Something to Consider • 287fl oor, and to represent the NCIS TV show that I want to watch later tonight, I could
imagine one of the characters in the show sitting on the landing at the top of the stairs.ASSOCIATING IMAGES WITH WORDS
The pegword technique involves imagery, as in the method of loci, but instead of visual-
izing items in different locations, you associate them with concrete words. The fi rst step
is to create a list of nouns, like the following: one–bun; two–shoe; three–tree; four–door;
fi ve–hive; six–sticks; seven–heaven; eight–gate; nine–mine; ten–hen. It’s easy to remem-
ber these words in order because they were created by rhyming them with
the numbers. Also, the rhyming provides a retrieval cue (see page 178)
that helps remember each word. The next step is to pair each of these
things to be remembered with each pegword by creating a vivid image
of your item-to-be-remembered with the object represented by the word.
● Figure 10.22 shows an image that might help me remember the den-
tist appointment. For remembering other items, I might picture an elliptical
trainer inside a shoe, and the letters NCIS in a tree. The beauty of this sys-
tem is that it makes it possible to immediately identify an item based on its
order on the list. So if I want to identify the third thing I need to do today, I
go straight to tree, which translates into my image of the letters N, C, I, and
S dangling in a tree, and this reminds me to watch the program NCIS on TV.
Imagery techniques like the ones just described are often the basis
behind books that claim to provide the key to improving your mem-
ory (see Crook & Adderly, 1998; Lorayne & Lucas, 1996; Treadeau,
1997). Although these books do provide imagery-based techniques that
work, people who purchase these books in the hope of discovering an
easy way to develop “photographic memory” are often disappointed.
Although imagery techniques do work, they do not provide easy, “magi-
cal” improvements in memory, but rather require a great deal of practice
and perseverance (Schacter, 2001).Something to Consider
Mental Representation
of Mechanical Systems
Visual imagery, which has played an important role in scientifi c discoveries
such as determining the structure of benzene and Einstein’s theory of rela-
tivity (page 271), is also an important mechanism for solving mechanical
problems (Hegarty, 2004). For example, consider the problems in the fol-
lowing demonstration.DEMONSTRATION Mechanical Problems
Try solving the three problems in ● Figure 10.23. (a) The fi ve-gear problem: If each of
these gears meshes with the one next to it, and gear #1 is turning clockwise, in what
direction is gear #5 turning? (b) The water-pouring problem: The two glasses are the
same height and are fi lled to the same level. When these two glasses are tilted, will
the water begin pouring out of the glasses at the same angle of tilt or at diff erent
angles? If the angles are diff erent, which glass will pour fi rst? (c) The pulley problem: If
you pull on the free end of the rope (at the arrow), will the lower pulley turn clockwise?Link Word
● FIGURE 10.22 An image that pairs a bun and
teeth, which could be used to remember a dentist
appointment, using the pegword technique.
● FIGURE 10.23 (a) The fi ve-gear problem;
(b) the water-pouring problem; (c) the pulley
problem. See demonstration for details.
(Source: Adapted from M. Hegarty, “Mechanical
Reasoning by Mental Simulation,” TRENDS in Cognitive
Science, 8, no. 6, June 2004, 280–281. Copyright © Elsevier
Ltd. Reproduced by permission.)
(a)
123 45(b)
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