Mnemonic Images for Colors
My memory system has images for colors that match up with my single-digit number images. I finally had a chance to put them to use in a limited way today while studying for California drivers license test, which requires you to know curb colors.
Here are the images I’ve assigned and why:
- White = 0 = soccer ball. Round –> moon –> white.
- Yellow = 1 = candle. Yellow candlelight.
- Blue = 2 = swan. Blue rhymes with two.
- Green = 3 = butterfly or handcuffs. Three rhymes with tree, which is green.
- Black = 4 = flag or sailboat. Black flag.
- Brown = 5 =
seahorse. (UPDATE: later changed to a hook.) Seahorses are brownish.
- Pink = 6 = elephant. Pink elephant.
- Orange = 7 = boomerang. Orange-painted boomerang, orange desert rocks.
- Purple = 8 = snowman. I think of the purple color at dusk in winter in Massachusetts.
- Red = 9 = red balloon on a string.
- Gray = 04 = Osiris. Zero is white and four is black, so 04 is gray.
If I need more colors, I’m thinking that I could mix colors/numbers. E.g., 004 could be light gray and 044 could be dark gray, or 13 could be yellow-green. If one needed even more precise colors for something art-related (like painting scenes from memory), maybe pigments could be assigned to double digit numbers, like Prussian blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine, cerulean, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, etc.