Here is what Vera says:
#1
The most important thing to realize is this: no two brains are identical, neither are the strategies that will function. Therefore all strategies anyone can suggest can only be approximations. Each individual must find his/her own style. Furthermore you remember: gigantic 11miles subconscious to 15 inches conscious: There are "wordy people" for whom CONSCIOUSLY "Mary had a little lamb" seems to work best because they would rather "work at" the images subconciously. These people will tell you that they "do not see any pictures mentally" although subconciously they do of course. And there are other people who "need to see images" in order to think, not only about people, about most things. These so called "visual types" will find it much easier to find a visual characteristic in a face they wish to remember because visual people find it easy to do visual tasks. Just as verbal people do not find it easy to do purely visual tasks. Thus if you find remembering the form of nose or cheek bones easy, please do not tell others, they must to this too. Let everybody in your family find their own best way to help people realize that there is a "best way for each of us. If we do not know intuitively, we might want to test for a few days in order to find out.
#2
If you have read the above answer, you already know about personal (individual) styles. Some people make up stories (the verbal types) some prefer chains of images. One must simply find out. If uncertain, do both: make up a story with illustrations. these might be:
a) drawn (scribbles are quite sufficient)
b) imagines
c) real pictures (cf. computer picture-albums where you can chose pictures that seem to fit).
However, I use a specific technique for termini technici (as in biology or medicine). I like to analyze things so I want to know what CATEGORY the words fit it. Technical terms generally fall in three mayor categories: 1: the FORM (the brain named HIPPOCAMPUS) literally describes a little animal sometimes called a sea-horse because it resembles that FORM. 2: the FUNCTION: hormones are called that because of what they DO, they deliver either a message (mostly a command) or energy. The name has been derived from the Greek got HERMES who was the god of travelers and messengers (and thieves). 3: the NAME of someone. ALZHEIMER'S has been named after ALOIS ALZHEIMER who in 1903 described a female patient with the (today known as typical) symptoms... she had been a lovely and intelligent lady who suddenly started losing control over her mind and he kept a scientific diary which was later published together with the results and photos of the autopsied brain of the patient. You see - by CATEGORIZING you must consciously THINK "deeply" about the item, thus you are doing what memory-psychologists call "elaborate encoding." The conscious THOUGHT process is the key to CONSTRUCTING and that again is the basis for later reconstruction! So, find YOUR way and form it consciously and you shall have fun THINKING and RE-CONSTRUCTING later.
#3
The only thing that counts is that YOU, yourself, find it fascinating. I happen to love to play with words, find their roots, toy with grammar, etc.--thus I will "do" things with information that some people might find boring. You might enjoy funny stories, or absurd stories, or crazy pictures - whatever will help you is ok - for you! That is the most important message of the whole course: memory is individual. Whatever you do when you first encounter information is called CONSTRUCTION. Whatever makes it easy for you to RE-CONSTRUCT later is good for you.
Have lots of fun CONSTRUCTing - SEE IT AS A NEW HOBBY and you shall have a lovely harvest.
vera f. birkenbihl
