The law of interest
The more interested you are in learning, the easier it is to memorize it. If the subject matter is uninteresting, put a little effort into making it interesting. Just as a little spice or condiment changes the flavor of a curry, injecting a bit of humor or sex into an utterly boring subject matter might make it extremely interesting to study and recollect.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 07, 2010
Law One
"The ten thousand questions are one question. If you cut through the one question, then the ten thousand questions disappear"
It may seem like a waste of time to spend too much of time dwelling on one topic while studying. Nevertheless if you ponder the topic through and through and thoroughly understand it the first time that you read it, you are far more likely to retain it for much longer than if you do not understand it. Hence make the effort, like a Zen master to understand what you are studying. Ponder every side of the question, examine its pros and cons, compare it with previous knowledge and try to create a theoretical construct of the matter at hand. Create templates and proformas that outline the topic. The next time you approach the topic, the ropeway you have already constructed will smoothen your passage.
It may seem like a waste of time to spend too much of time dwelling on one topic while studying. Nevertheless if you ponder the topic through and through and thoroughly understand it the first time that you read it, you are far more likely to retain it for much longer than if you do not understand it. Hence make the effort, like a Zen master to understand what you are studying. Ponder every side of the question, examine its pros and cons, compare it with previous knowledge and try to create a theoretical construct of the matter at hand. Create templates and proformas that outline the topic. The next time you approach the topic, the ropeway you have already constructed will smoothen your passage.
8 laws of memory
1 The Law Of Comprehension.
People forget what they read because "they do too little thinking". The more you understand what you memorise, the more easy it is for you for memorise
2. The Law Of Interest.
"For knowledge to be digested, it must be absorbed with relish," wrote Anatole France. For an interesting and appetizing bit of knowledge you do not have to make any special efforts to remember. That is why we remember scandalous and sex related issues so well!
3. The Law Of Previous Knowledge.
If one knows something on a certain subject it is easier to understand and memorize something new pertaining to it.
4. The Law Of Readiness For Memorization.
You are more likely to retain something for a longer period rather than if you only want to remember it for a short while; eg; you want to remember a girlfriends home address versus wanting to remember a telemarketer's phone number.
5. The Law Of Associations.
This was formulated back in the 4th century B.C. by Aristotle. The concepts which arose simultaneously summon each other up from the memory bank by association. For instance, the atmosphere of a room evokes recollections about events which took place in it (or recollection of what you read staying in it, and this is exactly what you need).
6. The Law Of Sequences.
Concepts can be learned in a certain sequence and are easier to recall or summon in the same sequence. For example, the alphabet, which is easy to recite in its regular order and much more difficult in the reverse order. However there are methods to overcome this law.
7. The Law Of Strong Impressions.
The first impression is the best impression. The stronger the first impression of what is being memorized, the brighter the memory trace.
8. The Law Of Inhibition.
Any subsequent memorization can inhibit the previously learned material. The learned portion of information must "settle" before the next is taken up. That is why teachers advocate steady learning rather than last minute cramming!
People forget what they read because "they do too little thinking". The more you understand what you memorise, the more easy it is for you for memorise
2. The Law Of Interest.
"For knowledge to be digested, it must be absorbed with relish," wrote Anatole France. For an interesting and appetizing bit of knowledge you do not have to make any special efforts to remember. That is why we remember scandalous and sex related issues so well!
3. The Law Of Previous Knowledge.
If one knows something on a certain subject it is easier to understand and memorize something new pertaining to it.
4. The Law Of Readiness For Memorization.
You are more likely to retain something for a longer period rather than if you only want to remember it for a short while; eg; you want to remember a girlfriends home address versus wanting to remember a telemarketer's phone number.
5. The Law Of Associations.
This was formulated back in the 4th century B.C. by Aristotle. The concepts which arose simultaneously summon each other up from the memory bank by association. For instance, the atmosphere of a room evokes recollections about events which took place in it (or recollection of what you read staying in it, and this is exactly what you need).
6. The Law Of Sequences.
Concepts can be learned in a certain sequence and are easier to recall or summon in the same sequence. For example, the alphabet, which is easy to recite in its regular order and much more difficult in the reverse order. However there are methods to overcome this law.
7. The Law Of Strong Impressions.
The first impression is the best impression. The stronger the first impression of what is being memorized, the brighter the memory trace.
8. The Law Of Inhibition.
Any subsequent memorization can inhibit the previously learned material. The learned portion of information must "settle" before the next is taken up. That is why teachers advocate steady learning rather than last minute cramming!
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Thinking with the whole body
Flashbulb memories
All of us have had experiential memories that are extremely vivid and powerful in our minds. For example: I remember the exact moment in 1984 when it was announced that Indira Gandhi had been assassinated. I was studying in the 8th standard, playing hockey on a dusty field, when a group of friends came running up to us and announced the momentous news and the dismissal of school for the rest of the day. I still remember the gaggle of students standing around in the swirling dust, chattering excitedly wondering if the Pakistanis would send bomber squadrons to drop bombs on all the major Indian cities during that chaotic time. Although the event occurred 26 years ago, i am still able to recollect the scenario with comparative ease. This is because of the intense emotion associated with the event. These kind of memories are called flashbulb memories and are associated with an area of the brain called the amygdala.
Associating an intense experience with an event is one of the methods of ensuring its permanence in the memory circuits. Try out some of the books on these subjects.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Think with the whole body!
We register the environment through our five senses; sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Of these the most important are sight and sound and the brain utilizes these most often to encode environmental stimuli and store them in our memory bins. Thus the visual and phonological/audiological loops are most strongly used to encode and store memory traces. We remember words and pictures best.
