Category: Let's talk
Hi Guys,
I've just got a book from Audible called "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing your brain's potential" by Richard M. Restak. It does what it says really. Richard M. Restak is a leading Neuro-psychiatrist from the D.C area, and has written a book in which he gives some ways memory can be improved. Some of it is possible for us blindies, some however, for me at least, isn't, as it involves visualization, something I personally find quite difficult on occasions. I'll explain "on occasions" in a bit. I'm inclined to blame my blindness for this but am not quite sure whether to or not.
My question though is, is there anyone out there who uses spacific techniques for memorizing facts and figures? I'm especially interested in people's experiences while pursuing academic subjects, as I'll be going to school soon and will need all the help I can get lol.
I'll put my $0.02 on the matter too though, as I understand and remember it from the book. As much of it as I've read so far that is.
First of all, DR. Restak explains that it helps to know a little about how the brain works. I'm not going to go into that here, but suffice to say that when we experience something new we form connections between two or more neurons by way of synapses. The more we practice this new skill, rehearse the newly learned facts etc, the stronger the connection between the neurons, and the more ingraned in our memories the thing becomes. So, as the saying goes, practice proves perfect.
With that in mind, he has us try this:
make a list of four words.
study these four words for about 15 seconds or so.
go away and do something else, but set an alarm for 5 minutes.
when the alarm sounds, see how many of these words you can remember.
increase both the elapsed time, from 5 to 15, to 30 minutes, and the word count from 4 to 8 to 12 to 16, etc.
write down aword, and see if you can spel it backwards verbally.
write down a 5-digit number, and read it once.
recite it forwards, then backwards without looking at the written figure.
increase that up to 9 and beyond if you can.
make a list of 15 words with absolutely no relation to each other at all.
record yourself saying these words.
play it back.
write the words "trial 1" at the top of a document, and see how many words you can remember.
play it back again, and begin "trial 2".
do this up to 5 times, and at the end of the 5th time, see how many you got right.
now make a list of a further 15 words, again with no relation to each other.
go back to the first list.
see how many of the first list's words you can remember, and how many words from the second "interfere" with the first.
regular exercises like these are just a few of the ways we can increase our brain's capacity for learning, for like any other muscle, if you exercise it regularly the more agile it becomes.
As for memory aids, there seem to be a number of techniques that can be employed. One way is to break things up into chunks. This works especially well for me with phone numbers. For example, 740483 is the number of a local taxi firm here. Our phone numbers in the UK, as a rule are 6 digits in length, for local number, so I split these up generally, into two blocks of 3, so, 740483 becomes 7 4 0, 4 8 3. And here is where I explain where I said I find visualization difficult on occasion. The way DR. Restak explained it was to imagine a place you know well, and associate the things you need to remember with a location within that place. For example, take a mental walk through your lounge, picturing a note on your sofa with whatever it is you are trying to remember. I'm not entirely sure this will work for me to be quite honest. I do however, especially when reading books wherein this is possible, picture scenarios that the book is talking about. This then makes it a fairly straightforward matter of describing a scene from abook, whether the book is telling a story, or just reporting some facts about an event.
So, after all that lol, what do you guys do? Any memorizing tips?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers,
Simon
PS: sorry in advance to if this is in the wrong board.
Found some stuff on a taster psych course from the open university, www.open.ac.uk, that suggests that imagery may work after all. Try this.
Here's a shopping list:
bananas
eggs
milk
bread
cake
serial
sugar
chocolates
wine
flowers
Now do this:
You approach your front door but discover instead of a handle it has a banana.
You walk down your hall, walking carefully as there are eggs all over the flor.
As you open the door of your lounge you get soaked in milk.
You go to the window, and pull the curtains back only to find that instead of curtains they are slices of bread.
You go to switch on the TV to discover it has been turned into a large box of serial.
You feel like a sit down afterr that but as you sink down into your sofa it turns into a large ginger cake.
OK, you think let's have a cup of tea. You approach the kitchen, wading through aload of sugar over the floor.
You pick up the kettle to find that it has been turned into a bottle of wine.
OK let's have a cup of water then. You open the cupboard, take out a cup to find it is full of flowers. You take the flowers out, turn on the tap, but instead of water, you get chocolate.
The sillier it is, the easier, they say, it is for you to remember things. Give it a go anyway.
Cheers,
Simon
That might work. *smile* I've been pretty good at imagery, but when it comes to remembering questions, lists, and other things, I need to write them down.
hmm,m I find that playing the piano has greatly enhanced my memory. Since i play by ear it is really easy to remember songs that i have heard before and I can make connections from one song to another. I am not sure how you would aply this, but you can actually put things into a song and perhaps remember them just because they rhyme. If you don't believe that putting things to a song helps, then as soon as you say the "a b c" song it pops into your head must be something strange *chuckle* . Anyway, another technique that works for me is to repeat something in my head, retain it and work at this for maybe a couple of minutes. Then just try to recall it later. I also find it useful when I remmeber a particular place to remember what people are saying. I particularly remember who was say, next to me, or events that happened after a lecture or the like. I also try to recall how it felt--cold or hot, ETC. The last thechnique that has proven useful that i know is to use mneumonic devices. For example, a classic one is in music: "good boys do fine always" (for the lines on the bass cleff), or "oscar had a heap of aples" (for remembering the tangent, sine and cosine formulas). Of course i have made up my own: "fat cats go down alleys eating birds" (for the order of sharps). i have found that studying hard and then doing something else after it will make your memory fresh by the time you wake up. So, the night before an exam I study hard and then go watch a movie or something. THis happens alsowhen solving tasks. I would think about a problem really hard for a couple of minutes, then forget about it ocmpletely and then I get the answer at the least expected times. This work is carried out by mainly what is known as the subconscious brain. So, next time you are trouble recalling something, try to remember it as hard as you can for a couple of minutes, then just wait and completely devoid yourself out of it. Then you will suddenly remember it later. Of course this aproach might not work for everyone but its been helpful to me.