2. Make the Images in Your Movie Vividly Ridiculous, and Animate Them with Action

What parts of the above story really stood out in your mind? A cat with a gun? A two foot orange? The empire state building rising up out of the ocean? Absurd images stick in our memory. If you need to remember all of the major events of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, don’t put together a boring mental movie of Wilson signing documents in his office and shaking hands with respectably dressed foreign dignitaries. Picture Wilson’s declaration of war being written in the side of a wall with bullets, and the prime minister of England wrapping himself  head to toe in the British flag. If you want to remember these things (that Wilson got us into World War One, and that we were allied with Britain) it’s critical to vividly image them in your mind. Paint your picture in lavish detail. Coming up with the scenes of your movie isn’t enough. You have to really experience the details as you play it in your head.

In addition to ridiculous images, our minds remember action. In the story we tell you above, almost every key word is involved in a distinctive action. If we’d given you a story about looking at a pink cat, then thinking about buying a gun, then noticing a quarter on the ground, it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective. Complement your ridiculous vivid images with plenty of action, and you’re movie will stick in your mind.

3. Turn Unfamiliar Words into Pictures Based on Sound

A lot of the stuff we have to memorize is new to us. In the sciences we are presented with the names of body parts, organisms, molecules, etc… that we’ve never hear of before, and we’re asked to remember what they are and what they do. In the social sciences and humanities, we frequently have to memorize names of people, places, or events and their significance. In cases like these, it’s not immediately clear how to go about building a mental movie.

The key is to turn new words/names into pictures based on the way they sound. For instance, say you need to memorize the major muscles of the upper arm; the Biceps, Triceps, and Coracobrachialis, where they are, and what they do. Obviously you can’t just picture the Coracobrachialis flexing your arm at your shoulder joint if you don’t know what it looks like or what it is. But you can still use the word Coracobrachialis to create a picture. Coracobrachialis sounds like cork break (feel free to come up with your own picture association). So picture a huge break made out of cork. Maybe you picture a foot break like you’d find in a car, or a hand brake on a bike. Use the picture that works best for you. You need to remember that the Coracobrachialis flexes your arm at the shoulder. So picture your break made of cork attached to your shoulder. Picture pressing it, and picture your shoulder flexing. Involving yourself in your mental movies also helps fix them in your mind. Exaggerate every aspect of this mini movie. Make the cork brake huge, or polka dot, or dripping with grease and soot. When you press it, envision your shoulder flexing so hard that your arm ends up behind your head. Make a mini movie like this for all of the muscles you need to memorize, and there is no way that you’ll forget them come test day.