The Peg System

by Alan Pritt

With the peg system you will learn how to memorise a list of items and recall them forwards, backwards, and in any random order.

Using the link system you learnt the power of association with memory. Not only did you learn a theory of how all memories work with association you learnt how that works in practice. With the peg system, another well known memory system, you will learn more about association. You will learn how to make the power of association more flexible and adaptable.

I want to, once again, make it clear: the peg system, while at first seems like you’re simply learning a trick, will be used in much more adaptable ways later on.

Now, in the link system, you learnt to chain several items together to form a chain of items in your brain. This is fairly inflexible, however, because each item is linked to the item before it and after it, but to no other item. So in order to remember the 7th item on your list, you must first recall the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th items. With the peg system you can pick any numbered item, and just recall it.

The peg system is so called because it is like the pegs that you put your coat on. You have a little hook, and to that hook you attach some items (such as a coat or a bag). To make this really effective you have a series of pegs, which can each hold an item.

Finally each peg is given a number so that you can go straight to it, and so that the pegs have a systematic order to them. A systematic order is important, because it means you can go through it in order and know that nothing has been missed out.

So all you have to do is say: ‘go fetch the items from peg six’ and the items from that peg will be easily returned.

With our memory peg system we basically have a set of numbered pegs which we can associate with any item, thus:

0 Coat
1 Telephone
2 Bag
3 Sweets
4 Balloon
5 Stars
6 Water
7 Sandpaper
8 Eagle
9 Chicken

Now if I were to ask you what is contained in item 04, you wouldn’t have much trouble in checking the list and saying ‘balloon’.

Now all we need to do is figure a way of putting this into memory.

Since 1, 2, 3, 4, etc are abstract items we cannot easily make associations with them. In order to do so, we must use our creative memory to make the numbers less abstract. (This is something mathematicians naturally do).

There are several ways of doing this, but let’s start with the image of the numbers. Think about what the numbers look like.

0 a ball
1 a stick, a candle, a pen
2 may look like an ear, a wing, a swan
3 may look like a pair of lips
4 like the sail on a boat
5 a hook
6 a yo-yo
7 a gun
8 a pair of binoculars
9 a balloon on the end of a ribbon

With some you will have to use your imagination a bit, but make the link make sense to you and the association will become easier.

Once you’ve come up with a list, test yourself by calling out random numbers and recalling what they link to.

Now let’s memorise the above list:

0 Ball – a coat rolled up tightly into a ball
1 Pen – writing down a number on the telephone
2 Swan – with a bag on its back
3 Lips – the lips watering as the sweets pass through them
4 Sail – a boat that uses a balloon instead of a sail
5 Hook – the hook has been swung up into space and hooked a star
6 Yo-yo – the yo-yo bobbing in and out of the water
7 Gun – using a heat gun to take off paint instead of sandpaper
8 Binoculars – spying through binoculars and sighting an eagle
9 Balloon – the chicken has been caught on the ribbon of the balloon and is being pulled into the air

Try memorising this list, or your own list, and then test yourself. Perform the test by recalling the lists in order, reverse order, and in random orders.

Where you fail, go back to the list and try and work out what made it a weak connection. Keep making lists and testing yourself until this becomes easy for you.

And finally, remember this: the peg system is only the tip of the iceberg. We will soon be applying it to longer lists, and then to everyday items that don’t belong in lists. But first really learn the peg system, because it is a fundamental step. Learn it and learn it well. I made the mistake of theorising too much about these systems and trying to improve them. It took me years before I realised I wasn’t getting anywhere. Once you’ve learnt the techniques, then we can improve on them. So if you’re someone who reads, but doesn’t apply, really try to change that mindset now. Do that, and you’re soon be the master.

|