The scanning n-tuple technique (as introduced by Lucas and Amiri, 1996) is studied in pattern recognition tasks, with emphasis placed on methods that improve its recognition performance. We remove potential edge effect problems and optimize the parameters of the scanning n-tuple method with respect to memory requirements, processing speed and recognition accuracy for a case study task. Next, we report an investigation of self-supervised algorithms designed to improve the performance of the scanning n-tuple method by focusing on the characteristics of the pattern space. The most promising algorithm is studied in detail to determine its performance improvement and the consequential increase in the memory requirements. Experimental results using both small-scale and real-world tasks indicate that this algorithm results in an improvement of the scanning n-tuple classification performance