to a fire: RACE – Rescue, Alarm, Confine, Extinguish. (In this case, the acronym also creates a word that directly relates to the urgency of the situation, which is even more aesthetically helpful.)

Mnemonic Phrases

Where an acronym works by distilling many words into one single word that’s easier to remember, a mnemonic phrase accomplishes the same goal by creating a matching sentence in which the first letter of each word matches the first letter of the words you want your students to remember.

For example, there’s a proper order in which mathematical functions should be executed, and complex problems containing multiple operations can confuse students — “Which operation should I complete first?” To help students in the U.S. remember the the correct order of operations, math teachers have long used the mnemonic phrase “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” = Parentheses first; then Exponents; then Multiplication; then Division; then Addition; then Subtraction. (Not all devices are perfect, though. Here’s a reminder that this famous phrase still leaves out one important rule that results in some students forgetting a basic step.)

Mnemonic Rhymes

As proven by our “30 days” example, rhymes can be a potent memory training tool. But don’t feel obliged to write poetry every time you have a complex lesson to teach. Even something as simple as rhyming pairs can help students remember key information.

For example, if you are tasked with developing a training orientation for a supermarket or department store chain, you’d need to help new employees remember where every item in the store is shelved. Here’s where rhymes may come in handy: “one is bun” may help them recall the aisle where breads and bakery items may be found; “four is door” could refer to door knobs, hinges, and door-frames; “nine is wine” for liquor and spirits, etc.

Mnemonic Associations

Any aspect of the words in your lesson can be used in a mnemonic acronym, phrase, or rhyme, but these basics can be taken a step further by using mnemonic principles to remind students of a hierarchy among steps or items in a set.

For example, if a course for contractors teaches them that the best practice for a particular repair is: “use wood first, and if that’s not available, then use wrought iron,” a mnemonic association to help students remember that hierarchy is:

If I could, I’d use Wood
But if not, I’ll use Wrought

Use Your Imagination

Each course you design will have specific content that lends itself to unique mnemonic devices, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get creative in how you link your lessons to memory aids.

In some instances, key learning concepts can be re-phrased into lyrics of familiar songs; in other cases, you can create visual flash cards or crossword puzzles to help with relation and retention. Remember, the more outrageous, amusing, or surprising a mnemonic device is, the stronger its impact will be on students’ memories — so, really, the sky’s the limit!

Or, as we could say…

In any mnemonic delicatessen,
The stronger the cheese is, the stronger the lesson

(Okay, so that one was pretty bad… but you’ll remember it longer than you ever wanted to. Mission accomplished!)

Got a Great Mnemonic Example of Your Own?

Feel free to leave your own examples in the comments. Maybe you’ll help a fellow teacher find a new way to help students remember something critical!

BONUS: if you need help finding words that rhyme, Word Hippo is a handy site to bookmark.

Image: “Word” by Dovydas Čiomėnas, via Flickr Creative Commons license

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Mnemonic Devices: Types, Examples, and Benefits

Mnemonic devices — like acronyms, chunking, and rhymes — work by tapping into how the brain naturally stores data.

If you’re like most people, you probably get frustrated when you can’t remember the name of your new co-worker, a friend’s phone number, or even why you walked into a room.

But memory shortages can feel even more frustrating when you have to recall large amounts of information, such as the state capitals or the bones in the human body.

This is where mnemonic devices can come in handy — as tricks to easily memorize things.

You’ve used a mnemonic device if you’ve ever used a rhyme or a song to help you memorize something. It’s simply a fancy word for a memorization tool.

Through various tricks, mnemonic devices can help you remember anything from phone numbers to long lists to other things that would be otherwise difficult to remember.

