Person Action Object
The PAO system, short for Person-Action-Object, is a mnemonic method for easily remembering number sequences.
It turns difficult-to-remember numbers into simple mini-stories. Each number is linked to a clear image of a person doing an action with an object.
To use the PAO system effectively, you need 110 distinct mini-stories for each number from 0-9 and 00-99. With this list, you can easily remember any number up to 999,999.
To describe a specific PAO mini-story, we can begin with its components:
- Person: Choose a recognizable or distinctive person for each item.
- Action: Associate an action with this person, something characteristic or outlandishly memorable.
- Object: Finally, link an object to the person and action, creating a vivid and unique image.
To demonstrate the use of a full PAO system for longer sequences, let's take the number 128365 as an example. We start by dividing it into three segments: 12, 83, and 65. Next, we apply the PAO system (which would have been memorized before the exercise) to each two-digit sequence:
- 12: Albert Einstein writing a letter
- 83: Michael Jordan dunking a basketball
- 65: Cleopatra sailing on the Nile
To construct a new encoding we would take the person from the first number, the action of the second number and the object of the third, and make a new, unique mini-story:
Albert Einstein dunking on the Nile.
