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126-574: It makes use of elaborative encoding , retrieval cues and imagery as specific tools to encode information in a way that allows for efficient storage and retrieval. It aids original information in becoming associated with something more accessible or meaningful—which in turn provides better retention of the information. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often used for lists and in auditory form such as short poems , acronyms , initialisms or memorable phrases. They can also be used for other types of information and in visual or kinesthetic forms. Their use

252-629: A philosophy of science that would guide the others. The section on geography was allegedly originally ornamented with a map based on ancient and Arabic computations of longitude and latitude, but has since been lost. His (mistaken) arguments supporting the idea that dry land formed the larger proportion of the globe were apparently similar to those which later guided Columbus . In this work Bacon criticises his contemporaries Alexander of Hales and Albertus Magnus , who were held in high repute despite having only acquired their knowledge of Aristotle at second hand during their preaching careers. Albert

378-470: A universal grammar , and 21st-century re-evaluations emphasise that Bacon was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his "experimental" knowledge obtained from books in the scholastic tradition . He was, however, partially responsible for a revision of the medieval university curriculum, which saw the addition of optics to the traditional quadrivium . Bacon's major work, the Opus Majus ,

504-431: A big nose or bushy eyebrows. Within this study he held two experiments which slightly differed. In experiment one, he took a lecture hall full of college students and chose them to be his test subjects. These students were shown 72 black and white 35-mm pictures of adult males of varying ages. The pictures only showed the head and shoulders of the men, and were particularly picked so that the faces would not be familiar to

630-481: A breeze make a sane Japanese chilly in the USA." (les) Netherlands (Pays-Bas), Canada, Brazil (Brésil), Mexico (Mexique), Senegal, Japan (Japon), Chile (Chili), & (les) USA (États-Unis d'Amérique). Mnemonics can be used in aiding patients with memory deficits that could be caused by head injuries , strokes , epilepsy , multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions. In a study conducted by Doornhein and De Haan,

756-427: A collection of definitive texts on these subjects. The new subjects were to be "perspective" (i.e., optics ), "astronomy" (inclusive of astronomy proper, astrology , and the geography necessary to use them), "weights" (likely some treatment of mechanics but this section of the Opus Majus has been lost), alchemy , agriculture (inclusive of botany and zoology ), medicine , and " experimental science",

882-417: A demon but causes the head to speak by "the continuall fume of the six hottest Simples", testing his theory that speech is caused by "an effusion of vapors". Around 1589, Robert Greene adapted the story for the stage as The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay , one of the most successful Elizabethan comedies . As late as the 1640s, Thomas Browne was still complaining that "Every ear

1008-531: A face easier if character traits are also imparted about the person at the same time. Practitioners use multiple techniques, such as the method of loci , the link system , the peg-word method , PAO (person, action, object), etc., to store information in long-term memory and to make it easier to recall this information in the future. One can make such connections visually , spatially , semantically or acoustically . The method of loci (MOL) relies on spatial relationships between "loci" (e.g., locations on

1134-486: A familiar route or rooms in a familiar building) to arrange and recollect memorial content. An example of MOL would be to remember a grocery list by mentally placing items needed in well known places in one's bedroom. To recall the list one would mentally revisit the bedroom and pick up the items. In a study published in 2007, Jerome Yesavage and Terrence Rose added another step in using the method of loci which proved to help recall. They instructed their test group "to make

1260-438: A famous person. In the first group, the participants memorized one single fact, such as "Mozart made a long journey from Munich to Paris." The second group was given two additional facts that were linked to the target sentence, such as "Mozart wanted to leave Munich to avoid a romantic entanglement," or "Mozart was intrigued by musical developments coming out of Paris." The two additional sentences served as verbal elaborations on

1386-567: A force, enlarged due to recent crop failures, that prosecuted the Second Barons' War . Bacon's own family were considered royal partisans: De Montfort's men seized their property and drove several members into exile. In 1256 or 1257, he became a friar in the Franciscan Order in either Paris or Oxford, following the example of scholarly English Franciscans such as Grosseteste and Marsh . After 1260, Bacon's activities were restricted by

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1512-440: A fourth group: repeated elaborations. The results of Experiment 3 showed that long term retention was more effective with repeated retrieval than repeated verbal elaborations. Experiment 4 the subjects were asked to learn word pairs and had different cues for target words or cues that would act as the target word. Results showed that repeated retrieval enhanced long term memory and mnemonics do not stem from elaborations, unless it

1638-578: A gun barrel. The ~41% nitrate content is too low to have explosive properties. Bacon attributed the Secret of Secrets ( Secretum Secretorum ), the Islamic "Mirror of Princes" ( Arabic : Sirr al-ʿasrar ), to Aristotle , thinking that he had composed it for Alexander the Great . Bacon produced an edition of Philip of Tripoli 's Latin translation, complete with his own introduction and notes; and his writings of

1764-466: A language the learner knows already, also called "cognates" which are very common in Romance languages and other Germanic languages . A useful such technique is to find linkwords , words that have the same pronunciation in a known language as the target word, and associate them visually or auditorially with the target word. For example, in trying to assist the learner to remember ohel ( אוהל ‎),

1890-490: A likely-forged letter to an unknown "William of Paris," dismisses practices such as necromancy but contains most of the alchemical formulae attributed to Bacon, including one for a philosopher's stone and another possibly for gunpowder . It also includes several passages about hypothetical flying machines and submarines , attributing their first use to Alexander the Great . On the Vanity of Magic or The Nullity of Magic

2016-420: A list is to create an easily remembered acronym . Another is to create a memorable phrase with words which share the same first letter(s) (i.e.: the same initialism ) as the list members. Mnemonic techniques can be applied to most memorization of novel materials. Some common examples for first-letter mnemonics: Mnemonic phrases or poems can be used to encode numeric sequences by various methods, one common one