Share on PinterestDesign by Wenzdai Figueroa

There are several types of mnemonic devices, and many of them overlap in how they work. Below are five of the most common types of mnemonic devices:

• acronyms and acrostics
• association
• chunking
• method of loci
• songs and rhymes

Acronyms and acrostics

An acronym is a word created from the first letter of a group of words or names. For instance: HOMES is an acronym for the five Great Lakes:

• Huron
• Ontario
• Michigan
• Erie
• Superior

Some words we commonly use as “stand-alone” words are acronyms. For example:

• radar (radio detection and ranging)
• laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)
• scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)
• gif (graphics interchange format)

An acronym doesn’t even need to be a “real” word — as long as it sounds like one. For instance, many government agencies use acronyms, such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

You can also use acronyms as mnemonic devices in day-to-day situations like grocery shopping.

For example, if you need to remember to buy pasta, apples, cilantro, and eggs at the store and you don’t have a way to write a shopping list, you may easily forget some random items. Creating the acronym (and word) “pace” from the items’ first letters and thinking “pace” as you walk through the grocery store may help you remember all the items you need:

• pasta
• apples
• cilantro
• eggs

An acrostic is a similar mnemonic device, but it can be a sentence or a whole phrase instead of just one word. For example, you’ve likely used a phrase similar to “My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas” to help you remember the nine planets and their order in our solar system:

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

Association

Association is a fairly easy technique to help you remember new information. The idea behind it is that it’s easier to remember new information when you link it to something you already know well.

For example, if you have a new co-worker named Todd and an uncle with the same name, you could imagine your co-worker with glasses, a mustache, and a pencil behind his ear — like your uncle Todd — to help you remember your co-worker’s name.

Similarly, suppose you’re trying to remember that the scientist who invented calculus and discovered the laws of gravity was Isaac Newton. In that case, you could imagine your friend Isaac eating (and dropping) a Fig Newton while doing math.

The stranger and sillier the scenario, the more likely you’ll remember it.

Chunking

Chunking is a mnemonic device in which you break down information into bite-sized “chunks.” Two common examples of chunking are phone numbers and Social Security numbers. Most people divide both of these long numbers into three sections.

Chunking allows the brain to memorize more information than usual. According to the late psychologist George A. Miller, the average short-term memory capacity is about seven items, plus or minus two, depending on the person. Miller also suggested that verbal short-term memory capacity is determined by the number of chunks stored in memory.

Chunking comes in handy when memorizing random items, such as a password. For instance, trying to memorize P3850tf21 would be quite difficult. But if you break it down: P38-50-tf21, it becomes a lot easier.

So why does chunking allow more items to be stored in the brain? Research from 2021 suggests that chunking may be a long-term memory function. Therefore, chunking allows people to tap into their long-term memory function to extend the capability of their short-term memory.

Method of loci

The method of loci — sometimes called the “memory palace technique” — involves remembering items based on their locations.

According to legend, the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos temporarily excused himself from a large banquet to speak with someone outside. Soon after he left, a disaster ensued, and the entire structure collapsed on everyone inside. The scene was chaotic, and even family members could not identify the bodies.

However, once the debris was cleared, Simonides was able to help identify the dead correctly because he remembered exactly where each person had been sitting. This story is commonly retold as an example of how to recall large groups of items.

For example, your grandmother has asked you to stop at the store to pick up five random items:

• a scented candle
• flip-flops
• paper towels
• honey
• a purple flower pot

You don’t have any way to write down the list and need to memorize it.

To use the method of loci, try the following:

1. Imagine an area you know very well, such as your home.
2. Imagine each item’s exaggerated or silly form placed somewhere in your home.

In practice, this may look something like this:

1. Imagine arriving at your front door and seeing a large flickering candle there.
2. As you mentally walk inside your house, you “see” a pair of flip-flops hanging from the air conditioning vent.
3. Then you imagine your brother holding a paper towel roll in the family photo on the wall in the entryway.
4. You enter the kitchen and see a large honeycomb dripping with honey and swarming bees on the kitchen countertop.
5. The honey is dripping into a purple flowerpot below.

