Peg word system: How to remember a list by number

One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, and the rhyme runs on until 10 is a hen. Those 10 words are the peg word memory system, a set of hooks you mentally hang things on with a picture, like a passport baked into a bun. Since every item sits on its own number, you can count through the list, go straight to the seventh thing, and know right away when a number comes up blank.

Quick answer: What is the peg word system?

• The peg word system is a memory technique where you learn a rhyming word for each number from one to 10, then picture each item you need to remember together with its number's word.

• Peg words work best on short lists of about 10 items or fewer, when you need to know how many there are or find one by its number.

• You can reuse the same pegs, but keep just one list on them at a time.

What are the 10 peg words?

The peg words are a counting rhyme where every number stands for something you can picture. Pick one picture for each word and stick with it.

Some memory-training sites, such as Art of Memory and Magnetic Memory Method, swap in gun for one, bee for three, bait for eight, wine for nine, or pen for 10. Any swap works as long as it rhymes and you can picture it.

To learn the list, picture each peg, then say the numbers out of order (six, two, nine, four) until each picture comes back without a pause. Heaven and sticks are the weak ones, since heaven has nothing to see and "sticks" could be almost anything, so use the same cloud and the same drumsticks every time.

How do you hang a list on the pegs?

Give each item its own number, then make one picture where the item and the peg touch or act on each other.

1. Number your list, up to 10.

2. For each item, picture it doing something to its peg. The more vivid and personal the picture, the better.

3. Check it right away by calling out numbers in random order.

Here's an example that uses a full list of 10 things you might need to do before a week away.

The night before you leave, count from one to 10 and tick off each task as its picture comes up. On your way out, you can check a single task without running through the whole list. Did you leave the key? Eight is a gate, and your friend is standing at it holding your key.

How do you practice with your pegs?

Drill yourself on the pegs until you can recall them instantly.

Spend a minute a day calling out random numbers until no picture makes you pause. Then put one real list a week on your pegs, like errands or the steps for closing up a shop, and the next day go through it from memory as best you can before you check the paper. That's active recall, and your misses show you which pictures need to be stranger. For more ways to practice recalling lists, try remembering a grocery list without writing it down at all.

If you'd like practice with lists you didn't write yourself, Elevate, a brain training app, has memory games for it. Its Retention game helps you practice using your short-term memory to recall lists of items, and Name Recall teaches you how to use mnemonics to remember people's names. They're two of Elevate's five memory games, and its 40+ games also cover reading, writing, speaking, and math. Elevate is built on learning principles that include active retrieval (the answer-before-you-check habit above) and spaced repetition. The memory games come with Elevate Premium, and the yearly plan starts with a seven-day free trial, so you can practice recalling lists in Elevate while your own pegs settle in.

Should you use peg words or a memory palace?

Pick peg words for a short list where the number matters, and a memory palace for a longer list or anything you'll walk through in order, like a talk. Both hang new things on something you already know, with the pegs using numbers and the palace using places along a familiar route.

If you need two lists at the same time, put one on your pegs and the other in a palace, so they don't get in each other's way.

Can you reuse the same peg words for a new list?

Yes, as often as you like. Peg words don't wear out.

In a 1970 study by Morris and Reid, people used peg words to learn one list of 10 nouns again and again in new orders, and the researchers reported, "No decline in performance was found." A control group recalled less every time. In a 2011 study by Carney and Levin, students who reused the same 10 peg words, each combined with a keyword picture, kept their memory advantage over students using their own best method on tests two and five days later.

Both studies had people reuse the pegs for one list at a time, so you should also keep just one list on them at a time. When a list has done its job, like the list for your trip once you've left home, stop going over it and give it a few days to fade before you load the next one. Otherwise, you may find a passport in your bun on a grocery run.

What if you need more than 10 pegs?

Use a memory palace rather than stretch the rhyme. Past 10, rhyming words you can also picture get hard to find. An alphabet list (one word for each letter) gives you 26 pegs, but unless you know offhand that S is the 19th letter, you'll be counting on your fingers, which defeats the point of going straight to an item by its number.

What do studies show about peg words?

Peg words help people remember lists in lab studies, most of all when the order counts. In a 1980 study by Henry Roediger, 150 undergraduates learned 20-word lists using a peg system, a memory palace (the method of loci), the link method, or plain imagery. All four groups beat a control group, and the gap was widest when each word had to come back in its right place.

In a 2000 study by Wang and Thomas, adults who came up with their own way to organize or picture a list remembered it about as well after a delay as people taught peg words or a memory palace. The pegs give you a ready-made system, so you don't have to invent one.

A peg list also holds the order of things, not what they mean. The authors of a 1990 review of mnemonic teaching put it plainly: "It is possible to memorize, mnemonically or otherwise, information one does not understand." So learn why each step of a process matters on its own, and use the pegs to keep the steps in order.

Frequently asked questions

Is the peg word system a mnemonic device?

Yes. Like every mnemonic device, peg words link something new to something you already know, here the numbers and their rhymes. An acronym is built for one fact, while the same pegs will carry any short list you give them.

How is the peg word system different from the link method?

Peg words tie each item to a number, while the link method ties each item to the next one in a chain. In a chain, you start at the top to reach the seventh item, and one lost picture can break the chain for everything after it. With pegs, a lost picture costs you only that one item.

Can you use peg words to remember a number?

Yes, put the pegs for each digit into one scene, in order. To remember 38, picture a tree growing up through a gate. The rhyme list has no zero, so a number with a zero in it needs a peg you add yourself. For a long number like a phone number, chunking is usually quicker.