Accelerated Learning PDF - Colin Rose

Index Accelerated Learning By Colin Rose Accelerated Learning By Colin Rose "How memory's secrets un...

Index Accelerated Learning By Colin Rose Accelerated Learning By Colin Rose "How memory's secrets unlocked the way to relaxed, easy learning." Chapters: Introduction 1. Your Incredible Brain 2. The Basis of Memory 3. Improving Memory 4. Memory Aids 5. The Power of your Imagination 6. The Genesis of Accelerated Learning 7. What is the Role of the Music? 8. The Evidence 9. Tell Me 10. The State of the Art 11. Putting it All Together 12. First - Relax 13. An Accelerated Learning Course 14. Accelerated Learning for your Children 15. How You can be Involved 16. Notes for Teachers ❍ Appendix A ❍ Appendix B Appendix C (Removed) Bibliography (Removed) Index (Removed) file:///C|/temp/learning/00.htm [2/2/2003 5:13:37 PM]  Introduction Introduction A quiet revolution is gathering momentum in the way we learn. In the last decade or so psychologists have begun to discover more of how the brain really works and how facts can be rapidly and deeply fixed in the memory. It's on these discoveries that Accelerated Learning is based. Historically, most teaching has been undertaken by those who were the best at the subject - the person who was "best at French", became the French teacher. But that person was not necessarily the most skilled at the principles of teaching. You employ an architect to design your house, because his speciality is the principle of construction but a builder to actually carry out the plans, because he is adept at the practice. In a similar way psychologists have begun to define the principles behind learning, and these findings have led to a quite different approach to learning. Conventional teaching has assumed that learning should involve determined concentration and frequent repetition. We now know that this style of learning is not efficient, because it causes unnecessary tension and it tends to involve just one half of the brain. Accelerated Learning, in contrast, teaches you how to achieve a pleasantly relaxed, yet receptive state of mind, and presents information in new ways that actively involve both the left and right brains. There can be no learning without memory. We remember things easily that have powerful associations for us - which is why T.V. advertisers use strong visual images, use music and rhythm, and attempt to involve our emotions. It's the reason why you can remember the words of a pop song with little or no conscious effort, yet struggle to remember a list of historical dates. By studying why people can remember some things vividly after a single exposure, yet forget other information after dozens of repetitions, we have been able to construct new techniques of teaching. They create such powerful associations that pupils find they can literally picture what they are learning in their "mind's eye" and hear what they are learning in their "mind's ear". The methods have been evolved from studies on people with photographic memory. Accelerated Learning, however, does not only work by setting up memorable visual and sound associations in the mind. A high proportion of all learning takes place at the subconscious level. So Accelerated Learning presents the student with new material in such a way that it is simultaneously absorbed by both the conscious and subconscious mind. Information, for example, is positioned so it can be absorbed in peripheral vision, and sentences are short and rhythmical because such facts are easily remembered. The attraction, and paradox, is that the learner puts in no more conscious effort than normal; in fact less because she or he is relaxed. It is the fact that the material is presented in such a memorable way, to both file:///C|/temp/learning/00a.htm (1 of 2) [2/2/2003 5:13:59 PM]  Introduction the left and right brains, and to the conscious and subconscious mind, that accounts for the dramatic improvement in the speed and effectiveness of learning. Accelerated Learning is not the development of one man. Dozens of Universities, Research Psychologists and professional educators have contributed to produce this unique way of presenting new information. The contributions range from the seminal work of Dr. Lozanov, to Nobel Prize winners Roger Sperry and Robert Ornstein, and to the recent work of N.L.P. researchers. There are Accelerated Learning courses now in scores of Universities around the world. The technique has been incorporated in the Finnish school system by many individual teachers and also in the school system of the city of Chicago. Multi-national companies such as Shell Oil, General Motors and Hilton Hotels are using the method - as are dozens of U.S. Government Agencies and Embassies. The effectiveness of Accelerated Learning has been objectively measured and Don Schuster, Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University, was able to record that "it produces at least 300% improvement in the speed and effectiveness of learning". This book presents the background to the development of Accelerated Learning, the evidence, and describes the methods step by step. You will be able to try the technique and prove it for yourself. We believe the impact of Accelerated Learning will be felt in every area of learning. UNESCO have acknowledged its effectiveness in learning languages, and the magazine "Educational Technology" claimed that "it is a tool that allows students to absorb and retain a two year language course in as few as 20 days. Almost any factual subject matter - chemistry, financial, medical, even management sciences can be presented in this framework. It is destined to have a revolutionary impact on human resources in the days to come". "Psychology" magazine called Accelerated Learning "The key to the 21st Century" and Educational Psychologist Dr. Jean Houston claims "we are just beginning to discover the virtually limitless capacities of the mind". Certainly it is a timely breakthrough, because we live in an age where the fast acquisition of more and more knowledge is a necessity. Accelerated Learning can achieve this, and because the results are so immediate, learning becomes enjoyable, satisfying and therefore motivating. TOC file:///C|/temp/learning/00a.htm (2 of 2) [2/2/2003 5:13:59 PM]  Your Incredible Brain 1. Your Incredible Brain The recent discoveries in Inner Space The human brain appears over-endowed. It used to be an often quoted statistic that we only use 10% of our potential brain power. The more psychologists have learnt in the last ten years however, the less likely they are to dare to attempt to quantify our brain potential. The only consistent conclusion is that the proportion of our potential brain power that we use is probably nearer 4% than 10%. Most of us, then, appear to let 96% of our mental potential lie unused. But it doesn't have to be so. Once we begin to understand how the brain's memory works, the way is opened to tap that vast unused potential. The result can be a quantum leap in learning speed, an enrichment of every part of our life and, scientists now believe, a measurable increase in intelligence, whatever our age. First, let us look at some of the facts. Neurons The average adult human brain consists of some 12,000 to 15,000 million nerve cells. (15,000,000,000). That is about three times the entire population of the earth. The human nervous system, controlled by the brain, begins its development only 20 days after conception. Five weeks from conception brain development starts in earnest and after eight weeks the first of two brain spurts begins. At this stage the brain represents half the total length of the foetus (although it is still only '/2 inch long!). This is when the neuroblasts begin to grow. Neuroblasts are embryonic cells that will in turn become neurons, or brain nerve cells. The speed at which neuroblasts are now developing is staggering. They are added at the rate of several thousand a minute. Nutrition is vital during the formation of brain cells. Of particular importance is adequate protein to provide adequate amounts of amino acids. Tryptophan is especially important for brain biochemistry and human milk has twice as much of this amino acid as cows milk. In societies where mothers are undernourished, children may have up to 50% less neurons than their counterparts among Western children. Additionally, the part of the brain responsible for limb co-ordination can be seriously impaired. Twelve weeks after conception, the tiny foetus is now adding neurons at the rate of 2,000 a second. To put this into context, an adult honey bee's brain contains some 7,000 neurons. A bee can accomplish many sophisticated tasks, including building and maintaining a honeycomb, calculating distance, signalling to its companions the direction of pollen sources, and recognizing a course by sight and smell. All with the number of neurons the human foetus develops in under 3 seconds. About twenty weeks after conception or 18 weeks before birth, the human embryo has laid down its entire nervous system: 12-15 billion neurons. Whilst the number of neurons is important, of even greater significance is the next stage of brain development: the second brain spurt. About ten weeks before birth, each neuron starts to send out numerous thin fibres to make actual and potential connections with other neurons. The power of the brain is largely a function of the number of file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (1 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain neurons and the richness of their connections. Since each neuron can itself make thousands of connections, the potential number of inter-connections in the brain runs into trillions. The key point to remember is that only some of these connections are made automatically. Most are made by using the brain. The more your brain is stimulated, the richer the connections and the higher your practical mental ability. Many of the basic interconnections are made before the age of five! The human head will grow in physical size four-fold after birth. The evolutionary limit to the size of the baby's head at birth has been set by the size of the mother's birth canal. By age five, the skull will be 90% of adult size. Full adult size is, in fact, reached at about age ten. The brain now weighs about 3lbs. That is about 2% of the body, yet the brain requires 20% of the oxygen supply. Oxygen is so vital to the brain that, should the human be restricted in oxygen intake, the supply will be automatically reduced to all other parts of the body before supplies to the brain are diminished. Not surprisingly, oxygen is equally vital before birth. The foetus of a woman who smokes receives less oxygen, and the subsequent reading scores of such children are generally below those of non-smoking mothers. The role of nutrition in brain development is as important in the early years after birth as it is before birth, since malnutrition will not only reduce the number of neurons, but also the number of connections between nerve cells. In studies on rats, it has been found that neuron connection can be reduced by 40% simply due to poor nutrition. The reason, in passing, why the long-suffering rat is so frequently studied is that its nervous system is quite similar to that of the human. Some readers will no doubt draw other behavioural parallels. We have seen how the number of neurons in the brain is fixed before birth. Unlike any other body cells, brain cells do not usually regenerate themselves. However, even if they did die, at the rate of several thousand a day, the loss over a lifetime would be trivial and quite unlikely to affect practical mental ability. Of far greater significance is the fact that the number of connections between neurons is continuously growing, and this would more than compensate. In fact it would argue for an improvement of mental ability with age - and as we shall see, if an improvement is the expectation, that is indeed the result. So far we have been speaking of "the neuron". This gives a misleading picture of simplicity. In fact the neuron consists of a cell body (the grey matter) from which leads a principal fibre called the axon. The axon is covered by a fatty coating called myelin and it may terminate either in a connection with another neuron cell, or with branch-like fibres called dendrites. The axon and