I’m going to share with you exactly how to quickly memorize information using ChatGPT by having it create mnemonics for you, saving you hours of effort.
I have been experimenting for a while using ChatGPT as a memorization tool. There is some serious potential to use ChatGPT when it comes to mnemonics. However, ChatGPT is better with some mnemonic techniques than others, so this post will outline which ones work best to worse, roughly in that order.
I’ll also share the prompts that I use with some variations to achieve these results so you can too.
It’s also worth noting that this is a very narrow use case of ChatGPT for studying. I have whole other articles on how you can use ChatGPT to study and learn with other non-mnemonic techniques such as active recall as well if you want more use cases for ChatGPT as a learning tool.
Let’s get into the best mnemonic techniques for ChatGPT.
7 Mnemonic strategies for ChatGPT
Mnemonics are widely considered a great way to improve your memory for a specific piece of information.1 However, there is a drawback, you actually have to spend time creating them. This is where ChatGPT comes in.
Honestly, you can just feed ChatGPT the prompt “come up with a mnemonic to memorize x” and it will choose a technique for you and give you a result. But, in my opinion, by asking it to use a specific mnemonic technique you can get much better results.
Here are my favorite mnemonic techniques for ChatGPT.
1. Storytelling method
I think my favorite way to use ChatGPT for mnemonics is to use it to come up with memorable stories that explain complex processes that are inherently difficult to memorize.
ChatGPT is also great at coming up with things like this because of how creative it is, I think this is the technique that ChatGPT is best at handling.
Also, I find that some of the other mnemonic techniques can be a bit limiting because you essentially just memorize a list of words rather than the function of each thing.
Here I asked ChatGPT to generate a standup comedy routine that explains the process of apoptosis.
It’s worth noting that this mnemonic is very flexible compared to the other options. Here is a list of different prompts you can try that are significantly different from my example but still apply the storytelling mnemonic strategy.
Promts:
- Come up with a standup comedy routine that explains X
- Create a poem to memorize X
- Make a catchy song to remember X
- Write a memorable short story to recall X
- Craft a riddle to remember X
- Develop a series of jokes to retain X
- Generate a one-liner to recall X
- Create a pun to remember X
- Write a short skit to remember X
- Come up with a dialogue to recall X
- Generate a visual story to remember X
- Use an imaginative tale to recall X
2. Expression/word mnemonic method
In this method, the first letter of each word in a sentence corresponds to something you need to memorize.
For Instance, I used a mnemonic like this to learn the 12 cranial nerves of the brain for an exam. If you use something like flashcards to memorize each item it will take much longer.
ChatGPT is excellent at generating this kind of mnemonic for you. Here is an example of how you could use ChatGPT for an expression or word mnemonic.
Promt: Come up with an acroynm mnemonic to remmeber X
3. Rhyme method
You can also use ChatGPT to come up with little rhymes to memorize topics. This is something that works on shorter and smaller concepts compared to the long 12-item list in the word/expression mnemonic.
Here I asked ChatGPT to create a Ryme that includes the four lobes of the human brain. This one is a but long, but that’s because it actually includes the functions as well.
Promt: Come with a rhyme to remember X
4. Visual association method
With this technique, you can have ChatGPT come up with ideas for visual imagery that help you remember specific concepts and how they work.
Here I continued my example of the four lobes of the brain.
Promt: Use vivid imagery to memorize X
With this technique, you use visual association to
5. Acronym method
One of the easiest uses of ChatGPT is coming up with acronyms that help you memorize. In this technique, you create a memorable acronym to remember a list of terms.
This technique is great if there is an acronym to be made. This is really the only limitation. Sometimes ChatGPT just won’t be able to come up with an acronym for what you provided that is very memorable.
Here I asked ChatGPT to create an acronym to help memorize the structures of the limbic system.
Promt: Come up with an acronym to memorize X
6. Method of loci mnemonic strategy
The method of loci is great if you want to learn the order of something.
In this method you visualize yourself walking through a location like your house and each room or place is associated with something you want to remember.
In each of these locations, it’s also best to use some vivid and absurd imagery that will strengthen the memory even more. This element is the same as the previous mnemonic technique, the visual association method.
This method is a bit harder to apply with ChatGPT because, in the method of loci, you are supposed to use specific locations that you know. So ChatGPT can essentially only use generic locations.
However, this technique is still useful. It’s just a bit limited here.
Promt: Use the method of loci to memorize X
7. Peg Word Method
The peg word method works by using numbers as mental “pegs” that you can hang things you want to memorize onto. These things you want to memorize sound like numbers, making recalling them easy.
For some reason, this method doesn’t work with ChatGPT that well. The idea with the peg word method is, to my understanding at least, that you are supposed to pair something you want to learn with numbers. But ChatGPT tends to use word pairings instead or just can’t apply this method at the moment.
This isn’t exactly a problem as the results still help with memorization, but it’s just worth keeping in mind that ChatGPT isn’t exactly using this mnemonic technique correctly some of the time.
Here is a general example of how you can use the peg word method to memorize a list.
Promt: Use the peg word method with numbers to remeber X
Here you can see each item is associated with a number. There is utility here, it’s just hard to get ChatGPT to use this one correctly. That’s why it’s at the bottom of the list.
When Should You Use ChatGPT for Mnemonics?
Mnemonics are essentially a very narrow learning strategy, meaning they only cover a small amount of the material. This isn’t necessarily bad, but you should generally avoid having to learn most of your material using a technique like this. This can be very time-consuming and inefficient.
On top of this, some information just isn’t suited to this kind of memorization and other techniques would be better.
This is why mnemonic techniques are best used in a supplementary way. They are just meant to pickup the remaining details you haven’t memorized yet.
I have another article that goes over some of the ways that you can stop forgetting what you study and encode information better if you are curious about how to get a broader view of what you are trying to learn. However, this is only really just scratching the surface.
The Takeaway
Here is what you should take away from this article.
If you want to speed up your learning by using clever memory strategies, then you should seriously consider using chatGPT as a way to get some interesting mnemonics to remember what you need for that upcoming exam.
Just keep in mind that overlying on mnemonics is not good either. You should use a variety of techniques so you can still keep that big-picture overview of the topic you are studying.
Sources
- Putnam, A. L. (2015). Mnemonics in education: Current research and applications. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 1, 130–139. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000023
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