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Chapter - 13

Using Your Living Room As A Means For Remembering Words

Without turning back, repeat the series beginning with the word school and ending with the word book. You can still repeat this series by heart, provided you supplied your own association-laws at the time and did not restrict yourself to those I suggested. If you make an honest effort you will find that you can repeat the series backward, too; that is, begin with the word book and end with the word school.

In spite of this forward step, encouraging as it is, we still have one disadvantage to overcome in mastering our method, in fact any method. And this is: You can repeat this series forward or backward, but you cannot possibly name the fifth or eighth word in the series. Of course we can search out these words by starting at the beginning and counting them off. But we want to try to avoid this counting off and tell immediately which word belongs to any number at all. How can this be done?

There are things so familiarly connected in our minds with figures that counting off no longer comes into question. To these belong, for instance, the names of the twelve months. Every child knows that April is the fourth month,

August the eighth, and December the twelfth month of the year without having to start with January and count off to four or eight or twelve.

Therefore we might tie up the words which we want to remember in their serial order with the names of the months, and by so doing we would have made a good start. In itself this method is plausible, but it has a drawback in the fact that the names of the months are themselves abstract. And association with abstract ideas is, as we know from experience, more difficult than association with concrete things. The easiest way to demonstrate visual and concrete association is to make use of the room in which you are reading this book. Look around and select the ten most striking objects that meet your eye. Number them in the sequence in which you see them, beginning at your left and proceeding clockwise to your right. Suppose that your room is furnished like the one in the following illustration.

You might choose the following objects:

1. Radio                                   6. Safe
2. Chair                                    7. American flag
3. Window                               8. Coin box
4. Lamp                                   9. Picture (showing people)
5. Desk                                    10. Map of the United States

The objects numbered from 1 to 5 are on the left side of the' room; those numbered from 6 to 10 are on the right.

Don't try to memorize this drawing. You will be wasting effort if you do. But keep it before you while you do the exercise outlined in this chapter. After all, you have the alternative of doing the exercise with the furniture in your own room, which is before your very eyes. Even with your eyes closed you could visualize your own room, especially the ten objects which you have selected for the purpose of your study.

Now let us try to learn a series of ten words with the help of this furniture. These ten words are:

1. Speech
2. Arms
3. House
4. Search
5. Property
6. Criminal
7. Jury
8. Bail
9. People
10. State

Furthermore, let us try to memorize these words by connecting them with the objects we numbered above:

1. Object number 1 is radio. The word to remember is speech. Since we are accustomed to hear many speeches over the radio, there is no difficulty in connecting these two items in our minds.

2. Object number 2 is chair. The word to remember is arms. I suggest that you use armchair as a link between chair and arms. Thus, chair will recall to your mind an armchair and consequently arms.

3. The third object is window. The word to remember is house. A window is an important part of a house because it provides ventilation.

4. The fourth object is lamp. The word to remember is search. The association is easy if we think of a searchlight.

5. The fifth object is desk. The word to remember is property. Connection: my desk is the most important piece of personal property in my office.

6. The sixth object is safe. The word to remember is criminal. Connection: the thing most coveted by a criminal is a safe containing money and valuables.

7. The seventh object is the American flag. The word to remember is jury. Whenever a jury sits to decide on a case, an American flag is displayed in the courtroom.

8. The eighth object is coin box. The word to remember is bail. Connection: a man under arrest generally uses his savings for bail.

9. The ninth object is picture. The word to remember is people. We can make the connection easily if we look at the people in the picture.

10. The tenth object is a map of the United States, which gives us an easy connection with state as the word which is to be remembered.

Now if you will look again at the sketch and run through the numbered pieces of furniture once more, you will find that as a result of the proposed associations you can immediately recall each word in the series you just learned.

You will find that this method made it very easy for you to learn the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, the so-called American Bill of Rights. As a matter of fact, the words which I chose are the topics of these ten paragraphs. They are briefly as follows:

1. Speech. Congress shall make no law . . . abridging freedom of speech or the liberty of the press.

2. Arms. The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed upon.

3. House. In time of peace, no soldier shall be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner.

4. Search. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure shall not be violated.

5. Property. Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

6. Criminal. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy public trial.

7. Jury. In suits at common law, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.

8. Bail. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed.

9. People. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain specific rights shall not be construed as denying or abrogating other rights vested in the people.

10. State. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the respective States, or to the people.

The advantage of such a method of association—and I shall discuss its disadvantages shortly—consists in the fact that it is impossible to confuse the order of the paragraphs as long as we keep the numbers of the pieces of furniture in our minds or before our eyes. If I know that number 5 is desk, I must also know that property is contained in paragraph 5, since I am conscious of the association between desk and property.

If you compare the method used in Chapter VII in learning Patrick Henry's speech with the method applied to learning the content of the Bill of Rights, the following difference will immediately be evident:
We learned the Bill of Rights by associating each topic in it with the furniture of a room. The underlying principle is that we peg, or hook, each item to something already in our minds before we even know the new words we are to learn. In the matter of Patrick Henry's speech, however, we connected one thought with another thought without using any such prepared pegs, or hooks. Quite naturally you may ask, in the light of your study of this chapter, why we did not proceed in the same manner heretofore. Why did we not associate the first thought of the speech with our number 1 object, the second thought with our number 2 object, and so forth? Let me answer you in detail, for a clear understanding of this point is very important.