dendrites are the white matter of the brain. To over-simplify, the axon transmits the electrical impulses that mark the working of the brain, the dendrites receive them. Gluing the whole brain together, and nourishing it, are glia cells (from the Greek glia meaning `glue'). If you were somewhat surprised by the numbers involved in 15 billion brain cells, and were astonished that there are hundreds of times more dendrites, you may choose not even to try to file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (2 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain comprehend the fact that there are probably 100 billion glia cells in the human brain. The mind really does boggle at its own complexity! The junction at which two nerve cells meet, or at which dendrite meets dendrite, is called the synapse. This is a tiny gap, and the electrical activity of the brain is conducted down the axon to the synapse. A connection is made when one of a number of chemicals is released to bridge the gap at the synapse. These chemicals are called Neuro-transmitters and they permit electrical activity to flow across the synapse. The speed of transmission of a neurological impulse is about 100 metres a second. The transmission of brain activity then is not electrical, but a physical / chemical reaction to an original electrical impulse. We now know that there are up to 30 different types of neurotransmitter. Some are amines, most are amino acids, the building blocks of protein. We also know that Neuro-transmitters not only transmit an impulse but are capable of modifying it along the way - although we do not yet know how. When we do, we may begin to unlock the physical secrets of memory and thought. That is a breakthrough comparable to the initial cracking of the `double helix' genetic code, by Crick and Watson. Sexual differences in Brain Development Whilst physical development of the brain is largely complete by age five, there are further well established intervals of intellectual development at ages 6 to 8, 10 to 12 and 14 to 16. It seems that we should try to ensure that educational stimuli should be timed to coincide with these natural periods of development. It is worth noting that psychological researcher H.T. Epstein, has pointed out that the brain development of girls at age 11 is up to twice that of boys, whilst something like the converse is true at age 15. This could argue for a different curriculum for girls at these ages, with a much more complex and challenging input at 11 and less intensity at 15. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (3 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain Why so big? "The creative capacity of the human brain may be, for all practical purposes infinite. " Educational Technology "We are only now on the threshold of knowing the range of the educability of man - the perfectibility of man. We have never addressed ourselves to this problem before. " Dr. Jerome Bruner, Harvard University "We will by conscious command, evolve cerebral centres which will permit us to use powers that we now are not even capable of imagining." Dr. Frederic Tilney. Leading French Brain Specialist. "We are hoarding potentials so great that they are just about unimaginable." Jack Schwartz, Psycho-physical trainer. Just what is the potential that causes sober scientists to indulge in such spine tingling prophecies? The fundamental determinant of the brain's potential is the number of connections it can make. With 10-15 billion nerve cells, each one capable of making thousands of contacts, the possible permutations of connections runs into the trillions. Yet this massive brain potential was acquired not by astronaut man, but by Neanderthal man, because the 3lb human brain has not physically changed much in the last 50,000 years. Our hunter gatherer ancestors had similar sized brains to ours, but they clearly were not so intelligent, in the sense of the measurable and practical application of intelligence. There have been five pre-historic landmarks in the use, rather than mere possession, of this vast potential intelligence: walking on two legs, increasing manual dexterity, tool-making, speech and writing. "Speech alone has rendered man Human" wrote the eighteenth century theologian Herder. Speech enabled us to pass on advice so that each generation did not have to learn everything from scratch. We know from the study of primitive societies that a four hundred word vocabulary will facilitate most basic communication, and an adult today can survive very well on 4,000 basic words of his own language. The next landmark was the invention of printing, which enabled experience and concepts to be passed on to all who could read. You will learn in later chapters that educators believe mental ability can demonstratively be increased if a child learns to read early and to read widely. The brain is the only organ file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (4 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain that expands through use. The more it is used, either to acquire facts or in the process of creativity, the more memory associations are formed. The more associations are formed, the easier it is to remember previously acquired information, and also to form new associations, i.e. create new ideas and concepts. This is a vitally important "virtuous circle", and reading is a key to forming it. But this brief history only helps to explain how man has, quite slowly, come to make an increasing practical use of a fraction of his mental capabilities. It does not explain why we have such a large brain., Evolution is rarely so profligate. As Arthur Koestler put it - 'It is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ which it does not know how to use, a luxury organ, which will take its owner thousands of years to learn to put to proper use - if it ever does. " Of course, our brain was our competitive advantage in achieving the dominant position in the animal kingdom. But it did not need to be anywhere as advanced. Man in the last 50 years has attained near- magical achievements in the technical sphere. He is gaining control over his physical environment at an exponential rate of progress. However, progress in finding solutions to more philosophical questions has been either non-existent or painfully slow. We appear to have more than adequate brain power to solve material problems. What we need is a parallel improvement in our ability to develop new conceptual solutions, to such age old problems as injustice, and international combativeness. It is no accident that our material success is largely due to the fact that we are trained to think in a pattern we call logical, and as we shall shortly see, this seems to mainly involve one side of the brain - the left side. Conversely our learning methods are generally not designed to stimulate the development of the side of the brain that processes concepts - the right side. So our success in logical, material pursuits is perhaps not surprising - nor is our comparative failure in conceptual ethical issues. Left Brain/Right Brain That the brain is divided physically into a left and right half is not a new discovery. The Egyptians knew that the left side of the brain controlled and received sensations from the right side of the body and vice versa. It is only in the last two dozen years, however, that the true implication of the left/right split has gradually become apparent, through the work of a number of researchers. The most famous are probably Dr. Roger Sperry and Dr. Robert Ornstein of the California Institute of Technology. Their work has won them a Nobel prize. Sperry and Ornstein noted that the left and the rig hemispheres are connected by an incredibly complex network of p to 300 million nerve fibres called the Corpus Callosum. They ere also able to show that the two halves of the brain tend to have different functions. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (5 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain They and other researchers indicate that the left brain primarily appears to deal with language and mathematical processes and logical thought, sequences, analysis and what we generally label academic pursuits. The right brain principally deals with music, and visual impressions, pictures, spatial patterns, and colour recognition. They also ascribe to the right brain the ability to deal with certain kinds of conceptual thought - intangible 'ideas' such as love, loyalty, beauty. Back view of the two sides of your brain and their probable functions The specialisation of the two halves of the brain can result in some bizarre behaviour. Patients who, for medical reasons, have had their corpus callosum severed, have effectively two semi-independent brains: two minds in one head. If a ball is shown to the left visual field of such a person, i.e. registered to their right brain hemisphere, the speaking half of the brain, which is in the other, (left) brain will claim to have seen nothing. If, however, the patient is asked to feel in a bag of assorted shapes he will correctly pull out a ball. If he is asked what he has done he will say 'nothing'. The ball has only been seen with the right brain, and felt with the right brain. The speech centre, which is located in the left brain, has registered nothing. Even more delicate experiments have been performed on surgically split-brained patients. The word SINBAD was projected to such a patient while his eyes were focused on the precise spot between N and B. The first 3 letters went to his right brain, the last three to his left hemisphere. When asked to say what he had seen, he replied BAD. When asked to point with his left hand to what he had seen he pointed to the word SIN. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (6 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain The specialisation of the two brains has also been demonstrated by measuring the electrical activity of the brain during various activities. When the brain is relaxed in a state of rest, it tends predominantly to show an alpha brain wave rhythm - i.e. waves of 8/10 cycles per second. Ornstein found that a subject tackling a mathematical problem showed an increase in alpha in the right hemisphere. This indicated that the right side was relaxing whilst the left was active and, therefore, in a beta brain wave pattern. In contrast, when a subject was matching coloured patterns, the left showed alpha (i.e. was resting) and the right showed beta (i.e. was active). The brain scans reproduced in Chapter 7, show the varying levels of electrical brain activity in a subject listening to music, words and singing. The first activity (music) involved the right brain. The second (listening to words only) involved the left brain, but singing (words and music together) involved the whole brain. The left brain is now thought to be the half that specialises in serial, sequential thought, i.e. analysing information in sequence in a "logical" step by step approach. The left rationalises. