True, it’s almost as easy to learn a three part PAO as it is a single image, but and it’s a big BUT, the work is selecting 52 distinct people, distinct actions, distincr objects. And then it takes more time to get used to switching up the people actions and objects, because when you’re memorizing at a location you have to get the person from one three-part-peg, the action from another three-part-peg and the object from yet another one. So it really is, in practice, 156 elements. With one deck of cards at a time you will never see your original three-part construct. Like Josh says it all becomes instant with training. Although not as instant as I would like yet.
These things take time. But as to the PAO, I see it as one piece of information. I tried to make sure the links between the three bits are as natural as can be. David Copperfield making a Tiger Appear out of Thin Air. Niles Crane Polishing with a Rag a 19th Century Chaise Lounge. These connections are natural. Only David Copperfield can make an object appear out of thin air, and only Niles Crane wants anything to do with a 19th century chaise lounge. When I combine new PAOs with cards, it’s partly the incongruity, characters doing things out of character, that makes the images memorable.
True, it is 156 elements, but…not really. Maybe 52 pieces of complex information.
You’ve probably figured this out already since it seems you’re making great progress. Bill Cosby/stirring/bowl of jello would be 3 two-digit numbers or 6 one-digit numbers.
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When I try to memorize a deck of card with PAO system, I have a lot of mistake to recall. but with a single card system, it seem faster than PAO system both memorize and recall. I want to know “how you do it”…think the person of a 1st card then think the action of a 2nd card with the person of a 1st card then think the object of a 3rd card to the end of first 3 cards? then do the same for 52 cards. It easy to forget that complex images, I usually can recall the person but I can’t recall the action and the object. What should I do?
Sorry for my English.
Hi Gennie. You have the right method. But I’ve found that it just takes a tremendous amount of practice. Memorizing what the cards represent is the first part, but actually using them is a skill that has to be worked on like tennis or playing a musical instrument. I found that at first I would slowly create complex images for the three cards, but as I practice I find that I simplify a lot. For instance 7 of Hearts is for me, HG WElls. At first I would try to “see” his portrait but now I simply see a twinkle in the location representing a time machine popping into being with HG Wells in it. So practice is the key to getting to know your cards so well that any little thing reminds you of the card.
Thanks a lot, Dale.
The reason the systems work is because visual memory is powerful, and you can trick your memory into thinking it actually saw something.
If you notice that you aren’t remembering the action and the object, check if you are just thinking about the name of the images instead of visualizing them… (Like Dale mentioned: “see”.)
That might not be the issue, but it’s one thing to check for.
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Thanks for all the great suggesdtions. Any ideas on how to clean out/clear out loci between practice sessions? – Rob
SIDE NOTE: This thread is getting so long, I’m going to have to decide how to paginate the threads. It’s set for 90 comments per page at the moment. If the pager is confusing (when it appears), let me know.
Edit: there is now auto-pagination.
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Hey,
Ive been percolating your question and I have two suggestions:
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If you have a 00-99 system make 01-13 Hearts, 21-33 Spades, 41-53 Diamonds, and 61-73 Clubs
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When I started memorizing my PAO just this weekend I found that if I imagined the shape fo the digit intrinsically in the PAO it helped me remember that a bear rubbing an umbrella was initially 21, twenty-one kind of looks like a paw touching a long thing. After I make it a bear upholstering an umbrella as I linked this PAO to the letter “U” (still number 21).
For digits above 26 (1-26 were A-Z based on alphabet linked PAOs) I put them based on what the objects looked like globes, stones, rings, coins were all on the (30,40,50,60) numbers with a 0. When I ran out of these associations I could see the numbers left and tried to imagine/rationalize an association.
A person can rationalize anything in my view point. A gardener pulling a dandelion became a 39. 3 is like two fingers pressed together, and a 9 is like a dandelion puff. I didn’t make this PAO for 39 (that could take forever, I’m a better rationalizer than imaginer). I just found a number for my PAO.
Hi everybody,
I am new to PAO model and applying to card memorization. But i feel it is diffictul to recall the exact image of person per loci (although i can recall the object & action). Do you have any advice? Is it true that memorizing object is easier than person image?
My journey is list of things in my house, such as bed, canopy, telephone…Could anyone give me an example of constructing 3 image per loci? Thanks a lot for your valuable support.
Hi duyhoa83,
I actually use a P-AO system (2 cards per journey location rather than 3 with PAO) but the theory should be the same.
I think the key lies in making the interaction ‘feel’ memorable. Use your senses - you have to see it, yes, but also try to invoke your other senses (is there a sound, feel, taste or smell that could be linked to the image?). Also try to make the image bizarre in some way - very large, funny, sexual, violent etc.
For example, in my system Captain Caveman (with his caveman club) (Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels - Wikipedia) is the King of Clubs and Christiaan Barnard (dressed in his scrubs and scalpel in hand) (Christiaan Barnard - Wikipedia) is the King of Hearts. If those two cards come up in sequence at the 5th stage of my journey (downstairs bathroom) I imagine the absurd scene of an operating table crammed into the bathroom with Captain Caveman stood on the toilet seat carrying out open-heart surgery. For added emphasis we could imagine the poor patient waking up and, in a state of shock, querying who was doing the operation. Cavey would of course then yell at the top of his voice, shaking the very walls of the bathroom, “Captain CAAAAAVEMAAAAAAANNNN!”
