Peg System for Remembering Facts

Need help remembering lists of information for school, work, a hobby, or other purposes? Then the peg system is what you need.

The idea behind the peg system has been traced to the mid-1600s, when it was developed by Henry Herdson, who linked a digit with any one of several objects that resembled the number (for example, "1 is candle"). The system gets its name from the fact that the peg words act as mental "pegs" on which you can hang the information that you need to remember.

Number-shaped pegs connect shapes to numbers (see below). So, to associate an item of information with a number-shape, associate the shape with the information. For example, to associate a word such as "tomato" to position number two in the list, associate swan with tomato. Imagine perhaps a swan bouncing a bright red tomato up and down on its beak. Then, when you think of "two", it reminds you of "swan" which reminds you of tomato.

1. Candle	6. Pipe
2. Swan	7. Flag (on a pole)
3. Fork	8. Hourglass
4. Sail (of a boat)	9. Balloon (floating on a string)
5. Hand (a hand has five fingers)	10. Hole on a golf course