Be Happy – Improve Your Memory (Part 5)

In the earlier four parts, I made mention about some tools how to improve the memory. Continuing the sequence, we may have look upon the Alphabet Technique for remembering Simple Ordered Lists which is a popular peg word system.

The Alphabet system is a peg memory technique similar to, but more sophisticated than, the Number/Rhyme system. It is a good method for remembering longer lists of items in a specific order, in such a way that you can tell if items are missing.

It works by associating images representing letters of the alphabet with images you create for the things to be remembered.

How to Use the Tool:

When you are creating images for the letters of the alphabet, create images phonetically, so that the sound of the first syllable of the word is the name of the letter. For example, you might represent the letter 'k' with the word 'cake'.

Tony Buzan, in his book “Use Your Perfect Memory”, suggests using a system for creating vivid images that you can reconstruct if you forget them. He suggests taking the phonetic letter sound as the first consonant, and then, for the rest of the consonants in the word, using the first letters in alphabetical order that make a memorable word. For example for the letter 'S' (root 'Es') we would first see if any strong images presented themselves when we tried to create a word starting with 'EsA', 'EsB', 'EsC', 'EsD', 'EsE', etc.).

This approach has the advantage of producing an image that you can reconstruct if you forget it. You might, however, judge that this is an unnecessary complication of a relatively simple system. In any case it is best to select the strongest image that comes to mind and stick with it.

We can stipulate the image scheme like:

A - Ace of spades, or apple
B – Bee, or bear
C – Sea, or cat
D - Diesel engine, or deer
E – Eel, or elephant
F – Effluent, or Flag
G – Jeans, or girl
H - H-Bomb, itch, or House
I – Eye, or Ink pot
J – Jade, or jug
K – Cake, or kite
L – Elephant, or leg
M – Empty, or monkey
N – Entrance, or nest
O – Oboe, or owl
P – Pea, or parrot
Q – Queue, or queen
R – Ark, or rat
S – Eskimo, or son
T – Teapot, or tank
U – Unicycle, or umbrella
V – Vehicle, or vase
W – WC, or window
X - X-Ray or x-mas day
Y – Wire, or yolk
Z – Zulu, or zebra

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you. Once you have firmly visualized these images and have linked them to their root letters, you can associate them with information to be remembered, and after you have mastered this technique you can multiply it using the images.

Example:

Continuing the mnemonic example of the names of philosophers, we will use the example of remembering a list of modern thinkers:

A - Ace - Freud - a crisp ACE being pulled out of a FRying pan (FRiED)
B - Bee - Chomsky - a BEE stinging a CHiMp and flying off into the SKY
C - Sea - Genette - a GENerator being lifted in a NET out of the SEA
D - Diesel - Derrida - a DaRing RIDer surfing on top of a DIESEL train
E - Eagle - Foucault - Bruce Lee fighting off an attacking EAGLE with kung FU
F - Effluent- Joyce - environmentalists JOYfully finding a plant by an EFFLUENT pipe
G - Jeans - Nietzche - a holey pair of JEANS with a kNEe showing through
H - H-Bomb - Kafka - a grey civil service CAFe being blown up by an H-Bomb etc.

Key Points:

The Alphabet Technique links the items to be remembered with images of the letters A-Z. This allows you to remember a medium length list in the correct order. By pegging the items to be remembered to letters of the alphabet you know if you have forgotten items, and know the cues to use to trigger their recall

Try the above tool too. It may help you improve your memory.
Be Happy - Improve Your Memory.