2142-521: A lovely house , I'd like to buy it ." The linguist Michel Thomas taught students to remember that estar is the Spanish word for to be by using the phrase "to be a star". Another Spanish example is by using the mnemonic " Vin Diesel Has Ten Weapons" to teach irregular command verbs in the you ( tú ) form. Spanish verb forms and tenses are regularly seen as the hardest part of learning

2268-459: A mnemonic training study, a research team followed-up 112 community-dwelling older adults, 60 years of age and over. Delayed recall of a word list was assessed prior to, and immediately following mnemonic training, and at the 5-year follow-up. Overall, there was no significant difference between word recall prior to training and that exhibited at follow-up. However, pre-training performance gains scores in performance immediately post-training and use of

2394-414: A much easier time recalling elaborated information. She also theorized that applying the study methods of young adults to older adults may have a similar effect on the participants' ability to encode information. Coane tested a young group and an older group using 44 unique word pairs. Coane used three different sub-categories to test both groups: Deep Processing, Study-Study, and Study-Test. Participants in

2520-446: A new language. The peg-word method is based on principles like those embodied in the method of loci. The main difference is that instead of a series of places to be used as storage "locations", one memorizes a set of pegs or hooks on which one can then "hang" the information to be memorized. As with the MOL instead of placing grocery items in a room, imagine that room has "pegs" on which are

2646-470: A noise] exceeding the roar of strong thunder, and a flash brighter than the most brilliant lightning. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry William Lovett Hime of the Royal Artillery published the theory that Bacon's Epistola contained a cryptogram giving a recipe for the gunpowder he witnessed. The theory was criticised by Thorndike in a 1915 letter to Science and several books,

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2772-517: A personal judgment of the pleasantness of each visual image association. As predicted, subjects in the Loci Plus Judgment group showed greater improvement in their recall following instruction in the mnemonic." The point of the link system is to link each successive pair of items in an interacting image or story so that recall of one item in the list should cue recall of the next. These stories or images have to be significant in order to remember

2898-420: A position joined by Muir , John Maxson Stillman , Steele , and Sarton . Needham et al. concurred with these earlier critics that the additional passage did not originate with Bacon and further showed that the proportions supposedly deciphered (a 7:5:5 ratio of saltpetre to charcoal to sulphur ) as not even useful for firecrackers, burning slowly with a great deal of smoke and failing to ignite inside

3024-458: A relatively unfamiliar idea, and especially a series of dissociated ideas, by connecting it, or them, in some artificial whole, the parts of which are mutually suggestive. Mnemonic devices were much cultivated by Greek sophists and philosophers and are frequently referred to by Plato and Aristotle . Philosopher Charmadas was famous for his outstanding memory and for his ability to memorize whole books and then recite them. In later times,

3150-627: A similar state later on. Verbal elaboration has also been shown to strengthen mental connections and boost retrieval (see also rehearsal ). Because the intensity and effectiveness of encoded connections varies from person to person, it is often difficult to study with consistent results. Jennifer Coane (2013) sought to determine whether difference in age can influence the effectiveness of elaborative encoding. She hypothesized that older adults do not normally use elaborative encoding and younger adults are constantly studying and learning new things through semantic processes, so younger people would have

3276-407: A statute prohibiting the friars of his order from publishing books or pamphlets without prior approval. He was likely kept at constant menial tasks to limit his time for contemplation and came to view his treatment as an enforced absence from scholarly life. By the mid-1260s, he was undertaking a search for patrons who could secure permission and funding for his return to Oxford. For a time, Bacon

3402-563: A storyline out of these items to make them easier to recall. For example, when creating a grocery list, one could assign eggs to Arnold Schwarzenegger, assign apples to "slicing", and potatoes could be assigned to potatoes, resulting in a story of Arnold Schwarzenegger slicing potatoes. The more distinguishable the relationship the easier it will be to retrieve. New information and stimuli tend to be better remembered when they can be associated with old memories and experiences. The efficiency and success of encoding (and subsequent retrieval)

3528-670: A system of mnemonics in which (as in Wennsshein) the numerical figures are represented by letters chosen due to some similarity to the figure or an accidental connection with it. This alphabet was supplemented by a complicated system of localities and signs. Feinaigle, who apparently did not publish any written documentation of this method, travelled to England in 1811. The following year one of his pupils published The New Art of Memory (1812), giving Feinaigle's system. In addition, it contains valuable historical material about previous systems. Other mnemonists later published simplified forms, as

3654-459: A verbal elaboration method for Experiment 3, and identical word pairs in Experiment 4. In Experiment 1, participants learned uncommon English words paired with their definition and were divided into three groups: repeated retrieval, repeated study, and drop. After each correct recall in the drop group the pair of words were removed from future study and retrieval tasks. After each correct recall of

3780-640: A work and attempts to secure financing from his family were thwarted by the Second Barons' War. However, in 1265, Guy was summoned to a conclave at Perugia that elected him Pope Clement IV . William Benecor, who had previously been the courier between Henry III and the pope, now carried the correspondence between Bacon and Clement. Clement's reply of 22 June 1266 commissioned "writings and remedies for current conditions", instructing Bacon not to violate any standing "prohibitions" of his order but to carry out his task in utmost secrecy. While faculties of

3906-400: A year. Pope Clement died in 1268 and Bacon lost his protector. The Condemnations of 1277 banned the teaching of certain philosophical doctrines, including deterministic astrology. Some time within the next two years, Bacon was apparently imprisoned or placed under house arrest . This was traditionally ascribed to Franciscan Minister General Jerome of Ascoli , probably acting on behalf of

