1 syllable letter pair words

Some early thoughts.

I finished learning my "edge extension" letter pair words, so I can use this method on edges too. I've done about 20-25 solves today so far using letter pair words/sounds for both edges and corners. I've also done maybe another 10 solves using a hybrid method with letter pair images placed in a journey for edges and letter pair words/sounds for corners.

When using words/sounds for both edges and corners I feel like it's a mental overload. I often interchange words between the edges and corner sounds, or forget 2 or more words in a row. I've also found that I can't memorize it all as one string of sound spoken within 10 seconds (my initial hypothesis), because I have to pause after each word to recognize what the next word will be. I can put them into 2 groups, an edges group of usually 6-8 words, and a corners group of 4 words usually. If I have more than 10 words I take a noticably longer time to commit them to memory than if I have 10 words or less.

If I use the hybrid images and words/sounds method I can fairly often solve at times I used to consider very fast (sub-1:40) without putting in as much effort as it used to take for me to get sub-1:40. Also I am getting sub-1:30 on occasion, and I used to get solves like that only once or twice a week.

So in short I don't know if it's better to use this method as a hybrid method and still use letter pair images as well, or as the full method. I am still practicing both ways until I find one coming out on top. Regardless, I hope to have all my words on my website by sometime tomorrow, including the ones for edges.

Chris
 
I agree that it would be hard to do this method for both corners and edges in the same solve, that is why I like using number pairs for corners and word sounds for edges, so that they are easily distinguishable. Also, I memorize edges first and I say the wrods to myself and even after I memorize the corners with numbers, the edge words are still ringing in my head, then I finish with a quick visualy memo of CO, put on the blindfold and quickly execute CO. I foundout that my corners are almost always right, so my problems on DNFs are the edges. By the time I do go through all that, one word may have slipped my mind, but I think with a set system of words/sounds I will be able to recognize/remember them better than having to make one up each time. So once you are done Chris, I am sure that once I commit them to memory, my times. along with my DNFs, will decrease, so I can't wait
 
Chris: This also brings in the thought of interference. Personally if I learnt this method, I would mostly likely prefer to use it for edges since they are slightly harder to memorise because there are 12 of them. If I execute my corners first, this verbal memory might have gone by the time I get to my edges. So this is a problem I/we need to address.

Ps: Are you placing the edge list on your site aswell? I am getting more excited everytime I read this topic :p
 
http://www.speedcubing.com/chris/memorizing.html

I updated my page to include my letter pair words list as well. I have included all words including my extension to edges. I would be very interested in hearing if anyone finds this method useful.

I still think memorizing this way has enormous potential, but so far after more practice solves I am leaning very strongly towards using this method for 3x3 corners and using letter pair images and journeys for 3x3 edges. The hybrid method seems to take less mental effort in terms of avoiding memorization interference, and I have still achieved some fast sub-1:30 solves using the hybrid method already.

Let me know what you think,
Chris
 
Chris,

I just tried a few solves (3-cycle) using letter pairs for both edge and corner permutation, and visual memory for orientation. I found the words to be very easy to recall, and I had 100% accuracy (much better than my accuracy with pure visual memorization). I will definitely consider learning this method, but my only problem is that all of the pairs I would need are not included :D. Of course, since you've done the bulk of the work, I'm sure I can work out the remaining pairs for myself.

Thanks again for compiling this list. I hope everyone finds it to be as useful as I do!
 
Hi philkt731, I didn't notice that before actually. I think I may change one of those pairs to be safe, but I do pronounce DH "dough" with a large volume of exhaled air, whereas for DO "doe" I make the same exact vowel sound without exhaling the large volume of air. I can't remember what you call a vowel sound with a large volume of exhaled air, but I do make a slightly different (although not all that different) sound for those two words. Maybe that's why I never noticed it.

Thanks for pointing that out actually.

--edit--
Ok I've decided to keep those words the same, but I will exaggerate the exhaled air part of DH "dough" (imagine the way Homer Simpson says "DOh!" This way the vowel sound ends up sounding a little bit higher, and I exaggerate the exhaled air, so it is very easy to tell the two words apart.

That may have actually led to a competition DNF for me, I had not even noticed those words were homophones.

Thanks!

--edit--

Chris
 
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no problem. i really like this idea, and i really want to make it work for me and my goal is to hopefully get a sub 2 in competition, so i've ghone through all ur words, changed some for my prefernces (e.g. i made DH= duh), double checked, added new ones for A M and Z, etc. it'll take a while to get them all committed to memory. then the hard part is to scan the cube and see two cubies and in a snap think of thesyllable, rather than each letter, then put them together and then the syllable, but after aTON of practice, hopefully my times will show it has payed off :)
 
I've started practicing big cubes blind again, now that I know my word list pretty well. I still occasionally have a delay in trying to remember the word for a certain letter pair, but I'm still quizzing myself each day and these delays are fewer and further between.

What I wanted to say with this post is that I've noticed for the 3x3x3 BLD I tend to be more accurate when I use the hybrid image letter pair method with journeys for edges and 1 syllable word/sounds for corners. I can get times equally as fast as when I use only 1 syllable words, but I DNF more often when I use only words.

However, for 5x5x5 BLD I tend to prefer to use all words for the 3x3x3 pieces. I think this is because by the time I start memorizing the 3x3x3 pieces I've already memorized all the centers and the wings, and my brain has just about had it with memorizing images. It tends to be easier to absorb words/sounds by this point than cramming in even more images. I memorize a lot slower than I would for 3x3x3, because I DNF more often when I use words and I try to go fast, but so far I like the way it feels to do words for the 3x3x3 pieces of the 5x5x5.

I don't have any data on how this has affected my times for the bigger cubes yet, but subjectively it feels easier to memorize a bigger cube. By easier I mean more in the sense that I feel less like I have to battle memorization interference since my pieces are memorized using different methods.

I can't speak for others, but I get a sort of mental overload when I memorize everything using the same method. At least doing it this way I have separate chunks memorized in different ways, so there's (hopefully?) less chance for interference.

Also I already have plans to expand my word list to create 2 lists, a list for 1 syllable nouns only and a separate list for 1 syllable verbs only. I already have ideas to try 1 syllable PA (person/noun - action) for 3x3x3 edges. This way I could create more meaningful phrases for the 3x3x3 edges and have less chance to forget them because of interference from the more random corner words. I'll try to keep updating on how it goes.

Anyone else working on 1 syllable words please post your experiences too. Kai I know you use this method too, do you have any thoughts from your experience so far? I'd like to consider this thread a forum for discussion on how to improve this sound memory. Although I know not everyone agrees, I prefer to share ideas. Multiple people working hard on an idea can create a better method than 1 person working alone, in my opinion. If no one else posts, I'll try to at least keep posting about my own experiences trying this method.

Perhaps we can, together, create a memorization system to rival the BLD juggernaut Matyas ;-)

Chris
 
The separate noun and verb lists sounds like a great idea! If possible, would you consider creating words for all letter combinations, in case other people use different lettering schemes / memo systems?
 
Kai I know you use this method too, do you have any thoughts from your experience so far?

My memory method is a bit diffrent from yours since I don't use words but simply one syllable sounds. That allowed me to memorize pretty fast after quite some practice. I think using fixed words is MUCH better and allows for a higher accuracy. I feel like creating such a word-list too but I don't think that german is such a good language for one-syllable words. Maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe I should just stick to english. It's quite a big bunch of work to come up with all those words and to memorize them. Respect. I like the KH in your list, what a nice idea. :) Thank you!
 
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