Memory and the Brain

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Memory and the Brain
Professor Chris Mortensen (Philosophy) with the
brain of Dr Ullin Place, one of two Adelaide
philosophers who developed the mind-brain
identity theory. Dr Place donated his brain to
the University of Adelaide. The identity theory
of mind holds that states and processes of the
mind are identical to states and processes of the
brain.
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Memory and the Brain
The hippocampus is a brain structure which lies
under the medial temporal lobe, one on each side
of the brain
The gateway to memory.
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Memory and the Brain
Frontal Lobes receive a great deal of input from
the hippocampus.
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Memory and the Brain
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What is memory?
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Why do we remember some types of material better
than others?
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First Person to Study Memory
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Messy Room Syndrome
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Interference and Memory
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Memory Experiment
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Memory Experiment
1. Where did you go on vacation last
year? 2. What did you eat for supper on
September 8th, 2006? 3. What did your first
bicycle look like?
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Memory and Meaningfulness
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Memory Experiment
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Memory Experiment
potato asparagus cauliflower turnip
broccoli Egypt beans corn cabbage squash
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Memory Experiment in Progress
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Memory Experiment
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Memory Experiment
John Stevens
Steve Johnson
Stinky Rockerfeller
Joe Stevenson
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Memory Experiment in Progress
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Memory and Distinctiveness
Egypt
Psychologist von Restorff discovered the von
Restorff effect which is the tendency to remember
unusual things better than more common things!
Stinky Rockerfeller
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Dependence of Memory
Essay Tests or Short Answer Tests
Most Difficult for Memory RecallYou just
produce it.
Cued RecallYou receive significant hints about
the material.
Easiest for Memory RecognitionYou identify the
correct item from several choices.
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Memory Storage Types
Sensory Storage Short-term Memory or Working Memory Long-term Memory
Capacity Everything you see, hear, touch, smell, taste Seven--/- items in healthy adults So vast it is not easily measured. People never fill their memories like computers.
Duration Fraction of a second. Use it or lose it! About 20 seconds if not rehearsed. Perhaps a lifetime!
Example You see something for an instant, and then someone asks you to recall one detail. You look up a telephone number, remember it long enough to dial it. You remember the house where you lived when you were 5 years old.
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Memory Experiment
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Short-Term Memory Experiment
EHGPH JROZNQ SRBWRCH MPDIWFBS ZYBPIAFMO BOJFKFLTRC
XUGJDPFSVCL
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Short-Term Memory Storage
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Short-Term Memory Chunking
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Memory Experiment
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HOZDF
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Memory Experiment in Progress
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Memory Storage Types
Sensory Storage Short-term Memory or Working Memory Long-term Memory
Capacity Everything you see, hear, touch, smell, taste Seven--/- items in healthy adults So vast it is not easily measured. People never fill their memories like computers.
Duration Fraction of a second. Use it or lose it! About 20 seconds if not rehearsed. Perhaps a lifetime!
Example You see something for an instant, and then someone asks you to recall one detail. You look up a telephone number, remember it long enough to dial it. You remember the house where you lived when you were 5 years old.
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Memory Experiment
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Memory Experiment
table giraffe frog goose key window banana penc
il spoon grass road garden house tree lake pap
er chicken glove paint garlic stone
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Memory Experiment in Progress
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How does a memory transfer to Long-term Memory?
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Memory Experiment
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Memory Experiment
Because Ken really liked the boxer, he took a bus
to the nearest pet store to buy the
animal. Because Ken really liked the boxer, he
took a bus to the nearest sports arena to see the
match.
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Declarative Memory or Procedural Memory
Procedural Memory The memory is a skill, a
memory of how to do something.
Declarative Memory The ability to state a fact.
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Semantic Memory or Episodic Memory
Semantic Memory Memory of general principles or
rules.
Episodic Memory Memory of a specific event in a
persons life, generally including details of
when and where it happened.
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Source Amnesia
Source Amnesia Remembering the content but not
the context of learning it.
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Memory LossNormal ForgettingWhy do we forget?
InterferenceMemories from the past get confused
with new memories.
DecayMemories just fade with age.
Retrieval CuesThe contextual cues to help you
remember something are gone.
AttentionYou didnt pay attention at the time
you learned something.
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Amnesia
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Old Age Amnesia
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Memory Experiment
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Memory and Eyewitness Identification Experiment
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Children as Eyewitnesses
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Reconstruction of Memories
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How can we improve our memory?
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Memory Principles

• YOUR ASSIGNMENT
• Tell us what the memory principle is in your own
  words.