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4032-458: Is a debunking of esoteric claims in Bacon's time, showing that they could be explained by natural phenomena. He wrote on the medicine of Galen , referring to the translations of Avicenna . He believed that the medicine of Galen belonged to an ancient tradition passed through Chaldeans , Greeks and Arabs . Although he provided a negative image of Hermes Trismegistus , his work was influenced by

4158-508: Is a Finnish mnemonic regarding electricity : the first and last three letters can be arranged into the equations P = U × I {\displaystyle P=U\times I} and U = R × I {\displaystyle U=R\times I} . (The letter M is ignored, which can be explained with another, politically incorrect mnemonic.) Mnemonics may be helpful in learning foreign languages, for example by transposing difficult foreign words with words in

4284-490: Is also evident through his citations of classic Hermetic literature such as the Corpus Hermeticum. Bacon's citation of the Corpus Hermeticum, which consists of a dialogue between Hermes and the pagan deity Asclepius , proves that Bacon's ideas were much more in line with the spiritual aspects of alchemy rather than the scientific aspects. However, this is somewhat paradoxical as what Bacon was specifically trying to prove in

4410-481: Is based on the observation that the human mind more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, physical, sexual, humorous and otherwise "relatable" information rather than more abstract or impersonal forms of information. Ancient Greeks and Romans distinguished between two types of memory: the "natural" memory and the "artificial" memory. The former is inborn and is the one that everyone uses instinctively. The latter in contrast has to be trained and developed through

4536-453: Is filled with the story of Frier Bacon, that made a brazen head to speak these words, Time is ". Greene's Bacon spent seven years creating a brass head that would speak "strange and uncouth aphorisms" to enable him to encircle Britain with a wall of brass that would make it impossible to conquer. Unlike his source material, Greene does not cause his head to operate by natural forces but by " nigromantic charms" and "the enchanting forces of

4662-550: Is known regarding the practice until the 13th century. Among the voluminous writings of Roger Bacon is a tractate De arte memorativa . Ramon Llull devoted special attention to mnemonics in connection with his ars generalis. The first important modification of the method of the Romans was that invented by the German poet Conrad Celtes , who, in his Epitoma in utramque Ciceronis rhetoricam cum arte memorativa nova (1492), used letters of

4788-412: Is largely dependent upon the type of associations you choose to make. It is generally accepted that the more unusual and meaningful these elaborately encoded memories are, the more successful one will be in trying to retrieve them; this process is referred to as elaborative encoding. This type of encoding helps learning, as it constructs a rich set of integrated memories. Several theories suggest that

4914-507: Is less interested in a full practical mastery of the other languages than on a theoretical understanding of their grammatical rules, ensuring that a Latin reader will not misunderstand passages' original meaning . For this reason, his treatments of Greek and Hebrew grammar are not isolated works on their topic but contrastive grammars treating the aspects which influenced Latin or which were required for properly understanding Latin texts. He pointedly states, "I want to describe Greek grammar for

5040-441: Is nearly limitless. In a practical sense, actively relating new information back to previous knowledge expands and intensifies the web of memories and mental connections. Roger Bacon Roger Bacon OFM ( / ˈ b eɪ k ən / ; Latin : Rogerus or Rogerius Baconus, Baconis , also Frater Rogerus ; c.  1219/20  – c.  1292 ), also known by the scholastic accolade Doctor Mirabilis ,

5166-402: Is one and the same in all languages, substantially, though it may vary, accidentally, in each of them. However, Bacon's lack of interest in studying a literal grammar underlying the languages known to him and his numerous works on linguistics and comparative linguistics has prompted Hovdhaugen to question the usual literal translation of Bacon's grammatica in such passages. She notes

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5292-445: Is to create a new phrase in which the number of letters in each word represents the according digit of pi. For example, the first 15 digits of the mathematical constant pi (3.14159265358979) can be encoded as "Now I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics"; "Now", having 3 letters, represents the first number, 3. Piphilology is the practice dedicated to creating mnemonics for pi. Another

5418-441: Is used for "calculating" the multiples of 9 up to 9 × 10 using one's fingers. Begin by holding out both hands with all fingers stretched out. Now count left to right the number of fingers that indicates the multiple. For example, to figure 9 × 4, count four fingers from the left, ending at your left-hand index finger. Bend this finger down and count the remaining fingers. Fingers to the left of the bent finger represent tens, fingers to

5544-567: The Alphabetum ". The latest dates assume this referred to the alphabet itself, but elsewhere in the Opus Tertium it is clear that Bacon uses the term to refer to rudimentary studies, the trivium or quadrivium that formed the medieval curriculum . His family appears to have been well off. Bacon studied at Oxford . While Robert Grosseteste had probably left shortly before Bacon's arrival, his work and legacy almost certainly influenced

5670-526: The Opus Tertium states that at some point he took a two-year break from his studies. By the late 1250s, resentment against the king 's preferential treatment of his émigré Poitevin relatives led to a coup and the imposition of the Provisions of Oxford and Westminster , instituting a baronial council and more frequent parliaments . Pope Urban IV absolved the king of his oath in 1261 and, after initial abortive resistance , Simon de Montfort led

5796-488: The Summulae Dialectices or Summulae super Totam Logicam . These are mature but essentially conventional presentations of Oxford and Paris's terminist and pre- modist logic and grammar. His later work in linguistics is much more idiosyncratic, using terminology and addressing questions unique in his era. In his Greek and Hebrew Grammars ( Grammatica Graeca and Hebraica ), in his work "On

