Categorical Shaper System

ink · July 18, 2023, 8:56pm

I was trying to teach a few of my friends some mnemonics, and I started by doing 0-100 shaper, which was going fine, but around 20 they were convinced they could assign images faster using less “creativity” and higher reliability - and they were right.

They essentially used a categorical shaper system, where, for example, all the numbers ending with “2” would be a visual of a person (72 if you tilt your head is a person). So, then, 62 looks like a person holding a bag, so it’s a cartoonish thief; 92 looks like a person holding a rugby ball, so it’s a rugby ball. Etc.

Usually, they’d have associative categories with first digits. 5 is a pregnant lady, so all the 5-s are associated with “creation” for them. 50 would be “associated with creation and looking like 0”, so, roe (caviar). 51 would be “associated with creation and looking like 1”, they came up with something inappropriate here.

You get the point. Using this sort of “categorical shaper”, they came up with associations for basically all of them in maybe 2h, and recalled all of them nearly perfectly afterwards.

I feel the usual shaper is a little hard to see many of the shapes, and this approach could help someone. I don’t think there’s a point in me posting the entire list, so I leave this here as an idea for someone that might want to try a (slightly) alternative approach in number mnemonic design.

erikfromholland · July 18, 2023, 9:34pm

I have tried your method long time ago and it seems a really good idea at first sight. For example, I had 5 as a first digit representing a skyhook from an industrial crane, so 50 was a gymnast hanging from a circel lifted by the crane, 51 a monkey climbing a pole …, 52 a horse being pulled up in the air, and so on. However the more numbers I translated this way, the more things started to look less then optimal. Finding a universal way to translate the first digit is not so difficult, but finding a way to translate the second digit in 10 different ways didn’t work out so well.

I also tried an even more systematic method, whereby both the first and second digit are always translated the same (like 5 is always a skyhook) and therefore a third image is required. So for example 55 would be 2 skyhooks with a ninja hanging from them. To make a long story short: this didn’t go so well either.

You get the point. Using this sort of “categorical shaper”, they came up with associations for basically all of them in maybe 2h, and recalled all of them nearly perfectly afterwards.

This seems like a good way to evaluate a new system and the opposite certainly seems to be true: a system that requires a lot of practice to learn is probably not very good to begin with. However I have had multiple experiences in which a system that was very easy to learn turned out to work not so well in the long run, most notably regarding the speed of reading/translation.

In my experience a number to letter translation system is much faster then a shape based system even if it requires a bit more time to learn such a system.

Here is another systematic shape based system that one could learn in just one day but isn’t all that usefull as it turned out: How I learned all 256 4 card suit combinations in 1 day

For what it’s worth, I have been wrong about what works and what doesn’t so often that I have lost count.

SherlockBourne · July 25, 2023, 6:29pm

Hi!

It is my first time posting here, but I thought it could be appropriate to do it given the discussed subject.

I started a few months ago with mnemonics because I wanted to learn a grid of 64 cells (8x8) which contained a 3-digit number per cell. I came up with a system that worked perfectly for memorising grids and, combined with a mind palace, made everything actually pretty easy to remember.

I then wanted to start memorising number strings, as I wanted to remember several debit/credit cards’ numbers, bank accounts, and so on. So, first of all I had to decide between several existing systems (e.g., major system), but I felt that it was pretty complicated for me to remember the objects assigned to each number.

After that uncertain start, I found the Shaper System and it looked quite much more my style. I could easily see some of the shapes, but some other were really abstract to me. So I came up with a similar idea to the one your friends mentioned! Will briefly explain here what I came up with.

I was initially OK with a 2-digit system like the Shaper System, so I decided to give it a freaky touch: the first digit would identify a film/series and the second one would identify something relevant about that film/series. So, an example of what I decided is:

Number 0 reminds me the shape of a ring, so all numbers starting with 0 will reference something related to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movies.
As number 0 reminds me the shape of a ring, the number 00 will definitely be ‘The One Ring’
Number 1 reminds me of a sword, so number 01 can be a Barrow-Blade
… and so on.

I realised that the fact of using objects from films/series made it easier to remember the images, because we can easily make them more impressive/stupid (which tends to help a lot).

