about mnemonic encoding

  • If you feel conflicted about memory, you’re not alone.

    In education, memorization is often dismissed as robotic, uncreative, and unproductive. Rote memorization can be discouraging. Yet when we see well-trained memories at work— in real life or in fiction—we are inspired. We admire characters like Sherlock Holmes, who seem to hold entire worlds of knowledge in their minds.

    Mnemonics bridges this divide. Unlike rote repetition, mnemonic encoding is powered by creative associations that make recall fast and surprisingly fun. When you can instantly recall a page number or historical event, it feels almost superhuman— but the process is deeply human, rooted in imagination.

    Finally, memory and understanding are not opposites. Critical thinking presupposes knowledge stored in memory. You can’t analyze or connect ideas you don’t remember. That’s why we start with memory—because it’s the foundation for everything else.

  • Some things stick in memory naturally—like vivid pictures, catchy rhymes, or the layout of a familiar place. You only need to see or hear these things once to remember them. Other things, like numbers or foreign vocabulary, are harder because they don’t create strong mental images.

    Mnemonics is the art of making hard-to-remember information memorable. It works by linking the new material to images and patterns your brain easily recalls. Some easy-to-remember things are a function of over-learning (like familiar words in your own language, or recognizing famous objects or landmarks); some are a function of the way are brains work (remembering rhymes, faces, locations in space, etc.). No matter the case, the critical distinction between mnemonics and rote memorization is that mnemonics provide structure to memory- so that we can mentally navigate large amounts of organized information.

  • Many people believe that memorizing facts is the opposite of understanding. In reality, memory is the foundation of critical thinking.

    Every problem you solve depends on the knowledge you already carry. The more you know, the more tools you have to analyze, connect, and create new ideas.

  • Everyone.

    Most of what we learn is forgotten shockingly fast. The psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus showed that within a single day, people remember only about a third of new information—and after a month, up to 90% is gone without review.

    Mnemonics turn this around. By linking new ideas to vivid images and patterns, you can remember nearly everything you learn, and—with minimal upkeep— keep it for life.

    Our courses are designed for all ages and learning styles, making lasting memory accessible to everyone.

  • Our courses aim to make learning an all-brains affair. Not only do they aim to address gaps in the neurodiversity spectrum, they also aim to put young and old learners on the same plane.

    Mnemonics presents a radically different mode of learning that promises to put young learners on a lifelong trajectory of accelerated learning. At the same time, because these lessons are designed around the natural contours of cognition, they enable old dogs to learn new tricks.

  • The best way to work through these courses is with friends and family. We design these courses with this in mind.

    Memory is a highly (actually the most) intimate aspect of our lives. Not only is it deeply personal, but the most effective encodings provoke some feeling or emotional response. This is a good thing, but it is also not the ordinary course of education. Because this is the case, all of our images and encodings are open to infinite interpretations. For the record, our sole purpose is to impart knowledge in a reliably retrievable way. Interpretation is out of our control.

    Our cues attempt to draw from the full palate of dictionary and encyclopedia entries, while at the same time, maintaining a maturity posture comparable to PG films. If your family is highly sensitive to maturity levels, then proceed as though these material are PG-13, and work with your child if you have reservations about how address terms and concepts used in the service of mnemonic encoding.

  • Expertise isn’t about IQ—it’s about memory.

    Intelligence may affect how quickly someone learns at first, but true expertise comes from accumulated knowledge and practice. Our system accelerates this process by helping you master and retain domain-specific information with advanced mnemonic techniques.

    This means individuals and teams can build expert-level understanding far faster than with conventional training.

  • Most education depends on reading—but reading is slow and unnatural for the human brain. Letters and numbers are arbitrary symbols humans invented, not discovered. Literacy reconfigures and repurposes brain networks, and it is a fragile miracle that we can read at all. As a result, learning through reading carries a heavy cognitive load, which is why so many learning disabilities ultimately trace back to reading difficulties.