Songs and rhymes

Songs and rhymes are very effective mnemonic devices. Most young children are taught to remember the entire alphabet — 26 random letters in a row — by reciting it in a simple rhyming tune.

Songs and rhymes work for adults as well. Just think of how easily you sing along when an old song comes on the radio.

Singing can help with many types of learning. Research from 2013 shows that a foreign language can be more easily memorized when put into a song. A 2021 study also indicates that singing may improve memory and well-being in people with dementia.

Research from 2019 shows that learning is more efficient when people use mnemonic devices. These memory tools work by tapping into how your brain naturally stores data.

Below are some of the advantages of using mnemonic devices:

• You become an active learner when you sort the information in a way you can remember.
• Mnemonic tools allow you to recall large amounts of information that would be incredibly difficult to remember.
• You’re able to quickly retrieve information from your long-term memory.

Mnemonic devices are useful learning aids when memorizing large amounts of information.

Using memory-boosting tools, such as loci, chunking, or rhyming, can make learning much easier and even fun. So you don’t have to despair if you’re being tested on the state capitals or the periodic table.

Mnemonic formulas for remembering passwords

The MFP effectively helps you avoid many of the insecure situations associated with choosing and using complex passwords.

I)ruid, CISSP [email protected]

Overview

There are a huge number of information systems in the information technology industry today, each with its own authorization scheme. Even if single sign-on and multi-system authorization are used, systems belonging to separate management domains are likely to be used by users with different levels of access within a single space. Because of the complexities involved, and because of the multiple requirements of the authorization process, users often have to deal with multiple credentials required to access different systems. This leads to insecure situations related to password selection and management. This article takes a closer look at some of the challenges faced by users and administrators of authorization systems that use passwords. The author also analyzes modern approaches to alleviate such difficulties, and ultimately presents a new method of password management, referring to mnemonic formulas for remembering passwords.

1) The essence of the problem

1.1) A large number of authorization systems

Today, in the information systems environment, there are a huge number of independent authorization systems. Even if many systems in separate management domains use single sign-on methods and multisystem authorization, users are likely to use a large number of systems with separate management domains on a regular basis. Even the most common users who work with an average number of information systems can interact with more than six separate authorization systems per day. Online banking systems, corporate web and database systems, e-mail systems and social networking sites are just a few of the many systems, each of which may use its own user authorization method.

Due to the sheer number of authorization systems, many end users have to deal with the multitude of passwords required to log into these various systems. This leads to a large number of insecure situations related to the choice and management of passwords.

In addition to the proliferation of insecure situations related to the choice and management of passwords, successful attempts at combining authorization and cryptography have caused a sharp increase in the number of attacks directed against authorization systems. While recent breakthroughs in computing power have made short passwords of six characters or less (regardless of the complexity of their content) vulnerable to brute-force attack, conventional methods of attack against storage programs passwords or authorization systems, cryptanalysis and direct guessing are less and less used, giving way to literally intelligent guessing of passwords. This guessing can use optimized dictionary attacks, guessing based on the user's information environment, attacks targeting additional credentials requested by the authorization system, such as smart cards and token devices[s1], and attacks targeting interaction between users and systems.

Due to these factors, user passwords are the weakest link in any authorization system.

1.2) Managing a large number of passwords

The two most serious password authorization problems are directly related to the user and how he stores his passwords. First, if users are not allowed to write down passwords, then they tend to choose light passwords, which tend to be much easier to crack than complex ones. In addition to using weak passwords, users tend to use the same passwords repeatedly in different authorization systems.

Users find it incredibly difficult to remember predefined random passwords and passwords of higher complexity that they have chosen by prescription. If they are allowed, users can write down the password in an insecure place, for example, they can stick it on the monitor or write it down in a notepad lying on the desktop. On the other hand, they can store the password in a safe place, such as an encrypted file on their PDA. However, the user can just as easily lose access to the stored password: they can forget the password to the encrypted file, or the PDA can be lost or stolen. In this case, the user will have to contact the administrator to initiate the reset of the old password.