I started coming up with a lot of objects when I suddenly realised that this ‘Freak’ system could help building a complete PAO with film/series characters, actions and objects. So, decided to stop the creation of my ‘Freak Shaper System’ and started building a ‘Freak PAO’.

And then, a few weeks ago I just finished my ‘Freak PAO’ system. For example, now instead of having a simple object assigned to number 00, I have [Person] Bilbo Baggins [Action] Hiding suspiciously [Object] The One Ring.

I am still slow in practise and conversion is not fast, but I am trying to keep it going with spaced repetition algorithms.

Hope this is useful for anyone else!

TheHumanTim · July 26, 2023, 12:53am

This is a cool idea. I had the same issue with the shaper originally where I just couldn’t see some of the shapes reflected in the numbers. I moved on to Major System and haven’t really revisited shaper in a while.

I did really love the 0-9 shaper images as a way for younger kids to grasp the idea of turning abstract numbers into concrete images, but I thought the 2-digit images fell short there. I could see this approach making it simple though!

I think I agree that you need very specific objects for each one’s digit in order to minimize confusion. You can’t just have 10 generic “rings” for all 10 “x0’s”, you need 10 very recognizable “round things.” Do you find you have many repeat objects and if so, how do you deal with that? Although, I suppose it wouldn’t matter too much… I would have no problem differentiating between The One Ring, and an Engagement Ring, even though they’re both “rings.” A Stargate Ring, an Egg, a Circus Ring, a Donut, etc would all be unique enough that there would be really no danger of conflating them.

I might try categories of movie/series rather than a specific one, to aid with finding variety. So maybe 0 is “fantasy”, 1 is “sci-fi”, 2 is “romantic comedy”, 3 is “animated sitcoms”, etc… That way 10 could be a Stargate Ring and 30 could be a donut from The Simpsons… 11 could be a Lightsaber, 21 could be a drippy candle from a romantic restaurant… 32 could be Captian Hook’s hook from Disney’s Peter Pan, 12 could be… a towing hook like the rebels used to trip the walkers on hoth??

Either way, very cool. Would you be able to post your list? I’d love to see what you came up with!

fred2 · July 26, 2023, 8:26am

Tim can you please elaborate further on how your images cited relate to the two-digit numbers you are suggesting??:

Quote: @TheHumanTim
I might try categories of movie/series rather than a specific one, to aid with finding variety. So maybe 0 is “fantasy”, 1 is “sci-fi”, 2 is “romantic comedy”, 3 is “animated sitcoms”, etc…That way 10 could be a Stargate Ring and 30 could be a donut from The Simpsons… 11 could be a Lightsaber, 21 could be a drippy candle from a romantic restaurant… 32 could be Captian Hook’s hook from Disney’s Peter Pan, 12 could be… a towing hook like the rebels used to trip the walkers on …?? Would a 5 not be a better dedpiction than a 2 for a “hook” though?

On a reread of what you are saying, if I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that all numbers in the range #30 - #39 are “animated cartoons”. So #35 = Person could be Captain Hook (5 being the Hook) and say #39 = Person could be the guy in the cartoon movie “UP” where the 9 is a Balloon. I can see a lot of merit in this. To get 00-99 People, you would need 10 categories depicting the “Tens placement values”. Perhaps as you favour the “Major System” the Cartoons category may better be placed in (#70 - #79) as 7 is sounded as a K in Major System, therefore Cartoon would fit the bill for the range (#70 - #79). Fantasy film characters would be better suited to the (#80 - #89 range) as Fantasy = 8 in Major system’s encoding? Further thoughts (if any?)

Instead of #80 - #89 being Fantasy you could have the category of Female as F = 8 in Major System. So using the number-shaper system for the different unit values would give: 0 = Ring, 1 = Pole, 2 = Shoe, 3 = Bum, 4 = Chair, 5 = Hook, 6 = Cherry, 7 = Diving Board, 8 = Two Fat Ladies (Bingo Call #), 9 = Balloon:

TheHumanTim · July 26, 2023, 10:30am

I would try to avoid mixing systems. I’d want this one to purely visually based without involving substitute number/letter/phonetics in any way.

