You are on page 1of 10

Fdsgfhgfjhjfdgfdhgfhgfjhgfghghgfhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhdrt

erytegfggtryycxvvhkuy
AA The Peg Method

Usage
Use this system when you want to remember numbers.

Description
Pick a set of words that are easy to remember and which can easily be used in the sequencing of this method.
A common way is to have pegs that rhyme with the individual digits. These are good for people with stronger
auditory preferences. An alternative is to use a peg that has a similar shape to the digit, which may well be
good for people with a stronger visual memory.
Here are examples you can use, though it is a good idea to pick pegs that are easiest for you to remember and
use.

Rhyme Shape
Number
Peg Peg

0 Hero Hole
1 Bun Stick
2 Shoe Swan
3 Tree Breasts
4 Door Yacht
5 Hive Hook
6 Sticks Elephant
Walking
7 Heaven
stick
8 Gate Hourglass
9 Line Balloon

Memorize these links so the number quickly and easily leaps to mind when you think about. Then, when you
need to remember a sequence of numbers, create a memorable story using the sequence of pegs.
A way you can enhance this is to link the number and the peg in a short rhythm, eg:
 Zero the hero
 One in a bun
 Two are shoes
 Three standing trees
 Four knock on door
 Five bees in hive
 Six picket sticks
 Seven ways to heaven
 Eight at the gate
 Nine in a line

Example
I want to remember a phone number: 020 3345 9424.

Number Peg Story


One day,
0 Hero
Superman
Lost one
2 Shoe
shoe
Then
0 Hero
Superwoman
Flew down
3 Tree
from a tree
And crashed
3 Tree into another
tree
Which fell
4 Door down and
broke a door
Of a bee
5 Hive
hive
The bees
9 Line
flew in a line
To the front
door of a
4 Door
nearby
house
Where they
found
2 Shoe
Superman's
shoe
And took it
to his door
4 Door
and gave it
to him.
Peg System for Remembering Lists

Need help remembering lists of information for school, work, hobby, or other purposes? Then one or
more of the Peg Methods is the memory system you need.

The Peg memory systems are ideal for remembering information that must be recalled in a particular
order. Like all memory systems, the Peg systems improve your memory by creating a filing cabinet in
your mind.

They work by associating information you already know well (the numbers 1 through 20, and the
letters A through Z) with the new facts you want to remember.

A "peg" is just a mental hook on which you hang the information. This hook acts as a reminder to help
you mentally retrieve information.

Let's look at the number from 1 to 10 first. If you could associate a piece of information with the
number "5", then simply thinking of "5" would give you back that fact.

In other words, because you will never forget how to count from 1 to 10, associating information with
those numbers creates a mental filing system for the information.

In fact, you can even use peg system to memorize lists that don't need to be in a particular order. For
a fun example, check out how I memorized Darth Vader quotes for Halloween.

Before I explain how to use the pegs, let me point out a few important things about them:

 Peg systems remind you of what you are supposed to remember. Like the Loci system, the
Peg systems provide a big advantage over free recall (rote memorization). The pegs
continually remind you of all the things you are supposed to remember.

 Peg systems allow direct retrieval of items. The other systems like Link and Loci tie information
together effectively, but cannot be used to recall a particular item directly. With these systems,
you must mentally run through the entire link to get to the item you want. With numerical pegs,
though, you can immediately say, "Number 5 is the Trigeminal Nerve" or "The Trigeminal
Nerve is number 5."
 The Pegs can be used over and over. An incredible truth about your brain is that it can
distinguish between the same numerical list (i.e., the same pegs) being used multiple times for
different information. For example, one research study on memory systems showed that
normal people were able to memorize six different lists of items at the same time using the
same pegs.

Spacing out the use of the lists and commbining the use of pegs with the other memory
systems (see below) lets you use pegs to memorize a very large body of information.

 You can use several types of pegs together to create flexibility. There are Peg systems that
use among other things number rhymes, number shapes, and the alphabet. You can vary your
use of the different Peg systems to help decrease interference between the information you
want to remember.
 Pegs can be combined with the Loci or Link systems. Combining Peg systems with other
memory systems allows you to memorize huge amounts of information. As one example, you
could combine the Alphabet Peg system with the Link system to accurately memorize up to
260 items of information (by attaching a 10-sequence memory link to the key image of each
letter of the alphabet).

