I spent some more time today listening to Dr. Deak talk about memory and how it works.
Main takeaways:
- Memory should be used sparingly because it is exhausting to the brain and an artificial practice
- Memory can be useful, but teachers should always check themselves when asking students to memorize
Here are my notes from the session:
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on gameplay
- Gameplay depends on the type of game and the purpose of playing it
- can get confusing if you are playing games because it is more fun, not because it is better
- Nintendo DS brain games are well designed by a neurologist
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Sleep interference means the brain will not grow as well as if it was not interfered with
- text messages at night are literally decreasing IQ's
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there are 5-7 things universities/companies are looking for, and we must be looking at
- brain people agree on about 5
- Tony Wagner's survival skills
- Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind
- Howard Gardner's 5 Minds for the Future
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Parent education is an essential part of this
- if you don't train parents they will be scared off and head to other schools
- Teachers who use too much negative emotion or anger in their voice diminishes the learning of girls
Memory
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the brain tries to forget everything as soon as it is done using it unless:
- it is meaningful
- or the brain thinks it needs it to survive
- or you use extraordinary technique
- we teach the brain to memorize
- 1. working (prefrontal cortex) 2. short term 3. long term (hippocampus)
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to convert from working to short term memory, something has to happen
- when using someone's strength (big rubberband) they move it to short term memory easily
- hard part: when do you use a big rubberband and when do you make it use a shorter one?
- if you enter into visual, auditory, and motoric memory, it will have a better chance of retrieval
- when using a small rubberband, increase repetitions
- when stored in long term, the hippocampus knows exactly where to pull it from - orchestrates the answer (might be in many places in the brain)
- how you put something in the brain is the same way it is going to come out - constraining variable
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Keys to memory
- attach emotion to it - make it meaningful
- repetition - depends on the size of rubberband used - inversely proportional
- which rubber bands you use
- mnemonic devices
image by: Jens Langner