1.3) Poor password choice

When it comes to their own devices, users usually don't choose complex passwords, but use words that are easy to pick up from a dictionary - they do this because such passwords are easier to remember. Sometimes the user may attempt to complicate the password by putting two words together or by adding a number. In many cases, the selected word or words will be related to the user or located in the user's own information environment. This environment may include, for example, the pet's name, phone number, or date of birth.

These types of passwords require much less effort to crack than brute-force attacks. When using an optimized dictionary attack method, the most common words and phrases are substituted first, which usually leads to a successful completion of the attack quickly. Due to the high success of this method, most modern attacks on authorization systems are aimed primarily at guessing the password before using direct guessing or launching an attack based on in-depth analysis of the authorization system itself.

1.4) "Stupid" forgetfulness

When a user cannot remember their password (usually because they have too many passwords to remember, or because the system's password complexity requirements were too hard to keep the password easy to remember), many authorization systems provide a mechanism that the author called "foolish forgetfulness".

When a user is "stupidly forgetful", they are asked a reminder question that they usually have no trouble answering. If the answer to the question was correct, then the user is usually given a choice: enter a new password, receive the old password by e-mail, or use some other password recovery method. When this type of recovery is used, it significantly reduces the security of the authorization system, since the strength of the password is much greater than that of a simple question. After all, the answer to this question can be obtained even from public sources.

1.4.1) Case Study: Paris Hilton's Dog Lets Her Owner Down

A much-publicized user-environment attack recently took place, targeting Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton whose phone was hacked. The question on her carrier's website that had to be answered in order to get her account password was: "Name your favorite pet." Probably too many celebrity fans will easily remember the answer to this question, not to mention the fact that the star's fan websites, Internet forums and tabloids, which most likely have this information, are available to anyone who wants to receive it. . So the attackers simply showed “stupid forgetfulness” and reset the password to the Hilton account on the operator’s website, which allowed them to gain access to her mobile device and the information on it.

2) Existing approaches

2.1) Write passwords

passwords. He stated that the password security method, which prevents users from writing down passwords, is absolutely wrong. Instead, he voiced support for allowing users to write down passwords. The reason for this statement was an attempt to solve one of the problems discussed above: when users are not allowed to write down passwords, they choose passwords that are easy to remember (and therefore easy to crack). Johanson believes that if users are allowed to write down passwords, it will give them the opportunity to use passwords of a higher level of complexity.

Mr. Johansson is right in pointing out some of the problems with password security, but his approach to tackling this difficult issue is not only short-sighted, but also limited. His solution assumes that users will no longer need to remember a large number of complex passwords, but also implies that there will be insecure situations associated with written passwords, which are purely physically less secure, and tend to be lost, which makes it necessary administrator intervention to reset the password.

2.2) Mnemonic passwords

A mnemonic password is a password that is easy to remember using a mnemonic device—say, creating a password using the first letters of an easy-to-remember sentence, poem, or song lyrics. An example is the first letters of each word in a phrase, such as: “Our Tanya is crying bitterly, she dropped a ball into the river”, which in the form of a password will look like “NTgpuvrm”. For mnemonic passwords to be usable, the user must be able to easily remember the phrase.

Previous research has shown that passwords made up of phrases, as in the example above, are similar in complexity to passwords made up of random characters. Mnemonic passwords have the same drawback as regular passwords, namely that users can reuse the same password across different authorization systems. In addition, such passwords are often created using well-known passages of text from famous literary works or song lyrics. Special dictionaries for guessing passwords have been developed, containing a large number of such mnemonic options.

2.3) Advanced Security Mnemonic Passwords

Advanced Security Mnemonic Passwords (MSMPs) are passwords made from simple words that the user can easily remember, but these passwords use mnemonic substitutions to make the password more complex. Replacing Latin letters with similar numbers and symbols (Leet language) is a simple example of this method. For example, converting the passwords "beerbash" and "catwoman" in this way would result in passwords like "b33rb4sh" and "c@w0m4n" respectively.

