Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory： meaningfulness， organization， association， and visualization①. It is useful to know how these principles work.
Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels. Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember. There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful. Many people， for instance， learn a rhyme to help them remember. Do you know the rhyme “Thirty days has September， April， June， and November...”？ It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 days.
Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember. How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random② order？ Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled③ information. One example of organization is chunking. Chunking consists of grouping separate bits of information. Fox example， the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467，13，63. Categorizing is another means of organization. Suppose④ you are asked to remember the following list of words： man， bench， dog， desk， woman， horse， child， cat， chair. Many people will group the words into similar categories⑤ and remember them as follows： man， woman， child； cat， dog， horse； bench， chair， desk. Needless to say， the second list can be remembered more easily than the first one.
Association⑥ refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately. In memorizing a number， you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events. Fox example， the height of Mount Fuji in Japan—12，389 feet—might be remembered using the following associations： 12 is the number of months in the year， and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24).
The last principle⑦ is visualization. Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered. In one study， subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery⑧， while the second group used repetition to learn the words. Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words， compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition. Thus forming an integrated⑨ image with all the information placed in a single mental picture can help us to preserve a memory.
① visualizationn. 形象；形象化；想像
② randomadj. 胡乱的；随便的，任意的；【统】随机的
③ jumblevt. 使混乱；使杂乱 vi. 变得混乱 n. 混乱；杂乱的一堆
④ supposevt. 猜想，以为；期望；认为必须 vi. 猜想
⑤ categoryn.种类；类目；范畴；类型
⑥ associationn.联想，联想物；交往；结合；协会
⑦ principlen.原则；原理；信条；起源
⑧ imageryn.表象，意象；塑像，比喻
⑨ integratevt. 使成一体，使结合，使合并；使完整，使完善
增强记忆的方法
心理学家的研究工作已把焦点对准了增强记忆的基本方法上了，这些基本方法就是：赋予意义、信息编组、建立联想、直观形象。知道如何使用这些方法是很有用的。
“赋予意义”能影响瞬时记忆也能影响到长期记忆。没有任何意义的信息要记住就比较困难。有些方法可以使要记忆的材料赋予意义。例如，有很多人利用合辙押韵的办法来帮助记忆。你知道“一三五七八十腊，三十一天准不差，其余月份三十天，只有二月二十八”这首顺口溜吗？这首顺口溜帮助很多人记住了哪些月份有三十天。
“信息编组”对我们的记忆力也起很大作用。假如一座图书馆里的藏书乱七八糟，没有顺序，那这座图书馆还能有用处吗？按着一定编目的材料要比杂乱无章的混乱信息好记得多。信息编组的典型例子就是分块记忆。每块记忆材料是由一些零散孤立的信息所组成的。例如，要记住4671363这个数字，如果把它再分成三块467，13，63，就更容易记住了。分类编组是另一种方法。假如要求你记住下列生词：男人、凳子、狗、课桌、女人、马、孩子、猫、椅子。很多人会把这些按词义相近编成下列三个小类：男人、女人、孩子；猫、狗、马；凳子、椅子、课桌。不用多说，第二种分三小类的办法比第一种不分类的办法更容易记住。
“建立联想”指的是把我们要记的材料和我们已经精确的记住的材料之间联想起来。要记住一个数字，你可以把这一数字与你已经熟悉的数字或事情联系起来。例如：日本富士山的海拔高度是12，389英尺，你可以把这一数字用下列联想方法：一年有12个月，389是一年365天再加上一年12个月乘上2（24）。
“直观形象”是最后一种方法。研究的结果已经表明，如果让人们把要记忆的事物都想象出生动的直观形象，在完成各种不同类型的记忆工作中，记忆都会产生惊人的效果。有一项调查研究：要求一组受试者使用直观形象法来记住一些生词，在此相对照的第二组受试者只用重复法来记住这些生词。调查结果是，凡是能用直观形象法记生词的人都能记住80%～90%，在之成鲜明对比的是，凡是用机械重复法记生词的人只能记住30%～40%。这种能形成一幅完整的形象，把所有的信息都存放到脑海里的一幅画面中去的方法，有助于我们储存记忆材料。