A
mnemonic technique for remembering ordered lists of items or even
concepts, the 'peg system mnemonic' or peg mnemonic uses
visual memory. The
user simply creates a
picture within his
mind containing two things: The item or concept to remember, and a 'peg'. The peg is an item, which symbolizes the item or concepts place in the list, i.e. a number.
A common ten-peg version uses the following pegs:
- A pen or stick
- A swan (the head makes it look like the number 2)
- Breasts (tilt them to make them look like a '3')
- A chair (four legs, or turn it upside down to imitate the number)
- A hook (looks like the lower part of the number)
- Elephants trunk (rolled up looks like the number)
- A sharp cliffside (hey, finding something looking like 7 is tough)
- A snowman
- A pipe or tennis racket (see notes for 7)
- Laurel and Hardy
Having a
car as fifth entry on the list would be envisioned as car being pummeled by a crane hook, for example.
An extended version makes use of 'secondary pegs', which are coupled to indicate 'tens'. For example,
ice could indicate the numbers 11-20. Making the car number 15 instead of 5 could be done by having the car crushed while in a block of ice.
Fire,
meadow or any other thing, which a
mental image can be coupled with, can be used to extend the
range of the peg mnemonic.