• Do something that demonstrates how to use the
  principle. For example, YOU MIGHT
• --act out a scenario using the tips given for
  the principle
• --lead the class in an activity and have the
  class use the memory tips for the principle
• --tell the class a story (fictional or real)
  about your experience using the principle.
• Use your imagination and help us learn the
  principle.
• 3. NO GRADE for this assignment. Practice your
  presentation skills. Have fun!

MAKING AN EFFORT TO REMEMBER Interest Intent to
Remember Basic Background CONTROLLING THE AMOUNT
AND FORM Selectivity Meaningful
Organization STRENGTHENING NEURAL
CONNECTIONS Recitation Visualization Association A
LLOWING TIME TO SOLIDIFY PATHWAYS Consolidation Di
stributed Practice
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QUICKLY WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOUVE LEARNED
What types of tests are these? What type is
easiest for memory?
What is working memory?
Because Ken really liked the boxer, he took a bus
to the nearest pet store to buy the animal.
RecallYou just produce it.
What parts of the brain involve memory?
Frontal Lobes receive a great deal of input from
the hippocampus.
What is the von Restorff effect?
Cued RecallYou receive significant hints about
the material.
Can you trust memory reconstruction?
RecognitionYou identify the correct item from
several choices.
What did you learn about amnesia?
Why can we remember some things and not others?
How does distinctiveness affect memory?
Stinky Rockerfeller
How does interference affect memory? Messy Room
Syndrome
What did you learn about adult/child eyewitness
Identification?
Sensory Storage Short-term Memory or Working Memory Long-term Memory
Capacity Everything you see, hear, touch, smell, taste Seven--/- items in healthy adults So vast it is not easily measured. People never fill their memories like computers.
Duration Fraction of a second. Use it or lose it! About 20 seconds if not rehearsed. Perhaps a lifetime!
Example You see something for an instant, and then someone asks you to recall one detail. You look up a telephone number, remember it long enough to dial it. You remember the house where you lived when you were 5 years old.
How can we improve our memory?
What did Ebbinhaus learn about memory?
Why do we forget?
How much can you remember short term?
InterferenceMemories from the past get confused
with new memories.
DecayMemories just fade with age.
Retrieval CuesThe contextual cues to help you
remember something are gone.
How does meaningfulness affect memory?
AttentionYou didnt pay attention at the time
you learned something.
How does chunking help memory?
What is chunking?
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1--Memory and the Brain Hippocampus The
hippocampus is a brain structure which lies under
the medial temporal lobe, one on each side of the
brain. The hippocampus is critical for the
formation of new memories. It may function as a
memory "gateway" through which new memories must
pass before entering permanent storage in the
brain. Memories are not stored in the
hippocampus, but the hippocampus must function in
order to store certain kinds of memories. Once
these memories are stored, however, they can
persist after removal of the hippocampus. For
example, people with damage to the hippocampus
can lose the ability to form new memories, but
they dont lose older memories. One of the first
brain areas to show damage in Alzheimers disease
is the hippocampus. Elderly people will have
difficulty remember things that happen in the
present time, but will have vivid memories of
their past. The hippocampus is especially
sensitive to oxygen levels in the body. When a
person lacks oxygen due to something like a
near-drowning or respiratory failure, they can
have difficulty remembering what happened during
that time. Epileptic seizures also often
damage the hippocampus and cause memory
dysfunctions. Some memories, such as the memory
for new skills or habits, can sometimes be formed
even without the hippocampus.
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2--Memory and the Brain Frontal Lobes Frontal
lobes are necessary for the strategies we use to
reconstruct memories that we cannot immediately
recall. Example If someone asked you what
you did Tuesday evening last week, your answer
would require effort and reasoning.
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3--Memory and the Brain All Parts of the
Brain The hippocampus and frontal lobes are
important for memory, but in one way or another,
just about all other brain areas are important,
too. Memory requires sensory processing, storing
information, retrieving it when necessary,
reasoning about available information to fill in
the gaps, and finally using the information in
action. In order to do these tasks, we need our
entire brain if our memory is going to function
well.
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4--What is memory
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5--Why do we remember some types of memory better
than others? Professor Conway Princeton
University mathematics professor, accomplished
mathematician, magician, game throist, computer
programmer who is know for his impressive memory.
He has memorized the names of all the stars
visible in the northern hemisphere. When a
constellation is covered up by a cloud, he can
predict where the starts will be when the cloud
moves away. He can recite poetry he learned as a
child. He has an outstanding memory, but during
the 20 years he spent at Cambridge University, he
never was able to learn the names of all the
other professors in the math department! The
point, it is possible to have an excellent memory
for some kinds of material but only an average or
even poor memory for other kinds of material,
depending on your interest in the material, how
and under what circumstances you learned it, and
so forth.
