Topic 7: Applying the Peg System - Tutorial 12
Having learned the first twenty peg words, you are now ready to start putting them to practical use.
Assume that you wish to memorise the following twenty items, both in and out of order:
As you can see, these items have been chosen completely at random, and have no logical connection.
Peg System vs Link System
To memorise the list of items in order, you could simply apply the Link System, and associate telephone to table, table to axe, and so on until you reach the twentieth item.
But, as mentioned in the introduction to this section, applying the Link method would not allow you to instantly recall, say, the fourteenth item. To recall that the fourteenth item was moon, you would have to work from the start of the list and count through the items mentally, until you reached number 14.
In other words, although the Link System is excellent for remembering lists of items in sequence, it doesn't provide an easy method for remembering any item on a list out of sequence.
Applying the Peg System
To memorise the twenty items on the previous page out of sequence, you simply associate each item to the Peg Word for the corresponding number.
Get the idea? For each of the numbered items on the list, make a ridiculous association between that item and the Peg Word for that number. Try making your own associations for the remaining fifteen items, right now. Remember that creating your own images always increases your Initial Awareness.
Testing Your Memory
If you have really made the associations for all twenty items and visualised them clearly, you will know all the items in and out of order. Think of the Peg Word for number 1 - tie - what does it remind you of? A telephone, which you pictured around your neck instead of a tie.
Think of the Peg Word for 5 - law - it will instantly remind you of ladder, the fifth item. Think of Peg Word 18 - dove - it should immediately make you think of daffodil, the eighteenth item.
Also, if you think of any item on the list, you will immediately know its numerical position. For example, where was the trumpet? Well, trumpet makes you think of toad, which is the Peg Word for 11, so trumpet just has to be number 11.
If you haven't yet made associations in your mind for all twenty items, go back and do it, right now.