What is Ridiculous Association?

Ridiculous association or Image bizarreness is a method to help remember facts or information by associating them with a ridiculous or bizarre image. The more vivid, interactive, ridiculous, silly and illogical the image the easier it is to remember the information.

Creating a ridiculous image:

When imagining a ridiculous picture, students are encouraged to follow three main rules that is, the rule of substitution, exaggeration and out of proportion. Though it is easy to depend on another’s image, images we create ourselves enhance retention and recall in the long run.

For example students have to memorize that evaporation is defined as the conversion of water from its liquid state into a gaseous state. A ridiculous association of this process is to imagine a bottle of water walking through the desert and mocking the animals saying he is never thirsty. As the bottle continues walking, he starts to feel tired and after some time, he decides to take a sip of his water. As he opens the cap, a gust of blue smoke escapes, with the bottle trying to catch it in vain. A desert mouse that saw this happening, laughs out saying that the water had evaporated and the bottle looks on sadly at the escaping smoke.

Learning through Ridiculous association:

Remembering names: Write down names on papers and put them in a bowl. Ask a student to pull out 10 names (number them as he picks the name). The student is given three minutes, one minute to go through the names in order and two to memorize them using the ridiculous association strategy. Once the three minutes are over, ask the students to recite the names in the order. Also ask the student to narrate his image for the rest of the class. The same can be done as a class activity by writing the names on the board and erasing them after two minutes. See who can list the names the fastest and accurately.

Ridiculous doodling: The information to be memorized is noted down as key points on the blackboard. The teacher will distribute charts to the students and they are instructed to create a ridiculous doodle incorporating the information. The activity can also be conducted as a group activity. After drawing the images, ask any student to volunteer and explain their image to the class and then recite the information without looking at their charts. Students can score the images on a score of 1-5 with 5 being the most ridiculous image.

Find the information: Prepare pictures with bizarre images and ask the students to find the information within. Analyzing and identifying the key information will help students to learn and remember the same.

Like how funny movies are always remembered for its antics, the more bizarre the images, the stronger the student retains the information.

Discuss here: How do you incorporate humor into the teaching process?

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