How Peg Systems Work

You will never forget how to count from 1 to 20 or how to say your ABC's. But the problem with
mentally attaching the information you want to remember to numbers or letters is that numbers and
letters are abstract (hard to visualize).

The Peg systems solve this problem by making abstract numbers and letters concrete.

For example, with the rhyming Peg words, you first remember a concrete object whose name rhymes
with the number (you will see this is very easy to do). For instance: one-sun, two-shoe, three-tree.

Then, to memorize a list, you visually associate each item of information with the number image (e.g.,
sun, shoe, tree). To recall the list, you simply run through the numbers in your mind.

Each of the main Peg systems are explained below. Click a link in the following list to jump down to
the explanation for that Peg system.

Number-Rhyme Pegs

The Number-Rhyme Peg system is perhaps the easiest peg memory system to learn. For each of the
numbers from 1 to 10 (and even up to 20, really), you associate with each number a word that rhymes
with that number. Most people find this very easy to do.

Here is a widely used version of the number-rhyme list. Go ahead and memorize these right now.
Repeat the number rhymes until you remember them, then practice without looking.

 1=
One - Sun

 2=
Two - Shoe

 3=
Three - Tree

 4=
Four - Door
 5=
Five - Hive

 6=
Six - Sticks

 7=
Seven - Heaven

 8=
Eight - Gate

 9=
Nine - Vine

 10 =
Ten - Hen

Now really tap into your visual memory, and make each of these listed items very clear in your mind.
For example, what kind of sun? Picture it vividly. What type of shoe? A man's dress shoe, for
instance?

Go through each of the ten items in this way until each is very clearly pictured in your mind. Making
the mental images clear and detailed will greatly improve your recall of information later.

Using the Number-Rhyme Pegs. The simplest use of the Number-Rhyme Pegs is to memorize a
straight list of ten objects. However, this system can be used to memorize much more, including lists
of sayings, concepts, technical terms, definitions, vocabulary, steps in a procedure, and so on.

Here's a simple example to show you how this works.

Suppose one day you are visiting your grandmother and she decides to tell you her secret recipe for
baking a delicious blueberry pie. The problem is, you don't have a pen or paper with you, so if you
want to remember the ingredients you will have to rely on your memory.

She tells you that the ingredients for the pie are blueberries, lemon juice, flour, sugar, cinnamon,
butter, eggs, milk (a total of eight items). You decide to use the Number-Rhyme Peg Method to
remember these until you have time to write them down later.
Keep in mind that creating the following associations happens very quickly once you have practiced
this memory system a few times.

Shopping Item #1 (One-Sun) =


Blueberries (blue + bear)

1. Begin by associating the first ingredient (blueberries) with the first rhyming peg word (sun). For
example, picture clearly in your mind a giant, hot sun shining down on a bright blue bear.

Now move on to each of the rest of the ingredients and do the same thing.

... 2. Associate the second ingredient (lemon juice) with the second rhyming peg word (shoe). For
example, imagine a yellow dress shoe full of lemons, and you squishing your foot into the lemons to
get the shoe on, turning the lemons into lemon juice.

... 3. Associate the third ingredient (flour) with the third rhyming word (tree). For example, imagine a
brightly colored tree whose trunk and leaves are becoming completely covered and overgrown with
your favorite type of flower.

... 4. Associate the fourth ingredient (sugar) with the fourth rhyming word (door). For example, imagine
a solid brown wooden door slamming shut on a white porcelain sugar bowl, splashing the
granulated sugar all over your nice clean carpet.

... 5. Associate the fifth ingredient (cinnamon) with the fifth rhyming word (hive). For example, imagine
a swarm of bees stinging your male friend who is sinning - sin a man. (If you think gambling is a sin,
for instance, imagine him rolling dice or playing cards.)

Now you try. Think of associations for the rest of the ingredients, sticks-butter, heaven-eggs, and
gate-milk.

Once you have your list of associations, then review them quickly after 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 20
minutes. This will really help lock the images and the list of items in your mind.

For long-term mental storage, review the list again after 2 hours, then once a day for the next 3 days.
Then once a month after that, depending on how well it seems your mind is retaining the information
(which varies a little from person to person).