I like @SherlockBourne idea to try to get the “tens place” digits to designate their categories with a shaper clue. So lets see if I can come up with a quick list of tens categories based on genre visuals…

0x’s - fantasy makes sense because 0 looks like The One Ring, love that idea.
1x’s - sci-fi - 1 looks like a lightsaber.
2x’s - romance - a high heel shoe.
3x’s - western - 3 is the big mustache of Wyatt Earp.
4x’s - 4 has a couple options, depending on how you see the number, the 4 could have a closed triangle shape on top that looks like a chef knife, or an open shape that looks like an upsidedown chair. Maybe either way it could represent thriller / crime / prison drama. Knife for murder weapon, or chair for the prison electric chair or interrogation room chair.
5x’s - horror - the cliche’d hook from generic horror stories of guys with hooks stalking teens in their cars.
6x’s - sports - golf club
7x’s - kung fu/action - nunchucks
8x’s - historical / period piece - hourglass, timeless
9x’s - kids/animated - balloon

This would be a fun exercise to continue and fill in the one’s digit shapes now with distinct objects from specific films/shows within those genres. Ideally if they have a connection to specific unique characters you could have a really easy PO list for more visually inclined folks, and one that would be pretty much language independent.

ink · July 26, 2023, 4:50pm

Here’s some of my friend’s associations for 8 that I thought were pretty good:
8_s - related to winter/snow, because 8 is a snowman.
80 - snow itself
81 - pine needles (1 is like a needle)
82 - exception, all _2s
83 - christmas tree (if the 3 were sharper)
84 - cloves
85 - exception, all _5s
86 - christmas tree decoration bulb thing, not sure how it’s named
87 - icicle
88 - gift (because the 8 looks like a bow)
89 - ice-skate
The other ones were, I thought, worse.
It would be interesting to design the fastest system to teach to a random person, similar to what TheHumanTim says, and it slightly feels like this is going in the direction - but it’s quite a lot of work making it clean.

TheHumanTim · July 26, 2023, 4:57pm

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far…

Category Shaper PO

|Number|Person|Object|

2x - Romance
|20||engagement ring|
|21||candle|
|22||shoe|
|23|||
|24|||
|25|||
|26|||
|27|||
|28||wedding dress|
|29|||

3x - Western
|30||wagon wheel|
|31|davy crockett|bowie knife|
|32|saloon girl|high heel|
|33|wyatt earp|moustache|
|34||saddle|
|35||train engine|
|36||noose|
|37||teepee|
|38|lone ranger|lone ranger mask|
|39||lasso|

4x - Crime
|40||bullet hole|
|41||ice pick|
|42||footprints|
|43||ankle monitor|
|44||electric chair|
|45|||
|46|||
|47||axe|
|48||cuffs|
|49||blackjack|

5x - Horror
|50|||
|51|||
|52|||
|53||neck collar from saw|
|54|||
|55||hook|
|56||chainsaw|
|57|||
|58|||
|59|||

6x - Sports
|60||ball|
|61||bat|
|62|||
|63|||
|64|||
|65|||
|66||golf club|
|67|||
|68|||
|69|||

7x - Action
|70||grenade|
|71||dynamite|
|72|||
|73|||
|74|||
|75|||
|76|||
|77||nunchuck|
|78|||
|79|||

8x - Historical
|80||chariot wheel|
|81||spear|
|82|||
|83|||
|84|henry viii|throne|
|85|||
|86|||
|87|mary antionette|guillotine|
|88|||
|89|||

9x - Kids Animated
|90|sam-i-am|egg|
|91|kid arthur|sword in the stone|
|92|cinderella|glass slipper|
|93|yosemite sam|big red moustache|
|94|||
|95|captain hook|hook|
|96|||
|97|||
|98|olaf|snowballs|
|99|up grandpa|balloons|

SherlockBourne · July 26, 2023, 6:10pm

Sorry for the delay! I am having a lot of work to do these days and I could not reply until now.

