I would
like you to read/watch and comment on/discuss the presentation - Human
Memory.
You will find it at (http://konwersatorium2-ms-pjwstk.blogspot.com/2013/05/week-7-human-memory.html
). Comment on it here.
English Conversation Course for Part-Time Students
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your technique for remembering?
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any special technique. I just try to remember things using logic. As for numbers – this is trickier. I did not use any technique I just remember them. I can tell that after reading this articles I’m starting to think about learning some method to improve my remembering capacity.
How do you train your memory?
I just use it often. I try to remember as much things that I have to do as I can. The most important I put in my calendar in phone to be sure that none of very important things that I have to do will be forgotten. The less important things I keep in my “head notes”.
Is it possible to train memory as the man in the film?
I’m pretty confident that if you would train your brain in some kind of memorization technique everyone is able to remember a lot of stuff. He might be a person that have a gift of good memory that he had received with genes.
Which kind of human memory is the best to remember information?
It depends on how long we want to keep that information in our head. If we need to remember something for a sec – than working memory is good enough. If something needs to be remembered for a long time, we should try to repeat that information so it goes to our long term memory. It can stay there for a long time if we refresh that information from time to time.
Which kind of human memory is the most similar to your brain?
I think that my brain is similar to working memory connected to electronic calendar. I do not remember everything that I hear or see. I try to work on information before I store it for longer time. If I need to remember about something for more than a month I prefer to use electronic calendar.
I just read all the articles related with memory and they are very inspiring. Noticed I already use some of the tips listed in one of the articles – but was’t truly aware that there’s so many “mnemonic techniques” that can help me even more. The techniques were also mentioned by Marcin Kowalczyk (“memory master”) so I decide to look for some more information that could help me with applying the techniques. Maybe you’ll be interested too:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marshallcf.com/assets/book_reviews/Your%20Memory%20-%20How%20it%20Works%20%20How%20to%20Improve%20it%20-%20Ver%202.pdf
http://www.bucks.edu/media/bcccmedialibrary/pdf/studentservices/pass/Mnemonics.pdf
My technique to remember things is based on visualisation – simply try to imagine what I have to remember. I also use information like puzzles – it’s much easier to remember something that relates to other things I already know... I place everything an “information map” - some part’s of my map are connected, some are “lonely islands”, but I constantly try to develop new reads between them and create a logic structure.
I’d like to share something more with you – the material helped me understand the way in which I’m learning. It presents concept called “holistic learning”. Hope it helps you too.
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/Programs/HolisticLearningEBook.pdf
Kate
First of all, when I want to learn sth for instance, some words in English I have to get things down on paper! I always have to rewrite one word several times. Believe me, it’s exhausting. Additionally, I also have to pay attention to the photographs, charts in my books. I use highlighters or pens in different colours to underline important things. So, that is my strategy.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Lukasz
Don't you all have a filling that if you are interested in the subject then you can remember every single word or fact no matter whether the amount of informator is huge? It works this way for me, what is very usefull when I'm intrested and a bit painfull when I'm not, because then I've to pay much attention to what I have to learn. If I know information will be needed in the future and I know there can be a problem with remembering it I simply wryte it down in my calendar or make a note. D
ReplyDeleteI think that extension of the memory is possible, in my opiniom people who read a lot have much better memory that the one who have seen a book in last century.
Iza, why I always can't be more agree with you? :)
DeleteI have a really good memory. Just short. That's why I can't live without my calendar. And yellow sticky notes ;) But I don't think about it as a problem. When I'm interested in the subject I will remember what I have learn even a long time after I used this knowledge last time.
I train my brain only in ways mentioned by you: learning and reading. It takes enough of my time, no way to find more to practice some special exercises.
Very good point - you get things to remember easier, when you like the subject and WANT to know more. The same goes for activities/jobs/tasks which you WANT to complete - you just have to remember certain facts (which you are not quite interested in) to progress.
DeleteAs for my experiences: I have a (proven) very bad memory (just ask my girlfriend :) ), so my weapon of choice is smartphone and various calendars, as well as notes at work. When I have to remember something, I drill the text until i memorize it - the less i like the subject, the more it takes to successfully remember.
Lately I have noticed that I have huge problems with memorizing new things. Considering that, I read an article called "Tips and Exercises to sharpen Your Mind and Boost Brainpower" with a great interest, hoping it could give me some advice how to increase my remembering ability. I found it quite absorbing, especially because I am a last year student and soon I will be passing many important exams. My impression after reading it is that some of the tips given (such as: good diet, exercises and a sufficient amount of sleep) can be put into practice easily. Those I can implement into my everyday routine almost immediately. At the same time I am wondering if there are sufficient to boost my brain function. The other advice from the article points the significant role of stress coping. For me, it will be the most difficult thing - to manage with stress, mainly because my everyday duties put me under extreme pressure. I am aware that good mood and well-being are crucial in improving memory, but I think that life without stress is almost impossible nowadays to achieve. One of the thesis says that stress destroys regions of the brain responsible for creating and retrieving memories and if it is really so, I guess that I am in a big trouble, because the efforts that I undertake to be more calmed and relaxed are not bringing a desired effect so far.
ReplyDeleteI might have a similar problem as you, Piotr. I also have trouble memorizing new thing lately and after reading this article I'm blaming a few factors:
DeleteStress, which unfortunately is constant in my life. Additionally to work-related one I also do a lot of volunteer work that puts on me even more pressure. To add insult to injury - I have health issues lately and am stressing about those - probably making them worse and ruining my brain in the process.