Now, depending on your age and nationality, you may not get the references to the above characters but I guarantee that where the images do mean something to you you would not forget who was carrying out the operation and where.
Another one, for the movie-goers. I have Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Ace of Spades (complete with Terminator sunglasses and pump-action shotgun) and Cameron Diaz (dancing in a sequinned dress in The Mask) as the 3 of Diamonds. These two cards are for the master bedroom location. I imagine Arnold wearing the dress and lay on the bed. That is pretty bizarre in itself but we can do more - we have to picture his bulging muscles straining the material of the dress (perhaps it tears), his weight causing the bed to sag (can we hear it creaking under the effort?), is he trying to seduce us in his broad Austrian accent as he takes off the dress (a scary prospect but memorable all the same!).
How quickly are you trying to recall the cards? If I take my time (and create vivid images as above) I can pretty much guarantee perfect recall of all 52 cards. I’m currently trying to speed up my recall and I find that hurried associations are less memorable and I’m more prone to mistakes (I even had a mental blank on the very first card yesterday!!!). Perhaps you could try taking things a little slower until for a while.
You might also like to give us some examples of the images that you have in your system and see what sort of images the posters here would create with them.
Hope that helps.
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Hi Richie. Thanks for your detailed explanation. I will try and keep you updated with result. In my system, the 1st Loci is the canopy and i am trying to link with 3 cards: 3 club (Charlie Chaplin standing again his stick), 2 club (Bill Clinton waving his hands on the helicopter), 6D (Sammy Davis singing at the microphone). Plz advise your association and which procedure (start from Loci to cards or Card then cards then Loci)?
Great thanks for your help.
Hi,
I have Charlie Chaplin and Bill Clinton as my associations for these cards too
As I understand it, in the PAO system that you use we would be looking at
- 3 Clubs : Person : Charlie Chaplin
- 2 Clubs : Action : Waving
- 6 Diamonds : Object : Microphone
I always think of the loci first and then link the images to that loci. There are a number of types of canopy but I’ll assume here that we are talking about a canopy outside a shop, ie a canvas covering in a metal frame mounted outside the shop entrance.
So, I would imagine that Charlie has somehow climbed up on top of the canopy. Obviously a canopy wasn’t designed for this purpose and we can picture the comic scene as Charlie wobbles and weaves about while trying not to fall to the ground. This task is made all the more difficult as he is waving to the shoppers in the street and encouraging them to come and listen to him sing into the microphone. A small crowd gathers around the canopy. However, as Charlie is a silent movie star there is no sound coming from the microphone! Instead the microphone grows bigger and bigger as the song words are written on it for the crowd to read (in white font on a black microphone of course). Eventually it is so big that Charlie and the microphone fall through the canopy and get stuck, Charlie’s legs running furiously but getting nowhere.
I note that you say that you struggle to recall the people in the images. I think the key is to focus on what makes these people memorable to us - Charlie is the king of silent movie comedy so I pretty much always picture him doing something funny.
Edit: I’ve just noticed in your earlier post that the canopy is in your house. Sorry, I used the wrong image but you get the general idea 
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Hi Richie. Thanks a lot for your quick feedback. Actually i am waiting for your advice today…Yes, if we spend time to certain the image, of course we can recall later. As i set my target is 1 card/second, so i am worry that it will not help in speed memorizing. How about your time a deck now? Even lot practice, i guess that we will focus some prominent point of person only then link to other cards (V-O). Is this true?
Sorry if my understanding disturbing you.
Hi,
I think you are a long way ahead of me in the speed stakes. My best time with no mistakes is 6 minutes and 16 seconds.
I see what you mean now about recalling the image. It is not that you can’t recall the person if you have plenty of time to form the picture in your imagination. It is that you find it difficult to make the image when you are looking at the cards very quickly.
I think we must just continue to practice until our images are formed more quickly (I’ve also read that going deliberately too fast sometimes can help our brains to become faster).
When Simon Reinhard memorised a deck in 21.9 seconds he can’t have formed any detailed images can he? I’m not sure. Hopefully somebody who is quicker at the process will offer some feedback. With that in mind, would you post your best time in this thread and I’ll try to get others to post too : https://artofmemory.com/forums/card-deck-memorisation-post-your-times-here-1148.html
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Hi Richie. Thanks a lot for your comment. Actually i’m not better much than your time (my best is 5 mins 45 seconds). I see that we’ve got improvement very fast when start this memorizing program. But now it seems some difficult to go further. Everybody can run but only some be the best. Should there be any manual/ coaching program to train the Champion. Can anyone share your opinion? Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Hey duyhoa83,
Thanks for sharing your time. I’ve added it to the scoreboard thread - let me know when you get a quicker time (You’ll see that we all have some way to go before we get near Nelson!)
Hi Richie,
I’m not sure if this thread is still going as it is quite dated now, but has your time improved much from 6:16?