In my specific case, I decided not only to choose films/series by the shape of the numbers, but also if the number reminds me of something specific. Here is my list of films/series, with the specific reason of choosing them:

Numbers | Film/Series             | Reason
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0X      | Lord of the Rings       | Number 0 looks like a Ring
1X      | Harry Potter            | Number 1 looks like a Wand
2X      | Back to the Future      | Back '2' the Future
3X      | Inception               | There were 3 main dream levels
4X      | Marvel                  | Number 4 reminds me the Fantastic Four
5X      | The Fifth Element       | Because... The 5th Element, obviously :D
6X      | Sherlock Holmes (films) | Number 6 reminds me a Pocket Watch, or
        |                         | even a Smoking Pipe (both are Sherlock's)
7X      | The Big Bang Theory     | I always remember the '43 Peculiarity'
        |                         | episode, and 4+3 is 7 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8X      | Breaking Bad            | Number 8 reminds me the letter B so
        |                         | B -> BB -> Breaking Bad
9X      | Star Wars               | The main story is composed of 9 films

I must admit not all of them are straightforward, but I sacrificed ease in exchange for easy-to-remember characters and objects.

For the unit numbers, I mostly decided to use a combination of character-object where the objects had a shape similar to the numbers. As an example:

Number 0: circular objects. Examples:
- 00: The One Ring - Bilbo
- 10: Golden Snitch - Harry
- 20: DeLorean wheel - Emmett Brown
- ...

Number 1: straight objects. Examples:
- 01: Barrow-Blade - Sam
- 11: Wand - Hermione
- 21: Adjustable bat - Griff Tannen
- ...

However, in some other cases it was just easier to base the number in the characters, and then find an object that suits them. A clear example of this is what I did with The Big Bang Theory: there are 5 main male-characters with their own couples, which makes the 10 numbers I needed.

So, in this specific case, I just ordered them by relevance (subjective topic, of course), and set the male-characters at the even digits (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) and the female-characters at the odd digits (making pairs by couple). I did this mainly because that way when having to convert a number back to the image, it was much faster to get the exact character given its type of number and relevance. The list resulted in:

70: Sheldon - Play Station 4
71: Amy - Jumper
72: Leonard - Inhalator
73: Penny - Paintball gun
74: Howard - Stephen Hawking remote-controlled dummy
75: Bernadette - Cinderella’s dress
76: Rajesh - Dog
77: Emily - Skull
78: Stuart - Cleaning gloves
79: Denise - Comic Book

I must admit that, at the beginning, mixing number-mechanisms was a bit tricky and I tended to fail the conversion. However, with spaced-repetition algorithms, I am now able to do the conversion much faster, although I still have a lot to improve.

TheHumanTim · July 26, 2023, 6:31pm

Really cool.

fred2 · July 26, 2023, 7:45pm

I’ll add to your “Sporting 60’s”

Do I understand this correctly that the 60’s People will all be Sport People denoted by “6” with their corresponding objects denoted by the unit figure?

So if my assumption is correct we are working the system as a OP (Object/ Person System) and not as a PO (Person/ Object System)?

#60 - Baseball Pitcher - (Ball shape = 0)
#61 - Baseball Hitter - (Bat shape = 1)
#62 - Duck Hunters - (Duck shape = 2)
#63 - Mountaineer (Backpack Shape = 3)
or
#63 - Paraglider (Glider Shape like a 3 on its side m)
#64 - Windsurfer (Sail Shape = 4)
#65 - Angler - (Fish Hook Shape = 5)
#66 - Golfer (Golf Club Shape = 6)
#67 - Para Olympian Amputee (Blade Shape = 7)
#68 - Ice Figure Skater (Makes a Figure 8 shape on ice)
or
#68 - Pool Player (Black Ball = 8)
#69 - Hot Air Balloonist - Balloon shape with basket = 9

TheHumanTim · July 26, 2023, 10:47pm

Some really good ones there, thanks Fred!

fred2 · July 27, 2023, 9:23am

I don’t want to hijack your thread but you could use the categorical shape system to encode playing cards too. For instance, If your Suit of Spades = Sport, you could have the following cards (assume that an Ace counts as a “1”):

1S = Baseball Striker (Bat shaped as a “1”)
2S = Duck Hunter (Duck shaped as a “2”)
3S = Cricket Wicket Keeper (View of the wicket = “3”)
4S = Windsurfer (Sail in the shape of a “4”)
5S = Fisherman (The Hook on the line is shaped as a “5”
6S = Golfer (Club shaped as a “6”)
7S = Springboard Diver (Board shaped as a “7”)
8S = Pool Player (Black Ball = #8)
9S = Hot-air Balloonist - The Balloon is shaped as a “9”
10S = Cricket Bowler - Ball shaped as a “0” (0 = 10)

