“Choice of attention – to pay attention to this and ignore that – is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.” — W. H. Auden When it comes to using our [...]
Memory
If workplaces had nap rooms, multitasking was frowned upon, and meetings were held during walks, we’d be vastly more productive. Here are 12 things we know about how the brain works from Brain Rules. Rule #1 Exercise boots brain power Wondering whether there is a relationship between exercise and mental alertness? The answer is yes. [...]
You have to reach. From The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills: Research shows that people who follow strategy B [read ten pages at once, then close the book and write a one page summary] remember 50 percent more material over the long term than people who follow strategy A [read [...]
Dr. Gabrielle Weidemann, a behavioural neuroscientist from the University of Western Sydney, says the key to improving your memory is to understand a few key ideas on how to retain information. A basic principle is that by ”elaborating” memories, students can remember more information. ”Start with the things you know and add new bits of [...]
How we perceive the world and how we act in it are products of how and what we remember (and the words we use to describe things). … No lasting joke, invention, insight, or work of art was ever produced by an external memory. … Our ability to find humor in the world, to make [...]
From the Boston Globe: Researchers asked people to write about situations when they felt envy and then to read fictitious interviews of other people. An envious mindset increased the time spent reading the interviews and improved subsequent recall for details from the interviews. In another experiment, researchers asked people to read fictitious interviews of wealthy [...]
The quantity of students’ homework is a lot less important than its quality. And evidence suggests that as of now, homework isn’t making the grade. Here are some simple and easy to carry out ideas (backed by science) that will help you improve your ability to absorb, retain, and apply knowledge: “Spaced repetition” is one [...]
Access to computers fosters lower rates of recall of what we’re trying to recall and enhanced recall about where to find it. The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things [...]
