A mnemonic is a phrase or sentence devised to help people memorise groups and / or sequences which they would ordinarily have trouble remembering. Probably the best known example of a mnemonic is the one for remembering the colours of a rainbow in their correct order, thus :- Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet
A mnemonic is a poem, sentence or song which is used to help remember something. It can also be visual. A mnemonic is something that is easy to remember that is closely associated with the item to remember in some way. Mnemonics work on various levels. Firstly there is the mnemonic which is a sentence with the first letter of each word being the first letter of the item to be remembered. This is particularly good for lists of things that need to be ordered such as the colours of the rainbow which is remembered with Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. The poem version is used for a similar circumstance such as the "30 days has September" rhyme which is used to teach children the days in each month of the year. Visual mnemonics can be used; an item is visualised which sounds like the item to be remembered, and this triggers the memory. It is good for people that use the left side of their brain.
A mnemonic is a type of a memory aid that serves as an educational purpose. These mnemonics are most of the time verbal. It can be something like a very short poem or a word which will be made up. Mnemonics mostly rely on the repetition to remember facts, they also rely on associations of easy to remember information along with the, to be remembered lists of data. The principle of the mnemonics are mainly based on the human mind, the mind can easily remember the data that is attached to the spatial or personal information, sometimes it can also be associated with meaningful information that occurs mainly in a meaningless sequence. A random mnemonic can not be a memory aid, it has to be something related to each other.