5922-552: The Hebrew word for tent , the linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann proposes the memorable sentence " Oh hell , there's a raccoon in my tent ". The memorable sentence "There's a fork in Ma's leg " helps the learner remember that the Hebrew word for fork is mazleg ( מזלג ‎). Similarly, to remember the Hebrew word bayit ( בית ‎), meaning house , one can use the sentence "that's

6048-752: The Renaissance Hermetic thought . Bacon's endorsement of Hermetic philosophy is evident, as his citations of the alchemical literature known as the Secretum Secretorum made several appearances in the Opus Majus. The Secretum Secretorum contains knowledge about the Hermetic Emerald Tablet , which was an integral component of alchemy, thus proving that Bacon's version of alchemy was much less secular, and much more spiritual than once interpreted. The importance of Hermetic philosophy in Bacon's work

6174-650: The alphabet for associations, rather than places. About the end of the 15th century, Peter of Ravenna (b. 1448) provoked such astonishment in Italy by his mnemonic feats that he was believed by many to be a necromancer . His Phoenix artis memoriae ( Venice , 1491, 4 vols.) went through as many as nine editions, the seventh being published at Cologne in 1608. About the end of the 16th century, Lambert Schenkel ( Gazophylacium , 1610), who taught mnemonics in France , Italy and Germany , similarly surprised people with his memory. He

6300-493: The devil ": i.e., by entrapping a dead spirit or hobgoblin . Bacon collapses, exhausted, just before his device comes to life and announces "Time is", "Time was", and "Time is Past" before being destroyed in spectacular fashion: the stage direction instructs that " a lightening flasheth forth, and a hand appears that breaketh down the Head with a hammer ". A necromantic head was ascribed to Pope Sylvester II as early as

6426-505: The early modern period , the English considered him the epitome of a wise and subtle possessor of forbidden knowledge , a Faust -like magician who had tricked the devil and so was able to go to heaven . Of these legends, one of the most prominent was that he created a talking brazen head which could answer any question. The story appears in the anonymous 16th-century account of The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon , in which Bacon speaks with

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6552-458: The "Compendium of the Study of Philosophy" and "of Theology" ( Compendium Studii Philosophiae and Theologiae ), and his Computus . The "Compendium of the Study of Theology", presumably written in the last years of his life, was an anticlimax: adding nothing new, it is principally devoted to the concerns of the 1260s. The Mirror of Alchimy ( Speculum Alchemiae ), a short treatise on

6678-419: The "most fertile secret" in mnemonics—using consonants for figures, thus expressing numbers by words (vowels being added as required), in order to create associations more readily remembered. The philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz adopted an alphabet very similar to that of Wennsshein for his scheme of a form of writing common to all languages. Wennsshein's method was adopted with slight changes afterward by

6804-406: The "sentence method" then fashionable. Bacon also sent his Opus Minus , De Multiplicatione Specierum , De Speculis Comburentibus , an optical lens, and possibly other works on alchemy and astrology . The entire process has been called "one of the most remarkable single efforts of literary productivity", with Bacon composing referenced works of around a million words in about

6930-576: The 1120s, but Browne considered the legend to be a misunderstanding of a passage in Peter the Good 's c.  1335 Precious Pearl where the negligent alchemist misses the birth of his creation and loses it forever. The story may also preserve the work by Bacon and his contemporaries to construct clockwork armillary spheres . Bacon had praised a "self-activated working model of the heavens" as "the greatest of all things which have been devised". As early as

7056-459: The 1260s and 1270s cite it far more than his contemporaries did. This led Easton and others, including Robert Steele , to argue that the text spurred Bacon's own transformation into an experimentalist. (Bacon never described such a decisive impact himself.) The dating of Bacon's edition of the Secret of Secrets is a key piece of evidence in the debate, with those arguing for a greater impact giving it an earlier date; but it certainly influenced

7182-407: The 16th century, natural philosophers such as Bruno , Dee and Francis Bacon were attempting to rehabilitate Bacon's reputation and to portray him as a scientific pioneer who had avoided the petty bickering of his contemporaries to attempt a rational understanding of nature. By the 19th century, commenters following Whewell considered that "Bacon ... was not appreciated in his age because he

7308-743: The Franciscans", interest in certain astrological doctrines, or generally combative personality rather than from "any scientific novelties which he may have proposed". Sometime after 1278, Bacon returned to the Franciscan House at Oxford, where he continued his studies and is presumed to have spent most of the remainder of his life. His last dateable writing—the Compendium Studii Theologiae —was completed in 1292. He seems to have died shortly afterwards and been buried at Oxford. Medieval European philosophy often relied on appeals to

7434-504: The Opus Majus and subsequent works, was that spirituality and science were the same entity. Bacon believed that by using science, certain aspects of spirituality such as the attainment of "Sapientia" or "Divine Wisdom" could be logically explained using tangible evidence. Bacon's Opus Majus was first and foremost, a compendium of sciences which he believed would facilitate the first step towards "Sapientia". Bacon placed considerable emphasis on alchemy and even went so far as to state that alchemy

7560-509: The Science of Perspective " ( De Scientia Perspectivae ), "On Experimental Knowledge" ( De Scientia Experimentali ), and "A Philosophy of Morality" ( Moralis Philosophia ). It was not intended as a complete work but as a "persuasive preamble" ( persuasio praeambula ), an enormous proposal for a reform of the medieval university curriculum and the establishment of a kind of library or encyclopedia, bringing in experts to compose

7686-517: The Study-Study group were allowed to study each of the word pairs in any way they chose for both sessions. The Study-Test group worked similarly except that instead of simply memorizing, they were tested during the second session. Elaborative encoding was truly tested on the participants in the Deep Processing group, where the participants were asked in the first session to create similarities between

