Bookshelf
Recommended books for further reading about memory and memory improvement.
Also see Index to book reviews for books on memory and memory improvement that I have reviewed.
Memory strategies
Mnemonic strategies
There are a number of books available that describe specific mnemonic strategies. Most of these are fairly superficial - concerned only with describing the strategies themselves, without going into why they work or when they work and when they don't. One of the best accounts of mnemonic strategies can be found in:
Higbee, Kenneth L.: Your memory. How it works and how to improve it. 2nd ed. London: Piatkus, 1989. [Review]
More superficial, but very popular, are several books by Tony Buzan. His best is probably his first:
Buzan, Tony Use your memory. London: BBC, 1974 (reprinted 1984;1986;1989).
Since a major value of mnemonic strategies is to acquire foreign languages, it is worth noting that Dr Michael Gruneberg (an academic who has focused on practical applications of memory research) has written several books using the “Linkword” system (a keyword strategy) to learn German, Italian, Spanish and French. For example:
Gruneberg, Michael M. Spanish by association. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books, 1994.
Study skills
One of the most popular - updated and reprinted for over 30 years, and now in its 6th edition, is:
Pauk, Walter: How to study in college. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
There are of course a number of books on study strategies, including:
Fry, Ronald W. How to study. Hawthorne, NJ: Career Press, 1989.
Frender, Gloria: Learning to Learn: Strengthening Study Skills and Brain Power. Incentive Pubns, 1990.
Mind Maps
Tony Buzan has written a number of books on mind-mapping, his own version of a mapping strategy. The latest one is called The Mind Map Book (BBC, 1993), which is very visual (lots of pictures, illustrations etc). If you prefer something more strictly factual, you might prefer his very popular early book: Use your head (BBC, 1974; reprinted several times since). [Review]
Everyday strategies
Herrmann, Douglas J.: Super memory. A quick-action programme for memory improvement. London: Blandford, 1995. [Emmaus, PA, USA: Rodale Press, 1990] [Review]
Now available as a downloadable ebook!