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6First Person to Study Memory Ebbinhaus He
ran memory tests on himself. Over a period of 6
years he memorized thousands of lists of nonsense
syllables. After each memory session, the tested
his memory after various delays. The results are
shown on the graph. He forgot an average of more
than half of each list after one hour and still
more after 24 hours. Whats wrong with these
results? Is it true that we forget most of what
we learn within 24 hours? Ebbinhuss results
dont apply to all types of memory. Why do you
suppose most college students remembered a list
so much better than Ebbinhaus did?
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7--Messy Room Syndrome Ebbinhaus had memories
TOO MUCH nonsense. When anyone memorizes large
amounts of similar material, the memory becomes
list a messy room. Something seems to be lost
just because it is buried among other items and
hard to find. Learning vast amounts of
information does not block new learning any more
than a messy room prevents you from bringing in
another piece of junk into that room. But it
does increase the risk of confusing old material
with new material and therefore increases
forgetting.
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8--Interference and Memory Interference is
responsible for a great deal of our everyday
forgetting. Old memories interfere with new
memories. When old memories are similar to new
memories, we have more interference and we forget
things more often. You may forget where you
placed your backpack because of all the previous
times youve used your backpack and placed it
somewhere. Your mom or dad forgets where they
parked their car because of all the previous
times theyve parked their car in the same
parking lot. New memories interfere with old
memories. When you learn new things, your past
memories are harder to remember. Ebbinhaus had
memorized so many lists of syllables for 6 year
that he had massive interference and he forgot
new lists much faster than the college students
who were memorizing the material for the first
time. MORAL OF STORY When you want to
memorize something, beware of studying anything
else very similar to it at the same time.
Studying unrelated material poses no problem for
the memory.
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9--Memory and Meaningfulness Experiment What
questions are you able to remember an answer
for? Typically you will remember 1 and 3
because they were significant events in your
life.
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10--Memory and Meaningfulness We generally
remember meaningful events well, even years later
after they happen. Ebbinghaus, as you recall,
was memorizing nonsense syllables. A you might
guess, people tend to remember meaningful
material better than they remember nonsense. How
does interference create an issue with
remembering what you eat for supper?
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11--Memory and Distinctiveness Experiment Read
the following list and then recall immediately,
in any order, as many items as you can. One of
the items you are most likely to recall is Egypt,
because it is different from the others. It is
the only word beginning with a capital letter and
the only word that refers to anything other than
a vegetable.
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12--Memory and Distinctiveness Experiment
2 Study the men and then try to describe John
Stevens, Steve Johnson, Joe Stevenson and Stinky
Rockerfeller. If you meet several men of rather
ordinary appearance and similar names, like John
Stevens, Steve Johnson, and Joe Stevenson, it may
take you along time to get their names straight.
You will be quicker to remember the man named
Stinky Rockerfeller because hes so different
from the others!
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13--Memory and Distinctiveness The tendency to
remember unusual items better than more common
items is known as the von Restorff Effect after
the psychologist who first discovered it in
1933. You were more likely to remember Egypt
because it was distinct because it was not a
vegetable and because it was the only word with a
beginning capital letter. You were more likely to
remember Stinky Rockerfeller because his name and
his appearance were distinctive.
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14--Dependence of Memory on the Method of
Testing How well someone appears to remember
something depends on how someone is being tested.
The simplest way to test someones memory is to
ask for recall. However, this is most difficult
for the brain. For example Have you ever found
yourself unable to remember someones name or
another fact that you once knew well? You may
not have forgotten it altogether, and later you
may be able to bring the memory back. Sometimes
you can bring the memory back with a hint. You
will remember more with cued recall, a method in
which you receive significant hints about what
you are trying to remember. Finally, people can
usually recognize more when they are tested with
the recognition method.
Remember The Brain Test? Did it help to have the
names of the parts of the brain?
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15--Memory Storage Types Sensory Storevery
brief storage of sensory information. Unless you
use it immediately and actively attend to this
information, it will fade rapidly as new
information replaces it in the sensory store.
RULE USE IT OR LOSE IT!
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16--Memory Storage Types Short-Term/Working
MemoryTemporary storage of information that
someone has just experienced. Either you can
recall it easily or it is already gone. You
dont need reminders or hints to recall
short-term memory. Has relatively small, easily
measured capacity.
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17--Memory Storage Types EXPERIMENT. Read
each of the following sequences of letters and
immediately ask a friend to repeat it. Most
normal adults can repeat a list of approximately
seven items. This magical number seven, plus or
minus two, was been discovered by researcher
George Miller in 1956. When people try to
repeat a longer list they may fail to remember
even the first seven items.
