Mnemonic (nem -'on - ik) Techniques   (click here to print a document of this page)

"Mnemonic" means "aiding memory."
To be technical, the word comes from the mythic figure, Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and inventor of words.
Often referred to as a "memory trick," mnemonics work by developing a retrieval plan during encoding (learning)
so that a word can be recalled through verbal and visual clues.
Mnemonics help learners because they aid the integration of new material into existing cognitive structures
(information that you already know) and because they provide retrieval clues.
Learners need to experiment with different kinds of mnemonic techniques to see which ones work best for them.

Spatial Mnemonics
By the way, what is the ROOT of SPATIAL?
See Method of Loci.

Finger Mnemonics
Associating something to be memorized with each of your fingers.

Visual Mnemonics
Like Vocabulary Cartoons.

Grouping Mnemonics
It is well known in psychology that if the material to be memorized is organized in some fashion, learners can use this organization to their benefit. Group the words you need to remember by color, size, function, likes/dislikes, good/bad,
or any other feature that makes sense to you.

Source: Parts of the above learning strategies are provided by Irene Thompson of NFLRC at University of Hawaii at Manoa.