Smells, tastes and the memory of touch are fleeting and more strongly associated with an environmental prompt; they tend to be recalled by a cue.
Nevertheless since we overuse our visual and audiological loops in our daily life, our memory loops tend to get saturated. If we can balance it out by involving the other senses in our learning process, then the encoding of memory will become easier.
Smells, tastes and the memory of touch are fleeting and more strongly associated with an environmental prompt; they tend to be recalled by a cue.
Nevertheless since we overuse our visual and audiological loops in our daily life, our memory loops tend to get saturated. If we can balance it out by involving the other senses in our learning process, then the encoding of memory will become easier.
Graduated interval recall
Once you analyse the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, you realize that a scientific method of rehearsal/revision or 'graduated interval recall' will fix a memory indelibly in your circuit. One of the early exponents of this system was Pimsleur who used this for his language courses. He found that students of foreign languages learnt best if they used his rule of five. This comprised of revision of the word or concept approximately one hour, one day, one week, one month and quarter after the initial introduction to the concept. This is the Pimsleur 1967 memory schedule.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Forgetting Curve
Think with the whole body
TAISEN DESHIMARU
In the 1800'Hermann Ebbinghaus a German psychologist made a startling discovery. When we learn something, we forget most of it within 20 minutes. Within 60 minutes a substantial amount is gone and most is gone within a day. On average, over a period of weeks the human brain forgets more than 90% of what has been learned. This is particularly true in the area of vocabulary development and acquisition. The curve depicts that, in the long run, only about 10-20% of information is retained after initial memorization. Ebbinghaus managed to construct a 'forgetting curve' with which he derived that if you repeat learning sessions at exponentially increasing time intervals, then you could strengthen synaptic connections in the brain and counteract the process of forgetting. After learning the correct answer five times in a row, the study item can be locked into the long-term memory.
It is extremely useful to know the 'Ebbinghaus forgetting curve' which can be easily accessed on the internet.
TAISEN DESHIMARU
In the 1800'Hermann Ebbinghaus a German psychologist made a startling discovery. When we learn something, we forget most of it within 20 minutes. Within 60 minutes a substantial amount is gone and most is gone within a day. On average, over a period of weeks the human brain forgets more than 90% of what has been learned. This is particularly true in the area of vocabulary development and acquisition. The curve depicts that, in the long run, only about 10-20% of information is retained after initial memorization. Ebbinghaus managed to construct a 'forgetting curve' with which he derived that if you repeat learning sessions at exponentially increasing time intervals, then you could strengthen synaptic connections in the brain and counteract the process of forgetting. After learning the correct answer five times in a row, the study item can be locked into the long-term memory.
It is extremely useful to know the 'Ebbinghaus forgetting curve' which can be easily accessed on the internet.
Forgetting
We are bombarded with so much information everyday, so it is only natural that we forget.If we remembered everything that we experienced then we would be unable to function in our daily lives. Imagine remembering and reliving every tiny bit of your life all the time, every fearful, sad, happy event. Your mind would be overloaded with information and it can make you an extremely inefficient person. It would be analogous to a computer that spends its CPU power processing redudant background tasks instead of focusing on the immediate task at hand.
There are extremely rare individuals who suffer from the disorder of 'hyperthymesia' or the extraordinary ability to recall events that they have personally experienced. Such a person can be asked any date and to describe the events that occurred that day, what the weather was like, and many trivial details that most people would not be able to recall. Only 4 or 5 such cases have been described in literature.
Generally such people spend an abnormal amount of time thinking about their past and are about to recall specific events from their past with extraordinary clarity.
By the way, the word 'thymesia' comes from the greek thymesis for memory.
More on how we normals remember and forget next time!
There are extremely rare individuals who suffer from the disorder of 'hyperthymesia' or the extraordinary ability to recall events that they have personally experienced. Such a person can be asked any date and to describe the events that occurred that day, what the weather was like, and many trivial details that most people would not be able to recall. Only 4 or 5 such cases have been described in literature.
Generally such people spend an abnormal amount of time thinking about their past and are about to recall specific events from their past with extraordinary clarity.
By the way, the word 'thymesia' comes from the greek thymesis for memory.
More on how we normals remember and forget next time!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The science of memory
'When you are deluded, every statement is an ulcer; when you're enlightened, every word is wisdom.'
Zen proverb
Life is a great journey which all of us must traverse. We form impressions of the world from the time that we are born till the time we die. These impressions are stored as different memory traces in our brains in different forms. Some of these are unformed visual memories from the time we were babies, some are photographic explicitly vivid memories, some are auditory memories, others of odor, touch or other senses. We meet myriad people along the way, have a panoply of experiences and forget 99.9% of them. Possibly this is an evolutionary mechanism that helps mankind to move on and not get stuck in the past. However, imagine if you could remember people, names, information, numbers and much more. How much efficient and powerful you could be! After all knowledge is power.
If you plod along life without a systematic plan to utilize your memory networks, you will expend a great deal of effort more than an individual who has a systematic method of memorization.
Zen proverb
Life is a great journey which all of us must traverse. We form impressions of the world from the time that we are born till the time we die. These impressions are stored as different memory traces in our brains in different forms. Some of these are unformed visual memories from the time we were babies, some are photographic explicitly vivid memories, some are auditory memories, others of odor, touch or other senses. We meet myriad people along the way, have a panoply of experiences and forget 99.9% of them. Possibly this is an evolutionary mechanism that helps mankind to move on and not get stuck in the past. However, imagine if you could remember people, names, information, numbers and much more. How much efficient and powerful you could be! After all knowledge is power.
If you plod along life without a systematic plan to utilize your memory networks, you will expend a great deal of effort more than an individual who has a systematic method of memorization.
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