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Memory Systems

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Alphabet System. The Alphabet System is based on two historical sources -- first, mnemonic methods used in the very early Middle Ages by Irish monks, and second, the late medieval Irish literature on the Ogham alphabet, which was part of the training of Irish bards.

Alphabet System

Details of the first can be found in Mary Carruthers' "The Book of Memory," and you can get more info than you want to know about the second from George Calder's translation of the "Auraicept na n-Eces," a 14th century handbook of Ogham. As far as I know I'm the first person in modern times to catch the connection, though I'd be delighted to be proved wrong. I. The Original Method Irish monks in the early Middle Ages used a memory system that had little in common with the classic "ars memorativa" developed in ancient Greek and Roman schools of rhetoric. The Ogham alphabet was a set of 20 letters in the form of tally marks, divided into groups of five.

II. The same thing can be done with the English alphabet. Memory Palace. A MemoryPalace is a use of an imaginary journey through a sequence of places, or loci, each of which acts as a memory peg (PegSystem).

Memory Palace

Memory palaces are also known as the RomanRoom method, the LociSystem, the Ars Memorativa or Art of Memory, Journeys, and by many other names. You can use a MemoryPalace to remember large amounts of material. Strictly speaking, it need not be a palace; it might be a theatre or temple, for example. As new material is added, a memory palace might extend into a palace compound or temple compound, or even a whole city. Ancient Roman orators imagined their home populated with different items, real or imaginary, and each was linked to something they wanted to remember in one of their speeches. A memory palace doesn't have to be a real place, though it may start out as one. Dominic_O'Brien? Dominic uses the journeys to record sequence. Try it yourself Consider a journey which is familar to yourself. Expand your journey / memory palace without building a new wing. Peg System. The Peg System is a MemoryTechnique one where you 'hang' things you want to remember onto 'pegs,' sort of like hanging up a coat.

Peg System

The main thing about pegs is that they are always the same. For example, if you've pegged 1 to "Tie", 2 to "Noah," and 3 to "Ma," then you always use Tie for 1, Noah for 2, and Ma for 3. That way, if you're trying to remember what came with 2, you always think, "Now, what was up with Noah? " Because "Noah" means a lot more to us than just the abstract "#2. " In the LociSystem the pegs are memorable locations on a journey. When you have your firmly located peg you then need to hang on it the item to remember.

Links Peg list 1000: a peg list of 1000 items using the major system. Discussion Hello - I have a question which relates to Michael Frink's mention of "mind clutter. " I recently started thinking about pegging words as well- not just numbers. I don't know if it's a good strategy or not. I have a few questions... -- JasonBlevins? --Michael Frink ---Joe Bloggs. Link System. The link system is one of the simplest of all memory techniques and since aspects of this technique are used by many other techniques it is a useful one to start with.

Link System

The Link Words System does what its name suggests: it links words together into a long chain by using a sequence of events or a story. To recall the items you only need to recall the first stage, or the 'anchor' in order to remember the whole list. Take the example of a shopping list. Imagine that you need to go shopping for the following items, Eggs, Cat food, Party balloons, Wrapping string, Bananas. First of all create your anchor; this should be a fixed location in your mental landscape and one which will bring to mind the whole list. Now you create a story linking the items one by one to your anchor. (eggs) You open the fridge door and hundreds of eggs fall out, you see the eggs smash on and around your feet.

Number Systems