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7812-562: The Usefulness of Grammar" (Book III of the Opus Majus ), and in his Compendium of the Study of Philosophy , Bacon stresses the need for scholars to know several languages. Europe's vernacular languages are not ignored—he considers them useful for practical purposes such as trade , proselytism , and administration —but Bacon is mostly interested in his era's languages of science and religion: Arabic , Greek , Hebrew and Latin . Bacon

7938-495: The ability to recall information is heightened when physical and mental conditions match those experienced when the information was first encoded. For example, one will often be more successful in recalling a stimulus while chewing bubble gum if one were also chewing gum when one originally encoded the new stimulus. This has also been found to encompass drug and alcohol-induced recollection; people who encoded memories in an intoxicated state were more successful at recalling them when in

8064-430: The additional facts, indicating that verbal elaborations provided additional connections to the stimulus memory that improved the ability of participants to recall the original target sentence. In a study performed by Karpicke and Smith (2012), four experiments were conducted with elaborative study conditions based around mnemonics . The experiments consisted of using imagery-based keyword method for Experiments 1 and 2,

8190-416: The aged adults into two groups, aged unimpaired and aged impaired, according to a neuropsychological testing . With the aged groups split, there was an apparent deficit in target recognition in aged impaired adults compared to both young adults and aged unimpaired adults. This further supports the varying effectiveness of mnemonics in different age groups. Moreover, different research was done previously with

8316-499: The ambiguity in the Latin term, which could refer variously to the structure of language, to its description, and to the science underlying such descriptions: i.e., linguistics . Bacon states that his Lesser Work ( Opus Minus ) and Third Work ( Opus Tertium ) were originally intended as summaries of the Opus Majus in case it was lost in transit. Easton 's review of the texts suggests that they became separate works over

8442-413: The apartments of the house until discovering the places where images had been placed by the imagination. In accordance with this system, if it were desired to fix a historic date in memory, it was localised in an imaginary town divided into a certain number of districts, each with ten houses, each house with ten rooms, and each room with a hundred quadrates or memory-places, partly on the floor, partly on

8568-406: The assigned information associated with it. For instance, to remember the following words: chicken, orange, shoe, and school, one creates a narrative, such as: "A chicken ran down the hill in orange shoes to get to school." This process of creating a story attempts to make it easier for a person to recall words that had little to no correlation beforehand. The link system can also be used when learning

8694-540: The authority of Church Fathers such as St Augustine , and on works by Plato and Aristotle only known at second hand or through Latin translations. By the 13th century, new works and better versions – in Arabic or in new Latin translations from the Arabic – began to trickle north from Muslim Spain . In Roger Bacon's writings, he upholds Aristotle's calls for the collection of facts before deducing scientific truths, against

8820-512: The benefit of Latin speakers". It is likely only this limited sense which was intended by Bacon's boast that he could teach an interested pupil a new language within three days. Passages in the Overview and the Greek grammar have been taken as an early exposition of a universal grammar underlying all human languages . The Greek grammar contains the tersest and most famous exposition: Grammar

8946-407: The command is being given to. The phrase, when pronounced with a Spanish accent, is used to remember "Ven Di Sal Haz Ten Ve Pon Sé", all of the irregular Spanish command verbs in the you ( tú ) form. This mnemonic helps students attempting to memorize different verb tenses. Another technique is for learners of gendered languages to associate their mental images of words with a colour that matches

9072-531: The course of the laborious process of creating a fair copy of the Opus Majus , whose half-million words were copied by hand and apparently greatly revised at least once. Other works by Bacon include his "Tract on the Multiplication of Species" ( Tractatus de Multiplicatione Specierum ), "On Burning Lenses" ( De Speculis Comburentibus ), the Communia Naturalium and Mathematica ,

9198-453: The creation of long-term memories. [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of mnemonic at Wiktionary Elaborative encoding Elaborative encoding is a mnemonic system that uses some form of elaboration, such as an emotional cue, to assist in the retention of memories and knowledge . In this system one attaches an additional piece of information to a memory task which makes it easier to recall. For instance, one may recognize

9324-535: The elder Bacon's conception of the political aspects of his work in the sciences. Bacon has been credited with a number of alchemical texts. The Letter on the Secret Workings of Art and Nature and on the Vanity of Magic ( Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae ), also known as On the Wonderful Powers of Art and Nature ( De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae ),

9450-508: The first European descriptions of a mixture containing the essential ingredients of gunpowder . Partington and others have come to the conclusion that Bacon most likely witnessed at least one demonstration of Chinese firecrackers , possibly obtained by Franciscans—including Bacon's friend William of Rubruck —who visited the Mongol Empire during this period. The most telling passage reads: We have an example of these things (that act on

9576-463: The following decade, he accepted an invitation to teach at the University of Paris . While there, he lectured on Latin grammar , Aristotelian logic , arithmetic , geometry , and the mathematical aspects of astronomy and music . His faculty colleagues included Robert Kilwardby , Albertus Magnus , and Peter of Spain , who may later become Pope as Pope John XXI . The Cornishman Richard Rufus

9702-410: The form of "Does he have..." The other set of questions pertained to characteristic traits, such as friendly, snobbish, and intelligent. These questions were asked in the form of "Does he look..." Again they were asked if they recognized the faces or not. The findings of Experiments 1 and 2 support the hypothesis that memory for faces is a function of the number of features encoded. It was proposed that

9828-416: The four walls, partly on the ceiling. Therefore, if it were desired to fix in the memory the date of the invention of printing (1436), an imaginary book, or some other symbol of printing, would be placed in the thirty-sixth quadrate or memory-place of the fourth room of the first house of the historic district of the town. Except that the rules of mnemonics are referred to by Martianus Capella , nothing further

