6/17/2023 0 Comments The memory master method![]() In the study, participants were first asked to memorise pairs of pictures – matching a face to an object or scene – and then allowed to lie back and let their minds wander for a short period. But in line with Dewar’s work, a 2010 study by Lila Davachi at New York University, found that it was not limited to sleep, and similar neural activity occurs during periods of wakeful rest, too. This heightened nocturnal activity may be the reason that we often learn things better just before bed. This was once thought to happen primarily during sleep, with heightened communication between the hippocampus – where memories are first formed – and the cortex, a process that may build and strengthen the new neural connections that are necessary for later recall. It is now well accepted that once memories are initially encoded, they pass through a period of consolidation that cements them in long-term storage. The exact mechanism is still unknown, though some clues come from a growing understanding of memory formation. So it may be safest to avoid any concerted mental effort during our down time. In one study, for instance, participants were asked to imagine a past or future event during their break, which appeared to reduce their later recall of the newly learnt material. “But questionnaires completed at the end of our experiments suggest that most people simply let their minds wander.”Įven then, we should be careful not to exert ourselves too hard as we daydream. “We don’t give them any specific instructions with regards to what they should or shouldn’t do while resting,” Dewar says. In each case, the researchers simply asked the participants to sit in a dim, quiet room, without their mobile phones or similar distractions. The finding suggested that our memory for new information is especially fragile just after it has first been encoded, making it more susceptible to interference from new information.Īlthough a handful of other psychologists occasionally returned to the finding, it was only in the early 2000s that the broader implications of it started to become known, with a pioneering study by Sergio Della Sala at the University of Edinburgh and Nelson Cowan at the University of Missouri. The participants given the break remembered nearly 50% of their list, compared to an average of 28% for the group who had been given no time to recharge their mental batteries. When tested one-and-a-half-hours later, the two groups showed strikingly different patterns of recall. Following a short study period, half the group were immediately given a second list to learn – while the rest were given a six-minute break before continuing. In one of their many experiments on memory consolidation, Muller and Pilzecker first asked their participants to learn a list of meaningless syllables. The remarkable memory-boosting benefits of undisturbed rest were first documented in 1900 by the German psychologist Georg Elias Muller and his student Alfons Pilzecker. The mystery of why you can’t remember being a babyĪn excuse to do nothing may seem like a perfect mnemonic technique for the lazy student, but this discovery may also offer some relief for people with amnesia and some forms of dementia, suggesting new ways to release a latent, previously unrecognised, capacity to learn and remember. ![]() ![]() You really need to give your brain the chance for a complete recharge with no distractions. So no running errands, checking your emails, or surfing the web on your smartphone. Just dim the lights, sit back, and enjoy 10-15 minutes of quiet contemplation, and you’ll find that your memory of the facts you have just learnt is far better than if you had attempted to use that moment more productively.Īlthough it’s already well known that we should pace our studies, new research suggests that we should aim for “minimal interference” during these breaks – deliberately avoiding any activity that could tamper with the delicate task of memory formation. Yet taking the occasional down time – to do literally nothing – may be exactly what you need. When trying to memorise new material, it’s easy to assume that the more work you put in, the better you will perform. This story is featured in BBC Future’s “Best of 2018” collection. ![]()
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