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (7 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain The right brain seems to take in several bits of information "at a glance" and process them into one overall thought. The right synthesises. When you meet someone it seems to be the right brain that takes all the elements at once and synthesises the pattern into a whole to recognise the person instantaneously. If you were using your left brain only you would probably scan first the hair, then the forehead, then the eyes, nose, mouth and chin in sequence to "build up" a picture. The right brain, however, recognises the pattern immediately. It is the left brain that is dominant in, for example, mathematical calculations. It is the right brain that processes non-verbal signals. We have come as a society to stress, and value more highly, the functions of the left brain. The analytical thinking of the physicist is usually valued higher (in money terms) than the artistic and intuitive ability of the musician or artist. Most schools relegate right brain dominant activities to two or three periods a week. Yet those schools who have tried increasing the proportion of arts subjects, have found that levels of all scholastic performance improved. Because, although the two halves of the brain may indeed be specialised, they are far from being isolated. Each compliments and improves the performance of the other. Education that emphasises only analytical thinking is literally "single minded". As one psychologist put it "Such people's brains are being systematically damaged. In many ways they are being de-educated. " Two Brains are Better than One! It would appear that the better connected the two halves of the brain, the greater the potential of the brain for learning and creativity. Recent research by Dr. Christine de Lacoste Utamsing at the University of Texas has found that the interconnecting area is always larger and probably richer in nerve fibres in women than in men. We don't know why yet, but it has fascinating implications. Roger Sperry's work further showed that, when people develop a particular mental skill, it produced a positive improvement in all areas of mental activity, including those that are lying dormant. In other words, the popular belief that painters and musicians (right brain people) must inevitably be poor at mathematics is not true. Einstein, who actually failed mathematics at school, was a creditable violinist and artist, and has described the insight that gave birth to his Theory of Relativity. Alone on a hill on a summer day, he was daydreaming, and imagined himself riding a sunbeam to the far edge of the universe; but in his mind's eye he saw himself returning towards the sun. That flash of inspiration, (which as we shall see was probably associated with a theta brain-wave pattern), suggested that for the dream to come true, it required the universe to be curved. Space, light and time had to be curved also. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (8 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain The Theory of Relativity is therefore a good example of left brain/right brain synchronised thought. Since the state of reverie or daydreaming is associated with a predominantly theta and alpha wave pattern, it is also a perfect example of how an alpha brain-wave state creates the meditative background conditions for creativity. Leonardo da Vinci is often quoted as probably the best example in history of the genius that can be liberated when left and right brain activities are fully combined. He was the most accomplished artist, mathematician and scientist of his day in at least half a dozen different fields, and he could write simultaneously with his left and right hand. The artist Sir Edwin Landseer, had a similar ability he used as a popular party trick. He could draw a horse with one hand, whilst simultaneously drawing a deer with the other! Now this is not to say that there is a rigorous demarcation between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Each half contributes to the majority of thoughts, but there is no doubt about a specialisation of the two brains. There are cases where patients had lost the power of speech (left brain) but could still sing (right brain). In the animal kingdom, the bottlenose dolphin is a mammal that has exceptional mental powers and has, according to the Severstsov Institute in Moscow evolved an extraordinary brain. It can sleep with one half or hemisphere of its brain whilst maintaining full consciousness in the other half. Then after an hour or so it switches brains! Moreover, during sleep one eye remains open and the other remains shut. The dolphin is also capable of incredible feats of memory. Lyall Watson has described how a dolphin can emit a half hour "song" - a series of high pitched sounds that appear to be the main form of dolphin communication. The dolphin can then repeat the exact same sequence of sounds in an identical half hour repeat performance. It's rather like repeating a half hour soliloquy , verbatim. Educational researchers are talking increasingly of 'whole brain. learning'. Joseph Bogen, writing in the U.C.L.A. Educator, remarks "The current emphasis in education on the acquisition of verbal skills and the development of analytical thought processes, neglects the development of non-verbal abilities." It is, he claims "starving one half of the brain and ignoring its contribution to the whole person." Since non-verbal communication is a right brain activity and non-verbal actions account for perhaps 80% of all communication, we can see just how much our left brain orientated learning systems may be starving our intellectual development. Stuart Dimond, a former Professor of Psychology at Cardiff, points out in his book `The Double Brain', "when the two hemispheres work together they perform much better than one." Dr. Bernard Glueck at the Institute for Living in Hartford, Connecticut found that men and women practising meditation showed an increased synchronicity between the left and right sides of the brain, and file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (9 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain suggested that this showed an improved communication through the corpus callosum, achieved by the attainment of relaxation and increased alpha brain waves. Surveys of creative thinking have emphasised the importance of encouraging an initial right brain visualisation, an intuitive solution, which can subsequently be evaluated logically by left brain processes. But the original impetus is from the non-verbal side of our brain. Left v Right in our culture The distinction between left and right is deep in the human psyche, and is constant amongst all cultures. It has much significance. Right is a synonym for correct. Righteousness is good. The angels sit on God's right hand. Right in Latin is "dexter", from which we get dexterity. Left in Latin is "sinistra" from which we get sinister. In French left is "gauche". About ninety per cent of humans are right handed, and more girls than boys. Newborn babies will turn four times more frequently to the right than the left, but left-handedness is more common in twins. The speech centres in the brain (Broca's area and Wernicke's area) are located in the left brain, which controls the right side of the body. It is important to be 'right-eared', because a high proportion of dyslexics `lead' naturally with their left ear. Sound entering through the right ear travels the shortest neurological path across the brain to the left hemisphere, whereas sound entering the left ear follows a longer neurological path to reach the right brain. It is logical to ask whether left handed people -the 10% minority - also have the left brain as the dominant hemisphere for speech. Or do they, process speech with their right brains? Generally, they do not; but an important 35% of left handers do activate their right brain (as well as left brain) while speaking, In contrast only 10% of natural right handers do so. The Triune Brain The brain is not only divided horizontally into left and right. It is effectively divided vertically as well. Dr Paul Maclean in 1973 coined the term triune brain to emphasise the three divisions. (1) The Reptilian brain (or brainstem), which emerges directly from the spinal column and controls the very basic instinctive responses. (2) The Limbic system or mammalian brain, which includes amongst other organs, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. It is this mini brain that controls emotions, sexuality and the pleasure centres. (3) Finally the Neo-Cortex, which controls the intellectual processes which we have been discussing. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (10 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain The three parts of the brain show the evolution of the brain from pure instinctual responses, via the acquisition of controlled emotional response and the beginning of memory, to the incredible complexity of the new brain or neo-cortex. It is of great significance that the limbic system tends to be the conduit through which impulses are transferred from instinctual, involuntary behaviour to `rational' thought. Your personality is determined by the interaction of the limbic system and your neocortex. Psychologists now believe that most learning also involves an interaction between your old and new brains via the limbic system. Many other scientists in the last few years have increasingly come to the conclusion that the key to more effective learning may lie in the limbic system, since it controls the emotions, and an appeal to the emotions is by far the most effective way to create attention and memory. In 1971 Rappaport * concluded that emotion is not only involved in memory but is actually the basis on which memory is organised. Recently Luiz Machado, Head of the University of Rio de Janeiro, a prime mover in the Accelerated Learning Movement, claimed that if new material was presented in such a way file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (11 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain as to produce emotional arousal, i.e. involve the limbic system, it would activate mental powers not normally used. Since the limbic system exerts a powerful effect at the subconscious level, he may well be correct. Certainly the activation of the full power of the brain through the subconscious is a theme that we shall return to again and again throughout this book. Does Mental Ability decline with Age? Almost certainly not. What does deteriorate is the body. Arteries become clogged as fat builds up inside the walls, and once they have passed fifty years of age, up to 50% of people suffer diminution of blood supply, i.e. oxygen feeding the brain. When these arteries are cleaned, patients show a significant reduction in nervousness, mental distress and a measurable increase in I.Q. Moreover, when older patients are given specific oxygen treatment, there can often be an appreciable improvement in mental ability. It has also been found that a high blood pressure correlates with loss of mental ability, and when hypertension and blood pressure is reduced, by relaxation exercises or dieting for example, brain function improves. -------------------- * "Emotions and Memory" D.A. Rappaport. International Universities Press. -------------------- Mental activity involves complicated physio-chemical activity. In fact Dr. David Samuels of the Weizman Institute estimates that there may well be up to a million chemical reactions taking place in the brain in any one minute! Yet there is no evidence that these chemical reactions become any less frequent with age; indeed the production of R.N.A., a key and complex chemical involved in memory, actually increases as you get older. The impression that older people's memory for more recent events is poorer than for further events is perhaps because there are normally fewer outstanding events to remember as one grows older. The novel experiences are mostly encountered in younger years. And novelty aids memory. Use it - or lose it Whilst there is no major reason - and certainly no need - for there to be a reduction in mental powers with ageing, there certainly is conclusive evidence that the provision of constant stimuli improves mental ability. Mark Rosenweig at U.C.L.A. conducted an experiment on three groups of rats. