—Roger Broille
many times when I've been challenged to prove that anyone can remember by using something similar to the Peg system—I would use a method which taught the skeptic to memorize ten miscellaneous objects forwards and backwards, and in and out of order, in about five minutes. What I did was to put ten small items, in a row, on a table; items like a ring, a watch, a cigarette, a match book, a comb, etc. I then told the person that these ten objects were to represent the numbers from one to ten.
Now I taught him to associate the item I called to the object on the table which represented the number called. In other words, if I called "typewriter" as #7, and the seventh item on the table was the ring; he would associate "typewriter" to ring. Later on, when I asked if he remembered #7, he would count to the seventh object, the ring, which would remind him of the typewriter.
This usually convinced the skeptic that he could remember better than he thought he could, but he always wanted to know if he'd have to carry those ten items with him. Of course, if he memorized those ten things he would have
97 had a list of ten pegs to which to associate any other ten objects. But, it is a bit difficult to memorize ten completely unassociated items to use for a peg list; and, in this case, would hardly be worth the trouble.
However, as I mention elsewhere in the book, it was Simonides who first used the rooms of his house, and the furniture in the rooms as a peg list. And, this idea will work just as well today, except that it is a bit limited. Also there is too much sameness in pieces of furniture to make a useful list. There is the possibility of becoming confused, and, it would take time to know which number each piece represented.
There have been a great many ideas thought up on how to devise peg lists. I've heard of one man who used twentysix women that he knew, whose names each began with a different letter of the alphabet. This gave him a list of twenty-six pegs. If he wanted to remember that, say, typewriter, was #16, he would associate typewriter to Pauline. This will work; but again—too much sameness; each peg must create a distinctly different picture in your mind if it is to work properly.
There are some ideas besides the phonetic alphabet which can be used just as well, except that they are limited in length. For instance, I have had occasion to need a few short peg lists to help me recall up to twenty or twenty-six items. Well, there are two methods that I've used quite often. The first is to use the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. All you have to do is to make up a word for each letter which sounds like the letter itself. Look at this list:—
A — ape N — hen
B — bean O — eau (water)
C — sea P — pea
D — dean Q — cute E — eel R — hour (clock)
F — effort (or efferS — ass
vescent) T — tea
G — jean (or Gee, U — ewe
command to horse) V — veal
H — ache W — Waterloo
I — eye X — eggs
J — jail Y — wine
K — cake Z — zebra
L — el (elevated train)
M — ham
If you go over this list once or twice, you'll have it. Decide on a picture for each one, and use that all the time. Now you have a list which will enable you to memorize up to twenty-six objects. For "B," I used "bean" only because "bee" would conflict with your basic peg word for #9. Of course, there are other words that can fit for some letters, and you can use any that you like. Just be sure that they do not conflict with your basic list of pegs. The words listed above are the ones that I use.
Incidentally, if you made a link from zebra to ape, you would be able to recite the alphabet backwards, which is quite a feat in itself. If you want to, you can associate each letter word to your regular peg word for that particular number. In this way you would know the numerical position of each letter immediately:—ape to "tie"; bean to "Noah"; sea to "ma," and dean to "rye," etc.
Another idea I use is to make a list of nouns, each of which look like the number they represent. You can do this with many numbers, and for those that you can't, you can make up any picture to remind you of it. For #1, you might picture a pencil, because a pencil standing upright looks like the numeral one. For #2, you can picture a swan; a swan on a lake is shaped something like the numeral two. I usually picture a three leaf clover for #3. A table or chair, or anything with four legs can represent #4. For
#5, you can see a five pointed star. A yo-yo on a string, with a little stretch of the imagination, looks like a numeral six.
A golf club held upside down is similar in shape to #7. For #8, you could picture an hourglass. For #9, I use a tape measure. I mean the tape measures that are made of metal and unroll from a round container. If you pull the tape out about six inches, the thing looks like a numeral nine. A bat and ball pictured side by side can represent #10; the bat is the digit 1, and the ball is the zero. I picture spaghetti for #11; my original picture was of two pieces of raw spaghetti lying side by side, which looked like #11. For #12, you can think of 12:00 o'clock and picture a clock.
You can use either a black cat or walking under a ladder for #13. My original picture for #14, was a straight running river or stream to represent the 1, and a farm that looked like the numeral four from the air. If you can create this picture in your mind—looking from an airplane and seeing this farm adjacent to the river, they would look like the #14. You can then use either farm or river, or both, to represent the number.
I pictured myself stepping into an elevator and saying, "Fifteenth floor, please," for #15. I now use elevator to represent the number. For #16, I pictured a road sign that said, "Route 16."
I have used this list for years, to help me memorize sixteen objects. There is no reason for you to stop at sixteen. You can use the same idea to bring the list up to twenty, or higher if you like. No thought or picture is too far fetched, if it suggests a certain number to you, then it will serve the purpose. Just get your imagination working.
Anyway, here is the list as I've used it, up to #16:—1 — pencil 9 — tape measure
2 — swan 10 — bat and/or ball
3 — clover 11 — spaghetti
4 — table 12 — clock
5 — star 13 — black cat (or ladder)
6 — yo-yo 14 — farm (or river)
7 — golf club 15 — elevator
8 — hourglass 16 — sign
There are other ideas which I could list; but I won't. If you need any more lists, you can use your imagination to help you form them. I'm sure you realize that the phonetic alphabet, and the letter or number equivalent method taught in this book, is far superior to any of the methods mentioned in this chapter. Your basic list of peg words can be brought up to a thousand, or over, if you wanted to, and the beauty of it is that as soon as you heard one of them, the sounds in the word would tell you immediately which number it represented. The phonetic alphabet makes it possible for peg words to be at your fingertips for any num
1O2 Some Pegs for Emergenciesber; you don't have to make them up and remember them in advance, either, you can make them up when, or as, you need them.
The two ideas I've suggested to you here, however, can be useful if you need a short list quickly, or, if you want to use one of them in conjunction with your basic peg words. The latter idea can be used for some amazing memory feats, as you will learn in a later chapter.
Before closing this chapter, I just want to remind you again that none of these ideas arc too far fetched. Any one of them will work for you if you make up your mind to use them. The two listed here, are as far as I'm concerned, the best of the lot; but any list of words that you happen to know in sequence, can serve as a peg list. I know one man who uses his own body for this purpose. From head down, he uses, hair, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, neck, chest, all the way down to toe, for his peg list. So, if an object to be remembered were #3, he would associate it to "eyes," if it were #7, he would associate it to "neck," and so on.
Some of the old time memory experts who performed in vaudeville would use the theatre itself to help them do the stunt of memorizing objects called by the audience. They might have used the stage for #1, the footlights for #2, the orchestra for #3, divans for #4, balcony for #5, etc. Anything in the theatre was utilized; the draperies, chandeliers, exit signs, men's room, ladies' room, etc.
And, of course, one of the most common, (and most limited) peg lists is the one which uses words that sound like the numbers. Such as, gun for one, shoe for two, tree for three, door for four, and so on, up to hen for ten, which is about as far as you can go.
Well, I guess my main reason for telling you about all these other ideas for word lists, was to show off the effectiveness of the phonetic alphabet. As far as I know, there is no other idea that approaches it for its unlimited qualities and for its versatility.
In the next chapter you will see how either one of the lists you learned here, or parts of them, can be used in conjunction with the phonetic alphabet.