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  • H&R Moderators: VerbalTruist

Better Memory?

^I have no idea of your history or current chemical regimen, but maybe your brain has gotten so used to ginko that it would take some time with out it before you feel normal again.
As far as cognitive techniques go, they are mainly used to enhance your memory. They basically have to do with learning how one's brain encodes information.

Empirically speaking, tying information to something personal in your life is the easiest way to remember it. For instance, when memorizing a vocabulary list for a foreign language class, writing a paragraph about an event in your own life using the vocab words will ensure the best recall of the words.

Relating new information to knowledge that you already have is the second most effect encryption technique. Taking that same vocab list and using nemonic (sp?) devices is an example. For instance, ventana is spanish for window because a window is like a vent. This isn't relating the new knowledge to something personal but it is relating it to previous knowledge.

Rote repetition is the least effective encryption device. Simply repeating ventana is window, over and over again will encode the information, but not very deeply.

One exception to these rules applies when learning something like a list of random letters or numbers..something that has no real meaning. In this case, rote repetition is the best encryption device.

hope this helps :)
 
I don't care how much you deny it, it's totally the pot. I mean I smoked for a good year straight, it took me another 6 months at least to get my memory back. Pot destroys your memory.
 
fuck i smoked pot religously for 5 years i didn't work i just smoked pot at least 1.5-2 grams daily and up to like 14grams. i have stopped smoking now and my memory is still fucked but slowly getting better its been about 7 months or so
 
>>One exception to these rules applies when learning something like a list of random letters or numbers..something that has no real meaning. In this case, rote repetition is the best encryption device.>>

Not really. It is in these sort of situations that creating pnemonic devices is especially key. For example, a particular case-study showed that, with ample training, a single individual was able to increase his digit span from 9 to 80 digits (via rapid encoding into LTM) by thinking of the digits as times at a track meet. On the other hand, when is this actually going to come up? I mean, we have paper, pencils, and computers these days.

ebola
 
yes, there are many better ways to learn and recall data than rote learning. In fact, for learning information (as opposed to say a physical discipline) its one of the worst things you can do.

i'd like to try this piracetam stuff. Seems like it would complement all this synergetic thinking very well.
 
>>>>One exception to these rules applies when learning something like a list of random letters or numbers..something that has no real meaning. In this case, rote repetition is the best encryption device.>>

Not really. It is in these sort of situations that creating pnemonic devices is especially key. For example, a particular case-study showed that, with ample training, a single individual was able to increase his digit span from 9 to 80 digits (via rapid encoding into LTM) by thinking of the digits as times at a track meet. >>

Sounds good. My info on rote learning came from my cog psych professor so it may not be completely accurate...
 
Either could work...it sort of depends on the demands that you're placed under for learning something, and how much you have to work with. If you're learning phone numbers or your SSN, chances are it won't work out to be something meaningful to you. You might not know enough finishing times for a mile to make sense of stuff, so you just repeat it over and over to yourself in little chunks.

Incidentally, one of those super-memorist guys was Rajan Mahadevan (for more, see here), I think that's the one you're talking about...he could get up to several 10's of thousands of digits of pi or so by remembering them as running times or something.
 
yes, there are many better ways to learn and recall data than rote learning. In fact, for learning information (as opposed to say a physical discipline) its one of the worst things you can do.
Click to expand...

Could you explain further? Are you saying that "straight" memorization of facts is worse than other methods of building memory?
 
>>Sounds good. My info on rote learning came from my cog psych professor so it may not be completely accurate...>>

LOL...I got my info from a cognitive psych prof at a lab meeting.
:)

>>Incidentally, one of those super-memorist guys was Rajan Mahadevan (for more, see here), I think that's the one you're talking about...>>

Well, not so sure. My person was given random digit strings by his experimenter, and the number I heard was 80 (Michael Anderson, University of Oregon), not tens of thousands. One interesting thing is that the experimenters somehow devised and algorithm to produce a string of digits impervious to being easily encoded as times at a track meet (don't ask me how). When given this sort of string of numbers, the participant could remember only 9 digits (the same number as he could before developing his pnemonic device).

ebola
 
Nice :) I can't imagine what it would have taken to come up with that algorithm....the whole study of expertise in general, and how experts really aren't better than novices outside their area of expertise or their methods of expertise is kind of cool :)
 
Both are much better now, thank you.

I've gone off the desipramine and am just on 100mg provigil and 7.5mg remeron.

But some techniques I've used to build up my memory were: recalling what I did each day in about 5 minutes. Just a brief run through of the activities, not getting stuck on one particular event. I've been studying/reading more and actively trying to remember what I just read. Some memory techniques. Reading liscense plate numbers and just reciting them, having a list of 6 cars or so and saying their #'s over and over.

:)
 
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