If you really worked through this example, you be a bit amazed at how well you can recall this list of
eight items. Try this now: ask yourself, what is item #7? What is item #2? What is item #5?

You should be able to instantly remember and say the ingredient. Try doing that quickly with rote
memorization alone!
Again, memory management is a skill, and the more your practice the memory systems the easier
they will seem and the better results you will get with your memory.

Rhymes from 11 to 20. The following are two rhyming words for each of the numbers 11 through 20.
These are used the same way as the rhyming pegs from 1 through 10:

11. Leaven, Football 11 16. Sistine, Licking


12. Shelf, Elf 17. Leavening, Deafening
13. Thirsting, Hurting 18. Aiding, Waiting
14. Fording, Courting 19. Knighting, Pining
15. Fitting, Lifting 20. Plenty, Penny

Alternately, you can mix Number-Rhyme with Number-Shape (see below) fo r11 to 20. For instance,
you could use the rhyming pegwords for 1 through 10 and use the single-digit shape pegwords for 11
to 20. In othe words, 11-Pencil, 12-Swan, 13-Pitchfork, and so on (ignoring the "1" in the tens place).

Number-Shape Pegs

The Number-Shape peg system is similar to the Number-Rhyme system, but instead of using words
that rhyme with the numbers, you use the shape of the number as the peg.

The following shows shape equivalents for the numbers 1 through 10. You can make up your own, but
try these first to get used to the concept.

 1=
Pencil

 2=
Swan's Neck

 3=
Top of Love Heart

 4=
Boat Sail

 5=
Hook

 6=
Golf Club
 7=
Cliff's Edge

 8=
Hourglass

 9=
Balloon on Stick

 10 =
Fork and Plate

So to associate an item of information with a number-shape, associate the shape with the information.
For example, to associate a word such as "tomato" to position number two in the list, associate swan
with tomato.

Imagine perhaps a swan bouncing a bright red tomato up and down on its beak. Then, when you think
of "two", it reminds you of "swan" which reminds you of tomato.

Like with the other systems, the complexity of the information that can be associated with a number
can be much greater than simply a tomato of other physical objecet. Using substitute words, for
instance, even abstract concepts can be associated with the items in a list.

Alphabet Pegs - Concrete & Sound-Alike

A-Alligator concrete peg

The Alphabet peg system is a bit different from the Number-Rhyme and Number-Shape pegs but
equally as easy to learn. As explained above, you already know the alphabet, so with a little
modification you can use it as yet another type of mental filing system.

There are two ways to use Alphabet pegs: 1) based on concrete meaning, and 2) based on sound
alikes.

As with the rhyming pegs, you can use these same lists over and over. With sufficient review, your
peg image associations will fade but the information will remain in memory.
Concrete Alphas. Concrete words can also be used for alphabet pegs. The following is a list of pegs
you could use.

 A - Alligator
 B - Boy
 C - Cat
 D - Dog
 E - Egg
 F - Fig
 G - Goat
 H - Hat
 I - Ice
 J - Jack
 K - Kite
 L - Log
 M - Man
 N - Nut
 O - Owl
 P - Pig
 Q - Quill
 R - Rock
 S - Sock
 T - Toy
 U - Umbrella
 V - Vane
 W - Wig
 X - X-Ray
 Y - Yak
 Z - Zoo

Sound Alike Alphas. The sound-alike Alphabet peg words rhyme with the letter they are associated
with.

 A - Hay
 B - Bee
 C - See
 D - Deed
 E - Eve
 F - Effort
 G - Jeep
 H - Age
 I - Eye
 J - Jay
 K - Key
 L - El
 M - Hem
 N - Hen
 O - Hoe
 P - Pea
 Q - Cue
 R - Oar
 S - Sass
 T - Tea
 U - Ewe
 V - Veal
 W - Double You
 X - Ax
 Y - Wire
 Z - Zebra

In other words, to memorize a list of up to 26 items using sound-alikes, you would create a mental
image of "hay" interacting with the first item, a "bee" stinging the second item, and so on. The
concrete alphas work similarly.

Again, as with all memory systems, the Alphabet peg system is a skill, just like riding a bicycle. The
first time you rode a bike you probably fell off, and that is normal. Now riding a bike is second nature
and you don't even have to think about it.

The same is true here - practice using the pegs, and they too will become second nature, another
feature of your exceptional memory!

You might also like