How to improve your memory

Pegging can be likend to hanging up washing on a line using pegs.
A peg is essentially a picture of an object in your mind of something that you already know.
To memorize an object that you don't yet know, get a good picture of it and then peg it to a peg in your mind.
You do this by visualising the object that you do know (peg) and the object that you don't know and linking them with a verb.
The more ridiculous and illogical you make the action the better you will remember it.
We most often remember things in our lives that had a lot of emotion attached to them. Use emotion!
Example: One of my pegs is a tree. Let's say I want to memorize an icecream.
Close your eyes and see the tree in your mind. What kind of tree is it? Does it have a lot of branches?
Do the same for the icecream. What colour is the icecream? What does it taste like?
Picture a little boy licking his icecream. Half way through he takes it and rubs the rest of it into the tree trunk.
The tree shrilvels up and dies. You've now memorized the icecream. Move onto the next item you wish to memorize.

In order to peg you have to have a list of known objects (pegs). You should probably know two or three lists off by heart.
You can create lists using the loci or the phonetic methods.
I have also provided my own wordlist of 100 objects which are quite easy to remember using the phonetic/major system.

Loci is an ancient technique used to memorize an ordered list.
It can be used to memorize shopping lists, speeches, facts, a shuffled deck of cards, and many other things.
You first need to understand the concept of pegging before continuing.
A loci is a location. Picture yourself in a room you know well. Choose 5 or 6 objects moving in a clockwise direction.
Pick distinct, bigish objects that are more or less equally spaced from each other. These objects become your pegs.
The great thing about loci is that you already know several locations and the objects in them.
Just practice going around the room in your head a few times, visualizing each of your pegs until you know them.
You now have several lists of pegs ready to peg things to.

Chaining or linking is the process of memorizing a list of items by stringing them together one after the other.
Get a good picture of the item in your mind. What colour is it? What does it feel like? etc.
Get a good picture of the next item in your mind and join them together with a doing word.
The more ridiculous and illogical you make the action the better you will remember it.
To memorize the third item in the list, follow the same procedure above linking it onto the end of the previous object with another verb.
In the end you will have an entire story in your mind which will help you recall all the items in your list.

The Phonetic System or Major System is a wonderful way to memorize numbers!
As it is easier for us to think in pictures we convert the number into one or more pictures and then use the chaining technique to make a story.

Before going any further take time to memorize the phonetic alphabet below. You can use the quiz to test yourself.

• It is the sounds that are important, not the letters.
• If repeated letters make only one sound, as 'ss' in tissue, it translates to a single digit.
• Silent consonants, such as the 'c' in tack, are not represented by a digit.
• Vowels don't count
• 'x' is usually pronounced as 'ks' as in axiom(703)

Now that you know the alphabet you can start to see the magic.
Every word can be broken down into the sounds of the consonants. Example: aeroplane becomes 4952.
With some practice you will be able to take a long number and make words out of it. Example: 777503045 becomes cake, colosseum, cereal.
The idea is to use as few words as possible to make the story less complicated.
This can be a little difficult at first as you will need to use groups of as many digits in the number as possible.
I recommend using freeware software called 2Know to do this for you. http://Got2Know.net/2Know.
Once you have the pictures the next step is to use the chaining technique to make a story out of these words.

Below is a list of words I have created for the numbers 0-99. You can mouseover any word to see a picture.
I recommend learning these off by heart using the quiz provided.
This list will make it much easier for you to remember important numbers on the fly.

Word List Number Word Number Word Number Word Number Word

Quiz We recommend that you minimize the word list block on your left before starting. Number Sound Hint Word Questions Asked Correct Answers Incorrect Answers Percentage Correct Numbers Tested So Far Numbers Incorrect So Far Hints Used On

A good way to remember someone's name is to start by looking at them and finding an unusual or striking feature about them.
An example would be clothing, jewelry, a physical feature like big ears, hairstyle, glasses etc.
Once you have this firmly visualised in your mind, ask the person for their name.
Now split up their name according to the phonetic alphabet.
Example: If their name is Elizabeth it becomes ...l...z...b..th.
Now convert this into picture equivalents that use the same sounds. So it becomes lice, bath.
Now we chain the feature together with these objects to form a story.
Hey preto! You have now memorized the persons name.
The next time you see them you will remember the feature you pictured for them and immediately recall the story.
Then by using the phonetic alphabet again, you will get back to their name.

Software	Description
2Know	2Know is based on the phonetic or major system that has proven its effectiveness over hundreds of years. The system transforms meaningless numerical strings into words and phrases. In the system, each numeral, 0-9, is represented by a consonant sound. These sounds are used to form words that can be more easily remembered than the raw numbers. Simply type in the number and 2Know presents candidate words that can be used to form phrases representing the number.
SuperMemo 98	Computer-assisted learning. It can be used by individual students or by authors of learning material. It is mostly designed for self-instruction. It can help you (or your students) remember whatever you think is worth remembering.
Scripture Memory System	Assists in the memorization of portions of the Bible.
Memory Puzzle 2.0	Exercise your memory by remembering pairs of cards, features 70 full color cards.

Please feel free to send me your feedback or comments on this site.
Please also let me know if any of these techniques have helped you.

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