A problem specific to MPPB is that not all passwords can be converted using this method, which limits either the choice of available words or the quality of password complexity. In addition, MPPBs are based on transformations of easy-to-remember words or groups of words contained in dictionaries. Attackers have developed various dictionaries for guessing passwords based on transformations, for example, on the above-mentioned replacement of Latin letters with similar numbers and symbols (the Leet language). As with mnemonic passwords, highly secure passwords can be reused in many authorization systems.

2.4) Phrase passwords

Phrase passwords are the most acceptable variant of mnemonic passwords. Compared to regular passwords, phrase passwords are easier to remember and are much longer, making the password much more resistant to brute-force attacks. Phrase passwords are more complex because they use upper and lower case, spaces, and special characters such as punctuation and numbers.

However, phrase passwords can also be problematic. Many authorization systems do not support long passwords, so passphrases are not universally applicable. As in the case of the methods discussed above, the same passphrase can be used repeatedly in many authorization systems.

3) Mnemonic formulas for remembering passwords

3.1) Definition

A mnemonic formula for remembering passwords, or MFP, is a mnemonic technique that involves the use of a predetermined, easily recalled formula for quickly generating passwords based on knowledge of various contextual information available to the user.

3.2) Properties

When using a well thought out MFP, the resulting password should have the following characteristics:

- Seemingly random sequence of characters.

- The complexity and length of the password are sufficient to ensure resistance to hacking.

- Ease of recall to memory by a user who knows the formula and target authorization system.

- Uniqueness for each user, access class and authorization system.

3.3) Formula development

3.3.1) Syntax

For the purposes of this work, the following formula syntax will be used:

- : An element that is completely replaced by some known object denoted by X.

-| : When used in an element enclosed in angle brackets, indicates an OR selection of a value.

- All other characters are constant.

3.3.2) Simple MFP

To understand the principle of MFP, consider a simple formula. If you have information about the user being authorized and the authorization system, you can use a formula similar to the one below. The formula contains two elements: a user and a target system, which is identified by either the hostname or the most significant octet of the IP address.

 ! 

Using the above FFP, you can get passwords such as:

 - "druid!neo" for user druid on neo. jpl.nasa.gov 

 - " intropy!intropy" for the intropy user on the intropy.net system 

 - "thegnome!nmrc" for thegnome user on the nmrc.org system 

 - "druid!33" for the druid user on the 10.0.0.33 system 

With this simple MFP-scheme, a rather long and easy-to-remember password containing a special character is obtained. However, this scheme cannot create really complex passwords. A targeted attacker can use the username and hostname as one of the first dictionary combinations in a brute-force password cracking. Because only the host name or the last octet of the IP address is used as part of the scheme, there may be a situation where the principle of a unique password for each system is violated. If the same user has an account on two servers whose names start with "www", or on two servers with the same value of the last octet within two different subnets, then the passwords will be identical. Finally, passwords generated using the above formula vary in length and may therefore not be suitable for any authorization system that implements a policy of limiting the number of characters in the password.

3.3.3) Advanced MFP

By making some modifications to the simple MFP discussed above, the complexity of the password can be significantly increased. If you have information about the authorized user and the authorization system, you can use the following MFP:

!.

 - "d!n.jng" for the druid user on the neo.jpl.nasa.gov system 

 - "i!i.n" for the intropy user on the intropy system . net 

 - "t!n.o" for user thegnome on nmrc.org system 

 - "d!1.003" for user druid on system 10.0.0.33 

 @.; 

 - "[email protected];" for user druid on neo.jpl.nasa.gov 

 - "[email protected];" for intropy user in intropy.net system 

 - "[email protected];" for thegnome user in nmrc.org 

 - "[email protected];" for user druid on system 10.0.0.33 

 @.; 

 :@.; 

 :@.; 

 <0|1>:@.;