Quantum Happiness Series- Learning for life
Not everyone learns the same way. Oddly
enough, I didn’t realize that until I was teaching life skills to college
students. I, personally, have always
been a textual learner, which is the learning style used in most traditional
classrooms. But not everyone is.
·
Visual learners prefer images.
·
Auditory learners prefer
to listen.
·
Kinetic learners prefer hands-on experiences.
·
Spatial learners, the least common learners, prefer to associate
information with space.
For instance, one of my best girlfriends is a
spatial learner. She might imagine a formula written on a wall with bright red
lipstick. To remember the formula, she would look at that space on the wall and
see her imaginary note.
We all learn through a blend of these
techniques, but one is usually dominant. Knowing which one makes it easier to
learn and retain information.
Mindful memory
To retain what we’ve learned, we must convert our short-term a.k.a. “working,” memories into long-term memories. This process is enhanced by two primary factors, repetition and sleep.
There are, however, some simple techniques
that will accelerate and enhance the transmission from short to long term
memory.
Short term memory lasts somewhere between 20
minutes and two hours. So, if steps aren’t taken to store these memories, most
of them will be lost within a few hours’ time.
KearceCrafted memory
method
Memory can be visualized as a great forest.
All our memories are there, but only some are available to us at any given
time. Like hiking trails through the forest, neural pathways are created by
deliberate, repetitive traffic.
When a memory is not accessed, like that
hiking trail, it becomes tangled, overgrown and soon disappears entirely.
Therefore, we must consciously create and maintain the pathway for it to remain
open and available to us. To consciously move memory from short to long-term,
it should be recalled repeatedly either vocally or mentally during three
distinct time frames:
·
Within the first 20 minutes after exposure.
·
On or near the two-hour mark.
·
At the six-hour mark and/or before bed.
This doesn’t require a lot of preparation,
simply ask yourself to remember the information, then check your accuracy.
For best results, be sure the intended
information is the last thing you see before bed, since the brain queues memory
in reverse. The most recent thing viewed is the first thing processed after
falling asleep.
It works if you
work it.
From 2001 to 2012, I worked as a college
professor, and every semester I struggled to call more than 100 new students by
name. At first, I just asked them their name and assumed that they understood I
couldn’t remember everyone.
I was wrong. Students need to know that their
instructor cares about them enough to know their name, so I began making a
conscious effort during roll call to take a moment and connect the name with
the student’s face along with where they sat in the class.
Near the end of class, I took another moment
to survey the room and again connect the name with the student, checking the
roster if I couldn’t recall their name. At home in the evenings, I would review
the class roster and try to visualize the student’s face when I reached their
name. Within just a few class sessions, I could recall names of the students
who attended regularly.
An unexpected benefit of this exercise was a
much more relaxed classroom and a better relationship between my students and
me. Taking a few minutes during those first few classes to learn their names,
saved me time, energy, and stress throughout the entire semester, and many of
those students registered for other classes that I taught because of the
relationship we had established.
Try visual cues
Another way to enhance memory is to simply put
the information where you see it often. If there is a list to remember, hand
write it – handwriting triggers visual, textual, and kinetic learning – on Post-it
notes and post them in places that you frequent: the refrigerator, the bathroom
mirror, the dash of the car, etc. Doing so, will increase the probability of
remembering, even without conscious repetition.
Say what?
Two types of pneumonic devices that help with
recall are acronyms and acrostics.
An acronym is made of the first letter of a
group of words. For example:
·
FBI is an acronym for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
·
BOGO is a popular retail
acronym, standing for “buy one get one.”
·
Scuba began as an acronym, standing for “self-contained underwater
breathing apparatus,” but has now become part of the language as a word
referring to underwater exploration.
An acrostic is a sentence in which the first
letter of each word corresponds with the first letter of the word to remember.
For instance, most college students are
familiar with, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” which is an acrostic to
remember the order of operations for algebra: parentheses, exponents, multiply,
divide, add, and subtract. (I’ve been
told that this acrostic is not as widely used as it once was, but I think most
students still recognize it.)
Are you a
doodlebug?