To finish off for your ‘picture cards’ think of who is the King of Sport, Queen of Sport, and a Sportsperson whose name is “Jack” (not Jack Nicholas as I have a Golfer as 6S) Perhaps:

JS = Jackie Stewart (F1 racer driver of the 1960’s/1070’s)
QS = Serena Williams (GOAT Tennis Player)
KS = Muhammed Ali (GOAT Heavyweight Boxer)

fred2 · July 28, 2023, 5:52am

Thinking aloud here to the “Hearts Suit”, perhaps “Hollywood” = (H) = Hearts, would work well. Starting with the Royal Cards (Jack, Queen and King):

Jack of Hearts = Jack Nicholson
Queen of Hearts = Queen Latifah
King of Hearts = King Kong

I was thinking that the names of movies could be used for instant recall of card numbers but Names of Movies are not People (P) themselves in a PAO. So 6H = Sixth Sense = Bruce Willis, seems a little convoluted to me?

1H = One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
2H = Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3H = The Three Amigos
4H = Fantastic Four
5H = The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five armies
6H = Sixth Sense
7H = Magnificent Seven
8H = 8mm
9H = “9 to 5”
0H = Ground Zero

Perhaps it would be better to arrive again at the “People” needed to represent each card through the Shaper System again? 1 = Candlestick = Scrooge holding a candle. 2 = Swan (“The Ugly Duckling”). 7 = Boomerang (Crocodile Dundee) etc… My brain seems a bit muggy at the moment but perhaps more ideas will come to me latter.

Any one else with any further suggestions along the “Hollywood theme”. Also if Queen Latifah and King Kong aren’t used for QH and KH respectively, who would be considered to be the “King and Queen of Hollywood?” I’ve often heard that Clark Gable was considered to be the “King of Hollywood”. Must admit he was a little before my time though as I was born in the same year that Clark Gable died. LOL!!

I like Queen Latifah though as the Queen of Hollywood as PAO: Queen Latifah (P) / Driving (A) / Taxi (Object) works well!!

Footnote: Movie star Clark Gable was just 59 when he died of a heart attack in 1960, on the cusp of major changes in the understanding and treatment of coronary heart disease.

TheHumanTim · July 28, 2023, 11:34am

I think this is more in line with the method we’re looking at, number shape triggering the association.

Its tricky because I always try to limit the number of conversion steps whenever possible to make learning the associations smoother. I don’t know if there’s a way to improve that if using this method for cards. You still have to convert suit to category, then number to object, then object to category. Its not too bad, but not as simple as major system to just read the element directly from the card. (As always, with the caveat of “the system is just the tool to get you to instant fluency. One the fluency is there, the system you’ve used to get there doesn’t matter anymore.”)

Maybe the suit icons could inform those categories better based on inherent associations… Spades looks like a spearpoint, so maybe Spades is War or Weaponry, or Violence. Heart is a heart, a body part so maybe Anatomy. Diamond is a diamond, Richness, Extravagance, Luxury. Club looks like a tree, so Nature, Animals, Outdoor Activity? These categories are different enough that it should be clear what goes where.

I don’t think this approach really lends itself to a PAO format… in fact, it looks like it would be easiest with just a list of objects, with on-the-fly interaction creation to use it, but would still be a great starting point for someone with cards. You could fairly easily connect two or three objects to form a scene, and you’d need 18 to 26 scenes to encode a full deck. Very doable using a solid memory palace.

Lets see if I can knock out some basic images:

Spades: (war, weapons, violence)
A - missile warhead
2 - scythe/sickle
3 - crossbow
4 - combat knife or interrogation chair (depending on “4” shape)
5 - big wheel cannon or tommy gun
6 - submarine with periscope
7 - nun-chucks
8 - brass knuckles
9 - flail
10 - grenade (just the 0 is needed to identify it)
J - musket
Q - bomb with fuse
K - siege tower or 50 cal. rifle on stand (turned sideways)

Clubs: (Nature, outdoors)
A - camping tent
2 - cobra
3 - flying bird
4 - windmill blade
5 - seahorse
6 - snail shell
7 - canyon ledge
8 - balanced stones
9 - elephant
10 - boulder
J - caterpillar / inchworm hanging from branch
Q - turtle
K - picnic table on its side