Fast food diet - well, maybe not all fast food, but I'm pretty sure I'm not meeting the daily requirement of 5+ portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Lack of exercise, sadly because of my great love for computers and being a couch potato :(
This article was enlightning for me. I was able to pin point my problematic areas and I will start impovements right away. While stress is something that will be hard to get rid off - I can certainly work on my diet and excercise.
I have a link for you all that want to improve your memory and general "brain fitness".
http://lumosity.com/
I've been doing free trainings for a while now and I'm feeling some improvement. I guess with more regularity I could get better results. I encourage everyone to try games from this site - they're fun, some of them are easy and other are challenging (but in a good way :). And the basic version of the site is free.
I also like to do puzzles and I assume it's a good excercise for the brain too. My favourite kind are Sudoku and Star Battle. You can find both types here: http://puzzlepicnic.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your technique for remembering?
ReplyDeleteBasically I don't have problem with remembering things to do, meeting etc. But when I had to learn something by heart I used to create logical chain, linking every information together, combining it with repetition and visual imagine (i liked to write down notes, but group them by using different ink).
Another way was to create cribs, which I never had to use (or maybe sometimes, as all of us did :) ) I tried to sum up every info up into 10/15 words and just try to remember only those words.
How do you train your memory?
I think I do not train memory, not on purpose of course. I really like to solve puzzles, especially those kind in which f. ex Peter will bring cake to the party if the party is at noon, otherwise we will brink soda. Very popular puzzle of that hind is "Einstein's Riddle" (hope you will enjoy it)
http://www.manbottle.com/trivia/einstein_s_riddle
Is it possible to train memory as the man in the film?
I think that it is possible by creating a pattern and practicing memory. For one cube you only need to remember 8 colours in order (f.ex. when you actually trying to remember only side with red square in the middle). Then there you have to solve the puzzle, but as you can see, they're doing that in the same way. There are so many toys for children, which requires remembering patterns (colours, sounds and so on), so you can borrow that stuff from your kid(if you have one) and start practicing. Not everyone will get that, but... maybe it's worth trying?
Which kind of human memory is the best to remember information?
It's very strange question, because normally the best way would be to remember everything, so the answer is long-term memory. But do we need to "store" our shopping list from 26th March 2006? As all of us said before: It depends.
Which kind of human memory is the most similar to your brain?
To be honest? I don't think I really get that question...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs for me - remembering a lot of things was always a tough topic. That'’s why I decided to go on a specialised course. Course about human perception and memory. And what I’ve learned for sure is that most of the articles considering human brain and memorisation are crap. Even scientific researches have rarely good findings.
ReplyDeleteDon't bother creating any sophisticated philosophy. Human brain memorizes more if the topic is connected with another topics. Weeks of training (mine and my colleagues) proved to me that "complete memorization talent" is a "complete association creation". If you want to remember something once, you need to instantly create small “story about it”. Normal person can remember up to 5-9 simple (not connected) things in mind, as colours, numbers, etc. If you create story, as “RED carpet with 6 socks on it became WHITE after 2 years” – any non-trained man can remember hundreds of generic data portions. That’s the “secret” behind people who can remember more than thousand digit number after few minutes of reading it.
In fact it’s hard. It’s hard to creating non stop some stories and connections between synthetic data, but not always you want to remember 1000 digits. Usually that data has already many connections, but you must consider them as the connection. That was the foundation of all the memory map (sometimes called brain maps or mind maps) philosophy. And it works. After few years of doing memory maps it evolve as the skill of association creation evolves.
We had an exercise when we were listening to story about 20 minutes long, where each sentence had some numbers, cities, colours, names, addresses, etc. It was created with thought of creating connections easy to comprehend. All of the listeners remembered more than 80% of data with ease. After 2 years I still remember most of it. Another exercise was to remember 10x10 grid of symbols in about 5 minutes. Without creating “a story” it was simply a no-go.
Another thing was while speedreading some articles. The speed of displaying sentences was enough only to remember some words. After that the task was to reconstruct whole story. How to do it? Ask yourselves bunch of questions, which really don’t need to be connected with the topic. Questions makes some memory connections clear even thou we didn’t know we remembered it. All of us on the course thought that we understood nothing from article – it was a bunch...maybe 10 words. After 10 minutes we could reconstruct whole story.
In fact, memory can be enhanced only by creation of unlimited associations between knowledge set in our former experiences and new data.
For those who don’t really believe it I encourage to read a bit about Dariusz Konarzewski. He was a winner of polish speedreading championship and he is a professional in the memorization matter. Things that he can present with his own mind can be called those of the machine.
The first think that comes to me is "in healthy body, healthy mind". Enjoying our lives, stimulates our brain through all senses, we spur it with variety of food, exercises, books, music, movies, fragrances. Traveling is a great opportunity to broaden our horizons not only literally but also by expanding our base of associations, getting familiar with different benchmarks and standards.
ReplyDeleteI recommend site below, with one of many related articles
http://www.human-memory.net/processes_recall.html
I found the article very interesting, I always wondered how to improve my brain skills and tried to do something with it. When I was a child I tried to play games which was designed to train memmory and I liked such games, such as complicated puzzles, strategic board games and other brain teasers. After I realised that I'm good in numbers but very bad in remembering long texts, poems etc. I use classic techniques to remember something, like I say to myself what to do couple of tiomes or repaet some number 2, 3 time and then after couple minutes again, and If I was able to repeat it correctly than I know that I will remember it. After reading your post and your researched material I know that in my case I have solid maintenance rehearsal and quite well long-term memory. Unfortunately working memory could be bit better, so I'm going to use some tips from "How To Improve Your Memory" article ;)
ReplyDelete