In traditional classrooms, doodling is
discouraged. But some students who are visual and kinetic learners, tie memory
to doodles.
I doubted this theory until I had a student
who sat in the front row and produced amazing artwork during class. One day I
asked him if I could have one of his drawings, and he told me that it would
have to wait until the end of the semester because he used them to study.
To illustrate, he had me go back to a drawing
from the previous week and show it to him. Looking at the drawing he was able
to accurately remember what the class had been about and the important
points.
Name that tune
Another non-traditional memory tool is music.
I was taught to study in silence, and it works for me, but there are people who
relate memories to music. They can hear a tune and remember exactly what they
were doing the last time they heard it. Therefore, if they deliberately play a
tune while receiving information, they will be able to hum that tune to
retrieve the information.
If we have such a useful tool at our disposal,
we owe it to ourselves to identify and utilize it to help us gain control of
our time and energy.
What’s that smell?
Smell is the sense most closely tied to
memory. We’ve all had the experience of being transported in time by a smell. I
refused to eat in Subway Restaurants for years because the smell took me back
to my middle school lunchroom, not a pleasant memory.
To use smell deliberately for memory, wear a
fragrance while being exposed to information and again when you need to recall
it.
Art, music, and fragrance are memory tools
that work better for some than others, so it is important to experiment with
these different techniques to see which work for you in different situations.
Strings and things
Although I’ve never actually tied a string
around my finger, I do use a similar method a.k.a., the “neurobic method” for
remembering tasks and appointments. By switching a ring to another finger or
changing my watch to the other wrist, I create a mild irritant that will keep
my attention tuned to the task at hand.
This works best for keeping appointments and
other single-occurrence events. Think of it as setting a physical reminder,
just as you might set an electronic reminder on your phone, breaking dependence
on electronics while focusing your time and energy.
How to listen without forgetting
Engagement exercise
1:
Look at a newspaper
or magazine. Where does your eye land first, photo or text?
·
Going to the photo first, it indicates visual processing.
·
Going immediately to the text indicates textual processing.
·
Preferring podcasts or audiobooks instead of reading indicates
auditory processing.
·
Preferring to stay busy instead of reading indicates kinetic
tendencies (hands-on learning).
· Being drawn to the same space for similar reading/viewing experiences indicates a preference for spatial learning.
Engagement exercise
2:
Choose a random phone number or address and take note of it.
·
Try to recall it 20 minutes later. If you can’t, check it.
·
In two hours, try to recall it. If you can’t, check it.
·
Six hours later try to recall it again. If you can’t, check it.
·
Try to recall it again before bed. If you can’t, check it one last
time, and
·
Then get a good night’s sleep.
· Evaluate your results first thing the next morning.
Engagement exercise
3:
Consider this course your safe space and systematically test these different
methods of learning, not only to determine which is dominant, but to see if
there are others that you might utilize as well.
For instance:
·
One day, read while listening to music. Later, play the same tune
again and see if the information springs to mind.
·
Another day, try inhaling a scent while reading. Later, inhale the
scent and see how much of the information you remember.
·
Another day, listen to a podcast while drawing (anything, the
artwork is not the point). Later, look at the drawing and see what you remember
about the podcast.
Evaluate the experiences to determine your
dominant learning style as well as which non-dominant styles you may be able to
incorporate.
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Sources and resources:
Video: School House Rock- Playlist – Auditory and Visual Learning
Video: Nancy D. Chiaravalloti- Techniques to Enhance Learning and Memory
Video: Gadget Geeks- 10 Tips and Tricks to Improve Memory
Video: Marie Forleo- Interview with Elizabeth Gilbert
Book Memory Tips and Tricks by Kevin Pierce
Book: The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas
Book: The Surprising Truth About How We Learn by Benedict Carey
Website: Teach.com- All Students are Created Equally and Differently
Website: EducationPlanner.org- Learning Style Quiz
Website: AmericanExpress.com- 7 Tricks to Help Remember Anything
Website: Time.com- 7 Tricks to Improve Your Memory
This has been an excerpt from the Everyday Vacay e-series.
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