mnemonic

“Just since this morning,” Lizzie said. Her knee was bouncing up and down beneath her thin paper gown. She made herself be still and ran through her mnemonic--not hungry, not angry, not tired. Maybe a little lonely--Jeff had been calling and e-mailing, but she hadn’t answered. He would be sweet, she knew, and his sweetness would only make her feel worse about the thing she hadn’t told him; the lie of omission that lay between them. “Well, this morning was when I noticed it.”
"mnemonic" は大昔ちょっとかじったアセンブリー言語を連想しますが、上の引用個所はプログラミングとは関係ないですね。辞書を見ます。
・Wiktionary: 1.Anything (especially something in verbal form) used to help remember something.: To remember the colours of the rainbow, use the mnemonic "Richard of York gave battle in vain" (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).
・Cambridge English Dictionary: something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something: The musical notes on the lines go EGBDF - use the mnemonic "Every good boy deserves fun".
プログラムで何かを検索する事とは関係があるようです。