^Tutorial 12 - Applying the Peg System\

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 :

  1. telephone       11. trumpet
  2. table           12. spectacles
  3. axe             13. carrot
  4. porridge        14. moon
  5. ladder          15. peach
  6. sparrow         16. hat
  7. piano           17. boat
  8. cigar           18. daffodil
  9. grapefruit      19. radio
 10. camera          20. envelope

As you can see, these items have been chosen completely at random, and have
no logical connection.#
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\.

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.

Begin with item 1, %telephone\.  Associate %telephone\ to Peg Word 1, which
is ^tie\.  See a ludicrous picture in your mind's eye which will associate
the two items.  Perhaps you are wearing a %telephone\ around your neck
instead of a ^tie\. See that zany image, or any crazy image which associates
the two items, right now, in your mind's eye.#

Next, associate item 2, $table\, to the Peg Word for 2, which is ^Noah\.
You might picture ^Noah\ calling pairs of tables into his ark, instead of
pairs of animals. Make a ridiculous association between $table\ and ^Noah\
in your mind, right now.

Item 3 on the list is <axe\, so associate it to Peg Word 3, ^ma\.  Perhaps
you can picture yourself chopping off a little old lady's head with an
^axe\. This is an image which may well make you shudder, but you certainly
won't forget it ! Make the association now.

Item 4 is |porridge\.  Associate it Peg Word 4, which is ^ray\.  You might
picture yourself sunbathing in your bathing costume, when the sun's ^rays\
suddenly turn to streams of |porridge\, and you are covered in a horrible,
sticky mess.

The fifth item is >ladder\, and you need to associate it to ^law\, the Peg
Word for the number 5. You could perhaps picture yourself being arrested by
a >ladder\ wearing a policeman's helmet, or see yourself trying to climb a
ladder made out of policemen.#

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.

 Associate item 6  - >sparrow\    to ^shoe\ (Peg Word 6)
 Associate item 7  - >piano\      to ^key\  (Peg Word 7)
 Associate item 8  - >cigar\      to ^ivy\  (Peg Word 8)
 Associate item 9  - >grapefruit\ to ^bee\  (Peg Word 9)
 Associate item 10 - >camera\     to ^toes\ (Peg Word 10)
 Associate item 11 - >trumpet\    to ^tin\  (Peg Word 11)
 Associate item 12 - >spectacles\ to ^toad\ (Peg Word 12)
 Associate item 13 - >carrot\     to ^dam\  (Peg Word 13)
 Associate item 14 - >moon\       to ^tyre\ (Peg Word 14)
 Associate item 15 - >peach\      to ^doll\ (Peg Word 15)
 Associate item 16 - >hat\        to ^dish\ (Peg Word 16)
 Associate item 17 - >boat\       to ^dog\  (Peg Word 17)
 Associate item 18 - >daffodil\   to ^dove\ (Peg Word 18)
 Associate item 19 - >radio\      to ^tap\  (Peg Word 19)
 Associate item 20 - >envelope\   to ^nose\ (Peg Word 20)#

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. When you are ready, press Page Down to test
yourself on how well you have memorised the items, in and out of sequence.~