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just one room a fantasy one. It has since been known as the Roman room system. |
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They would dream up a room and keep it as their memory aid. This room would contain items of furniture and other things, but would not be too cluttered. When they wished to remember anything, they would mentally hang the details on the items in the room. |
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This can be useful for remembering ideas in sequence, because you can imagine hanging things in a particular order. Here is an example. Suppose you wanted to remember to go to the bank, buy some rail tickets, take books back to the library, phone your friend and then keep an optician's appointment. Suppose, too, in the private Roman room in your mind you have a coat stand, a table, four dining chairs, a desk and a chair. You might mentally hang a banknote on one of the coat hooks on the stand. After this you might place the rail tickets on one of the chairs. Next, you might open the library books on the table and, perhaps, mentally stamp them with a library stamp. You might, then, sit on the office chair and talk to your friend on the phone. Imagine, then, that you see the appointment book on the desk. You can't quite make out what it says and you fumble about in the drawer for your spectacles. |
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The number shape system is a method of remembering numbers by associating them with a shape. |
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A figure one is like a pen and a figure two is like a swan. A figure three is like a pair of spectacles, which have fallen onto a railway line and been cut in half. A figure four is like a yacht, or at least that part above the hull. Here is a full list of suggested images, from zero to nine. |
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8 A lady with an hour glass figure |
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When you wish to memorise a long number, just make a story out of these images. Here is an example. The number 3543165789 can be memorised by associating and linking the digits as follows: A half pair of spectacles were lying on a blacksmith's anvil. He must have been trying to repair them. They had been run over by a yacht, he |
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