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18Short-Term Memory Storage It is somewhat like
trying to hold several objects in one hand You
can hold a certain number depending on their
size, but if you try to hold too many you will
drop them all.
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19--Short-term Memory Chunking When we refer to
a limit of about seven items, the size of an
item can vary. You can store more information if
you organize it into familiar chunks or
meaningful units. With practice, people can
learn to recognize larger and larger chuncks of
numbers.
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20--Short Term Memory Experiment Experiment(s) Lo
ok at the letters and then immediately begin
counting backwards from 100. I will tell you
when to stop. Let them count backwards for more
than 20 seconds. Then ask them to repeat the
letters they saw. If we fail to rehears something
that has entered the short-term memory, it will
generally fade away after 20 seconds. Try it
again and this time ask the students to rehearse
the letters during the 20 second delay before
they are to repeat the letters back to you. IF
someone hears highly meaningful material, it
enters the long-term memory quickly and it can be
repeated even without rehearsal. Tell students
There is a poisonous snake under your chair.
Then have them count backwards from 100. After
20 seconds ask them to repeat the sentence. They
can do it because it was an important sentence!
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21--Long-term Memory Relatively permanent storage
of mostly meaningful information. To get
information from long-term memory, you need a
retrieval cue, an association that elicits the
memory. Retrieving long-term memories is
sometimes a difficult, effortful task. The
capacity of long-term memory is so vast that we
cannot easily measure it. Unlike computers,
people never fill their memories so full that
they have no room to store something new.
Psychologist used to think that holding
something for a long time in short-term memory
(rehearsal) meant it automatically went to
long-term memory, but now they know it does not
automatically shift it into long-term memory.
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22Long-term memory Experiment Experiment Read
the list of words below to yourself, or read them
to the students. Some of the words start with g.
Ask the person to keep track of the most recent
g-word. EXPLAIN At the end of the list was
the word garlic. So far, so good. What they
needed to do was to store each g-word in
short-term memory until it was dumped and
replaced with the next g-word. Okay, now that
Ive distracted you by talking for a while, lets
move on to part 2 of the experiment. I didnt
warn you about this. Now I want you to write a
list of ALL the g-words on the list. The correct
answers are giraffe, goose, grass, garden, glove,
and garlic. Considering the delay between when
you first read the words and when you recalled
them, we must assume you recalled them from
long-term memory. The question is, which terms
made it into your long-term memory? In general,
researchers find that people are equally likely
to remember giraffe, grass , and glove as to
remember goose or garden. Evidently, how long a
word stays in short-term memory has little to do
with whether it moves into long-term memory.
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23How does a memory transfer to long-term
memory Transferring memories to long-term
storage depends on much more than the amount of
time something is held in short-term memory. Most
memory researchers today use the term working
memory because short-term memory is seen not
just as a system that temporarily stores
information, but also as a system for processing
or working with current information. That is,
the concept is almost synonymous with ones
current sphere of attention. It includes
short-term memory (events that just occurred),
but it also includes information already stored
in long-term memory and now recalled for current
use.
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24--Working Memory Experiment Experiment Read
the first sentence and then answer this
true/false question Ken liked a dog. Read the
second sentence and then answer this true/false
question Ken liked a fighter. Many English words
have several unrelated meaningsfor example,
boxer. To understand such words, we must wait
until the context of the sentence identifies the
correct meaning. In the Ken sentences, the
context remained ambiguous about the meaning of
boxer until eight words later. You used your
working memory (short-term) to hold on to the
word boxer long enough to understand the
meaning of the word in the context of the
sentence. We have a CENTRAL EXECUTIVE, a little
person in our head, that helps us shift attention
when we need to do so. When we try to manage two
tasks at once, the central executive has to
allocate resources to the two and determine when
to attend to one and when to the other. People
who are good at one kind of divided attention
task tend to be good at others also and people
with damage to the frontal lobes have trouble
with all these types of tasks.
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25--Procedural or Declarative Memory A
declarative memory is the ability to state a
fact A procedural memory is a skill, a memory of
how to do something. Certain kinds of brain
damamge impair declarative memory without
damaging procedural memories. That is, a man who
forgets his address and telephone number may
nevertheless remember how to tie his shoes and
how to ride a bicycle.
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26--Episodic and Semantic Memory Semantic memory
is memory of general principles or rules. For
example, you have memorized of the rules of
baseball. Episodic memory is memory of a specific
event in a persons life, generally including
details of when and where they happened. For
example, you remember the last time you played
baseball, where and when it happened. Episodic
memories are in many cases more fragile than
semantic memories. For example, people sometimes
remember a statement they heard (a semantic
memory) but forget when, where, and from whom
they heard it (an episodic memory.