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (12 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain Group 1 lived in a cage full of wheels, ladders, toys, mazes, etc. Group 2 lived in an impoverished environment without any stimulation. Group 3 could see the richer environment in an adjoining cage but could not join in. Later examination of the three groups showed that group 1 rats, who had directly interacted with a challenging environment, all had a heavier and thicker cerebral cortex, whereas neither the observer rats nor the environmentally deprived rats had any increase in brain size. The conclusion is that it is necessary to be involved in mental exercise, to experiment directly with new ideas. Many acknowledged intellectuals who have lived to a ripe old age bear out this truth. Tennyson, Wordsworth, Bernard Shaw, Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Haydn, Bach, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, were all doing work of extraordinary quality in the latter part of their lives. We have already seen how adequate oxygen intake is important and regular breaks from mental work and taking exercise is important. The Greeks instinctively realised this. Their senators would regularly pace up and down their forum during debates. Nature or Nurture? The way in which the brain actually develops enables us to dispose of the question of whether intelligence is a function of heredity (nature) or environment (nurture). The answer is "Both". The number of brain cells is a factor; but the way those brain cells are stimulated to make rich connections is far more significant. Thus it is probably correct to say that almost every normal child is born a potential genius. Even if innate intelligence is merely average, a rich intellectual environment during the period of the second brain growth spurt, with plenty of opportunities to learn, can ensure the development of a greater proportion of the brain potential than would normally be expected. The anecdotal evidence for this in humans (as well as clinical evidence in rats!) is overwhelming. Genius is more made than born In 1800 Karl Witte's father, a German doctor, decided to give his son a really rich educational environment. Karl entered the University of Leipzig at nine, and gained his PhD at fourteen! Lord Kelvin's mother made the same decision. Her son became one of the nineteenth century's most successful physicists. More recently in the well publicised "Edith Experiment", New Yorker Aaron Stern determined, in 1952, to give his daughter the best environment he could devise. Classical music was a continuous background. He talked to her in adult terms and showed her reading cards with numbers and animals on them. Edith Stern could talk in simple sentences at one, and had read an entire volume of the Encyclopedia Brittannica by the age of five. She was reading six books a day by age six. At twelve she enrolled in college and was teaching higher mathematics at Michigan State University at fifteen years old. She scores file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (13 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain 200 on a scale where 155 is genius. In England, Ruth Lawrence who passed her 'O' level maths at nine and 'A' level at ten (normally 18) was accepted at Oxford University at twelve years of age., She had been educated in an intellectually rich environment by her parents. We shall be returning in a later chapter to the subject of preschool learning. We shall also be debating the perfectly reasonable concern that no child should be 'forced' like an intellectual hot-house plant. Clearly, it is vital that the child should become a socially well integrated adult, enjoy her childhood and never be pressured. The point to make here, however, is that there is no question that a loving, relaxed and rich environment during the vital formative years definitely does create a higher degree of mental capability. And that is of undeniable benefit. This benefit is not merely related to intellectual performance. The largest long term study of outstanding ability was started in California by Dr. Terman. Commencing in 1925, it has followed the progress of 1000 gifted children (all above 135 I.Q.s). It has concluded, so far, that: * Physical health and growth was above normal. * Marriage rates were average/divorce rates were below average. * 70% graduated (7 1/2 times normal) Society has come to be somewhat perversely suspicious of genius. Almost as if there is something rather `unfair' about actively encouraging mental growth. As researchers of this book, we have come to believe in all-round education. We are totally against parents indulging their own ego's by pressurising their children to succeed. But we are equally unhappy about the attitude of mind that prompted a Manchester mother, when she was told that her son had an I.Q. of 167, to say... "But he's such a nice boy." The truth is we can indeed improve our children's ability and our own. And that is surely a challenge we must accept. Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta The brain generates tiny electrical pulses as thoughts traverse the labyrinth of the mind. The physical conduits of these thoughts are the millions of nerve cells or neurons in the brain. Just as radio signals, in order to make a comprehensible message, are beamed out on radio waves, a band of signals within a defined frequency, so the brain's activity also occurs in waves. Brain waves can be measured on an electro- encephalograph machine (which is normally abbreviated to E.E.G. Machine). By attaching sensitive electrodes to the scalp, it is possible to measure accurately the type of brain wave that a subject is producing. These waves are usually expressed in the number of cycles per second (or C.P.S.) The brain produces 4 main frequencies: Beta level brain waves - range 13-25 C.P.S. (cycles per second) Alpha level brain waves - range 8-12 C.P.S. Theta level brain waves - range 4-7 C.P.S. Delta level brain waves - range 0.5-3 C.P.S. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (14 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain The following chart relates each type of brain wave to its principal function. We must remember however, that when we speak of someone being 'in alpha' we mean that this is their characteristic and predominant brain wave. Other brain waves will also be present, but in smaller quantities than usual. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (15 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain The linking of left and right brain activities is important in producing a shift from learning to accelerated learning. Yet our society is very 'beta orientated'. We are busy thinking about the problem in hand, but don't leave ourselves sufficiently open to I other influences, which would help us memorize faster and make the sort of less expected connections that we call creative thinking. In beta you don't see the wood for concentrating on the trees. But learn to relax, increase the proportion of the alpha and ideally theta brain waves, and you have created the conditions where you may begin to see the whole picture. 'Alpha' is a natural and receptive state of mind, that we can all attain through the techniques discussed in this book. They principally involve simple and pleasant relaxation exercises and listening to certain types of music. The theta brain wave pattern is especially interesting. It occurs spontaneously to most of us in the twilight state between being fully awake and falling asleep. Arthur Koestler called it `reverie'. This drowsy stage is associated with fleeting semi-hallucinatory images. Thousands of artistic and literary inspirations and scientific inventions have been credited to this state, a sort of freeform thinking that puts you in touch with your subconscious. Many psychologists would agree it is a reasonable hypothesis that, when left/right brain symbiosis takes place, conscious and subconscious are also united. The proportion of theta brain waves becomes much higher than normal. This is the moment when logical left brain activity declines. The left brain, which normally acts as a filter or censor to the subconscious, drops its guard, and allows the more intuitive, emotional and creative depths of the right brain to become increasingly influential. If the hypothesis is true, then do women, popularly characterised as more intuitive, reach a walking theta state more often than men; and can this be associated with the fact that their left/right brain link, the corpus callosum, is larger and richer in connective capabilities than men's? We do not yet know, but it is a fascinating area for future research. At the University of Colorado Medical Centre and at the Biofeedback Centre in Denver, Dr. Thomas Budzyski has found that, when people were trained to achieve and maintain theta brain waves using file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (16 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  Your Incredible Brain biofeedback techniques, they did indeed learn much faster. Moreover, many emotional and attitudinal problems were solved at the same time. For example, in a theta state, suggestions that racial prejudice is wrong were well accepted. Suggestions to overweight people to follow a sensible eating pattern were accepted and subsequently complied with, and insomnia and drinking problems were successfully tackled. Some time ago a New York advertising agency was asked to produce a T.V. Commercial to combat racial prejudice. They produced two. The first used a carefully built up rational argument. The second was a highly emotional film featuring attractive young black children and using many subconscious but positive appeals for fairness. The logical T.V. Commercial actually intensified the degree of racial prejudice. The subjects felt themselves threatened as they realized they could not give an equally dispassionate and rational counter argument. Consequently the only possible response was an aggressive defence involving an increased emotional commitment to their original attitude. The second commercial however, worked. Emotion laden appeals went beyond the conscious, the intellectual objections, and created a new positive image at the subconscious level that changed the subject's entire personal response, so no conflict or threat was aroused. Can intelligence be increased? Whilst it is certainly an oversimplification to relate intelligence to brain capacity it is, however, interesting to relate three statements: The average I.Q. is 100 The genius-level is 160 The average human probably uses 4% of his potential brain power If that average human could learn to use not 4% of his brain but a still minimal 7% of his brain, could he attain genius level? This book is about techniques that probably improve the human memory, that increase creativity and that provide access to unused brain power. The indications are that the same techniques can measurably improve intelligence. file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (17 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM] Your Incredible Brain file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (18 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM] Your Incredible Brain The above "Memory Map" is our way of visualising the main points in the chapter in an easy to remember form. TOC file:///C|/temp/learning/01.htm (19 of 19) [2/2/2003 5:14:08 PM]  The Basis Of Memory 2. The Basis Of Memory There is no learning without memory. From the primitive creature, who merely learns instinctive reflex behaviour through repeated exposure to a particular set of circumstances, to the Polish memorists who have memorised word for word all 12 volumes of the Talmud, learning involves memory. Yet surprisingly there is not yet an agreement as to how memory really works. This book is about the evolution of an advanced and accelerated learning method, not a detailed text book on psychology. Nevertheless it is important that you are familiar with the latest conclusions on memory from clinical psychology. More than one Memory Most psychologists now agree that there are at least two memories: short term memory and long term memory. The short term memory, as Dr. Alan Baddeley describes it, seems to be the working memory. If you want to multiply 28 x 3 in your head, you would use the short term memory to do the calculation, and then, if it were significant enough, commit the answer to your long term memory. The short-term memory is, effectively, a temporary storage device. When you are reading a sentence, it is your short term memory that retains the words at the beginning of the sentence for long -enough to make sense of the whole sentence. Then it is the meaning, rather than the individual words, that is transferred into your long term memory. The long term memory is the permanent storage system from which recall can be made. The short term memory seems to analyse, the long term memory seems to synthesise. Interestingly, the design work that has gone into producing computers has recognised this distinction. A computer is divided into a working memory - the Random Access Memory (RAM), which is the processing and calculating part, and a storage memory called the Read Only Memory (ROM). If you switch off the computer the RAM contents disappear, just as those of the short term memory seem to. They must be recorded onto a disc or tape (or incorporated into the form of a permanent ROM chip) if they are to be stored permanently. How Short is Short? There have been some interesting experiments designed to estimate the time span of the short term memory. If you take