I was in the process of engraining in my brain the alphabet peg method described on the free ebook pdf. Reminders - it has animals for each letter
I visualize now well an image associated with each letter. I was practicing going down the alphabet in order and visualizing the image. One thing I noticed, every time I visualize an “ant” for letter a I also “say” ant in my mind.
Is this a bad habit ?
Welcome to the forum!
This is a normal thing that happens as you develop fluency with new associations. Over time that “subvocalization” will start to drop away and the A will just start to BE the Ant. It’s a little bit hard to describe until you start to experience it. Some associations transition to automatic quicker than others.
One thing you could try is to set a timer/metronome to use for your reviews and set it to click pretty quick. Don’t give yourself enough time to really consciously think the word. Maybe do sets of 3 or four letters at a time and see if you can recall the imagery with it clicking past quickly.
Don’t worry too much about it though, you’re doing fine, and consistent practice will build your speed and accuracy.
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Thanks!
For practicing to firm up the visualizations I was timing how long it will take me to go from A to Z. I can already see mild improvements. I will keep working at it
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In case it helps others, I found powerpoint to be helpful to practice visualization with some pressure Previously I was just going to a list of letters as fast as I could.
In powerpoint, create one slide for each letter, set automatic transition (can be set to fraction of a second)
Start the presentation and go nuts
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Hi Gabriel that’s exactly what I did to remember my cast of Dominic characters 00 - 99 in developing a PAO system.
Maybe this helps?
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Thanks, interesting.
I am newbie and just discovered the site yesterday. I was just trying to find a way to become better at remember peoples names during networking events and now see there is a whole organization / community of people trying to improve their memory with different methods 
Thanks your table look interesting. The reason why I selected the alphabet peg is because it look like a good place to start and if anything maybe help remember the first letter of a persons name 
But maybe I can look at a table like yours with famous people with different names
Whilst I would like to take the compliment about the system of 100 people I’m using, I am not the architect of the system which is called the Dominic System. The system can be used for a multitude of applications including remembering binary numbers, numbers and order of playing cards, all of which are events in Memory Championships. I applaud you for the efforts of devising a 26 lists of alphabet pegs, nothing wrong with that. I am sure you’ll find much information around different topics in memory through this forum’s search engine. I have found that in my own quest in improving my memory that there is much valuable information to be gleaned from this forum. Good luck in your own endeavors and quest going forward.
I recommend that you use a miniature memory palace for each letter. For instance, ‘A’ might remind you of “Ape,” so perhaps part of your local zoo is your micro memory palace for ‘A.’ ‘B’ could remind you of a restaurant you know whose name begins with that letter, so the inside of that eatery could be your miniature memory palace for ‘B.’ ‘Q’ remind me of a pool cue, so I would see a few loci within a pool hall that I visited a few times.
Assuming you use just 3 stations within each tiny memory palace, you now have 78 memory hooks instead of just 26. Further, your Alphabet system is expandable. If you’re using your local drug store for ‘D’ and then need more storage, you could always add more stations within that drug store or imagine an additional drug store. Thus, you’re not bound by just 26 pegs.
Richard
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