Number-form system
The number-form system is a basic mnemonic association technique and is also known under names such as number-symbol system , picture system , auxiliary picture series , picture grid , picture table , number symbols and the like. a. known. The term Pegword System is often used internationally.
In the number system, numbers form the basic structure, i.e. the order, the order in which the words to be remembered are noted and sorted. In other systems, e.g. B. the letters of the alphabet or places along a path or in a building that is walked through on a fixed path and examined, the basic memory structure that belongs to every complex system.
Procedure
Each number is assigned a certain symbol, more precisely a picture, in order to then use these symbols to put the terms to be remembered in a fixed order (cf. the ancient Indian number representation from the 7th century).
The symbols are chosen in such a way that their shape makes them relate to the number with certainty:
1 - a candle looks like a painted 1
2 - the 2 resembles a swan
3 - a trident has 3 points
4 - a (lucky) clover has 4 leaves
5 - the hand has 5 fingers
6 - an elephant has, so to speak, 6 limbs because of the four legs, the trunk and the tail
7 - a flag waving in the wind looks like a written 7
8 - the hourglass is shaped like an 8
9 - a golf club held up is similar to a 9
10 - both feet together have 10 toes
Symbols
The symbols used differ in the instruction books. It does not depend on the image used, but that the respective user has the image vividly in front of their eyes and can memorize it well and safely. The image / symbol used by him must suit him. But it is crucial that you decide on a certain picture. If an angler prefers to imagine the 9 as a fishing hook or someone else as a hook on a large crane, a person who prefers the 8 as a propeller instead of an hourglass, then that's just as good. But the system only works if the same picture always comes to mind and, above all, vice versa, in the case of a memory picture with a swan that it symbolizes the 2 and thus the second memory. If you notice that you often have problems with the same number, you have to choose a different picture and relearn.
| number | similar shape | Association chain |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Sphere , ball , egg , sack , orange | old person (no teeth) |
| 1 | Candle , baseball bat , post, pencil , fountain pen , walking stick, tree | Cyclops (1 eye) |
| 2 | Duck , swan , goose , water hose | Light switch (2 functions: off / on) |
| 3 | Trident , handcuffs , buttocks , mound , double chin | Stool (3 legs) |
| 4th | Sailboat , shamrock , armchair ( digital 4 on head) | Car (4 tires), table / chair / armchair (4 legs) |
| 5 | pregnant woman , hook | Hand (5 fingers) |
| 6th | twisted elephant trunk , golf club (down), cherry , whistle | Cube (6 sides), elephant (6 links) |
| 7th | Flag , cliff , fishing rod , boomerang , scythe | Dwarf ( Snow White and the 7 dwarfs ) |
| 8th | Hourglass , pretzel , snowman , glasses , roller coaster | Spider (8 legs) |
| 9 | Flag , sperm , tennis racket , tadpole , golf club (top) | Cat (9 lives) / cone (all nine) |
| 10 | Baseball or golf club with ball, billiard cue with ball, Laurel and Hardy | Bible (10 commandments), all fingers / toes |
| 11 | 2 spaghetti noodles | Football / soccer team (11 players) |
| 12 | Alarm clock / clock (hands point to 12 o'clock) | Lunch (12 p.m.), ghost ( witching hour; 12 p.m.) |
| 13 | Cat (body forms 1, tail 3) | Elevator (no 13th floor) / Friday the 13th |
| 14th | 2 flashes (1st flash forms 1, 2nd flash forms 4) | Heart (February 14; Valentine's Day ) |
| 15th | Angel (rod forms 1, hook forms 5) | Knight (lived in the 15th century ) |
| 16 | Whip (pommel forms 1, cord forms 6) | Teenager (age) |
| 17th | Set square (front edge forms 1, top and sloping edge forms 7) | Card game (17 and 4) |
| 18th | Bird house (edge forms 1, the 2 holes the 8) | Rush hour traffic ( traffic jams at 6 p.m.) |
| 19th | Balloon (cord shapes 1, balloon shapes 9) | Dinner (7 p.m.) |
| 20th | Nikolausschlitten (runners form the 2, the fat Santa the 0) | News (8 p.m.) |
If you have this system in mind, you can memorize ten to twenty words by converting each of these words into a living picture, as colorful and vivid as possible (the content can be as meaningless as you like) and linked with one of the symbolic images to form a picture. Would you like to z. B. memorize a shopping list, then write each of the ten items to be bought next to one of the numbers and form a picture in your head. If tomatoes are next to 10 and you have chosen 10 because of the ten toes for two feet as the image, you could e.g. For example, imagine standing in a large vat and crushing tomatoes with your feet. In the shop, when you memorize the 10th item on the shopping list, you remember feet and the vivid picture of the situation of crushing tomatoes in a large vat comes before your eyes. Then you just have to reconstruct that you wanted to buy tomatoes and not a vat.
Abstract terms
A little more effort and practice is required to memorize abstract terms, such as B. "Faith", "Love" and "Hope". But here you have to z. For example, imagine a kneeling prayer, in love a couple hugging, etc. A picture of Einstein on a blackboard could help with “relativity theory”. If the fourth word to remember is "Theory of Relativity" and you have chosen the clover leaf as the symbol for four, then you can imagine Einstein in front of the blackboard holding a huge four-leaf clover in his hand, or a bouquet with four-leaf clover or with a blackboard stands in a meadow of four-leaf clover.
The Greeks had it easy with abstract concepts in that almost all abstract concepts were also embodied by a divine being. So every art had its muse . The "war" z. B. was embodied by the god Ares . Even today many could remember the term “justice” through the image of the goddess Justitia, a woman with the attributes of scales and sword. Anyone who likes and knows fables can imagine cunning as a fox, malice by means of a wolf, greed by means of a wolf hungry for a lamb.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de (PDF; 8.0 MB)
literature
- Tony Buzan: Don't forget anything! (= Mosaic at Goldmann ). 15th edition. Goldmann, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-442-10385-1 (English: Use Your Memory . London 1984. Translated by Martin Schulte).
- Ulrich Bien: Simply. Everything. Notice. Ingenious memory techniques for a perfect memory. Humboldt, Hannover 2010. ISBN 3-86910-465-1 .
Web links
A practical example of using the number-form system in this video .