9954-600: The gender in the target language. An example here is to remember the Spanish word for "foot", pie , [pee-eh] with the image of a foot stepping on a pie, which then spills blue filling (blue representing the male gender of the noun in this example). For French verbs which use être as an auxiliary verb for compound tenses: DR and MRS VANDERTRAMPP: descendre, rester, monter, revenir, sortir, venir, arriver, naître, devenir, entrer, rentrer, tomber, retourner, aller, mourir, partir, passer. Masculine countries in French (le): "Neither can

10080-428: The integration of philosophy from apostate philosopher of the Islamic world into Christian learning. In Part IV of the Opus Majus , Bacon proposed a calendrical reform similar to the later system introduced in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII . Drawing on ancient Greek and medieval Islamic astronomy recently introduced to western Europe via Spain, Bacon continued the work of Robert Grosseteste and criticised

10206-530: The items desired to be remembered. A 1986 experiment tested 73 fifth graders on minerals. For one group they just had free study these minerals, for another group they studied using the Peg-word Method. These were their findings: "In all repetition conditions, mnemonic subjects significantly and substantially outperformed students who were given free study." In this method, one assigns a person, action or object to each item one desires to memorize and creates

10332-412: The language. With a high number of verb tenses, and many verb forms that are not found in English, Spanish verbs can be hard to remember and then conjugate. The use of mnemonics has been proven to help students better learn foreign languages, and this holds true for Spanish verbs. A particularly hard verb tense to remember is command verbs. Command verbs in Spanish are conjugated differently depending on who

10458-458: The latter part, which is so contrived as to give the answer. Thus, in history, the Deluge happened in the year before Christ two thousand three hundred forty-eight; this is signified by the word Del- etok , Del standing for Deluge and etok for 2348. Wennsshein's method is comparable to a Hebrew system by which letters also stand for numerals, and therefore words for dates. To assist in retaining

10584-480: The learning and practice of a variety of mnemonic techniques. Mnemonic systems are techniques or strategies consciously used to improve memory. They help use information already stored in long-term memory to make memorization an easier task. Mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word μνημονικός ( mnēmonikos ) which means ' of memory ' or ' relating to memory ' . It is related to Mnemosyne ,

10710-440: The majority of subsequent "original" systems. It was modified and supplemented by Richard Grey (1694–1771), a priest who published a Memoria technica in 1730. The principal part of Grey's method is briefly this: To remember anything in history , chronology , geography , etc., a word is formed, the beginning whereof, being the first syllable or syllables of the thing sought, does, by frequent repetition, of course draw after it

10836-502: The many clergy, monks, and educators attacked by Bacon's 1271 Compendium Studii Philosophiae . Modern scholarship, however, notes that the first reference to Bacon's "imprisonment" dates from eighty years after his death on the charge of unspecified "suspected novelties" and finds it less than credible. Contemporary scholars who do accept Bacon's imprisonment typically associate it with Bacon's "attraction to contemporary prophesies", his sympathies for "the radical 'poverty' wing of

10962-551: The memory. The Romans valued such helps in order to support facility in public speaking. The Greek and the Roman system of mnemonics was founded on the use of mental places and signs or pictures, known as "topical" mnemonics. The most usual method was to choose a large house, of which the apartments, walls, windows, statues, furniture, etc., were each associated with certain names, phrases, events or ideas, by means of symbolic pictures. To recall these, an individual had only to search over

11088-480: The mnemonic predicted performance at follow-up. Individuals who self-reported using the mnemonic exhibited the highest performance overall, with scores significantly higher than at pre-training. The findings suggest that mnemonic training has long-term benefits for some older adults, particularly those who continue to employ the mnemonic. This contrasts with a study from surveys of medical students that approximately only 20% frequently used mnemonic acronyms. In humans,

11214-468: The mnemonical words in the memory, they were formed into memorial lines. Such strange words in difficult hexameter scansion, are by no means easy to memorise. The vowel or consonant , which Grey connected with a particular figure, was chosen arbitrarily. A later modification was made in 1806 Gregor von Feinaigle , a German monk from Salem near Constance . While living and working in Paris , he expounded

11340-505: The more complicated mnemonics were generally abandoned. Methods founded chiefly on the so-called laws of association (cf. Mental association ) were taught with some success in Germany. A wide range of mnemonics are used for several purposes. The most commonly used mnemonics are those for lists, numerical sequences, foreign-language acquisition, and medical treatment for patients with memory deficits. A common mnemonic technique for remembering

11466-448: The name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology . Both of these words are derived from μνήμη ( mnēmē ), ' remembrance, memory ' . Mnemonics in antiquity were most often considered in the context of what is today known as the art of memory . The general name of mnemonics , or memoria technica , was the name applied to devices for aiding the memory, to enable the mind to reproduce

11592-489: The observance of fixed equinoxes and solstices was not acted upon following the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268. The eventual Gregorian calendar drops one day from the first three centuries in each set of 400 years. In Part V of the Opus Majus , Bacon discusses physiology of eyesight and the anatomy of the eye and the brain , considering light , distance, position, and size, direct and reflected vision, refraction , mirrors , and lenses . His treatment

11718-466: The origin and composition of metals, is traditionally credited to Bacon. It espouses the Arabian theory of mercury and sulphur forming the other metals, with vague allusions to transmutation . Stillman opined that "there is nothing in it that is characteristic of Roger Bacon's style or ideas, nor that distinguishes it from many unimportant alchemical lucubrations of anonymous writers of the thirteenth to

11844-400: The original target sentence and were theorized to strengthen the connections between the three facts. After a week, the participants underwent a cued recall test and were asked to provide the target sentence after hearing the word "Mozart". The study found that the group that was given the two additional sentences had a far easier time recalling the target sentence than those who were not given