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27--Source Amnesia Because of source amnesia,
people sometimes confuse reliable information
with unreliable Did I hear this idea from my
teacher or was it on in a comic book? Did I read
about brain transplants in my textbook or in my
science fiction book? As a result, you might
dismiss an idea at first (Oh thats just a
rumor! or Oh, thats just my nutty sisters
idea!) but later remember the idea, forget where
you heart it, and start to take it seriously.
People may also say tell you something and then
you say to them, Hey, it was me who told that to
you in the first place!
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28Memory Loss--Normal Forgetting Why do we
forget? Experiment Pick your favorite meal.
List all the times youve had that meal that you
can remember. Did you begin with the most
recent time you had that meal and then add some
especially interesting or unusual times you had
that meal from long ago? It is easier to recall
more recent times and a few from many years ago.
If you recall a memory from a few years ago now,
you will probably continue to remember it
indefinitely to some degree. Memories fade
rapidly, but the longer you hold onto a memory,
the less it tends to fade. The overall trend of
memory and forgetting varies among individuals
and even among situations for a given individual.
Why do we forget? Interference Example sports
fans will forget most of the details of a game
they saw a year ago, largely because they have
seen so many other games since that time.
Decay Like an old photograph that fades in the
sunlight, memories just fade with age. Retrieval
Cues If you learned certain facts in a certain
context, then you need that context to remember
those facts. Sometimes if you return to a place,
you remember information you had
forgotten. Attention You are most likely to
forget material when you were paying little
attention at the time you learned it. People
often remember an idea and forget where they
heard it.
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29--Amnesia Severe loss or deterioration of
memory Even in the most severer cases of amnesia,
people do not forget everything they have ever
learned. People who suffer a head injury and
have a loss of consciousness generally have a
loss of memory for events that occurred shortly
before the injury. In brain damage situations,
some people with amnesia still have procedural
memory (skill retention) and lose their
declarative memory (the ability to recall factual
information). Memories are not stored in the
hippocampus, but the hippocampus must function in
order to store certain kinds of memories. Once
these memories are stored, however, they can
persist after the hippocampus is
injured. Frontal-lobe amnesia from trauma to the
head, can cause problems with memory. Such
patients have trouble with working memory tasks.
They answer questions with a bewildering mixture
of correct information, out-of-date information,
and wild guesses because their ability to use the
working memory to reconstruct memories doesnt
work well.
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30--Old Age Amnesia Most healthy people show
little decline of memory in old age. Older adults
show only mild deficits on the simplest memory
tasks, such as short-term retention of a list of
words they show greater deficits on more complex
tasks. If given a short narrative to remember,
older adults remember the central points of the
narrative almost as well as younger adults,
although they are likely to forget the odd and
irrelevant details. Some old people deteriorate
more than others. The suggestion to avoid memory
deterioration is to stay intellectually active to
protect the brain against deterioration. Memory
requires sensory processing, storing information,
retrieving it when necessary, reasoning about
available information to fill in the gaps, and
finally using the information in action.
Alzheimers disease destroys brain cells and
thereby impairs attention and memory.
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31Memory and Eyewitness Identification
Experiment Suppose you witness a crime. Several
hours, days, or weeks later, the police ask you
to identify the criminal. You still remember the
face somewhat, but your memory has faded. To
help you, the police offer you a lineup of five
or so possible suspects and ask whether you
recognize any of them as the guilty party. Might
you make a mistake? Psychologists have done
research and find that witnesses are not always
accurate. Witnesses who express higher
confidence tend to be more accurate, although
they make mistakes too. When the police try to
develop an unbiased lineup, the often start with
someone they suspect and then add others who look
similar. If the witness described a young man
with a mustache, it would obviously be unfair to
set up a lineup with one young, mustached man and
four older, clean-shaven men. Unfortunately, al
ineup with a main suspect and others chosen
because they resemble the suspect is also biased,
for another reason. If all the others are
selected because they resemble the suspect, the
suspect stands out as the one who IS MOST SIMILAR
TO ALL THE OTHERS IN THE GROUP! For instance,
without even having witnessed the crime, would
you be more likely to pick out one of these
people than the others? It is difficult to make
a lineup fair. The answer is 5. All the others
have been chosen to resemble him, but each has a
different unusual feature.
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32Children as Eyewitnesses What about children
who are witnesses of a crime? Young children
forget more rapidly than adults do, and they
sometimes confuse fantasy with reality. Are they
therefore unreliable as witnesses? They do ten to
be more vulnerable than adults to suggestion, and
they can quickly become unreliable witnesses if
the interviewers ask the wrong kind of questions.
