Hello all!
Looking into being familiar with memorizing a deck of cards. As I understand it, that would involve coming up with a PAO for each card in the deck, correct?
I’m just wondering if there are any techniques for actually MEMORIZING the PAOs. If I have this right, they are fairly arbitrary. Is there any suggestions for learning the fact that I have “David (Person) sling-shotting (action) a stone (object)” for the 2 of Clubs? Or is that just have to going to be memorized by rote?
When I was first starting out, I worked with one suit at a time; I made it easy on myself by doing Black then Red, black then red. When learning my suits. You want to get very intimiate with your cards so you can recall them faster. Effectively, yes, you will be learning this by rote.
Alternatively, you can also develop your card-pao system by building it upon a number system; you get this down and it’ll be easier to recall what your cards mean because you’re drawing your association from more than one item.I started doing this when I was working on my third suit of cards (3/4th the deck) and found that I kept stumbling through my memory palace. I’m currently working on my Ben System. This associates every number with a letter (or two).
So, now, if I was struggling to remember my 2 of clubs (which was originally Freddy Cougar dicing onions), all I have to think of is 2 (“B” in the Ben System) and (C)lubs (C=3 in the ben system). Which turns to:
BC = Big Cougar → leaping through → fire.
These initials can be for names (of celebrities or people you know) or what I did above since I couldn’t think of anybody (celebrity or otherwise) with the initials BC.
Hope this helps. I haven’t actually been working on my memory systems this last week thanks to work/other hobbies but I plan on picking it back up soon.
Bing Crosby? 
Nice idea. I’ve been using the Major System, so 2C would turn into NC for me. Good ol’ Nicholas Cage I suppose. (ripping…his face off?)
Don’t you end up with 13 PAO all with C’s in them, though? And D, S, and H?
I think I’m going to attempt to make them all arbitrary and random. I like the idea of converting the “name” of the card into a memorable acronym, but I’m worried about repetition. Keeping them all varied and wild I think might keep them unique?
Thoughts welcome!
I think whatever creates a memorable impression on you would work great. There’s different ways to go about it but for someone like me, I found it easier to give each suit a theme so it’s not at all random:
Spades – Coworkers
Diamonds – (Super) Heroes
Clubs – Villians
Hearts – To be determined.
That’s just observation though and it works for me but I’m sure it won’t work well for everybody.
But, perhaps, mnemonics is about taking information that seems random and arbitrary and creating a pattern than makes it easier to remember. Maybe that’s the whole point of mnemonic systems.
The Dominic System uses substitutes like this…
1=A (for cards, the Ace is A)
2=B
3=C
4=D
5=E
6=S
7=G
8=H
9=N
0=O
Where cards are concerned, Aces are 1 and 10s are 0. The 2 of clubs becomes BC. 9 of Hearts becomes NH. The 10 of Hearts become OH. You can use them like a set of initials, like Bill Cosby, a persons name, like Sandra Oh, or a reminder of a name, like Bob NewHart. The Action and Object naturally follow. Bill Cosby Eats Pudding. Sandra Oh Dances on a Stripper Pole. Bob Newhart Talks on the Telephone.
It’s true that you might end up with a group of people with similar names…for example, I have Charles Atlas, Charlie Brown, Charles Schulz, Charlton Heston. But, fortunately for me, and also for them, they all look strikingly different. The name isn’t so important as the image they conjure up.
Good luck!
–Larry
OK, so from what I’ve read people will come up with a PAO system for 00-99. This helps them memorize long numbers, by chunking the numbers into two digit combinations, and then linking three of them together (The Person/Action/Object). Meaning 60 random numbers could be memorized by only 20 unique images, etc.
I guess I’m wondering…is that correct? Do people memorize Bill Cosby/stirring/bowl of jello for number 23?
Or are people’s image assignations simpler than that? 23 = A cheetah.
I’m starting out (obviously I imagine), and I don’t want to accidentally double up on anything. Do I create simple images for 00-99, and the cards are a completely separate discipline (PAO)? (#82=a swingset, 9 of Clubs = Alan Alda/performing surgery/surgical mask).
Or are these two methods linked?
You can use PAO for cards too. For example Nelson Dellis - USA Memory Champion 2011 have used this method.
Every card - person\action\object
When you remeber cards for every 3 cards you will have 1 image with person, action and object.
The same images as for 00-99 you can use for cards.
Thanks, stasfreestyle! Maybe I’m not clear. I get that you can use PAO for cards. In fact, I would imagine that is the preferred way.
I’m wondering if that is also what people do, primarily, for 00-99. And if so, having two sets of PAO’s would be confusing, wouldn’t it?
Let’s say I decide to memorize my 52 PAO’s for my cards. And then decide I’d like to go ahead and learn 00-99. Have I shot myself in the foot? How do I learn both cards and 00-99 most efficiently?