The difference between the two methods can best be illustrated by the following diagram:

Radio                           Speech                   Martial array
Chair                            Arms                      Enemy in this quarter
Window                       House                    To bind us
1. Hook Method                                        2. Chain Method

In the first method, the items to be remembered are hung on given pegs, or hooks. Therefore this is called the "hook method." In the second method, the items to be remembered are strung out one after the other and connected as in a chain. Therefore this is called the "chain method." For practical use it is especially important for you to determine which of these two methods is easier, more practicable, and more likely to retain facts in your memory for a long period of time.

When I bring up this question in my memory classes, the students are usually divided in opinion—some of them vote for the first method and others for the second method. When a question elicits two widely different responses, one may safely conclude that the true answer lies somewhere in between. Or it may be that the determining factor is a point of view as yet unknown. Indeed, in this instance it is just that as yet unknown point of view which is the determinant. Namely, the answer to this question depends upon still another question, which involves the nature of the things to be remembered.

This question is: are the items to be remembered related to each other, or unrelated? In the case of Patrick Henry's address or any other speech, there is such a relationship between the various thoughts embodied in the speech. Whenever such a logical relationship exists, it would surely be a mistake, and also make our task of remembering more difficult, if we deliberately tore this relationship apart in order to create another relationship. It is much easier for us to preserve a relationship which already exists and to make use of it than to create new associations with pieces of furniture or other objects which are outside the chain of thought we are trying to develop.

The exact opposite holds true for the Ten Amendments. In this case there is no logical association between the separate paragraphs. The right of the citizen to bear arms (number 2) has no relationship to his right to refuse to quarter soldiers in his home in time of peace (number 3). Furthermore, it is desirable and sometimes necessary—for instance, in examinations—to know the numbers of the paragraphs, too. Only the hook method can supply this advantage. The chain method cannot.

If we assemble all these facts and hold tight to the main idea—that the chain method is to be used when a logical association already exists—we find that its principal use lies in memorizing speeches, regardless of whether the speech is original or merely quoted; in committing newspaper articles to memory; in remembering the tables of contents of books; in short, in recalling anything that has a logical relationship within itself. If you wish to apply the chain method to memorizing a speech which you have composed yourself, I call your attention specifically to Part Two of this book, "The Art of Public Address."

On the contrary, the hook method should always be used when a definite series of ideas is involved and it is necessary to know, in addition, every single word or object outside the sequence or series. I shall later discuss the field of its chief application, namely the separate hours of the day in a complete daily schedule of living.

But I do not want to leave the discussion of the intrinsic differences between these two methods without emphasizing the following: Impressing a chosen matter in your mind by the chain method usually takes longer than by the hook method. On the other hand, the chain method has the advantage of impressing a matter for a considerably longer period of remembrance. The things that I have impressed on my mind by a chain remain with me all the time, or at least for many years. In the case of the hook method, however, we must remember that the single hooks are used again and again for other matters, so that they are not very well suited for memory over a long period of time. But both methods have the common advantage of training the memory by requiring associations. Whichever method we use, every experience in it teaches us whether or not our power of concentration has relaxed. When it relaxes, we later notice that the association in question was missing. We can therefore determine our power of concentration with almost mathematical exactitude. How important such training is, has been acknowledged by various authorities in the field of memory training.

The experience of Daniel Webster, who was the greatest orator in America in his day, proves that a person can gradually better his powers of memory. As a boy Webster's memory was so poor that he could not even recite poems at school entertainments; yet by the time he reached maturity, he had developed his memory to a phenomenal degree.

Another noteworthy example of the development of memory is found in the case of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. When he was still practicing law, it was not uncommon for him to quote in court page after page of records bearing on cases similar to the one he was pleading. While other lawyers were forced to read such references from books or typed notes, Mr. Hughes reeled them off verbatim and solely from memory.

In my memory classes many of the students assure me, time and again, that this kind of training heightens their ability to concentrate and to memorize facts for everyday use, whether professional or personal. The principal advantage in the hook method lies in the fact that it makes us memory-conscious; that is, we become conscious of how many things in life depend upon our ability to make our memories function correctly, and of how we can make the poorest memory a good one and a normal memory an exceptional one.

Yet limiting the hook method to the pieces of furniture in our room has certain grave weaknesses which we must try to overcome in some way. The most serious weakness is the fact that the pieces of furniture are limited in number. Of course, we could extend the number; but if we do so, we run the risk of getting mixed up or of making mistakes. Indeed, the very fact that we can get mixed up is the second weakness in the method. For instance, if the objects in the drawing were not numbered, we should have no definite way of knowing whether the desk is number 4 or number 5. Therefore we must try to correct these weaknesses simultaneously. In order to do so, we shall use a numerical code as outlined in the next chapters.

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