Apr 25, 2022 09:00:00

What is 'Mnemonic using fingers' that has been used all over the world for a long time?

Many people may associate mnemonic with the famous '

palace of memory ', but 'mnemonic using fingers' has been widely used all over the world for a long time. Kensy Cooperrider , a science writer with a PhD in cognitive science from the University of California, explains mnemonics using the fingers of various hands.

Handy Mnemonics: The Five-Fingered Memory Machine – The Public Domain Review
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/handy-mnemonics

The figure below was included in the ' Dunhuang Manuscript ' discovered in 1900 from the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang City , Gansu Province , China, and is believed to have been written by a Buddhist monk around the 8th century. .. Annotations are written in Chinese characters on both hands extending from the flower of the lotus, and 'sky, wind, fire, water, and wood' representing the five majors incorporated into Buddhist thought from Indian philosophy are assigned to each fingertip. Above are the ten virtues of '(Jyo) Zen, (Sensation) Susumu, Shinobi (Line), (Ming) Kai, Dan (Xing), Kei (Solution), Way (Response), Wish (Miscellaneous), Power ( 'Yu) and (Den) Satoshi' are applied. According to Cooperrider, this explains how to assign and memorize knowledge such as the Five Greats and Virtues to each finger.

Around the same time that the mnemonics found in the Mogao Caves were recorded, the English Christian priest

Bede Venerabilis (respectable Bede / Bede) also developed a finger-based system. Did. In 725, Vedas explained in a dissertation, ' De temporum ratione ,' how to determine 'where is Easter in the year,' which is important for Christians.

In this paper, Veda represents the number '19', which is the combination of 14 joints on 5 fingers and 5 nails, '19 years ( Metonic cycle )' in which the same month shape appears on the same date on the calendar. He explained that the number '28', which is the sum of the joints of both hands, represents '28 years' when the Metonic cycle is applied to the seven days and the seven days of the same date match. By using this method, Bead states, 'It is easy to grasp both planetary periods.' In addition, Vedas said that it is better to convey this method with a living voice than to write it with a pen, and although the concrete counting method is not illustrated, the Vedas method has become widespread and centuries. Cooperrider said that he was also charged with Christian theology.

In addition, Vedas is the person who wrote about 'how to count numbers from 0 to 9999 using only the fingers of both hands' that the ancient Romans used.

What is the 'method of counting numbers from 0 to 9999 using only the fingers of both hands' devised by the ancient Romans? --GIGAZINE

The Mogao Caves and Vedas examples are the earliest examples of finger-based mnemonics, Cooperrider claims. Barbara Twerski, author of Mind in Motion , which argues that physical movements and spatial thinking are the basis of abstract thinking, says, 'When thinking overwhelms the mind, The mind puts it in the world, 'but in a sense, mnemonics with the fingers of the hand are a way to keep your thoughts within reach.

Since then, mnemonics using the fingers of the hands have continued to be used all over the world. The following figure in the book 'Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtumer des Heils' published in 1491 shows the Christian apostle, saint, Virgin Mary, and Christ applied to the finger parts.

The following is the '

Guidoonian hand ', which is said to have been devised by Guido of Arezzo , an Italian music teacher in the 11th century, with a scale applied to the fingers.

In the 15th century, inspired by the Guido Nian hand, Latin inflections and German voices were applied to the fingers, but in China as early as the 13th century, there was a way to apply the phonology to the palms and fingers . that's right. Such knowledge was shared among certain communities and functioned as a collective knowledge system used in education and ceremonies.

In addition, Christian priest

Girolamo Marafioti published in a 1602 dissertation, 'The front and back of the hand are divided into 23 parts each, and both hands are divided into 92 parts, and each part is divided into parts. Apply what you want to remember. ' This is ambitious in that it can be applied to anything you want to remember, Cooperrider said.

The method explained by Marafioti is a mnemonic technique called 'palace of memory' that creates a virtual palace in the brain, arranges things along the rooms and directions inside, and stores a huge amount of information in association with the place. It can be said that it was replaced with a finger. However, the distinct difference between finger-based mnemonics and memory palace is that finger-finger mnemonics actually have clues to remember the memory in the hands. It is also possible to move your finger and associate it with the kinesthetic sense to memorize things.

Cooperrider explained why finger-based mnemonics were developed: 'In an era when some scholarly elites were producing complex knowledge, a wider range of civilians could acquire this knowledge with a pen. It may have been a bridge between the written characters and the real voice. '

At the time of writing the article, many of the mnemonics using fingers were not reported, and many people may think that 'the mnemonics using fingers have already been forgotten.' However, Fleming 's left-hand rule, which shows 'the direction of the electric current, the direction of the magnetic field, and the direction of the generated force' in the pose of the left hand, is a kind of mnemonic using the fingers of the hand. Also, in the UK, there is a method using a fist that remembers the moon shorter than 31 days in a year, and it is said that 'memorization using fingers' is used all over the world even today.