a glowing stick from a bonfire and rotate it fast enough in the dark, it will appear to produce a full circle of light. This is because the sensory memory - a specialist part of your short term memory - retains the image of the light long enough for the actual light to return back to its starting point on the circle. file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (1 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory In the same way, a cinema film is a series of still pictures with very short periods of darkness in between. In order to see the film as continuous action, you need to hold the image of the last frame ; in your short term memory until the appearance of the next frame, and relate them together in such a way as to produce an impression of continuous movement. The time span of this type of sensory short term memory is probably about 1 /10 of a second. The time span of the short term memory acting as a working memory - to calculate or to read - is a matter of some discussion. Baddeley conducted experiments on the way words were memorised. He found that a series of long words was less well recalled than a series of short words, probably because the subjects, in order to remember the list, were sub-vocalising the words, i.e. hearing the words in their `mind's ear'. Clearly the longer the words, the longer it took to sub-vocalise them, and the subjects could only remember as much as they could say in 15 seconds. As would be predicted by the theory, fast talkers could remember more! Researchers Waugh and Norman, writing in `The Psychological Review' in 1965, confirmed that the number of unrelated numbers a person can recall after just one presentation rarely exceeds 10 - about the same number that could be spoken or heard in your mind's ear in 15 seconds. They also identified an auditory and visual short term memory, and commented that reading aloud was helpful since it helped to register (encode) the material in the short term auditory store as well as the short term visual store. This point is important, because other researchers have found that the process of rehearsal involved in the sub-vocalisation, is critical to transferring information from the short to the long term memory. Unless an item is rehearsed, it is lost out of the short term memory, and does not enter the long term memory. Other researchers also calculate a short term memory of about 15 seconds in span. Carroll (1966) deduces this from the work of simultaneous translators, who have to hold a sentence or sentences in their short term memory and translate with only the briefest of delays. The same indication (of a 15 second span) is implicit in the ability of court reporters to hold 10-15 second's worth of evidence before transcription. Electrical v Chemical No-one knows exactly how memory is created in the physical sense. But a recent series of experiments indicate that short term memory involves a primarily electrical activity in the brain, and long term memory involves a predominantly chemical process, and the possible modification of proteins. Researchers Flood and Jarvik have reported that drugs which affect the synthesis of proteins, or their transfer along the axons, only affect long term memory, whereas drugs, that affect electrical activity in the brain appear only to affect short term memory. Other experiments support the view that long term memory file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (2 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory involves chemical changes. Thus researcher J.V. McConnell began research in 1966 which showed that RNA (ribonucleic acid) was involved in learning, and that learned behaviour could be transferred from one rat to another by exchanging RNA from one brain to another. In 1970 George Ungar at the Bayer College of Medicine, Houston, Texas taught a group of rats to be afraid of the dark. He then isolated a particular protein from the brains of those rats and injected it into the brains of untrained rats - who immediately showed the same fear of the dark! Subsequently he reproduced the protein artificially, (he named it Scotophobin, from the Greek for fear of the dark), and found that the artificial protein, when injected into normal rats, had the same effect. They too became frightened of the dark. Since then, other researchers have found that Scotophobin when injected into goldfish teaches them to fear the dark; so the specific amino acid chain in this particular protein may have a universal significance. Yet further teams of researchers have identified brain chemicals that discriminate between colours. Scientists are already working on direct computer brain symbiosis (the direct linking of a human mind to a computer). It seems that we now have two futuristic avenues for research: artificial learning by electrical input (computer/brain links) and artificial learning by chemical input. There seem to be parts of the day when learning is optimum usually later rather than earlier. This may also be due to the fact the body goes through a complex hormonal and chemical cycle throughout the day, and this cycle may well be influential on the production of the chemicals which result in the consolidation of memory traces. When we talk of memory in future pages we shall mean long term memory. Memory as a Three Way Activity We talk loosely about memory, but there are actually three distinct aspects to memorising something. The three 'R's' of memory, are Registration, Retention and Recall. You have to: (1) Become aware of new facts and make an active effort to transfer them to long term memory. That is Registration or as psychologists term it `encoding'. (2) Store these facts in your long term memory and (3) Be able to recall the facts when you need them. Psychologists often refer to the "tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon" to illustrate the difference between recognition and recall. This is the common experience of feeling you know a name, for example, and perhaps even the initial letter of that name, yet are unable to recall it accurately and completely. Clearly the memory is there, because you almost always recognise the name when it is eventually given - but cannot recall it fully without aid. file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (3 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory When faced with an apparently new learning task, it is sometimes difficult to comprehend just how fast our recall can be. If you are a fast talker, for example, you may speak at about 170190 words a minute and the words will be produced in correct grammatical order. It seems like a reflex action, but the mechanism clearly involves an astonishing display of logic manipulation (in the short term memory) and retrieval of the correct grammar and vocabulary (from the long term memory), coupled with a possible simultaneous use of right brain to conceptualise and left brain to speak forth the conclusions. Not for the first (or last) time in this book the mind may well marvel at its own complexity! That the three activities of Registration, Retention and Recall are not necessarily the same is easily proved. Consider the following list of words and repeat them twice. (That's the encoding part). Test No 1 Fox - Play Place - Spy Pen - Lamp Tree - Full Book - Sink Far - Water Easy - Grass Bike - Sand Now look away and write down as many words as possible. Then look back at the list. Do you `recognise' all the words? If you do, then clearly you remember them, in the sense that you acknowledge you have seen them before. So the memory was there, but it is unlikely that you will actually have recalled them all correctly. Potential memory is invariably greater than actual recall. Recall is not the same as recognition. It is incidentally, clear in testing old people that if their memory deteriorates at all, it is the ability to recall that declines, not the ability to create or store information. The distinction between memory defined as recognition of facts or events when we are reminded or "given a clue" and memory defined as the ability to recall without a prompt is an important one. It is the reason why the accurate measurement of learning is quite difficult and why it is important to agree a definition of learning before hand. Here is a suggestion. As you read through this book, note down any fact or conclusion, that you think would be important in creating the ideal learning programme. You might, for example, have concluded that, without rehearsal of a new fact in the short term memory, it would not get transferred to the long term memory. You might also have concluded from Chapter One that, since your brain's potential capacity is so obviously enormous, the requirement of any learning system, is not that it should increase your intelligence but that it should.: release a fraction of the talent you already have. If you actively make notes, you will not only obtain much more benefit from this book - file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (4 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory you will learn something fundamental about memory and about learning itself. The Model of Memory Numerous researches have conducted experiments which indicate that information which is not rehearsed in the short term memory is rapidly forgotten. Conversely, there seems to be a direct correlation between the amount of rehearsal and the probability that the material will be recalled. Murdoch and Waugh (1963) showed that the probability of recalling a word that had been listened to for 2 seconds was almost twice the probability of recalling a word that had been listened to for 1 second. This is because the short term memory is the part of the memory that does the encoding, or registration, and the better the encoding the stronger the ultimate memory. Memory as a Library Your memory is very similar to a library. If that library had hundreds of thousands of books stored in it in a completely random manner, you will find it almost impossible to retrieve any one book. But if the books are stored systematically (by subject and by author for example), then retrieval becomes simple and quick. Encoding is the equivalent of a library index. If you register each new piece of information strongly at the beginning, you will be able to retrieve (recall) it easily later. All psychologists are agreed that the better the encoding, or the more the associations, the better the retrieval. So in evolving our Accelerated Learning system, our investigations have concentrated upon one key question - "What makes for strong encoding and for powerful associations?" Before we turn to that, however, let us look for enlightenment from the opposite question - "Why do we forget?" file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (5 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory The Ebbinghaus Experiments The pioneer in memory research was Hermann Ebbinghaus who conducted the first scientific experiments on memory in Germany between 1879 and 1885. Since he realised that meaning and associations had a powerful effect on learning, he confined himself to learning lists of nonsense syllables such as WUX. CAZ, BIJ, ZOL. He found that there seemed an almost straight line relationship between the initial time spent in learning and the amount learned. There seemed to be neither a law of diminishing returns, nor was there a snowball effect. The more time you spent on a list the more you apparently learned. He called it the Total Time Hypothesis. It seemed to support the theory on which teaching is based even to this day - that the way to learn is through grim determination and repetition. We now know that this is simplistic - and whilst time spent is certainly important, the way the time is spent and the way the information is presented, have an enormous effect on the rate of learning. In fact, Accelerated Learning is the way to break out of the Total Time Hypothesis. One technique will illustrate the point. Psychologists call it the "the distribution of practice effect". This shows that the time taken to learn something is significantly less if the learning is spaced out. Thus a task taking 30 minutes, if learnt all in one day, will typically take 22 minutes if spaced over two days, an almost 30% saving. In a similar way recall is enhanced if there is a short space between two presentations