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How to get your brain geared up to remember.
Ever struggled to recall something you knew you ought to remember? Part of the problem might be that your brain just wasn’t ready to store the memory in the first place.
Read more here
Posted by Michael Hopkin on February 26, 2006 05:32 PM | Permalink
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“First to learn, last to forget” It says it all. The more significant –especially to vital basic instincts- the experience is, the deeper ingrained in memory. Why would the brain care to remember if it doesn’t care? Stands to reason from an anthropological point of view; so, that we should remember best what is most meaningful is a foregone conclusion, to be expected whether as the result of evolution or Intelligent Design, by definition of both. And it comes to show that indeed, sound reasoning can spare many an experiment.
Posted by: Francisco J. Garcia-Julve | February 27, 2006 02:54 PM
A focus on randomly and non-randomly sequenced symbols/words to emphasise the importance of meaning is worthwhile effort. However, it does not go far enough since we do not live in chaotic world. Learning is always a combination of unlearning to establish a relationship with similar, previous experiences that carry a meaning and reorganising our knowledge (learning). (More on my web-site.)
Sincerely,
Damir Ibrisimovic
Posted by: Damir Ibrisimovic | February 27, 2006 11:39 PM
Do we really need scientific evidence to what (at least to me) seems so obvious? Perhaps pointing out how this study might affect people's lives, especially those suffering from chronic memory loss, would make this article more appealing.
Posted by: Daniel Botelho | February 28, 2006 03:14 PM
this is a great discovery
Posted by: marijke smijtink | February 28, 2006 04:11 PM
This is what I've been telling my students in math and science. If you concentrate on what the concepts and words mean you will remember more and for longer rather than just trying to learn by rote.
Posted by: Kenneth Scott | February 28, 2006 07:13 PM
The article says meaning makes memory.
Actually, since meaning is emotional, then, emotion makes meaning makes memory. Things have meaning when we have a sense about them, a feeling. We may not really understand the thing at all. The emotional mid-brain ties things together to make memories. Intellectually understanding something perfectly but without emotion, it has no personal meaning, and makes no memory. Therefore, I may forever remember an interesting inkblot, but forget a phone number.
Posted by: Robert Swanson | February 28, 2006 08:02 PM
A memory enhancement technique recommends associating outrageously unrelated items with the item to be remembered, for example to remember an airplane, think about a tree with hundreds of airplanes hanging from branches. Are there any studies comparing the "meaning method" with other popular memory retrieval techniques?
Posted by: Bill W. | February 28, 2006 08:11 PM
This reminds me of the methods used in classical (greek/roman) memory training, and the "memory palaces" books. Linking information to symbols, in conjunction with a strong emotional context (humor, jest etc.) was the system that seems to be most widely used. It would be nice to see if emotional affect has any implications for storage/recall of content as a follow-up to this work.
Posted by: john lebourgeois | February 28, 2006 09:11 PM
What professor Otten of UCL says seems to be very true. As a mature student who has just graduated from UCL, the information for which I was ready, such as lecture reading materials etc. would register more profoundly in my memory, while the casual things said or seen would not. In effect it seems you program your brain to be ready and the information goes to a more perment level of memory than otherwise.
Posted by: sophia Moshir | February 28, 2006 10:06 PM
I completely agree with this postulate. It's far better to understand the meaning than recall the events. Simply, it's the way children need to learn how to write, read, etc.
Posted by: jorge peralta | February 28, 2006 10:57 PM
like in immune system - different system, same experiment!
Posted by: kumpir | March 1, 2006 02:04 AM
believing what the study sais, I belive that's not all. To me, there are certain themes on where is absolutely dificult to remind things, while in others I have no dificulties. I belive that the matter is also relevant.
Posted by: Alberto Ugalde | March 1, 2006 05:36 PM
Could this be just a limited-resources issue? The alphabetized first-last letter test may be more demanding than the meaning test, and performance on the former may be aided by ignoring the semantic content. The author's advice for memory priming is certainly sound, though not so directly supported by the data, in my opinion. The more substantiated but less appealing advice would be, "Don't intentionally ignore meaning if you are trying to remember something or if you suspect that you may be subjected to a surprise memory test." I do think, though, that the report would be a good addition to the working memory literature.
Posted by: Greg | March 2, 2006 02:15 AM