subject: How To Use Pegwords to Remember Information [print this page] How To Use Pegwords to Remember Information
Pegwords are another mnemonic device that depends on visual imagery, wherein pegwords rhyme with numbers to make the words easy to remember. There are many differences on the pegword method, but they are all constructed on the a general principle that people are taught a sequence of words that serve as "pegs" on which memories can be "hung." Peg system permits more flexible access to information than the loci strategy does. An example of such is if you want to recite the items backwards for some reason, you can do so just as easily as in the forward direction. Pegwords can be used as long as it rhymes with a number word. Nouns and verbs are most applicable as pegwords because they can be easily associated with the information to be remembered. To illustrate better, an example is provided for you below.
There are different forms of the peg methods; all use a concrete object to represent each number, the difference that lies between them is how you designate an object that represents each number. One peg system relies on using pegs that resemble the numbers they stand for, while another relies on pegs that rhyme with the number rely on meanings (as mentioned in the first paragraph), and one uses alphabetic pegs. Illustrated below is an example of a rhyming peg:
Rhyming Pegs (Visual Pegs)
This form is one of the most famous of the peg system. It is known to be the easiest system and people already know many rhymes from childhood. Memorization of the words that rhyme with the numbers one to ten is the key to use this system. Here is an example of the number and its corresponding pegword, you can make one for yourself.
1 gun
2 shoe
3 tree
4 boar
5 hive
6 sticks
7 heaven
8 plate
9 swine
10 pen
Here are the steps to follow to use the pegwords strategy.
1. Take note of the first piece of information to be remembered.
2. Think of the pegword to represent one. The pegword we will use for one is gun
3. Create an association in your mind between the pegword one and the first piece of information to be remembered. Draw or form a picture vividly in your mind of this association. Is the gun a long gun, such as a rifle? Is the gun a hand gun, such as a revolver? This act allows you to remember the rhyme, linking between the number and the words rhyming with it.
4. Do the steps 1 to 3 for additional information that you would like to remember. Use the pegword shoe for the second piece of information, tree for the third piece of information, so on and so forth.
5. After forming an association between the numbers and the words that rhyme with them, you've constructed your pegs. Practice by verbalizing each of the peg words out loud.
6. Test yourself by picturing the peg words in place of the numbers as you randomly jump amongst the numbers: four, six, two, and nine. Because the words rhyme with the numbers, you don't have to say the numbers to remember the words.
When remembering a list, all you have to do is associate each item with a peg: the first item with a gun, the second item with a shoe, and so on. In recalling the list, call up each peg, and you'll easily remember the mental image that is associated to each peg.
Here is an example of a shopping list where it could work.
List of items to be memorized:
toothpaste bread tray of eggs pineapple
Learn a list of peg words that rhyme with numbers
Link each item to your list to a pegword by creating an unusual picture of the two together
toothpaste is gun bread is shoe tray of eggs is tree pineapple is boar
Recall the list of information starting at one, each number will signal to recall the pegword assigned to it which in turn will also recall the word associated with it.