In one study, preschool children were repeatedly
asked to think about getting their hand caught
in a mousetrap. Eventually, most of them
provided elaborate details about the injury and
the trip to the hospital. They provided as much
detail about the false memory as about a real
injury, and they gave every indication of
believing their report. Children ages 3 to 7 CAN
report events accurately under favorable
circumstances. The general recommendation is
If a child is simply asked to describe the
events, in a nonthreatening atmosphere, without
suggestions or pressure, reasonably soon after
the event, even children as young as 3 can be
believable eyewitnenesses.
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33--Reconstruction of Memories If you try to
recall what you did three nights ago, you will
start with the details that you remember clearly
and reconstruct the rest to fill in the
gaps. During an original experience, we construct
a memory. When we try to retrieve that memory, we
reconstruct an account based partly on surviving
memories and partly on our expectations of what
must have happened. As we start to forget, we
dont just lose the facts we sometimes
exaggerate or distort them. Distortions of
memory over time, even fairly short times, are
common. The important thing to rememberdont
trust the specific facts of an old memory to be
the truth.
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34--How can we improve our memory? There you are,
sitting in class taking a social studies test,
unable to remember the major rivers in Africa.
You remember reviewing that section in your book
last night you even remember that it was on the
upper left side of the page, and there was a
diagram to the right of it. You even remember
that cookie you were eating as your were
studying. And it was about 830 P.M. at the
time. You just dont remember the names of those
rivers! Why do we sometimes remember so much
useless information while forgetting what we
really wanted to remember? How can we improve
our memory? The short answer is that, to improve
your memory, you must improve the way you store
the material when you learn it. Now it is your
turn to help us understand more about memory
improvement. You will teach us the memory
principles! Review presentation skills
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http//www.mtsu.edu/studskl/mem.html
Use these tools to refine your study habits.
Memory Principles Quick Reference Guide for
Brain Compatible Learning Principles Below is a
list of memory or learning principles with a
brief definition of each. Making an Effort to
Remember Interest--The brain prioritizes by
meaning, value and relevance. To have meaning,
you must understand what you are learning. In
order to remember something thoroughly, you must
be interested in it and think that it has value
and relevance in your life. Intent to Remember--
Your attitude has much to do with whether you
remember something or not. A key factor to
remembering is having a positive attitude that
you get it right the first time. Attention is not
the same as learning, but little learning takes
place without attention. Basic Background--Your
understanding of new materials depends on what
you already know that you can connect it to. The
more you increase your basic knowledge, the
easier it is to build new knowledge on this
background. Controlling the Amount and
Form Selectivity-You must determine what is most
important and select those parts to begin the
process of studying and learning. Meaningful
Organization--You can learn and remember better
if you can group ideas into some sort of
meaningful categories or groups. Strengthening
Neural Connections Recitation--Saying ideas aloud
in your own words strengthens synaptic
connections and gives you immediate feedback. The
more feedback you get, the faster and more
accurate your learning. Visualization--The
brains quickest and probably the longest-lasting
response is to images. By making a mental
picture, you use an entirely different part of
the brain than you did by reading or listening.
Association--Memory is increased when facts to
be learned are consciously associated with
something familiar to you. Memory is essentially
formed by making neural connections. Begin by
asking, What is this like that I already know
and understand?. Allowing Time to Solidify
Pathways Consolidation--Your brain must have time
for new information to establish and solidify a
neuronal pathway. When you make a list or review
your notes right after class, you are using the
principle of consolidation. Distributed
Practice--A series of shorter study sessions
distributed over several days is preferable to
fewer but longer study sessions.
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Interest Think of some ways you might create
interest in a class in which you are confused or
bored. Find a study partner. Get to know the
professor better. Do some extra practice or
research. (We tend to be uninterested in things
we are not good at.) Teach an assignment to
someone else. Seek a way to make the information
personal. Find a way to make it
kinesthetic--make something--do something with
it. What Brain Research Says About Interest  
The brain prioritizes by value, meaning, and
usefulness We need to find ways to make
information relevant Anytime a person's emotions
are engaged they are more likely to form a deeper
imprint of the event. Excitement, humor,
celebration suspense, fear, surprise and other
strong emotion stimulates the production of
adrenaline while also activating the amygdala.