11970-597: The patients were treated with six different memory strategies including the mnemonics technique. The results concluded that there were significant improvements on the immediate and delayed subtest of the RBMT, delayed recall on the Appointments test, and relatives rating on the MAC from the patients that received mnemonics treatment. However, in the case of stroke patients, the results did not reach statistical significance. Academic study of

12096-420: The poet Simonides was credited for development of these techniques, perhaps for no reason other than that the power of his memory was famous. Cicero , who attaches considerable importance to the art, but more to the principle of order as the best help to memory, speaks of Carneades (perhaps Charmades) of Athens and Metrodorus of Scepsis as distinguished examples of people who used well-ordered images to aid

12222-517: The positions and sizes of the celestial bodies . It is divided into seven sections: "The Four General Causes of Human Ignorance" ( Causae Erroris ), "The Affinity of Philosophy with Theology" ( Philosophiae cum Theologia Affinitas ), "On the Usefulness of Grammar" ( De Utilitate Grammaticae ), "The Usefulness of Mathematics in Physics" ( Mathematicae in Physicis Utilitas ), " On

12348-451: The practices of his contemporaries, arguing that "thence cometh quiet to the mind". Bacon also called for reform with regard to theology . He argued that, rather than training to debate minor philosophical distinctions, theologians should focus their attention primarily on the Bible itself, learning the languages of its original sources thoroughly. He was fluent in several of these languages and

12474-495: The principles of topical or local mnemonics. Giordano Bruno included a memoria technica in his treatise De umbris idearum, as part of his study of the ars generalis of Llull . Other writers of this period are the Florentine Publicius (1482); Johannes Romberch (1533); Hieronimo Morafiot , Ars memoriae (1602);and B. Porta, Ars reminiscendi (1602). In 1648 Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein revealed what he called

12600-406: The process of aging particularly affects the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus , in which the episodic memory is synthesized. The episodic memory stores information about items, objects, or features with spatiotemporal contexts. Since mnemonics aid better in remembering spatial or physical information rather than more abstract forms, its effect may vary according to a subject's age and how well

12726-438: The reason why this was so effective was because when the human brain encodes, it is highly informative. The research has shown that the way facial recognition and memory work is by increasing the probability of encoding a distinctive trait. Elaborative encoding is a beneficial tool to save and recall information. Since connections can be made whenever any new stimulus enters our perception, the scope of things that can be encoded

12852-475: The repeated study group, the word pairs were removed from the study groups but not recall groups. After each correct recall of the retrieval group the words were removed from the recall groups but not the study groups. Subjects were asked to recall the word pairings one week later. Experiment 2 had the same design as the first, but two differences and had the same results as the first experiment. Experiment 3 had similar procedure with Swahili-English word pairs but had

12978-421: The right are ones. There are three fingers to the left and six to the right, which indicates 9 × 4 = 36. This works for 9 × 1 up through 9 × 10. For remembering the rules in adding and multiplying two signed numbers, Balbuena and Buayan (2015) made the letter strategies LAUS (like signs, add; unlike signs, subtract) and LPUN (like signs, positive; unlike signs, negative), respectively. PUIMURI (' thresher ')

13104-476: The same notion, which presented with similar results to that of Reagh et al. in a verbal mnemonics discrimination task. Studies (notably " The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two ") have suggested that the short-term memory of adult humans can hold only a limited number of items; grouping items into larger chunks such as in a mnemonic might be part of what permits the retention of a larger total amount of information in short-term memory, which in turn can aid in

13230-417: The senses) in [the sound and fire of] that children's toy which is made in many [diverse] parts of the world; i.e. a device no bigger than one's thumb. From the violence of that salt called saltpetre [together with sulphur and willow charcoal, combined into a powder] so horrible a sound is made by the bursting of a thing so small, no more than a bit of parchment [containing it], that we find [the ear assaulted by

13356-409: The sixteenth centuries", and Muir and Lippmann also considered it a pseudepigraph . The cryptic Voynich manuscript has been attributed to Bacon by various sources, including by its first recorded owner, but historians of science Lynn Thorndike and George Sarton dismissed these claims as unsupported, and the vellum of the manuscript has since been dated to the 15th century. Bacon

13482-538: The story of his mechanical or necromantic brazen head . He is credited as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method , along with his teacher Robert Grosseteste . Bacon applied the empirical method of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) to observations in texts attributed to Aristotle . Bacon discovered the importance of empirical testing when the results he obtained were different from those that would have been predicted by Aristotle. His linguistic work has been heralded for its early exposition of

13608-414: The students. Each face was presented for 8 seconds. The subjects were asked one of three questions pertaining to the physical appearance of the pictured men; Does he have a big nose? Does he have straight hair? or does he have a square jaw. Later in the study they were asked one of three questions pertaining to judgments of the men; Does he look friendly? Does he look honest? or does he look intelligent? Later

13734-430: The subject's medial temporal lobe and hippocampus function. This could be further explained by one recent study which indicates a general deficit in the memory for spatial locations in aged adults (mean age 69.7 with standard deviation of 7.4 years) compared to young adults (mean age 21.7 with standard deviation of 4.2 years). At first, the difference in target recognition was not significant. The researchers then divided

13860-414: The subjects were shown the faces again and had to say if they remembered the faces or not. In experiment two, the same steps were followed as in one, but only with 56 faces this time. This time for each picture the subjects were shown, they were asked a series of the same questions. One set of questions pertained to physical traits, such as big ears, thin lips, and bushy eyebrows. All questions were asked in

13986-465: The then-current Julian calendar as "intolerable, horrible, and laughable". It had become apparent that Eudoxus and Sosigenes 's assumption of a year of 365¼ days was, over the course of centuries, too inexact. Bacon charged that this meant the computation of Easter had shifted forward by 9 days since the First Council of Nicaea in 325. His proposal to drop one day every 125 years and to cease