of the same material. Furthermore if you test yourself and succeed in recalling the correct answer, your i memory for those facts will be considerably strengthened compared with merely having the information given to you. Active involvement is always a more powerful memory enhancer than passive learning. So a successful test is desirable. And clearly the sooner the test is conducted the higher the probability of the answer being correct. The solution is to use the following learning strategy-which well accords to the short term/long term memory models. Time scale file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (6 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory Thus you would learn (for example a new foreign word) and test (or rehearse) immediately, within the span of the short term memory. Then learn and rehearse the second item again within the Short Term Memory span. Then you would go back, after an interval, to the first item. You've achieved immediate rehearsal and also spaced practice. The above however, has been somewhat of a digression since we are mainly interested in Ebbinghaus for his work on forgetting. Ebbinghaus found that forgetting could be plotted on a graph - known now as the Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting. The graph looks as follows: Few people will be surprised at the result. Common experience is that memory does not seem to decay over time, but that there comes a point at which little further deterioration is experienced. But why? There have been two basic theories. One is that memory traces gradually fade over time rather as the sun might bleach the colour in your curtains. The other theory is that it is the number of intervening new experiences that weaken the original memory trace, "crowding out" old memories. This is called the interference theory. file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (7 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  The Basis Of Memory Fortunately, due to a number of elegant experiments, it now seems clear that interference is the primary reason for forgetting, rather than a simple decay over time. And the more similar the events (or facts) that intervened the more that was forgotten. We might call it the Confusion Factor. Ebbing haus' experiments appeared to show that forgetting was an unfortunate fact of life. The more recent experiments, however, have explained the apparently inevitable memory decay as new competing experiences weakening the old memory traces. Now if that were true it would imply that the more you learnt (new) the more you would forget (old). This is a popular misconception. Many people seem to think of memory as a water jug of limited capacity. Some of the old has to be poured out to make way for the new. As we shall see, however, the reverse is true. Your memory is more like a tree. The more branches on the tree, the greater the possibility for new branches to grow. Ebbinghaus' experiments were designed in such a way as to produce the maximum degree of forgetting, because he deliberately eliminated everything that we have now come to recognise is vital in preserving memory. By using nonsense phrases he eliminated meaning, organisation and association, and thereby eliminated the most powerful positive factors in preventing forgetting. So his conclusions were only relevant in the most unpromising circumstances. In contrast we shall see that it is possible to create an ideal learning situation in which there is almost no forgetting. Let us now turn from why we forget to the opposite question. What are the positive influences on memory? file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (8 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM] The Basis Of Memory TOC file:///C|/temp/learning/02.htm (9 of 9) [2/2/2003 5:14:28 PM]  Improving Memory 3. Improving Memory Before we study the various positive influences on memory please indulge in a little experiment. The results will illustrate some important principles. Test No. Two Read through the following list once only. Read slowly and concentrate. Then look away and write down as many of the words as you recall in any order. Grass. Paper. Cat. Knife. Love. Bird. Tree. Desk. Truth. Table. Fork. Pen. Stream. Wisdom. Stream. Flower. Zulu. Radio. Ruler. Blue. Sheep. Meaning. Field. Pencil. Carbon. When you have written down the list of words that you have recalled, you will normally find certain things to be true. And these facts illustrate several important principles. 1. Primacy You tend to remember more from the beginning of a test or a learning session. So you probably remembered `grass' and `paper'. This is called the PRIMACY EFFECT. 2. Recency You also tend to remember more from the end of a learning session. So you probably remembered `pencil' and `carbon'. This is called the RECENCY EFFECT. If you put these two effects together and plot your typical learning efficiency in memorising a list or over a period of study, say a lecture or a lesson, the effect is shown in the following figure. 3. The Von Restorff Effect file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (1 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory There was probably another word that you remembered - the word Zulu. The word stood out from the list because it was different (and may have carried a quite strong visual association). Von Restorff discovered something upon which professional memory men rely heavily. If you want to remember something, ensure it is outstanding in some way - colourful, bizarre, funny, vulgar. A bright red flower on a black dress is memorable, a subtle floral print dress may be pretty, but it is not memorable. Outstanding elements have been measured to increase our arousal level and our attention - and you will always remember something better if it is presented in a way that either focuses increased attention, or is arousing to one or other of your senses or emotions. Interestingly, you might also have remembered the words 'flower' and/or `radio' which straddle 'Zulu' on the list - because the increased arousal and attention often improves recall for words or events around the original item. By the simple expedient of inserting high recall items into a series of words, or into a lesson or lecture, you can provide a boost for attention, and therefore for encoding, retention and recall. There is an interesting implication to the above. The longer the lesson or lecture, the more time there is for the fall off in attention and recall to take place. The simple device of splitting up a lesson into two parts with a break in between will increase the overall level of recall - because there is more Primacy and Recency Effect at work. file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (2 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory Specificness If we go back again to the list of words you recalled, most people will notice that they remembered fewer of the words 'love', 'truth', 'wisdom' or 'meaning'. These words are concepts and it is more difficult to give them a concrete reality or image. In contrast, the easiest words to remember are always nouns and adjectives because they can be visualised - and as we shall see visualisation is one of the keys to memory. For the above reasons, teaching a new language should be similar to learning your own language. Children learn the words for objects first and only later do they learn the words of abstractions like 'precedence' or `prosperity'. Organisation Before we leave Test Two, have a look at the list you made. It is more than likely that you wrote the words down in clusters or groups. There were in fact several categories in the list - animals, things from the countryside, items you might find in an office, items from a kitchen and abstract concepts. Although they were not grouped together in the list it is quite likely that you recalled them in groups. The world famous researcher Canadian psychologist, Endel Tulving of Toronto University has conducted many experiments on the role of organisation in memory. One of the most dramatic involved two groups of students, each of whom were given 100 cards on which was a printed word. Half were instructed to learn the words by memorising them. The other half was instructed to sort the words out into categories. When they were later tested the sorters or 'organisers' did equally as well as the 'memorisers' - in other words the active involvement in organising was sufficient to create learning. Tulving concluded that when we fry fo remember something new we instinctively repeat if for ourselves. It is quite probable that it is not the repetition that is so important, as the fact that our minds are constructing associations and patterns between the words and imposing a subjective organisation on the material. Suppose you want to remember a list of words say, - bee, pan, lamp, proud, trowel. You will more readily remember the words if you make up a sentence or sentences connecting the words in the form of a short story. You would remember it even better if the story was easy to visualise and best of all if you could picture a story that was dramatic, or vulgar, or comic or in some way involved your emotions. file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (3 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory Two more research projects emphasise the importance of active involvement with new material and both studies are relevant to the learning of languages. W. Kintsch and his associates conducted an experiment in 1971 to teach three groups of subjects three new nouns. One group were instructed to read the words aloud. The second group were instructed to sort the words by type of word. The third group were asked to form one sentence that contained all three words. Retention of the third group was 250% better. In the second project researchers G. Bower and D. Winzenz took four groups and required them to learn pairs of unrelated nouns. Group 1 simply rehearsed the pairs silently Group 2 read aloud a sentence containing the pairs of words. Group 3 made up their own sentence and spoke them out loud. Group 4 visualised a mental picture in which the words had a vivid interaction with each other, but said nothing out loud. Each group performed better than the one before. The more active the involvement the deeper the learning. The conclusions were fully validated by educational psychologists Glanzer and Meinzer who asked two groups to learn a list of new words. One group was asked to simply repeat the words six times each. The second group used the same time to think about the word and "process it mentally". The second group's recall was markedly superior. A story is in fact a good mnemonic or memory aid and the more elaborate the story the better. A story links words to be remembered and it causes you to build up scenes that have visual, sound and sensory associations for you. Moreover the plot, however simple, provides an associative thread, so that it is normally enough to recall the theme and the theme then triggers recall of more material. If you can create a powerful visual image between two words, remembering one will trigger recall for the other. Dual Encoding The reason that a list of items learned in picture form is more easily learned than an equivalent list of printed words, is that the former are learned visually as well as verbally. file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (4 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory A picture list involves what psychologists call dual encoding - and we know that the stronger the encoding the more durable the memory and the easier the recall. In fact the ideal is not just dual but multiple sense encoding. Principles Consider the following sequence of letters GNRADERECC INELTALEA How long do you think it would take to remember the sequence correctly? In fact you can do if in 20 seconds. By discovering the principle involved. Start with the last letter "A" and go up to the top line "C" across to the left "C" down to the bottom line "E" across to the left "L" up to the top "E" etc., i.e. The sequence spells Accelerated Learning. Similarly the following sequence 3.6.9.12.15.18.21. does not have to be memorised. You merely need to remember the principle involved. Remembering the principles involved is always more efficient than trying to remember the specifics. Chess