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Using Pattern Recognition to Enhance Memory and Creativity - Maria Popova

Using Pattern Recognition to Enhance Memory and Creativity - Maria Popova
"If seven friends in turn rapidly told him their phone numbers, he could calmly wait until the last digit was spoken and then, from memory, key all seven friends' numbers into his phone's contact list without error." It seems to be the season for fascinating meditations on consciousness, exploring such questions as what happens while we sleep, how complex cognition evolved, and why the world exists. Joining them and prior explorations of what it means to be human is The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning (public library) by Cambridge neuroscientist Daniel Bor in which, among other things, he sheds light on how our species' penchant for pattern-recognition is essential to consciousness and our entire experience of life. To illustrate the power of chunking, Bor gives an astounding example of how one man was able to use this mental mechanism in greatly expanding the capacity of his working memory. Related:  Academic Skills

OpenStax CNX Most of us suffer from memory failures of one kind or another, and most of us would like to improve our memories so that we don’t forget where we put the car keys or, more importantly, the material we need to know for an exam. In this section, we’ll look at some ways to help you remember better, and at some strategies for more effective studying. What are some everyday ways we can improve our memory, including recall? To help make sure information goes from short-term memory to long-term memory, you can use memory-enhancing strategies. Another strategy is chunking: you organize information into manageable bits or chunks (Bodie, Powers, & Fitch-Hauser, 2006). You could also enhance memory by using elaborative rehearsal: a technique in which you think about the meaning of the new information and its relation to knowledge already stored in your memory (Tigner, 1999). Mnemonic devices are memory aids that help us organize information for encoding (Figure). jingle acronym acrostic acoustic

Memorizing Dates - How To Remember Dates For A Test Dates are often difficult to remember because they seem so random and obscure unless we can relate them to something specific. For instance, the American Civil War started in 1861, but unless you have a strong interest in the specific timeline of the war, there is nothing special about the starting date that separates that date from any other. What makes 1861 stand apart from 1863 or 1851? When trying to memorize a date, students can really benefit from a mnemonic system (memory technique) to help them recall the right numbers in the right order. For memorizing dates it might be helpful to borrow a practice from the London Cockneys. A Cockney is an inhabitant of the East End of London, England. In Cockney slang: Can you believe it? More examples: Whistle and flute = suit White mice = ice Tom Hanks = thanks Trouble and strife = wife Remembering Dates We can use the same method to remember dates. You can leave off the century, so that 1861, the starting date for the Civil War, becomes 61.

Test Taking Upload TheProjectKnowledge Loading... Working... ► Play all Test Taking 2 videos195 viewsLast updated on Aug 12, 2013 Play all Sign in to YouTube Sign in History Sign in to add this to Watch Later Add to Loading playlists... Enhancing learning using sensory specific words Everyone uses their senses to learn. Most people have an unconscious successful strategy for learning that is triggered when the information is presented in a preferred way. Teachers normally cover the different learning styles by telling, showing and then getting a pupil to experience what they need to learn. This can work while the student can experience what they need to learn. Many things cannot be experienced in a classroom due to expense, location or that the concept is a theoretical model. Some schools go so far as to teach students in groups labelling them as visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners. At the same time many teachers miss out on stimulating the inner world where the students make their meaning of what is being taught. I use this technique in science lessons in the form of guided multi-sensory experiences: With a year 7 group I taught them photosynthesis. One way to stimulate the use of different senses is to: Play a sound and ask; “what does it feel or look like?”

Study Guide Upload TheProjectKnowledge Loading... Working... ► Play all Study Guide 3 videos442 viewsLast updated on Jul 7, 2013 Play all Sign in to YouTube Sign in History Sign in to add this to Watch Later Add to Loading playlists... Chunking (psychology) A modality effect is present in chunking. That is, the mechanism used to convey the list of items to the individual affects how much "chunking" occurs. Various kinds of memory training systems and mnemonics include training and drill in specially-designed recoding or chunking schemes. Such systems existed before Miller's paper, but there was no convenient term to describe the general strategy or substantive and reliable research. The term "chunking" is now often used in reference to these systems. As an illustration, patients with Alzheimer's disease typically experience working memory deficits; chunking is an effective method to improve patients' verbal working memory performance (Huntley, Bor, Hampshire, Owen, & Howard, 2011). The word chunking comes from a famous 1956 paper by George A. It is a little dramatic to watch a person get 40 binary digits in a row and then repeat them back without error. Baddeley, A.

How stress affects your brain - Madhumita Murgia To learn about some of the most seminal experiments that show how stress changes your brain, read this interesting story in Psychology Today. This interactive explains how mom rats impact the adult personalities of their pups, based on how much they lick them. You get to be a rat mom yourself, to see how you've changed your pup's genes! Keep reading and find out how anxious behavior in an animal can be an advantage and if epigenetic patterns are permanent! Watch this TED Talk about how we are thinking about stress all wrong: believing stress is bad for you may actually be worse than the stress itself! This cool Radiolab podcast explores the science of stress, including coping strategies seen all around the animal kingdom.

Learning Corner | Academic Success Center | Oregon State University Feeling challenged by test preparation? We've got strategies for that. Not sure what to do when your instructor talks fast? And, while we know it's great to be able to do the investigation on your own, know that we have trained Academic Coaches who are ready to meet with you and talk through any of this information, or what you're experiencing in your courses. Thanks for checking us out, and happy learning, and know that we're looking forward to being a part of your learning process and college experience, so be in touch!

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