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Intent to Remember How many times have you gone
to class or read an assignment with something
else on your mind? When you employ the principle
of intent to remember, you use concentration
techniques that help you pay attention. You have
the attitude that you will learn this now, not
wait until later. Here are some tips that might
help Pretend that there will be a quiz when you
finish. The reward will be 10 for every answer
you get correct. Use a concentration check
sheet. When you feel yourself wandering from the
subject, put a check on this sheet. Do this every
time you find yourself not concentrating. You
will program your mind to pay attention. Use a
rubber band on your wrist and do the same as
above! When reading an assignment talk back to
the writer. When listening to a lecture, ask
frequent questions .
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What Brain Research Says About Intent to
Remember Learning is different from attention.
But if we are not attending, we aren't
learning. If the information does not get enough
attention or if is not deemed necessary for long
term memory, it will be encoded in short term
memory only and ultimately discarded and
reclassified. For learning to learn, students
must be in the appropriate state for
learning. This means a student sitting in the
back of the room, with his arms folded leaning
back in his chair, has little chance of learning.
His particular state "this is stupid" prevents
learning from occurring. Positive attitude can
change the brain in at least three ways It
alters the chemistry of the brain with the
production of dopamine, the feel-good
neurotransmitter. It increases the
noradrenaline which provides physical
energy.  Constructive thinking activates the
frontal lobes which are most responsible for
long-term planning and judgment.
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Basic Background What do you do well?
Basketball, cooking, drawing, sewing, soccer? You
didn't become really good without practice.
Consider your best academic area. Isn't this an
area that you know something about--probably, a
great deal? The more you know about something,
the easier it is to learn more. Here are some
basic tips to employ this principle   Before
you read an assignment, preview it. Find out as
much as you can before you read. Survey the
title and headings. Study the pictures and
charts. Read the summary. Familiarize yourself
with the study questions. Think about what you
already know about the subject. Try to recall
what you already know. Then read the assignment.
Before you go to class. Do all homework
assignments and readings. The more you know
about the subject, the easier it will be to take
notes during the lecture. Do extra research.
Explore the internet. Create ways to experience
the subject.
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What Brain Research Says About Basic
Background   Remember, it is cellular
connections building on one another that activate
learning, consciousness, intelligence, and
memory. The more learning, the more connections
you make. The greater the number of connections
in the brain, the greater the meaning derived
from learning. If there is not a neural network
for something, it simple doesn't exist in our
brain.  This is why totally new concepts are so
difficult to grasp at first. When you activate
what you already know about a subject before
learning something new, the brain actually makes
more connections. In essence the pattern of
learning is as important as what is
learned.  Brain theorist Leslie Hart reminds us
that what we perceive as a pattern depends upon
prior knowledge,the existing neural networking of
the brain used to process the input, and the
context in which the learning takes place.
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Selectivity The mind can absorb only a certain
amount of new material at a time. You can't learn
everything about everything. The solution, then,
is to be selective. Choose what's important.
Learn the important things and then build on that
knowledge (basic background). Here are some tips
in choosing what's important. Look for clues
when reading a textbook assignment. Use a survey
method before you begin. Look at headings,
graphics, and bold print. Study the summary and
review questions before and after you read.
During a lecture, listen for verbal clues such
as emphasis and repetition. Pay attention to
non-verbal clues such as the lecturer's body
language and information written on the board or
given as handouts. Make yourself the test
maker. Constantly ask yourself, "If I were giving
a test on this material, what would I ask?"
Making flash cards for information you need to
learn is an excellent way to employ this
principle.
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What Brain Research Says About Selectivity Most
students are drowning in information and starved
for meaning.     Because of the tremendous
volume information you encounter (millions of
bits of random information per minute,
information) it is crucial that you consciously
cue into your memory system.
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Meaningful Organization We usually remember
only five to seven items as a time. Of course, we
seldom take tests with that limited information.
The key is to organize larger blocks of
information in ways that are meaningful to you.
If you can organize 25 items into five groups of
five you will find it much easier to manage.
Sometimes categories are obvious. Greek, Roman,
Egyptian nouns, verbs, adjectives kingdom,
phylum,class, order or in the case of a grocery
list, meats, vegetables, beverages. Here are some
tips when the categories are not obvious.
Search the information for something that is
personally meaningful to you. Alphabetize the
list. Use a mnemonic device. Take the first
letter of each item and spell a word or make a
sentence. For example to remember the great
lakes, remember HOMES Huron, Ontario, Michigan,
Erie, Superior. If at all possible, do not have
more than seven items in any one category.
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What Brain Research Says About Meaningful
Organization   To form a sharp memory of
something Original information must be encoded
accurately, maintained or strengthened over time,
triggered by association or cue.    When
information is poorly encoded there is no hope
for data recovery.