masters can play blind-fold chess not because they recall each piece, (they don't), but because they retain the overall patterns involved. Just how incredibly powerful this can be, is exemplified by the Belgian Master Koltanovski who in 1960 played 56 simultaneous games of blind-fold chess, winning 50 and drawing 6! When we come to discussing the actual evolution of Accelerated Learning we shall be referring to principles, because they are a way of achieving a great deal of memory with the minimum amount of effort expended on encoding. They `trigger' lots of recall. file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (5 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory In a particularly interesting study, A.S. Reber in 1967 showed that relationships between words are often subconsciously recognised. He took two groups and gave each a list of nonsense words to learn. One group had a list made up of words chosen at random - the other group had a list which was compiled according to a specific rule or principle - but that principle was not specified, it was merely implicit. The second group learned twice as well. The clear conclusion was that rules (and they include grammar) can be learnt from inference and example. In another very simple example, taken from our own Accelerated Learning German course, we found that English learners found it difficult to remember which words were masculine or feminine or neuter. So we taught them some simple principles (or mnemonics). For example the jingle:- "height of the kite is always female", taught them in 10 seconds that all German words ending in -heit- or -keit- were feminine gender. When we understand the principle involved - when we say "Aha, I see now" we have given the subject meaning and a personal relevance. We have filed it in our own particular memory - library reference file. We remember very poorly anything that is not meaningful to us, but we remember easily anything that has significance, and particularly emotional significance (Brierly 1966). Meaning In 1975 Craik and Tulving reported on an experiment in which subjects were asked to remember words on one of three bases. The visual appearance of the words - (15%) The sound of the word - (29%) The meaning of the word - (71%) The figures in brackets are the percentage of correctly recalled words after two presentations of the list. You will see that encoding the basis of meaning is 3-4 times stronger. To oversimplify. You cannot become involved in something unless you understand it and it has meaning for you personally. Once it has meaning, it is capable of being associated in your mind with other words or facts you already know and understand. If you are not `involved' with new information it will not be processed at anything but a superficial level. It will "go in one ear and out of the other". This is why you always remember the results of a problem that was initially difficult to solve. Involvement then leads to a deeper processing of the material and thence to stronger memory. We have the beginning of a virtuous circle. Context file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (6 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory You have probably all read the following (shortened) description). "The first group is in. The second group go out and they try to get the first group out. Then when the first group are all out, the second group is in. The first group now goes out and tries to get the second group out. Only when both groups have been in and out twice is there a conclusion. " An arcane passage, which would defy alI understanding, unless you knew that the description was of a Cricket Match, where a team was "in" until all its batsmen had been bowled "out". So knowing the context in advance made it much easier to understand - and therefore remember. In memorising anything it is vital to get an overview so that you understand the broad principles involved before you begin. There is a common place parallel in everyone's life. When you visit a new country or city you look for the landmarks first and then you relate other less important places to them. You need to establish the broad geography (overview) and then systematically fill in the minor areas (detail). This is a spontaneous and natural mapping principle, which will become significant later in this book. Educational pioneer Charles Schmid likens the importance of context to doing a jigsaw - its ten times harder if you cannot see the picture on the box. Primitive man evolved memory largely as a way of providing himself with mental maps to record routes and the location of shelter and food. Because he had limited speech, this mapping instinct had to rely largely on an ability to visualise - bring the scene to his mind's eye. Even today primitive tribes in Africa have been shown to possess a much higher degree of visual or eidetic memory - than their Western counterparts. Eidetic memory is that ability which allows the subject to replay scenes in his or her head, - almost like a video replay. As we shall see the principle of over viewing and mapping out a subject not only provides context and, therefore, meaning but leads to the utilisation of the single most powerful element in memory - visual memory. Physical Context The physical environment in which you learn can also have a profound influence on your ability to recall. The 17th Century British Philosopher - John Locke - quoted an especially odd case of a young man who had learnt to dance. "and that to great perfection. There happened to stand an old trunk in the room where he had learned. His idea of this remarkable piece of household stuff had so mixed itself with the steps of all his dances, that though in that chamber he could dance excellently well, it was only while that trunk was there, nor could he perform well in any other place, unless that or some other such trunk had its due position in the room." file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (7 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory In an equally bizarre, but persuasive study, Cambridge Psychologist Dr. Alan Baddeley and Dr. Duncan Godden took a group of divers and taught them each 40 unrelated words. Half were taught under water, half were taught ashore. The words that were both learnt underwater and tested underwater were recalled almost twice as well as the words learned ashore, but tested underwater. The implications of the fact that you recall better in the same environment, are that on-the-job training should be preferable to simulated training, and that most people learn better by learning in the same chair/desk and setting. Conversely, recalling learned material can often bring back the surroundings in which the original learning took place. R.N. Shiffrin writing in "Models of Human Memory" proved the effectiveness of flash cards in teaching words - and found that his subjects remembered not only the word and its translation, but the size and colour of the letters and often the surroundings they were originally taught in. Memory and Sleep One of the major puzzles of psychology is sleep. A recent book entitled 'Landscapes of the Night', written by Chris Evans and Peter Evans, possibly represents "the state of the art" in terms of the function of sleep and dreaming. Starting from the observation that it is, in evolutionary terms, quite amazing that mammals will risk spending a third of their lives in the highly vulnerable state of unconsciousness known as sleep, the book constructs a most realistic theory of sleep and dreaming. Chris Evans draws an apt parallel between a human brain and a modern computer. In order for the computer to be reprogrammed it must go "off line" for sometime. This is the period when new programmes are being tested and old ones modified. In the same way the human brain needs to go "off line". The experiences of the day are reviewed during sleep and assimilated into new patterns of thought, belief, and future behaviour. This is done during the pan`. of sleep when dreams occur. Due to investigative research by Eugene Aserinsky, working with the sleep researcher Nat Kleitman, we now know that dreams occur during paradoxical sleep (so called because the brain is in fact very active), or that portion when there is Rapid Eye Movement (or REM) sleep. There is much circumstantial evidence that REM sleep may act as a period when the brain sorts and files new information and experiences, and decides how to adapt them. As early as 1968, Bassin concluded that "some of the components of dreams are related to the unconscious processing of information. "If this were so, we would expect that the more new information presented during the day, the higher the proportion of sleep devoted to dreaming, i.e. REM sleep. This turns out to be the case. Whereas adults may average 20% of their sleep in the REM sleep state this file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (8 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory decreases as they grow older - but very young children, who are subjected to the highest proportion of new information and experiences, actually spend up to 50% of their sleep in the REM phase. We certainly know that depriving people of sleep can have a catastrophic effect on their mental ability. In a very public demonstration of sleep deprivation, a disc jockey in New York elected to stay awake for over 200 hours. His hallucinations during;, the "wakeathon", started out as seeing cobwebs, rabbits and bugs and gradually became serious. He began to imagine that the `: room was on fire (a mysteriously common hallucination in sleep deprivation), and he began to evidence paranoia after 100 hours. Nicholas Humphrey of Cambridge University believes that dreams act like a dress rehearsal for events we hope or fear may occur. It is as if the brain as computer, is doing a test run on a possible new programme. Chris Evans goes so far as to say that "we sleep in order to dream" and the theory that these dreams are both a filing and. sorting process, an assimilation of information and a series of dummy runs, coincides well with the views of Dr. Edmond Dewan, a leading sleep researcher at the Air Force Research Laboratories :' in Bedford Massachusetts. He notes that the lower down you go in the evolutionary scale the less the animal sleeps, and therefore can dream. "It is almost impossible to explain the behaviour of the brain during sleep unless some re-programming is taking place". he says. Mothers of children will testify that during the first few days at primary school, their infants are unusually willing to go to bed. '' They have more novel experiences than usual to review during sleep. REM sleep has a provable impact on memory, as you would expect. Students at Edinburgh Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Chris Idzikowsky were divided into two groups, and asked to memorise a list of nonsense syllables for 15 minutes in the morning. Half of them were tested in the evening and the other half were tested the next morning, i.e., after sleeping. The group that had slept, scored significantly higher than the first group. "Dreams" says psychologist Patricia Garfield "continue work begun during consciousness". It should follow that any daytime mental activity that has the deliberate intent of stimulating the subconscious, and the more visually artistically oriented right brain, should precipitate a greater review of that material during REM sleep. In turn that material should be more easily assimilated into the long term memory. Additionally, it should more easily be utilized in the unconscious creative process. The use of sleep (or more accurately REM sleep) for creativity is well documented. One of the best known is the case of Elias Howe who invented the sewing machine. He had struggled for months to find a way to attach the thread to the needle. One night he dreamed that he was threatened by a group of natives who challenged him to invent the machine or die. As they approached him to thrust their spears into his body, Howe noticed that in the tip of the spear was a eye-shaped hole. Howe awoke instantly with the certainty that it was in the needle end that he should thread the needle. Robert Louis Stevenson regularly willed himself to dream out the storyline and plot of his novels. He often succeeded and was really one of the first people to