there are certainly ways to improve your overall ability to remember information like getting more sleep or taking b12 vitamins but this video is not about those tricks it's about a type of memory tricks called mnemonics but what is a mnemonic well mnemonics are memory tricks that can help you remember long strings of information often in a particular order mnemonic devices have helped people achieve phenomenal feats in the world of memory from memorizing 40,000 digits of pi to knowing the order of a whole deck of cards you can use them to help you remember phone numbers create a more secure password or maybe one day break a world record so let's start off with chunking if you've watched my video explaining short-term memory you have already heard a little bit about this mnemonic device see short-term memory storage can only hold five to nine items of information at a time but this storage can also hold up to four chunks of information the process of chunking information is explained in the name if you're given multiple pieces of information to memorize chunk it up into groups now the groups could be based on the position in which you learned the information similarities between the pieces of information that you need to memorize or anything that helps you remember the information one common example of chunking is the way that we memorize phone numbers we split the ten numbers into three chunks first the three-digit area code then the next three digits of the actual number and then the last four digits of the number even if you can't normally remember ten numbers in sequential order you are likely to remember three chunks of information number two is an acronym now an acronym is a simple abbreviation for a list of information that makes the phrase ordering easier to remember so think back to your grade school days do you remember what PEMDAS means go back to even further preschool what is ROYGBIV stand for these are examples of acronyms see it's not easy to remember parentheses exponents multiplication division addition and subtraction in order on a math test when you first learned it but PEMDAS is just one word ten years after your last math class pendous is likely to stick that's the beauty of an acronym it's a single word or maybe a phrase or a title but it reveals a lot of information that you otherwise would not have been able to remember in the correct order let's move on the number three some people don't remember PEMDAS they remember it as please excuse my dear Aunt Sally if you were taught this trick to remember how to solve math problems you weren't using an acronym you were using something called an acrostic to help you remember information in an important order an acrostic is when you turn an acronym into a sentence to increase the likelihood of recalling it by giving it just a bit more meaning take a moment to think of some other examples of acrostics every good boy does fine is probably familiar to people who took an elementary school music class my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas is also a great way to remember the order of the planets in our solar system from the Sun usually the sillier and the more unique that they are the easier they are to remember now this is also a great method in creating a secure password try to think of a quote from a movie that you like one that would be easy to recall for example the famous line may the force be with you from Star Wars now that sit-ins is likely too long or too easy to be a password but MTF bwu is a more random password that is easy for you to remember but more difficult for someone to guess if you add some numbers and another favorite quote then the strength greatly increases number four is a memory palace now you might be familiar with this mnemonic if you've ever watched Sherlock Holmes started with the ancient Greeks a memory palace is a virtual palace in your mind where you associate items to objects in each room see most people start with their childhood house or a current house because they're most familiar with it you go around to each room and you try to pick out four to five specific objects to remember these are called your permanent items and then once you have those memorized and you can easily recall them for example let's say the third item in your second room and you can do that reliably then you can move on to associating things with each permanent item humans have an associative memory which is why this technique works so well for those who invest in it if you want to remember the order of a deck of cards you can do it pretty easily with a memory palace you just assign each card to an object in your house using association and then you should be able to recall it with ease but this mnemonic takes a lot of time and practice to develop and it shouldn't be used for things that are time sensitive however it is great for knowing the order of lists that are larger than 10 items I have a whole video coming out on this soon if you're interested so go ahead and click that subscribe button if you aren't all number five is rhyming another mnemonic device it seems to work well especially when we are children is simply rhyming things it works great with music too and it works well with other pieces of information so when did Columbus sailed the ocean blue it was in 1492 another example is the famous I before E except after C even though there's like 20 exceptions to that rule lastly we have number six which is rhythm and music the last mnemonic I have for you guys is using music or a rhythmic beat you might not know this but twinkle twinkle little star and the ABC song they have the same notes and rhythm in fact music is so great at helping people in coda memories I did this cool little trick on my last vacation I went down to Florida with my sister a couple months ago and that's when Drake's money in the grave song came out I listened to that song like 20 to 40 times while I was there and it was stuck in my head then we came back from vacation and now whenever I listen to that song I'm always reminded of the beach and the salty dry air you can create your own song or reword lyrics to help you memorize something because rhythm and musical notes work very well when encoding information in your long-term memory storage one more thing I want to talk about in this video are famous naman it's if you're interested in learning more about mnemonics I recommend that you look into the experts these professionals are known for their extraordinary memories one of the most famous no modest of all-time was simply called s for decades he's described in the book the mind of an immodest in 1968 and all the book is slightly fabricated and dramatized it tells the fascinating story of a man who it seemed could remember just about anything further reporting and research revealed that s whose full name was Solomon Sheriff chefs key was not a man with photographic memory he was just as skilled mnemonics who probably had fivefold synesthesia if you want to learn more about him you can check out my video on photographic memory many know modest however have followed in his footsteps in the 1980s tuna modest made the Guinness Book of World Records for reciting over 30,000 digits of pi and the current world record holder is 40,000 digits of pi right from their long-term memory the world memory championships has taken place every single year since 1993 and one of the most memorable winners is Alex Mullen Mullen was the first American to win the world memory championships and he has achieved the highest score in the history of the competition ending this video I want to let you know if you want a baseline of your current short-term and long-term memory I've actually created the first-ever online test for both of them all you have to do is check that link in the description below and you can take that quiz for yourself absolutely free thank you guys so much for watching I hope you learned something and I hope to see you in the next video