orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. In this way mnemonic devices not only help the encoding of specific items but also their sequence. For more complex concepts, understanding is the key to remembering. In a study done by Wiseman and Neisser in 1974 they presented participants with a picture (the picture was of a Dalmatian in the style of pointillism making it difficult to see the image). They found that memory for the picture was better if the participants understood what was depicted. Chunking Chunking is a memory strategy used to maximize the amount of information stored in short term memory in order to combine it into small, meaningful sections. By organizing objects into meaningful sections, these sections are then remembered as a unit rather than separate objects. As larger sections are analyzed and connections are made, information is weaved into meaningful associations and combined into fewer, but larger and more significant pieces of information. By doing so, the ability to hold more information in short-term memory increases. To be more specific, the use of chunking would increase recall from 5 to 8 items to 20 items or more as associations are made between these items. Words are an example of chunking, where instead of simply perceiving letters we perceive and remember their meaningful wholes: words. The use of chunking increases the number of items we are able to remember by creating meaningful "packets" in which many related items are stored as one. The use of chunking is also seen in numbers. One of the most common forms of chunking seen on a daily basis is that of phone numbers. Generally speaking, phone numbers are separated into sections. An example of this would be 909 200 5890, in which numbers are grouped together to make up one whole. Grouping numbers in this manner, allows them to be recalled with more facility because of their comprehensible acquaintanceship. State-Dependent Learning For optimal encoding, connections are not only formed between the items themselves and past experiences, but also between the internal state or mood of the encoder and the situation they are in. The connections that are formed between the encoders internal state or the situation and the items to be remembered are State-dependent. In a 1975 study by Godden and Baddeley the effects of State-dependent learning were shown. They asked deep sea divers to learn various materials while either under water or