Classical dual coding theory involves simultaneous usage of visual and audio processing of information. It is practiced to improve our long-term memorization and creativity. This is a basic article that concerns any learning activity. I thought I wrote it ages ago, and I then could not find the text. So I will write a new …
Forgetting and relearning
We learn many things. Some things we use repeatedly and remember them even better. Some things become irrelevant, so we need to adapt and relearn them. Other things we simply forget. Do the things we forgot haunt our memories? This post is inspired by this article. The long term memory and the short term memory …
Chinese visualizations vs English mnemonics
Different languages and cultures develop different parts of our brains and personality. For example, Asians are more introvert than Europeans etc. For me, it seems that Chinese is just the opposite of English. Since I do not know Chinese and do not have enough motivation to actually learn it, I rely on experience of other …
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Activities that will make you smarter
You can create your own training routine, improving it with exercises that work for you. These exercises may be highly unconventional. When I was learning, the exercises that worked best for me were memorizing sequences of colored lights and hidden object games – you will not find these games in now official resources. This article …
Making your own story
A good way to generate long-term retention is building a great story. Our autobiographical memory is usually very good, and we remember the stories we own for a long time. This post has been inspired by this, this and this articles. Who should use it? Most of us can remember stories very well. Some of …
Using flash cards
Using regular visualization methods, we can remember something for days, but we will forget the information eventually unless we review the information from variors perspectives or use additional methodology for long-term retention. When we need to remember something for years and years we have several choices. One of the more popular solutions are flash cards. …
Your life as a story: using autobiographic memory
Quite often we can view our life as a story. People often tell that before the clinical death they could see their whole life passing before their eyes. This is the autobiographic memory in action. Autobiographic memory is very important in our life. We can train it, we can use it to remember other things, …
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Long term memory and sleep
One thing that bothers me with long-term memory is the need to review the flashcards or mental palaces or other memory structures. Most memory experts I know use spaced repetitions constantly. Since I use slightly different tools, I use spaced repetitions only for very specific issues, and when I use it I do not like …
Big data and your memory
Computers are getting smarter than humans. There is nothing we can really do about it, we can maybe delay the inevitable… We can also try to use the same ideas that computers are using and get some advantage over other fellow humans. This post has been inspired by this and this articles. Big data and …
Physical switches in our brain
Our brain is a physical object, and its reactions are physical. We may attribute our memories and experiences to some spiritual and intellectual domain, which is perfectly fine. Sometimes, however, it is best to attribute our experiences to misinterpreted physical experiences. For example, if you have a bad gut feeling, it is probably a heartburn …