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You may have to spend an hour or so going through the above list, before you reach the point where you can hear a number and immediately think of the image that goes with it. But if you do put the necessary amount of effort in, then I promise you that you will not regret it.
Pegging, unlike the number/rhyming system (outlined in chapter 6), may be used to memorise long-digit numbers. For example the number 624198031536497.
Now the above number may seem to you (at first glance), to be a very difficult number to memorise. However using the peg system, all that is required is for you to link together just 8 words. These are 62 – chin, 41 – rat, 98 – beef, 0 – sow, 31 – mud, 53 – lame, 64 – chair and finally 97 – book. The above peg images may be linked together as follows.
| The first two numbers – 62 and 41, are represented
by the images chin and rat. Now to remember these numbers,
you could try imagining an enormous flat chin, with a rat
scurrying around it. To link together the numbers 41 (rat) and 98 (beef), you could imagine a rat gnawing away at a large beef steak. |
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The numbers 98 (beef) and 0 (sow) may be linked together by visualising
a beef steak with thick stitches sowed into it.
0 (sow) and 31 (mud) may be associated by visualising a needle
and thread sticking out of a pit of mud. To link together the numbers
31 (mud) and 53 (lame), you could imagine a lame man limping through
a mud pit.
The numbers 53 (lame) and 64 (chair) suggest the image of a chair with crutches instead of legs to me. However if you have an image that works better for you, then by all means use it.
Finally, the numbers 64 (chair) and 97 (book) may be easily recalled
by simply imagining a large chair, with an enormous, wobbling
pile of books balanced precariously on top of it.
| By using the above images, you should have no problem remembering
this particular 15-digit number. From such a start, it is possible (with practice) to increase your capacity for number recollection still further.From such a start, it is possible (with practice) to increase your capacity for number recollection still further. |
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In fact as you become more proficient in the art of linking, and more familiar with the peg words, it is even possible that you will eventually be good enough to be able to commit to memory numbers that consist of 100’s or even 1000’s of digits.
I myself can remember several hundred digits after reading through them only once. An ability that many others can attain, with the correct amount of practice.
Pegging is an ideal system for remembering telephone numbers, dates, addresses, both long and short-digit numbers, and by combining it with the link system, it may also be used to accurately recall the dates of various historical events.
However, perhaps the best use of the peg system involves combining it with the link system and the ‘Super Pegs’ (discussed in chapter fourteen of this book) to form a mental database. But that is something that I will go into more deeply as the book progresses.