Yes, the Dominic System. Trying to learn this arbitrarily or randomly would be a pain in the ass. Convert your numbers and cards into letter.
The Dominic System uses substitutes like this…
1=A
2=B
3=C
4=D
5=E
6=S
7=G
8=H
9=N
0=O
Just make a list of numbers from 00-99, then fill it out with the letters, OO-NN.
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(23 or Two of Clubs), a persons name, like Sandra Oh (Oh or 10 of Hearts), or a reminder of a name, like Bob NewHart (98 or Nine of Hearts). The Action and Object naturally follow. Bill Cosby Eats Pudding. Sandra Oh Dances on a Stripper Pole. Bob Newhart Talks on the Telephone.
For the face cards, I used the letters J and K for Jack and King, but for the Queens, I used the letter L, for Lady (it made finding names much easier…QS for Queen of Spades gave me problems, but LS gave me Lisa Simpson).
When you go over your cards, if you can’t think of who the person is, then ask yourself what the letters are…Four of Clubs, DC, oh, yeah, David Copperfield. The only thing arbitrary about the system are the first letters…everything thing else follows naturally, making it easier to learn. Use the same People/Action/Objects for both cards and numbers.
Thanks for the advice, I will look into it. I’ve finished my second read of Josh Foer’s book - it seems like his mental image assignments for the cards were pretty random?
Dom DeLuise, celebrity fat man (and five of clubs), has been implicated in the following unseemly acts in my mind’s eye: He has bocked a fat globule of spittle (nine of clubs) on Albert Einstein’s thick white mane (three of diamonds) and delivered a devastating karate kick (five of spades) to the ground of Pope Benedict XVI (six of diamonds). Michael Jackson (king of hearts) has engaged in bizarre behavior even for him. He has defecated (two of clubs) on a salmon burger (king of clubs) and captured his flatulence (queen of clubs) in a balloon (six of spades).
Do you think that was just a harder way of doing it? I can’t find any logic behind his links.
Just because we can’t see the logic doesn’t mean there isn’t any. The Dominic System provides initials, but my Eight of Diamonds is not someone with the initials HD, but Paul Newman. Sometimes the logic is circuitous (HD (Eight of Diamonds, also the number 84) reminded me of Hud, which is a great Paul Newman movie). The thing is, once you go over the cards so many times, the connecting images fall away and you just know the answer. They’ll be in your long term memory and recall becomes pretty much automatic.
Josh: Thanks for this incredible site. I’ve just begun memorizing a deck of cards. I understand the loci/journey/memorory palace method and I understand PAOs. Here’s my confusion: Do I link the PAO to the specific site in my memory palace? I hope this is clear.
Hey there Rob - welcome! When going through a deck of cards you will create a unique PAO for three cards (Person - card one, Action - card two, Object - card 3). Then in order to remember these locii, and keep them in order, you will place them in your memory palace or journey.
So as you create them you place them along the path through your palace.
The need to come up with new palaces quickly becomes necessary as you practice, because using the same palace or journey back-to-back gets confusing. You need some downtime to let those images fade, and for you to do some housekeeping to clean them out.
Thanks. So I make a memorable image with the person – action – object. Do I LINK that in some way with each place. For example, if my first place is a gas station – and the image is Dsvid Copperfield doing a handstand on a toy poodle . . . do I consciously link that image with the place or do I just place it there. I hope that’s clear. Thanks so much for such a quick response.
Hmm. I think I’m a bit confused. If you are “just placing it there”, you are linking it consciously, aren’t you? You can’t place it there without doing it consciously, right?
See if this helps: Imagine the gas station - which I assume is step one along your journey home or something? So fine - gas station. Outside it, envision David Copperfield doing a handstand atop a toy poodle. “See” him doing it in the carport area, or just outside it, or inside the gas station attendant office. Make it specific and, even better, link it to as many SENSES as you can. The smell of the gas while you hear the bark of the poodle.
Then move on to the next stop on your journey. “See” the next thing. Then when you are ready for recall, walk back to the gas station. What do you see?
Perfect. I understand. I do some memory demonstrations like the presidents and pi to 100 places, but I find PAO to be very challenging. I’m finding that it takes a whole different level of focus. Is this true for others. Thanks!
I think you can link the PAO image with the location. For example you could have a gas station pump fly out and start squirting gas. The poodle magically runs up the stream of gasoline while David Copperfield is doing a handstand on the poodle. As long as you don’t have a PAO image that is a gas pump, it should be easy to keep them separate, while cementing that image to the location through interaction.
In one of my journeys, there are two locations with windows. The images are often doing something with the windows: usually breaking them or smashing up against them…
When I created my 00-99 PAO I was too hasty and didnt want to use too much time for it and made a shortcut in memorizing. I used the journey method on memorizing those 100 PAO’s. My childhood house’s driveway was for 00-09, hallway for 10-19, bathroom for 20-29 etc. The thing is that its really fast to memorize them after you have decided what PAO’s to use, but there is also a drawback: It’s really slow to use it and even slower to recall them after chunking.
For example, number 72 doesnt come naturally in my mind, I still have to go to that specific room and get that image.
My advice would be that if using PAO, learn all PAO’s by heart.
Not really long, but enough for 9 loci. Also tip for locis in buildings that works for me (and im sure many are already using this): use loci before every door and after every door, they are really memorable and you really cant miss them in your journey. Also if you use rooms to contain some specific information, they are good for remembering the change in subject.
For example: 70-79 are fictional character and when i step into living room, I instantle remember that 80-89 are my relatives.
When I started memorizing periodic table, I used the same method, some specific area for Alkali metals, different are with clear transition for Alkali earth metals etc, but ofcourse this goes without saying.
Mine too. The cards will always come up randomly, so as soon as you can drop the crutch of sequencing the PAO, it’s better to learn by memorizing playing cards even if you have to look up the image for each card as you do. At least that’s my experience.
I spoke with him. He told me that he used PAO system.
His quote:
“So I use PAO for cards and numbers. My best time with that system is 43 seconds. I believe it gets infinitely harder to use that system to get under 30 seconds, but I believe you can get close to it.”
Thanks, that’s good to know. I was going by an old blog entry of his in which he was talking about how well the Ben system was working for him. Ronnie White also experimented with the Ben system but didn’t have it ready for 2011. Maybe 2012 will see its use. Ciao.
I need to make my mind “stickier”! I think I’m making some pretty outrageous images with my PAOs, but I find that I have to review them several times before they stick. Any suggestions???
I need to make my mind “stickier”! I think I’m making some pretty outrageous images with my PAOs, but I find that I have to review them several times before they stick. Any suggestions???
