KEY POINTS FOR BETTER VISUALIZATION

Usually we are taught to think logically, and here I am telling you to make illogical or ridiculous pictures. I know some of you might face problems in the beginning in making up ridiculous pictures in your mind. Let us help you in this matter by sharing simple rules of AEIOU:

A: All senses

E: Exaggerate (think out of proportion) I: I (myself)

O: Outstanding

U: Use colours and action

1. A: All senses—Try to visualize the picture or association with all your senses.

Make it as alive as possible. The more the numbers of senses we use, the deeper forms the impression in our brain. Your association should be visualized in the form of clear images, including sound, smell, touch, and taste, if possible. For example, if we have to make an association between a bed sheet and roses, there are two ways of doing it. One, you just imagine a bed sheet with roses printed on it or second, you can imagine the bed sheet in more detail—the roses start being real, the room is full of its mesmerizing smell, their petals are soft to touch, etc. If

you go by the second way, you are more likely to remember it for a longer time because when we involve more senses, that information is stored in more parts of our brain, resulting in a deeper impression and a better recall.

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Let’s say, you are listening to a recipe on the radio. You will try your best to pay attention to it so as to not miss anything. Here you are using only one of your senses, i.e. ears.

Now, let’s assume you are watching a cookery show on television.

There you can see the details of preparing the dish like for how much time you have to cook the vegetable to make it equally tender or if you are

making a batter then how much consistency should it have etc. Here you are using two of your senses—eyes and ears.

Now visualize yourself attending a live cookery class. There you can actually feel the texture of the ingredients. You can feel and learn how hard or soft the dough should be, how coarse or fine the puree should be, you can smell the aroma while listening to each instruction and observing each step carefully, and finally you can taste it too.

In your opinion, in which case from the above would the learning be better and faster and you will be able to retain the method for a longer period of time?

Obviously in the third case because you are taking in the information using all five senses.

To sum up, we have to use most of our senses while imagining things for effective memory.

While associating a Book with a Black Rabbit, I asked you to visualize the thickness of the book, feel its weight, and see the black rabbit in action, growing in size. Visualize its colour, its shine of the skin, feel of the skin, and then finally the action of jumping out from the book and challenging you to catch him. So you made use of three of your senses: sight, touch, and hearing. That helps you feel the moment as real, as if you are a part of this event and bringing in three dimensions and movement to an image makes it more real.

2. E: Exaggeration—Visualize the objects in an exaggerated or out of proportion manner, especially in size or quantity. For example, visualizing so many yellow birds in the sky or one elephant-sized yellow bird makes more impact on the brain as compared to a single normal-sized bird.

3. I: Myself—Imagine that you are given photographs of a party that you attended some time back. Who will you look for in the photographs? Obviously yourself!

Most of the time we are interested only in our self, i.e. ‘I’ or something

associated with ‘I’. So the picture that you are going to imagine should include you, doing some action. That is why, while imagining the list given above, I asked you to visualize yourself holding a book—you are touching the horse’s mane, you went to sit on the horse, or you caught the laptop.

4. O: Outstanding—Try to visualize an image that is strange, odd, different from normal, outstanding, or silly. Our brain has a tendency to remember peculiar things.

5. U: Use colours and actions in your image—Would you like to see a black and white TV or a coloured one? Involvement of colours makes the picture unique and interesting. In the same way, action makes images appear more interesting compared to static images, that is why I used action while visualizing the list.

Applying any combination of these five principles when forming your images will help make your mental associations truly outstanding and memorable. At first, you may need to consciously apply one or more of the five principles, but after a little practice, their application will become an automatic and natural process.

Try visualizing an association between the following pairs keeping in mind the principle of AEIOU.

1. Banana and Donkey

2. Ice-cream and Table

It’s not important how long you visualize a picture, It’s more important how clear you visualize it.

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We can memorize any information given in the form of a list or a sequence by forming creative associations using the chain method.

In this, one object is associated with the second, second with the third and so on, like rings in a chain.

The items can be linked simply one after the other, like the rings in a chain, or we can weave a story to link all the objects given in the list.

Points to remember for making strong associations:

Link only two words at a time.

First word should be linked to the second, second to the third and so on.

Do not link one word to many different words as it might create confusion.

Use the principle of AEIOU for better visualization:

1. A: All senses—Make associations using all senses.

2. E: Exaggerate (think out of proportion) the visualization.

3. I: I (myself)—Try including yourself while imagining an association.

4. O: Outstanding—The image should be outstanding, i.e. different than usual, silly, not normal.

5. U: Use colours and action in your imagination.

Using these five principles will enable you to create memorable associations.

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