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Recitation Most of us learned the multiplication
tables or practiced spelling words in elementary
school reciting, but have forgotten just how
powerful it can be. Recitation works for several
reasons First, when you know you are going to
recite something in your own words, you pay more
attention. It forces you to employ the principle
of intent to remember. Second, you get
immediate feedback. You know if you are able to
explain something in your own words out loud. You
understand it. Third, when you hear something,
you have used an entirely different part of the
brain. Some tips for recitation Make use of
flashcard of anything you need to learn. When
you finish reading a paragraph in your reading
assignment, stop and recite. You will soon see
that understanding what you read and explaining
it out loud are very different. If you can
explain something out loud, you are well on your
way to learning it. Find a partner and ask each
other questions and answer out loud.
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What Brain Research Says About Recitation The mor
e senses we use the stronger the neural trace.  
  The more feedback we get, the faster and
more accurate our learning is.    Recitation is
where the difference in understanding something
and knowing become most apparent.    Seeking
feedback is a natural and essential learning tool
that helps us minimize false impressions before
inaccurate memories are formed. 
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Mental Visualization Most of us remember what we
see much larger ( and better) than what we read
or hear. We, therefore, need to make an effort
visualize everything we learn. No matter how
abstract, determine a way to visualize each new
concept Will it convert to a chart or graph?
Can I draw it out? Can I make a mental video
of the process? (If you used a mnemonic devise to
learn something, you might make a mental video of
the word or sentence.) Do I know what each
person I am learning about looks like? ( If can't
find out, make it up!)
96
What Brain Research Says About Visualization 90
of the brain's sensory input is visual.      
  The brain's quickest response is to color,
motion, form and depth.         The brain has
an attentional bias for high contrast and
novelty. The brain has an immediate and
primitive response to symbols, icons and strong,
simple images.
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Association By recalling something you already
know and making a link to the "brain file" that
contains that information, you should be able to
remember new information more efficiently. Ask
yourself Is this like something I already
know? Is the number similar? Is the sound
similar? Can I use it for something similar?
If I were filing it in my brain "filing
cabinet", it there an existing file I can use
instead of creating a new one? How do you
remember your pin number? your telephone
number? where you parked your car? your
instructors name? the name of the person you just
met?
98
What Brain Research Says About Association Associ
ation is central to the process of encoding and
retrieval. It is extremely important to encode
new information consciously. Optimal learning
occurs when the brains multiple maps work in
synchronization or network with each other. The
more connected these neural networks are, the
greater the meaning derived from learning.  
99
Consolidation New information takes time to soak
in. Most people agree that short term memory will
only hold five to seven bits of information. We
are usually bombarded with much more information
than we can remember. We must, therefore, allow
time for consolidation to take place. In fact, we
must cause consolidation to take place. Here are
a few ways to consolidate or allow information
time to soak in. Taking notes in class Asking
questions in class Reviewing Notes Stopping
after each paragraph you read and writing a
question in the margin which identifies what the
paragraph is about Visualizing Reciting
Making flash cards Designing practice tests
 
100
What Brain Research Says About Consolidation Brai
n is not designed for nonstop learning. As the
brain learns new information, new connections are
formed. Learning is a biological process that
literally changes the configuration of the
brain. Processing time is necessary to build the
inner wiring necessary for connectivity and
recall. Repetition of information strengthens
new connections. For us to take ownership of new
information, our brain needs to know what it
knows. Three criteria necessary for this
are  1.Reinforcing in your preferred modality
(visual, auditory or kinesthetic)   2.
Reinforcing the right number of times (for some
once, for others it may be 20 times),   3.
Reinforcing a sufficient length of time (a couple
of seconds to several hours).
101
Distributed Practice We tend to remember things
at the beginning of a list or study session and
things at the end. By using distributed
practice, we can optimize our learning. Let's
suppose that you remember what you learned in the
first twenty minutes you study and you remember
what you learn in the last twenty minutes. Which
would be more effective? You study four
straight hours. You study four different
sessions of 50 minutes each. Compute the amount
you would likely learn using each method.
Distributed practice allows time for things to
consolidate and for you to build a basic
background. It also uses what we know about the
nature of short-term memory. This is an easy
principle with which to experiment and for you
see the effects. Here are a few tips Take 10
minute breaks after each hour of study and review
what you just learned before you begin again.
Have a scheduled time to study each subject.
Make use of daylight hours and time that you
normally waste. Use flash cards Mark each
paragraph of your text book with a question or
label. (This way you can read bits and pieces and
put them together when you've finished.) Study
immediately before and after classes .
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What Brain Research Says About Distributed
Practice Short sessions, more often, create
growth of dendrites and connections
exponentially. Studies of ultradian cycles
confirm that the body is going to take down
time whether we give it or not.