    By contrast, a single glance at a vivid image is often enough to remember it. Once stored, that image can be decoded into meaningful knowledge. Humans don’t think like computers processing symbols step by step—we think in parallel, weaving sights, sounds, and feelings into unified memories.

    Mnemonics tap into this natural process, fully maximizing the brain’s architecture for learning and creating non-linear, image-based study that is faster, more intuitive, and longer-lasting than traditional text-based learning.

  • Most learning disabilities are connected to reading challenges—but reading isn’t the only way to learn.

    The human brain is built to make sense of the world by forming rich, multisensory memories. Mnemonics harnesses this natural process, bypassing the bottlenecks of text-based learning.

    Surprisingly, mnemonics can even improve reading skills. By giving learners a strong foundation of stored knowledge, it helps them predict how words should sound and link those sounds to meaning.

    This makes mnemonics not just a rapid path to expertise, but a powerful way to level the playing field, so people across the full spectrum of neurodiversity can make real progress in education. If you struggle with learning and reading, this is definitely worth a try. Start with the free courses to see if it will work for you.

  • Whether in human cognition or information theory, surprise drives attention and memory. When something unexpected happens, our brains work hard to fold it into our understanding of the world. This is why we remember surprising events so vividly.

    Traditional education floods students with new material, but without context. When everything is new, nothing stands out, and our brains stop paying close attention.

    Our courses flip this pattern. We break complex subjects into key concepts and link them to surprising, vivid mnemonic images. This keeps learning fun, sustains attention, and dramatically reduces cognitive load. Once the material is securely encoded in memory, it becomes a foundation for deep conceptual and critical thinking.

  • Two Kinds of Memory

    Most learning experiences in conventional education rely on semantic memory. This is the kind of memory develops through extensive repetition and exposure. Yet, we all know that certain kinds of memories stick with single exposures (like recognizing a face after one encounter). Mnemonic encoding doesn’t rely on repetition, but instead, artfully manipulates target information to resemble the kinds of memories that form with a single exposure. This kind of memory is referred to as long-term working memory.

    • Semantic memory stores facts and concepts, acquired through extensive exposure, e.g., “Paris is the capital of France.”

    • Long-term working memory (LTWM) is a deeper system that integrates information into structured patterns. Experts use LTWM to retrieve vast amounts of knowledge instantly, like a chess master seeing a board position and recognizing dozens of strategies at once.

      Semantic memories fade unless revisited. LTWM, once built, is durable and flexible.

    Measuring Memory: The Ebbinghaus Curve

    In the late 1800s, Hermann Ebbinghaus measured how quickly people forget new information. His forgetting curve shows that most people forget half of what they “learn” within 24 hours and up to 90% within a week, unless they actively review. Traditional study methods fight this decay with repetition, which is slow and inefficient, yet this is the default approach we find in conventional learning.

    The Mnemonic Advantage

    Mnemonics work by transforming fragile facts into vivid, structured mental images. This makes memories far more resistant to forgetting.

    • Without mnemonics: Information fades rapidly, requiring constant review.

    • With mnemonics: Each memory is anchored in a strong mental framework, which stabilizes it immediately and slows decay dramatically.

    Why It Matters

    Using mnemonics doesn’t just help you remember more — it reshapes the entire learning curve. Instead of spending time relearning what you’ve lost, you can focus on deep understanding and applying knowledge.

    Side-by-Side Comparison:

    1 hour

    • Semantic Memory: 50% forgotten

    • Mnemonic Encoding: 90–95% retained

    1 day

    • Semantic Memory: 70% forgotten

    • Mnemonic Encoding: 85–90% retained

    1 week

    • Semantic Memory: 90% forgotten

    • Mnemonic Encoding: 75–85% retained

    1 month

    • Semantic Memory: 90–95% forgotten

    • Mnemonic Encoding: 70–80% retained (with minimal review)

    3–6 months(with light review)

    • Semantic Memory: Nearly 100% forgotten

    • Mnemonic Encoding: 70% retained