College and University Blog
Using Mnemonics
A mnemonic is a memory aid. Mnemonic aids rely on both repetition and association. The associations are between easy-to-remember constructs and lists of data. These aids are based on the principle that the human mind remembers insignificant data when it is attached to spatial, personal, or otherwise meaningful information more than when it occurs in meaningless sequences.
The word mnemonic is derived from the ancient Greek word mnemonikos (“of memory”) It is related to Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. The first known reference to mnemonics is the method of loci described in Cicero