By Dr. Nora DeVoe, Ph.D.
Geriatric Care Manager

The AIM
Principle

The AIM memory principle is a memory device or mnemonic that stands for attention, imagery and meaning. Using this mnemonic will aid your memory enhancement and boost your mental ability. The A in AIM is Attention. You can’t remember what you don’t pay attention to in the first place. Ever heard the term multitasking? It means attending to several tasks in tandem, rather than starting and finishing one before moving on to the next. It is considered a survival strategy and badge of honor in our complex and over scheduled twenty-first century lives. But recent research suggests that multitasking decreases rather than increases efficiency over the long run. It is also a root cause of memory absentmindedness.

The I in AIM is for Imagery. Sigmund Freud once said if you want to remember better, make the information you want to remember more interesting. Which is more likely to pique your interest, a man on the street corner strumming a guitar or a marching band passing by? Most people would choose the marching band. It is bright, noisy, and dynamic. It provides a host of sensory input and colorful imagery that grab our attention and imprint on our memory. So, it follows that if we want to remember better, we’ll want to create strong visual images that add color, texture, and movement to the things we want to remember.

The M in AIM is for Meaning. Things that have personal or emotional meaning have more memory impact than those without these connections. Take, for example, your memory of where you were when you first learned that President Kennedy had been shot, or that Princess Diana was in a fatal car crash. Events like these, with their strong personal and emotional impact, are forever etched into our individual and collective memories. If we want to remember better, we need to connect items to be remembered with familiar, personal, and/or emotional meaning.

Try the following series of brain fitness exercises to sharpen your ability to take AIM at important memory targets. Exercise One: Often we travel through our daily lives unaware of the world around us. A major reason for this is that we are often lost in our thoughts. We are rarely, if ever, fully present. Today, take a brief walk along a familiar route. Try to empty your mind of mental chatter. Actively observe everything around you. Capture the scene in your mind. When you get home write down five things you saw or heard that you never really noticed before. Exercise Two: You have twenty seconds to memorize the names of the Seven Deadly Sins below. At the end of twenty seconds, cover the list and write down all the sins you can remember. Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Envy, Sloth, Greed. Exercise Three: Items to be remembered can easily be linked together using the first letters of the words to be remembered. This memory technique is called first letter linking. The two most popular variations of the first

letter linking are acronyms, in which a word is created from the first letters of the items to be remembered, and acrostics, in which a sentence is created using words that begin with the first letters of the items to be remembered. Acronyms and acrostics are often taught in schools as study aids. Example one: here are three well known examples of acronyms: MADD- Mothers Against Drunk Driving; NATO- North American Treaty Organization; ASAP- As Soon As Possible. Example two: Following are two examples of acrostics: Every good boy does fine- The lines on a treble note scale: E,G,B,D,F and Even cats prefer attention- The life stages of a butterfly: egg, caterpillar, pupa, adult.

Study the acronyms and acoustics in Round One. Then use the acronyms and acrostics to remember the items in Round Two. Round One: types of blood vessels: capillaries, arteries, veins. Acronym: CAV; parts of an atom: proton, electron, neutron, shell. Acronym: PENS; the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. Acronym: HOMES; underwater diving equipment: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Acronym: SCUBA; parts of the eye: cornea, iris, lens, optic nerve, retina. Acronym: CILOR; Earth’s oceans: Artic, Indian, Pacific, Atlantic. Acronym: AIPA; vitamins important to brain health: B, E, C. Acronym: BEC; three memory principles: Attention, Imagery, Meaning. Acronym: AIM; the nine planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Acrostic: My very energetic mother just served us nine pies; the names of the Beatles: John, Paul, George, Ringo. Acrostic: John prefers red grapes. Round Two: name the three types of blood vessels using the acronym C

AV; name the four parts of an atom using the acronym PENS; name the Great Lakes using the acronym HOMES; name the underwater diving equipment using the acronym SCUBA; name the five parts of the eye using the acronym CILOR; name the oceans of the Earth using the acronym AIPA; name the three vitamins important to brain health using the acronym BEC; name the three memory principles using the acronym AIM; name the nine planets in our solar system using the acrostic My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies;name the four members of the Beatles using the acrostic John Prefers Red Grapes.

Well, how did everyone do? I can almost hear your brains thinking! Next month we will discuss and exercise our prospective memory.

Answers to last month’s brain fitness were: 1.Clark Gable, 2.Albany, 3.Kate Winslet, 4.Lisa Minelli, 5.Michael Jackson, 6.Bald eagle, 7.Dwight Eisenhower, 8.George H. W. Bush, 9.ginkgo biloba, 10.Periodic Table of Elements, 11.diabetes, 12.William Shakespeare, 13.Lou Gehrig.