Guest Post: Plutonian Mnemonics
I'm happy to report that as of this typing, my random internet outages seem to be restored. I called the cable company and received a robotic voice that was going to attempt to talk me through the restoration. At the same time, we started plugging and unplugging and setting and resetting things out of frustration. Suddenly, the sites returned. So thankfully all systems seem to be go. How they got that way though, I have no freakin' idea.
So now I will be able to visit all of you this weekend without fear I'm missing someone since I was communicating via emailed comments only. So if you hold the line, I promise someone will be with you shortly.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my latest guest post, courtesy of Dan from Scenes From A Wasted Life (whose site may or may not be down all of a sudden). Incidentally, Dan could also be found as the guest poster yesterday at Courting Destiny where you might recall I guest starred the day before. Damn this blogging thing can get quite incestuous!
Kings play chess on fine-grained sand.
Kingdom. Phylum. Class. Order. Family. Genus. Species.
A mnemonic is a memory aid, often verbal, used to help a person remember something, particularly lists. One common mnemonic for remembering lists consists of an easily remembered word, phrase, or rhyme whose first letters are associated with the list items.
Do you remember learning any of these while you were in school? {Bonus Points if you actually remember what any of these stands for...}
Charlie Tuna Loves Small Cans
Every Good Boy Does Fine
Roy G. Biv
HOMES
Stala-G-mites versus Stala-C-tites
How I wish I Could recollect Pi Easily Today
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas
Oh, wait a second. Hold on. Scratch that last one. Can't use it anymore.
P isn't a planet.
Over the last 70 years, think of the evolution of this mnemonic as this ridiculous argument has waged. My Very Educated Mother Can't Just Serve Us Nine Pizzas with Chovies X-cluded (Including Charon, Pluto's large satellite and UB313, Called Xena by it's discoverer while they were under consideration to be called planets).
A curious characteristic of many memory systems is that mnemonics work despite being (or possibly because of being) illogical, arbitrary, and artistically flawed. "Roy" is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname "Biv" and of course the middle initial "G" is arbitrary. Why is "Roy G. Biv" easy to remember? Any two of the three months ending in -ember would fit just as euphoniously as September and November in "Thirty days hath...", yet most people can remember the rhyme correctly for a lifetime after having heard it once, and are never troubled by doubts as to which two of the -ember months have thirty days. A bizarre arbitrary association may stick in the mind better than a logical one. Mnemonics are adjuncts to learning.
One reason for the effectiveness of seemingly arbitrary mnemonics is the grouping of information provided by the mnemonic. Just as US phone numbers group 10 digits into three groups, the name "Roy G. Biv" groups seven colors into two short names and an initial. Various studies have shown that the human brain is capable of remembering only a limited number of arbitrary items. Grouping these items into chunks permits the brain to hold more of them in memory.
So, if for some reason, our brains are conditioned and trained to remember necessary information in arbitrary ways how does applying a logical definition to an illogical term like planet affect our children's ability to remember how our solar system is constucted and give them a relative sense of place in the universe?
What place does the collective culture of our generation have in that
discussion?
What will our Evil, Educated, or Eager mothers serve us now? Noodles?
Nothing?
I'd rather have had the nine pizzas thank you very much.
So now I will be able to visit all of you this weekend without fear I'm missing someone since I was communicating via emailed comments only. So if you hold the line, I promise someone will be with you shortly.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my latest guest post, courtesy of Dan from Scenes From A Wasted Life (whose site may or may not be down all of a sudden). Incidentally, Dan could also be found as the guest poster yesterday at Courting Destiny where you might recall I guest starred the day before. Damn this blogging thing can get quite incestuous!
Kings play chess on fine-grained sand.
Kingdom. Phylum. Class. Order. Family. Genus. Species.
A mnemonic is a memory aid, often verbal, used to help a person remember something, particularly lists. One common mnemonic for remembering lists consists of an easily remembered word, phrase, or rhyme whose first letters are associated with the list items.
Do you remember learning any of these while you were in school? {Bonus Points if you actually remember what any of these stands for...}
Charlie Tuna Loves Small Cans
Every Good Boy Does Fine
Roy G. Biv
HOMES
Stala-G-mites versus Stala-C-tites
How I wish I Could recollect Pi Easily Today
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas
Oh, wait a second. Hold on. Scratch that last one. Can't use it anymore.
P isn't a planet.
Over the last 70 years, think of the evolution of this mnemonic as this ridiculous argument has waged. My Very Educated Mother Can't Just Serve Us Nine Pizzas with Chovies X-cluded (Including Charon, Pluto's large satellite and UB313, Called Xena by it's discoverer while they were under consideration to be called planets).
A curious characteristic of many memory systems is that mnemonics work despite being (or possibly because of being) illogical, arbitrary, and artistically flawed. "Roy" is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname "Biv" and of course the middle initial "G" is arbitrary. Why is "Roy G. Biv" easy to remember? Any two of the three months ending in -ember would fit just as euphoniously as September and November in "Thirty days hath...", yet most people can remember the rhyme correctly for a lifetime after having heard it once, and are never troubled by doubts as to which two of the -ember months have thirty days. A bizarre arbitrary association may stick in the mind better than a logical one. Mnemonics are adjuncts to learning.
One reason for the effectiveness of seemingly arbitrary mnemonics is the grouping of information provided by the mnemonic. Just as US phone numbers group 10 digits into three groups, the name "Roy G. Biv" groups seven colors into two short names and an initial. Various studies have shown that the human brain is capable of remembering only a limited number of arbitrary items. Grouping these items into chunks permits the brain to hold more of them in memory.
So, if for some reason, our brains are conditioned and trained to remember necessary information in arbitrary ways how does applying a logical definition to an illogical term like planet affect our children's ability to remember how our solar system is constucted and give them a relative sense of place in the universe?
What place does the collective culture of our generation have in that
discussion?
What will our Evil, Educated, or Eager mothers serve us now? Noodles?
Nothing?
I'd rather have had the nine pizzas thank you very much.
<< Home