Elaborative strategies, mnemonic strategies, organizational strategies are all designed to increase the number of links (connections) a memory code has in your mind.
For example, when we note that “lamprey” is an “eel-like aquatic vertebrate with a unique mouth shape”, we will probably make links with eels, with fish, with the sea.
If we recall that Henry the 1st was said to have died from a surfeit of lampreys, we have made another link. Which in turn might bring in yet another link, that Ngaio Marsh once wrote a mystery entitled “A surfeit of lampreys”. And if you’ve read the book, this will be a good link, being itself rich in links.
On the other hand, in the absence of any knowledge about lampreys, you could have made a mnemonic link with the word “lamp”, and imagined an eel-like fish with lamps in its eyes, or balanced on its head.
So, both types of elaborative strategy have the same goal — to increase the number of connections.
But mnemonic links are weaker in the sense that they are arbitrary. Their value comes in those circumstances when either you lack the knowledge to make meaningful connections, or there is in fact no meaningful connection to be made (this is why mnemonics are so popular for vocabulary learning, and for the learning of lists and other ordered information).
Where does that leave us?
– Memory codes are made stronger by repetition
– Repetition is enough on it’s own to make a strong memory code
– Achieving enough repetitions, however, is a lengthy and often boring process
– Memory codes are also made easier to find by increasing the number of links they have to other memory codes
– Elaborative strategies work on this principle of making connections with existing codes
– Some elaborative strategies make meaningful connections between memory codes — these are stronger
– Mnemonic strategies make connections that are not meaningful
– Mnemonic strategies are most useful in situations where there are no meaningful connections to be made, or you lack the knowledge to make meaningful connections
