Suppose, that you are introduced to one Prof. Prlwitzkowski and that you decide you want to remember his name. You stare at his name card and notice that there are very few vowels in the name and that there are strange letter combinations. You concentrate on 'prlw' as an unusual combination and start by trying to remember that one. Then, you proceed with 'tzk' and 'wsk'. These are all examples of low-level processing, concentrating on the surface form of the word (name). Higher-level processing would be to attach meaning to the name. Since the name does not have obvious connotations, we must help a little. Let us break the name up into words that sound similar to the name: Prlwitzkowski = pearl with cow ski.

Now we are in a position to apply higher-level elaboration. One of the best ways to do is by visualizing a bizarre image: A cow skiing down-hill wearing a pearl necklace. It is a good idea to add more modalities to the image, for example, by imaging (and feeling) how you are skiing along this cow. This method of elaborating an otherwise meaningless word (name) is sometimes called the Keyword Mnemonic. This type of elaboration has also been shown to be very effective for learning foreign language vocabulary.

Though bizarre images are often stressed, many people are more verbally oriented. They would profit more from verbal elaboration (rhymes, quotes, titles, poem fragments, etc.).

In short
For most effective memory it is best to concentrate on higher-level eleboration. This is achieved by

• Converting the word or name into meaningful words that sound similar
• Bizarre, humorous, or other memorable visualization of the words
• Involvement of other modalities in the mental image, such as feeling, hearing, and smelling
• Make the words active and vivid!

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