Hearts: (Anatomy)
A - legs apart
2 - lower leg / foot
3 - butt
4 - arm bent at elbow
5 - potbelly
6 - hand giving thumbs up
7 - knee
8 - narrow waist
9 - ear
10 - eye
J - femur bone
Q - belly button
K - open mouth

Diamonds: (Wealth, Extravagance, Luxury)
A - private jet
2 - swan boat
3 - lips that had lip injections
4 - sailboat or golden toilet (depending on 4 shape)
5 - segway scooter
6 - shrimp cocktail
7 - jetski
8 - ring with huge diamond on top
9 - golf club
10 - gold coin
J - fancy tobacco pipe
Q - necklace
K - crown (sideways)

What I’m really liking about this is that it is not dependent on using a specific language or reading ability. It would be a great way to show kids how to start using the technique, and you could also teach it across a language barrier since it’s purely visual. Because there are no specific people involved in the list, and the objects are fairly universally recognizable, someone could use this exact list without having to “personalize it.”

That is always one of the big challenges in using someone else’s list… that there are going to be many entries that don’t resonate or are irrelevant either culturally or due to individual experience or relationship. Many people on my lists are personal friends and relatives, so I couldn’t really teach that exact list to someone else, they would have to swap images out. Same thing for pop-culture or age-relevant imagery. My wheelhouse is mid-late 90’s pop culture. Too much before that or too recently doesn’t resonate as strongly. If the person I’m trying to share my list with doesn’t have a similar era of associations, my images won’t resonate or make as much sense for them to use as ones pulled from their strong perspectives. With this list though, a windmill blade or an elephant are fairly universal visuals, so you could easily teach it as is to almost anyone.

fred2 · July 29, 2023, 3:23pm

A very good list for cards. I will see if I can offer you any alternatives to some of the cards you’ve given. I usually find when I have devised a peg list (which is effectively what this is), I sometimes amend images to stronger ones, or ones that I feel to your point would ‘traverse’ national borders better perhaps than those I originally choose. But I’m guessing as this is your list that perhaps my suggestions wouldn’t necessarily add value to you because invariably the first thing the card made you think of would be the best one to use. I also think that this system would work very well with an existing list of 1 - 52 Unencoded People that I have devised (or 54 People if you want to include the Jokers). Effectively you would shuffle up a deck of cards and your first Person image at position #1 - the Statue of Liberty would be associated or paired with the card that is in position 1 say the 4 of Clubs which on your list is Windmill Blades. So the compound image would be the Statue of Liberty holding a Windmill. Using some other examples from the “not so random deck below” would give the following:

1 = Statue of Liberty #1 holding a “Windmill” (4C)
2 = Swan #2 paddling with “Feet” (2H)
3 = Ronald McDonald #3 riding a “Jetski” (7D)
4 = Windsurfer #4 being ridden by a “Giant Bird” (3C)
5 = Unicyclist #5 riding with arms bent at elbow (4H) etc…

Going through your card lists, I would have to change the 5 of Clubs as my Person at position #46 is a Seahorse. Your 6 of Hearts would need to be changed as my person for #42 is a “Hitch-Hiker” (Hitch-Hikers guide to the Universe - answer to everything is “42”). Your 2 of Diamonds conflicts with my Person Peg for position #2 which is a Swan. Your 4 of Diamonds may also conflict with my Person peg at position #4 which is a “Windsurfer”. Your 7 of Diamonds would need to be changed as my Person Peg #41 is a Jetskier too.

But other than those changes, there would be no other conflict or inconsistencies with my “Unencoded People Pegs #1 - #52”

TheHumanTim · July 29, 2023, 3:36pm

Update: This system is awesome for cards, and works amazingly using 100% shape-based keys.

Up until now this discussion was just kind of theoretical. Today I had a chance to experiment and it was soooo good.

I had a friend over who knows about my card project and who I’ve shown in the past how to memorize the red-black sequence of a deck of cards using basic substitution / binary technique. He does not actively do memory technique stuff, but enjoys hearing about my efforts and is always open to trying things out as my “layman guinea pig.”

I told him that I had a new method that I was almost positive would allow him to memorize a full deck of cards very easily, and he said he was in, lets try it.

