Memory Strategies

There are several memory strategies that work well with anthropology information. The strategies described and illustrated in this section are phonetic manipulations, visual imagery, mnemonics, alphabetizing, clustering, and chunking. The latter four are usually used to remember lists of information.

Phoenetic Manipulations

Phonetic manipulation focuses on sounds in words in order to enhance encoding into and retrieval from memory. Auditory learners in particular may find phentic manipulations an effective memory strategy. Several examples of phonetic manipulations using anthropology material are provided below.

In the example below, the difference between "etic" and "emic" is remembered based on the "t" and "m" sounds in the words. Those sounds are associated with the key elements of the definitions for those words.

Another way to use phonetic manipulations is to focus on the alphabetical order of certain sounds in a word. The first example below shows another way to remember the difference between "etic" and "emic" by focusing on letters appearing in both the terms and their corresponding definitions. In the second example below, the alphabetical order of sounds in the terms "ethnography" and "ethnology" help in remembering their definitions.

A fourth example of phonetic manipulation uses sounds in words to remember terms with similar definitions. The two terms with the sound "ma" both deal with power or force, whereas the term without the sound does not.

Visual Imagery

Visual imagery, a strategy that is particularly effective for visual learners, involves making up an image that links the information to be remembered. The image may be drawn or described on paper, or you can create a mental image. The more vivid the image, the better - use sounds, smells, and tastes as well as sights in your image.

Provided below is an example of a visual image that may be used in a cultural anthropology class to remember the characteristics of band-level societies (D. Applegate, CAL).

• Characteristics of bands:
  small size, egalitarian, mobile settlement pattern with temporary camps, hunting-gathering subsistence, shaman religious leaders
  
• Visual image:
  Picture a small group of equally-sized people camping and cooking the food they hunted and gathered that day. Smell the smoke of the fire and the cooking food. Some of the people are talking loudly on mobile phones. Others are dancing wildly with shaman around the fire. After a short time, picture the group moving to another temporary camp.

Mneumonics

Mnemonics involves using the first letter of each term in a list to develop a cue word or cue phrase to help remember the list items. This is a common strategy that is easily applied to anthropology lists. Mnemonics is often helpful for auditory learners in particular.

The following mnemonic is for remembering the grades of primate evolution; the list items must be kept in order. The mnemonic takes the form of a cue phrase (D. Applegate, CAL):

• Let's Talk Money, Honey

1. Lemur and Loris
2. Tarsier
3. Monkeys
4. Hominoids

A cue word is used in this mnemonic for a cultural anthropology course. The six types of residential patterns do not have to be listed in any particular order, so we can switch them to form the best cue word to help our memory (D. Applegate, CAL).

• Original List:
  neolocal, patrilocal, matrilocal, avunculocal, bilocal, ambilocal
  
• Reordered List:
  neolocal, avunculocal, bilocal, patrilocal, ambilocal, matrilocal
  
• Mnemonic:
  NAB PAM
  [To enhance the mnemonic, make a mental image of a bride named Pam being nabbed by her husband and taken to their new residence.]

Alphabetizing

The alphabetizing strategy is used to remember a list if the list items need not be kept in a certain order but can be rearranged. The strategy involves arranging the list items in alphabetical order and then looking for patterns that will aid in encoding and retrieval.

As an example, a physical anthropology student may use alphabetizing to remember this list African sites yielding important fossil evidence of australopithecines (D. Applegate, CAL).

• African australopithecine sites:
  Middle Awash, Kobi Fora, Turkana, Olduvai Gorge, Laetoli, Swartskrans, Taung, and Sterkfontein
  
• Alphabetized list:
  Kobi Fora, Laetoli, Middle Awash, Olduvai Gorge, Sterkfontein, Swartskrans, Taung, and Turkana
  
• Patterns in the alphabetized list:
  K-L-M, O, S-T x 2

Clustering and Chunking

People usually have few problems remembering lists of only a few items. But longer lists are more difficult to remember; we can usually recall the first few and the last few items in a long list but forget the middle items. Clustering and chunking are two memory strategies that aid in encoding and recall of long lists. Both involve breaking one large list into several smaller lists. In order to enhance memory, clustering and chunking may be used in conjunction with other strategies like mnemonics and visual imagery.

In clustering, the smaller lists are generated according to some kind of criterion (associations, relatedness, phonetics, etc). There is some logical reason for grouping the items together into smaller lists. For example, to remember the 14 characteristics of all primates for a physical anthropology course, you might group them into four categories based on if the traits relate to locomotion, diet, senses, or reproduction. As shown below, each group has from two to five items that will be easier to remember than one list of 14.

• PRIMATE TRAITS
  
• Locomotion
• pentadactyly
• nails instead of claws
• prehensile hands and feet
• erect upper body
• clavicle (collarbone) present
  
• Diet
• generalized dental pattern
• generalized diet
  
• Senses
  • reduction of snout
• emphasis on visual sense
• eye socket completely enclosed in bone
• expansion and increased complexity of brain
  
• Reproduction
• longer gestation period
• reliance on learned behavior
• adult males stay with social group

With chunking, the smaller lists are generated randomly from the single large list. Ideally, you should break the large list into enough smaller lists so that none has more than three or four items. The example below is from an archaeology course and represents a list of prehistoric Hopewell sites in Ohio (D. Applegate, CAL).

• Original List:
  Tremper, Turner, Seip, Mound City, Newark Earthworks, Fort Ancient, Hopewell, McGraw, Edwin Harness, Adena, Murphy, Fort Hill, Fairmont Mound, Ginther Mound, Russell Brown Mounds
  
• Sublists:
  Tremper, Turner, Seip
  Mound City, Newark Earthworks, Edwin Harness
  Fort Ancient, Fort Hill, Hopewell
  McGraw, Adena, Murphy
  Fairmont Mound, Ginther Mound, Russell Brown Mounds