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NM Freemason · Skills & Drills · Chapter 41

Rote Memory and Chunking

Drawn from published Masonic monitor content. See site Credits for source citations.

Vocabulary (6)

Rote memory
Ragain's published definition: the act of repeatedly reading or reciting something until it becomes so natural that it is easily remembered. The Pledge of Allegiance, the Lord's Prayer, the alphabet song are all rote acquisitions. The technique was the working method of ancient priests and monks whose published duty was to recite the holy books.
Chunking
The published refinement that makes rote tolerable. Long passages are never recited as a single line. The brain breaks them into 2-, 3-, or 4-word pieces, the way one gives a phone number. Ragain's published rule: if we take smaller bites of the piece we are trying to learn, we are less likely to choke on it.
Pledge-of-Allegiance pattern
Ragain's published exemplar. The Pledge is one long sentence, but it is recited as roughly 12 chunks of 2 to 4 words each, with the same chunking by every American. The chunking is what makes a 31-word sentence retrievable. Ragain proposes the same pattern for the EA, FC, and MM lectures.
Esoteric language
The published Masonic obstacle for rote learners. The lectures contain words and phrases used nowhere else in modern speech, so the chunks do not align with familiar idiom. Ragain's published advice: when a word is unfamiliar, mentally substitute a rhyming or sound-alike word that triggers recall, without changing the delivered text.
Auditory bias
Rote is overwhelmingly an auditory technique. Ragain's published caution is that rote works well for the ~25 % of brothers who are primarily auditory learners, and works poorly for the visual or kinesthetic majority. For the rest, rote alone is not enough. It must be paired with one of the visual or hands-on techniques in later chapters.
Perfect practice
Ragain's published refrain. Practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. Repetition reinforces whatever you do, including the errors. The corollary, also published in the book, is that a small error caught and corrected in the first 0.25 seconds (Coyle's tip) keeps a mistake from becoming a habit.

Multiple-choice (5)

1. What is Ragain's published definition of rote memory?
  1. Reciting in groups of three brothers
  2. Repeatedly reading or reciting something until it becomes natural ✓
  3. Writing each word three times
  4. Memorizing by association with images
2. In Ragain's published example, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited in chunks of about how many words?
  1. 1 word at a time
  2. 2-4 words at a time ✓
  3. Whole sentences only
  4. Whole paragraphs only
3. What does Ragain compare the chunking pattern of long sentences to?
  1. A song refrain
  2. Giving someone a phone number ✓
  3. Reading aloud from a book
  4. Spelling each word
4. Whose tip (quoted in Ragain through Daniel Hanttula) frames the 0.25-second window in which a brain decides whether to engage with an error?
  1. Bob Lingerfelt, Solomon's Memory Palace
  2. Daniel Coyle, The Little Book of Talent (Tip #22) ✓
  3. Kim March, The 5 Minute Ritualist
  4. Albert Mackey, Encyclopaedia
5. For whom is rote alone published as a weak technique?
  1. Auditory learners
  2. Visual and kinesthetic learners (the ~75 % majority) ✓
  3. Anyone with prior Bible memorization
  4. Lodge officers only