programme their dreams deliberately - an activity now file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (9 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory receiving widespread attention under the name of "lucid dreaming". He actually conceived of the entire story of Jekyll and Hyde through a series of dreams. Dr. Morton Schatzman, a psychotherapist, has had considerable success in getting students literally to "dream up" solutions to problems. In one of the simpler tests he gave a series of letters to his students. They were H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O. The letters represent a word he said. Several students reported they had dreams involving water- shark fishing, sailing, swimming, walking in heavy rain. They had subconsciously reached the solution, which was "H to O" or H2O i.e. water. Sleep Learning (Hypnopaedia) If sleep helps you to assimilate facts, form opinions, reach solutions, and indulge in a "test run" of behaviour, then can you actually use the period of sleep to learn actively? Experiments began in the U.S.A. in 1942 and extended to Russia in the 50's. "Hypnopaedia" was a popular idea but there has never been any real success with it. On the basis of Dr. Chris Evans' work and his conclusion that sleep is when the brain, as computer, is "off line", we can understand why sleep learning has never succeeded. Learning is an activity when fresh information is presented. Sleep is precisely the period when the information is reviewed, not when new data are taken in. We are now also sufficiently aware of the importance of holistic (left and right brain) learning, that we would not really expect sleep learning to work. Learning may be easiest in a state of calm, relaxed alertness, but that does not mean that you need not be fully conscious. Taking a Break The popular view that you need to take a break every now and then has been confirmed by French Researcher Henri Pieron. He has found that a planned series of breaks during a study period or lesson increases the probability of recall. A break every 30 minutes is probably optimum, and each break should be of the order of 5 minutes. Certainly no improvement is gained when the break exceeds 10 minutes. The break should be a complete rest from the type of study being undertaken, otherwise too many competing or interfering associations will be formed, and they will confuse the memory traces laid down in the study period. The deep breathing and relaxation exercises - described in Chapter 12 are specifically designed to produce mental and physical relaxation and enhance oxygen flow to the brain. The effect of the breaks will be to sustain recall in the way that the diagram opposite shows. file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (10 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory What is at work is the effect of Primacy and Recency coupled with the "Zeigarnik Effect". Zeigarnik, a German researcher, found that interrupting a task, in which a person was involved, even if that task is going well, can lead to appreciably subsequent higher recall. Review If breaks enhance memory consolidation, there is a similar pattern that significantly enhances long term memory consolidation, and which dramatically slashes the overall time spent in learning. From various sources that include Tony Buzans excellent book 'Use your Head', Peter Russell's equally fascinating 'The Brain Book' and from journals of experimental and educational psychology, the following pattern of Review would seem to be ideal. It assumes that initial learning period is up to 45 minutes. 1. Learn material with immediate tests continuously built in to ensure the basic transfer from Short Term to Long Term Memory. Period of Review 2. Review after 10 minutes. 5 mins 3. Review after 1 day 5 mins 4. Review after 1 week 3 mins 5. Review after 1 month 3 mins 6. Review after 6 months 3 mins This pattern of review will necessitate about 20 minutes of time per 45 minutes of initial learning, but will conservatively save many hours of learning compared with the normal instinctive urge which is to "learn it all in one go". file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (11 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Improving Memory The pattern and its effect can be pictorialised as follows: The constant boost to recall contrasts with the typical curve of forgetting we could expect with review. It would not be optimistic to expect a 400-500% boost in learning from this learning plan. In a unique study reported in "Practical Aspects of Memory" Mangold Linton kept a diary over a four year period. She was able to show that those events in the diary which she never reviewed were 65% forgotten. Even a single review cut down forgetting significantly, whereas four reviews over a four year period reduced the probability of forgetting down to a level of about 12%. Put positively, just 4 reviews could produce an 88% probability of recall! Your memory and your ability to learn are much, much greater than you have supposed. Yet we have not even begun to discuss the biggest single aid to fast and effective learning - the enormous power of association. Before we do, let us turn our attention from natural actions that aid memory, to some artificial but valuable and instructive aids. file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (12 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM] Improving Memory TOC file:///C|/temp/learning/03.htm (13 of 13) [2/2/2003 5:14:44 PM]  Memory Aids 4. Memory Aids Learning by Example Is it better to learn a series of new words by simply learning the definition - or by example? A rather amusing study done by K. E. Nitsch, working with researcher John Bransford at the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, throws light on the question. Nitsch taught his subjects some made-up words with reasonably wide potential application e.g. MINGE - to gang up on a person or thing CRINCH - to make someone angry by doing something inappropriate.. RELL - to rescue someone from a dangerous or problematic situation. The question was - how well were the meanings of the words learned (by example versus by rote) and how widely could the subjects subsequently apply the new vocabulary? The results clearly are of interest to language teaching. The first result was very clear. The group who learned through example learned much better than those who merely recited the definitions. The second result was obvious but significant. The narrower the context of the example, the less flexibility the student had to use the meaning in other situations. So if you teach by example - you should make the example a fairly general one. Chunking George Miller from Harvard University, in an influential paper entitled `The Magical Number Seven: Plus or Minus Two' pointed out that the immediate memory span was limited in the number of items it can hold. He found that whether people were given lists of numbers or words, they could not correctly recall lists of more than about seven items. Now this is not surprising because it fits in with the fact that you are unlikely to sub-vocalise more than 7 items in less than 10 seconds, which is the approximate span of the short term memory store. Miller's contribution, however, was to point out that it was the number of items that was the limiting factor - not the information contained in those items. Now, clearly, if there was only one word per item you would only remember seven words. But if each item contained quite a lot of information - or "chunks" of information as Miller termed it, - then you could increase memorisation. More information could be file:///C|/temp/learning/04.htm (1 of 15) [2/2/2003 5:14:54 PM]  Memory Aids packed into larger chunks but not more chunks. Chunking is, in fact, a natural process. Given a string of numbers to remember, say 4 9 3 8 6 2 7 1 2 1 you would probably reproduce it as 493-862-7121. Indeed the reason why telephone numbers are basically 7 digits in alI countries, throughout the world, is that the Magic Seven is a universal phenomenon. You will also find, that if you recite the alphabet from A-Z, you do not do so as a continuous stream, but in Chunks. Try it! If the chunk can be rhythmical so much the better. Rhythm and rhyme are undoubted aids to memory. Rhythm and Rhyme A reason why monks frequently chant their prayers is because the rhythm and the rhyme are powerful mnemonics. A mnemonic being simply an aid to memory. Another common example of the power of rhyming and rhythm is the rule - "Thirty days has September April, June and November." It's chunked, it rhymes and it has rhythm. So it's well remembered. We shall be discussing the role of music and memory in detail in Chapter 7, but most parents will be only too familiar with the ability of their younger children to remember the words of a pop song even on limited exposure, but be singularly un-impressive when it comes to a list of history dates or french verbs. The pop song is normally chunked with rhythm and rhyme, the dates are not. Moreover the music of the pop song provides a sound and emotional association with the words - and the more associations the better encoded (remembered) is the material. Motivation The example of the teenager and the pop song has another significance - for there is another obvious force at work. A force that, in fact, ties together many of the points already made. We all find it much easier to succeed if we are motivated. Teenagers are motivated to `learn' a pop song. In fact, they don't so much learn it, as absorb it indirectly. It's enjoyable and stress free. Pre-school children also learn much indirectly and it is no accident that their environment is much the same as that of a teenager absorbing a pop song. Another virtuous circle we have found in the practice of Accelerated Learning is motivation. Since the expectation of success is high and because the pupil does indeed find learning easy and effective, the encouragement and motivation to continue fuels another round of learn/enjoy/succeed. file:///C|/temp/learning/04.htm (2 of 15) [2/2/2003 5:14:54 PM]  Memory Aids Children learn their own language amazingly quickly, partly because they are unconsciously using the learning principles we have rediscovered in creating Accelerated Learning, and partly because they are highly motivated to do so. It is the only way they can get what they want! If you are motivated, if you are interested in a subject, you focus attention and that creates a climate for good learning. It does no harm to introduce a bit of artificial motivation. Set yourself a target and, when that learning stage or task is achieved, reward yourself, in a specific manner. Buy yourself some new clothes, for example or perfume or a tie or go to a show or a meal out. The item doesn't matter - the motivation and reward does. What about Repetition? For all those people who have been brought up to equate learning with endless and boring repetition, we have some good news. You were right - repetition is not an effective way to learn! Repetition by itself has little value unless it is accompanied by involvement. U.S. psychologists M.J. Adams and R.S. Nickerson reporting in "Cognitive Psychology" in 1979, asked subjects to remember and draw the features of a common American coin; a coin people would expect to handle several times a day or thousands of times over a 10 year period. The memory for the actual detail was appalling. Equally appalling were the results of a study conducted by Dr. Alan Baddeley and Debra Dekerian at the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge. The B.B.C. was in the middle of a campaign to announce it was changing its wavelengths. Each subject had probably heard the announcement on her/his radio several hundred times. Yet correct recall was little better than guessing. The reason why mere repetition is ineffective is not hard to guess. Firstly, without strong motivation and unless the repetition is accompanied by strong encoding, it just goes "in one ear and out the other". Secondly, the repetition itself cancels out a feature of strong encoding - the power of the unusual or outstanding to attract attention and thereby create memory. Which brings us to the truly artificial memory aids - mnemonics Mnemonics - The Greeks did have a word for it! The word mnemonics is derived from the Greek "MNEM