Substitution
The Linking Lists section showed how to remember lists by making a vivid mental picture. This works very well for lists of everyday objects, but what if items in the list aren't easily pictured? Take the following list:
- Hawthorne
- Josquin
- 271940338
- cancrine
- Rachmaninoff
- Duchovny
- sandia
- Tchaikovsky
- 4839674
- Anderson
Names, numbers, and words from other languages are practically impossible to picture and are difficult to remember. This section will discuss how to substitute meaningful pictures in the place of unfamiliar words and names. The next section explains how to remember numbers.
The Technique
The simple trick to memorize names and unfamiliar words is to substitute familiar words that can be visualized in their place. You have most likely used this idea before, but this section shows several different strategies for substitution depending on the type of information.