I’m still trying to memorize my own PAO list from 00-99, but I have already memorized a PAO list for the letters of the alphabet, based on an old children’s ABC book I had as a child.
I don’t think two or more PAO lists will be confusing at all, it just takes more time to get them in your head. It would become confusing if you started using the same persons and actions for different things!
You can reuse one PAO system for a different discipline because they are different enough and because of the direction in which you are asked to work.
For cards, you are shown a card and asked to memorize it. Each card will bring up a PAO. For numbers, you are given a string of numbers and asked to memorize it. Each set of numbers will bring up a PAO. Because of this you can use the same PAO for cards and numbers. However, if you were shown a person doing an action with/to an object, then you would think of a card and a set of numbers. This becomes confusing and you could not use the same system.
It really doesn’t matter if you create the PAO for cards or numbers first. When you have one, just translate it to the other one. You can also use the same PAO for binaries. There are many ways to transfer the PAO of one discipline to another; it really just depends on what method you use for creating your PAO for the first one.
Hey there, Melson. Are you saying you’ve memorizing a Person/Action/Object for every individual letter of the alphabet? What does that do for you?
For ActorsNightmare…
A lot of people creating problems before they appeare(problems)
Try it at first!
For 00-99 i have pictures
For 000-999 I have another pictures
For 00-99 I have PAO pictures
For cards i have another PA pictures
Some of pictures for 00-99 PAO and cards PA are similar.
In nearest future i will use the same PAO (00-99) for cards too.
You can translate PAO for 00-99 in PAO for cards in different ways (for example):
diamonds - 1
hearts - 2
clubs - 3
spades - 4
2 diamonds - 12 (use PAO for 12), 5 spades - 45 (use PAO for 45), 10 hearts - 20 (use PAO for 20) …etc
Jack (5) (the jack of hearts - 52)
Queen (6) (the queen of spades - 64)
King (7) (the King of diamonds - 71)
Ace (8) (the ace of clubs - 83)
etc.
Good luck!
Oh, I could think of many different things: memorizing license plates or flight numbers, the spelling of really critical words, etcetera.
But the main reason for learning alphabetical PAO’s is that I want to create 26 memory palaces for words, to create an indexed and cross-referenced concordance or commonplace book of the things I read and learn.
I’m not at all interested in the competitive side of mnemonics, so I have no use for playing cards or the digits of pi; I want to find out if I can use this ‘Art of Memory’ to really remember the stuff I read.
(I’m planning on writing some blog posts about my process, once I have figured out the system. Almost there! )
@Melson - sounds good! I was just curious because it seems there are simpler ways for memorizing words/letters than 26 PAOs? Unless you were consistently dealing with incredibly confusing long spelling of words?
For example, the Major System deals with numbers by turning them INTO letters. So 357143952 would translate to MLKTRMPLN or “Martin Luther King (jumping on a) trampoline.”
I was just reading another post on the forum here that made a great reference to an article with Josh Foer explaining a little about memorizing poetry: Memories are made of this: how to boost your mind | Psychology | The Guardian - I imagine the technique there would be a lot easier than memorizing each individual letter, wouldn’t it?
For example - this sentence all by itself you would need 30 images, assuming you’re chunking them 3 at a time. That seems like a lot of work for a 90 character sentence of only 20 words?
I’m sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I wouldn’t use the alphabetical PAOs for whole words, just maybe for a letter or two, to clear up any confusion about the spelling of a word.
But as I said, I took the persons and actions from an old ABC book I had in my childhood. I found it again and realised I remembered more than half of it instantly. So I read the book a few times more, and now I have the PAOs ready to go.
^^^ Got it! Makes much more sense. Great find, having an alphabet book already stored away in the long-term memory somewhere!
Sounds like I’ll work on making my PAO for my deck of cards. If it is really easy as Josh_Too suggests, perhaps I’ll be able to re-use my card list for numbers if I decide to go that route. Thanks!
So I guess my original question still stands…is there any way people can suggest for learning your PAO’s in the first place? It seems like with all this talk of learning to memorize better and using our brains storage ability “correctly” there would be a better way than just learning slowly, painfully by rote.
I’ve been reading your posts, and I’m a bit confused. What system are you using to learn your cards?
Person-Action-Object per card? So the 2 of clubs would be a Person/Action/Object. The 3 of clubs would be a different Person/Action/Object, the 4 of clubs would be a different Person/Action/Object.
Then if I got 2,3,4 of Clubs I would see Person (2C) doing an Action (3C) to an Object (4C).
Have I got that right?
Yeah, that’s right. But I was wondering what system you were using to assign the Person to the card or number… What method are you using to translate, let’s say, the 2 of Clubs into a Person?
Yes, I was asking some questions about that. I think I’m just going to do it arbitrarily. Things that will have maximum sticking ability. Any recommendations?