So first we ran a baseline test… I had him try to memorize as many cards as he could in a minute. He got 5.5 correct (had the right value on one, but wrong suit.) He looked at 8 cards but blanked on the last two. I thought this was actually pretty good as thats more than 10 pieces of information to hold in short term memory (counting suit and value elements individually.)

Then I told him that we were gonna try to look at each card and turn it into an object based on the shape of the value and the category that would be generated by the suit. I explained how the spade looks like an arrowhead or spear tip, so spades values are weapons and war related… a heart is an organ, so heart values are anatomical features… clubs are trees so outdoorsy or nature stuff… diamonds represent luxury and wealth.

Then I said we’ll look at each value and come up with something that is shaped like the value that falls into those categories. We’d use the linking method to create an absurd cause-effect-cause-effect chain that connected them all in order and we’d see what happened.

We started flipping cards over and he immediately grasped the translation concept. I had my list ready but each time I’d ask if something immediately sprang to mind. He had a few that popped in right off the bat that differed from mine, which was great. 5 he saw as a tommy gun. 10 was a swimming pool. J he imagined a fancy golden sink faucet upside down.

He was able to visualize and link every card and then recall them all with 100% accuracy. We didn’t use memory palace at all, just linking. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time trying to get him to create a palace with 18+ loci in it, so we went with links for this run. I explained how it could possibly be even easier and quicker if he prepared a palace ahead of time to place short scenes in. He was laughing at how effortless it was. He said the hardest part was seeing the shapes for the first time, but once the shape relation clicked, it was locked in strongly.

I think I love this system as an introduction to card memorizing to show someone that the seemingly impossible is possible, that anyone can memorize a full deck of cards, and that with some practice it can be done faster and faster.

TheHumanTim · July 29, 2023, 3:41pm

If you’ve got a pre-existing 52 item peg list, this would be an incredibly easy way to memorize a deck stack such as your “random one” so that you could recall which card was at which position instantly.

fred2 · July 29, 2023, 3:44pm

Exactly! I’m watching the Springboks vs Argentina Rugby match but I will share my Intuitive People Peg Lists #1 - #52 once match is over. Well done Tim. I agree wholeheartedly with you that the system is “childs-play”!!

fred2 · July 29, 2023, 4:33pm

Like this:

The remaining people pegs (intuitive #16 - #52) are given below:

16 = Sweet-Sixteen
17 = Dancing Queen (from the ABBA song)
18 = Learner Driver (18 years in our Country)
19 = Vietnam Soldier(average age of USA soldier in war)
20 = A Smoker (20 cigarettes in a packet)
21 = A Scotsman (21 year old Scotch Whiskey)
22 = Bishop Tutu (two-two)
23 = Michael Jordan (Player #23)
24 = A Chemist (24/7)
25 = Santa Claus (Xmas Day 25 December)
26 = A Boxer (26th December - Boxing Day)
27 = Nelson Mandela (27 years as political prisoner)
28 = Michael Phelps (number of total Olympic Medals)
29 = A Frog (Leap Year)
30 = Thirsty (A dehydrated man in a desert)
31 = Guy Fawkes (Shape of Beard and Moustache)
32 = Dentist (32 teeth)
33 = A Dee-Jay (LPs 33+1/3 rpm)
34 = Waltzers (3/4 time)
35 = Photographer (35mm camera)
36 = Boy Scout (a directional compass has 36 points)
37 = Slots Gambler (777) or three 7’s
38 = Policeman (.38 snub nose revolver)
39 = Lighthouse Keeper (39 steps)
40 = Farty (a person who keeps farting)
41 = Jetskier
42 = Chess Knight (4 is the Head and 2 is the Base)
43 = Fisherman (Fish Shaped 4 + 3)
44 = Dolly Parton (Bust Size… supposedly LOL!)
45 = Jukebox Jivers (records are 45 rpm)
46 = Seahorse (4 is Head and 6 is Tail)
47 = Guerilla Soldier (AK 47 assault rifle)
48 = Truck Driver (Shaper System)
49 = San Francisco 49’er (American Footballer)
50 = 50 Cents (Rapper)
51 = Drone Pilot (Area 51)
52 = Magician (performing tricks with 52 playing cards)