14112-467: The time were largely limited to addressing disputes on the known texts of Aristotle, Clement's patronage permitted Bacon to engage in a wide-ranging consideration of the state of knowledge in his era. In 1267 or '68, Bacon sent the Pope his Opus Majus , which presented his views on how to incorporate Aristotelian logic and science into a new theology, supporting Grosseteste's text-based approach against

14238-399: The use of mnemonics has shown their effectiveness. In one such experiment, subjects of different ages who applied mnemonic techniques to learn novel vocabulary outperformed control groups that applied contextual learning and free-learning styles. Mnemonics were seen to be more effective for groups of people who struggled with or had weak long-term memory , like the elderly. Five years after

14364-479: The word pairs. In the second session they were asked to create a mental image that combined the word pairs. The results of the experiment showed that age overall did not significantly affect the performance of the older group as compared to the young adults, even if the young adults did slightly better. To test the effectiveness of elaboration as a form of encoding, Bradshaw and Anderson (1982) asked two groups of participants to memorize obscure bits of information about

14490-471: The young scholar and it is possible Bacon subsequently visited him and William of Sherwood in Lincoln . Bacon became a Master at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle . There is no evidence he was ever awarded a doctorate. (The title Doctor Mirabilis was a posthumous scholastic accolade .) A caustic cleric named Roger Bacon is recorded speaking before the king at Oxford in 1233. In 1237 or at some point in

14616-411: Was a polymath , a medieval English philosopher , scientist , theologian and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism . Intertwining his Catholic faith with scientific thinking, Roger Bacon is considered one of the greatest polymaths of the medieval period . In the early modern era , he was regarded as a wizard and particularly famed for

14742-502: Was a scholarly opponent. In 1247 or soon after, he left his position in Paris. As a private scholar, his whereabouts for the next decade are uncertain but he was likely in Oxford c.  1248 –1251, where he met Adam Marsh , and in Paris in 1251. He seems to have studied most of the known Greek and Arabic works on optics (then known as "perspective", perspectiva ). A passage in

14868-466: Was able to note and bemoan several corruptions of scripture, and of the works of the Greek philosophers that had been mistranslated or misinterpreted by scholars working in Latin. He also argued for the education of theologians in science (" natural philosophy ") and its addition to the medieval curriculum . Bacon's 1267 Greater Work , the Opus Majus , contains treatments of mathematics , optics , alchemy , and astronomy , including theories on

14994-508: Was denounced as a sorcerer by the University of Louvain , but in 1593 he published his tractate De memoria at Douai with the sanction of that celebrated theological faculty. The most complete account of his system is given in two works by his pupil Martin Sommer, published in Venice in 1619. In 1618 John Willis (d. 1628?) published Mnemonica; sive ars reminiscendi , containing a clear statement of

15120-451: Was finally able to get around his superiors' interference through his acquaintance with Guy de Foulques , bishop of Narbonne , cardinal of Sabina , and the papal legate who negotiated between England's royal and baronial factions. In 1263 or 1264, a message garbled by Bacon's messenger, Raymond of Laon, led Guy to believe that Bacon had already completed a summary of the sciences. In fact, he had no money to research, let alone copy, such

15246-481: Was for the first recall. The experimenters do not undermine the effects that elaboration has on a person's ability to learn, it just did not apply in this experiment. Eugene Winograd (1981) of Emory University conducted a study to find a correlation between elaborative encoding and the memory of faces. Winograd's theory was that it was easier to remember a person's face based on perceived judgment of honesty, friendliness, or intelligence rather than physical traits like

15372-407: Was largely ignored by his contemporaries in favour of other scholars such as Albertus Magnus , Bonaventure , and Thomas Aquinas , although his works were studied by Bonaventure, John Pecham , and Peter of Limoges , through whom he may have influenced Raymond Lull . He was also partially responsible for the addition of optics ( perspectiva ) to the medieval university curriculum . By

15498-443: Was primarily oriented by the Latin translation of Alhazen 's Book of Optics . He also draws heavily on Eugene of Palermo 's Latin translation of the Arabic translation of Ptolemy 's Optics ; on Robert Grosseteste 's work based on Al-Kindi 's Optics ; and, through Alhazen ( Ibn al-Haytham ), on Ibn Sahl 's work on dioptrics . A passage in the Opus Majus and another in the Opus Tertium are usually taken as

15624-652: Was received at Paris as an authority equal to Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes , a situation Bacon decried: "never in the world [had] such monstrosity occurred before." In Part I of the Opus Majus Bacon recognises some philosophers as the Sapientes , or gifted few, and saw their knowledge in philosophy and theology as superior to the vulgus philosophantium , or common herd of philosophers. He held Islamic thinkers between 1210 and 1265 in especially high regard calling them "both philosophers and sacred writers" and defended

15750-739: Was sent to Pope Clement IV in Rome in 1267 upon the pope's request. Although gunpowder was first invented and described in China , Bacon was the first in Europe to record its formula. Roger Bacon was born in Ilchester in Somerset , England , in the early 13th century. His birth is sometimes narrowed down to 1210, 1213 or 1214, 1215 or 1220. The only source for his birth date is a statement from his 1267 Opus Tertium that "forty years have passed since I first learned

15876-498: Was the most important science. The reason why Bacon kept the topic of alchemy vague for the most part, is due to the need for secrecy about esoteric topics in England at the time as well as his dedication to remaining in line with the alchemical tradition of speaking in symbols and metaphors. Bacon's early linguistic and logical works are the Overview of Grammar ( Summa Grammatica ), Summa de Sophismatibus et Distinctionibus , and

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