As we grow older natural changes happen in our memory capabilities. Experts in the Education and Health department of the Health Services recommend external measures for memory improving and some basic rules to improve memory function. An important principle that helps memory is placing objects in specific permanent places. For example:

1. Using a Key Rack for placing keys in a single known place.
2. Using a Basket/Bowl/Drawer for keeping personal items, such as wallet, mobile, keys and other objects of daily use which tend to disappear.
3. Placing Sticky Notes in obvious locations, such as the front door/refrigerator, to remind of an action that needs to be done at certain time.
4. Using a Message Board for bills that need to be paid, shopping lists, errands and appointments.
5. Keeping bills and paper work organized in a Folder divided by categories.
6. Using reminders such as Alarm Clock, Timer, Diary and Electronic Reminders will help in remembering to perform tasks such as turning off the water heater or the stove.
7. Using a Pill Box for a weekly or daily prescription-refill will help in consuming the right amount of medicine regularly.
8. Preparing an organized List of Priorities categorized by topics or by urgency, using different colored markers and pens will emphasize the main things to remember and put those into order.
9. Assembling a Phone List of relatives and friends in big readable letters, enlisting also important phone numbers such as 911, the fire department, the family doctor, taxi services etc.
10. Brain Training as a routine can greatly help in improving memory skills and the performance of everyday tasks. Try MIND360′s Memory trainers now.

Did you ever feel that you remember the material for the test better after taking it? You were probably right!

After taking a memory test, we know what we remember, but the test itself also enhances later retention. This phenomenon is also known as “the testing effect”

In a research by Henry L. Roediger, III, and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, of the Washington University in St. Louis, this effect was examined with educational materials.

Two groups of students were requested to learn some material, and one of the groups took free recall tests.

The retention of was tested 5 min, 2 days, or 1 week after the free-recall tests. When the final test was given after 5 min, repeated studying improved recall relative to repeated testing. However, on the delayed tests, prior testing produced substantially greater retention than studying, even though repeated studying increased students’ confidence in their ability to remember the material.

The importance of taking a test is now proven as a tool to improve learning. Simultating tests can actually help in later retention of the learned subject.

Amazing!

Read the full article here

Mind360 is proud to announce our new initiative, ADHD Therapy by ADHDtherapy360.com. Our new site is coming soon but in the meantime; we have created a Facebook Page as a source of timely news and resources for children and parents of those living with ADHD. The Facebook Page is there to serve as a forum for those who care for someone with ADHD.

Our team of psychologist has been working hard to develop cognitive brainer trainers and online attention performance test based on scientific studies. Each brain trainer is designed to focus on four types of attention: sustained, selective, orienting and executive. The trainers are fun, colorful and engaging for all ages.

While are staff is anxiously preparing to officially launch our site, we enourage you to join our Facebook Page and join in on the buzz!

Click here to watch a video of our new site!

Mind360 is proud to announce our new initiative, ADHD Therapy by ADHDtherapy360.com. Our new site is coming soon but in the meantime; we have created a Facebook Page as a source of timely news and resources for children and parents of those living with ADHD. The Facebook Page is there to serve as a forum for those who care for someone with ADHD.

Our team of psychologist has been working hard to develop cognitive brainer trainers and online attention performance test based on scientific studies. Each brain trainer is designed to focus on four types of attention: sustained, selective, orienting and executive. The trainers are fun, colorful and engaging for all ages.

While are staff is anxiously preparing to officially launch our site, we enourage you to join our Facebook Page and join in on the buzz!

Click here to watch a video of our new site!

An international group of researchers used Google’s computer time lent to trace every possible set of moves to solve a Rubik’s Cube™, and proved that solution is possible within twenty steps or less.

The research aimed to find out the minimal number of step required to bring a scrambled Rubik’s Cube™ back to its original position. “Each person trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube™ uses some kind of algorithm, which is a sequence of moves to solve the riddle”, said the study group composed of mathematicians, engineers and programmers.

“There are various kinds of algorithms, with different levels of complexity and numbers of moves to solve a Rubik’s Cube™, but the average algorithm the human brain can remember involves more than 40 steps. Solving this type of brain teasers require focus, memory and concept formation skills.

The algorithm which uses the shortest sequence is known as God’s Algorithm, because it offers the most efficient solution for the cube. The number of steps required for this algorithm is called “God’s Number” and we have found that number is twenty.”

Read full article here

Photo by: graur razvan ionut

A new research, lead by 2 scientists from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has found that contrary to the 19th century perception of the brain working as “top down” company, the brain works in a structure that resembles vast networks such as the internet.

The study shed light on a small number of the myriad structural connections existing even in a small mammal’s brain. But by relating one mapped area with another, a greater picture could be revealed and a full map of the nervous system could be created.

Read full article here
Photo by: renjith krishnan

The research group of Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging has found that bilinguals perform executive functions tasks faster and more efficiently.

The research was conducted by scientists along with voluntary students of two extreme groups. On the one hand, young people who had learned both Catalan and Spanish at an early age and on the other, young Spanish monolinguals.

The findings of the study are ground-breaking in showing an unknown advantage of bilingualism, which stretches beyond linguistic benefits, and they also show bilinguals tend to respond more effectively to certain stimuli,” explains researcher Cesar Avila, who guarantees the research shows that bilingualism both effects the brain at a linguistic level, and emphasizes the importance of introducing languages at an early age for enhancing cognitive skills.

The conclusions of the research indicate that being bilingual provides constant brain exercise to the frontal lobes, the area of the brain right behind the fore¬head that controls attention, helps us ignore distractions, and make decisions.

Read full article here

Dr. John Docherty is a Professor of Psychiatry, a Director of Post Graduate Education, and Chief Medical Officer of Brain Resource, all at the Weill Medical College, Cornell University. Dr. Docherty has vast knowledge in applying innovation in both clinical operations and managed health care. Dr Docherty has received numerous honors and awards and has authored over 100 scientific publications.
The main theme of Dr. John Docherty’s work is “How do we put knowledge into effective use to improve mental health?”

Read this interview with the acclaimed Dr. John Docherty about how the convergence of scientific findings and technology platforms and tools determines how as a society and as individuals we will take care of cognition and mental wellness along through our living years, while encouraging the growth of digital brain health and fitness market, and the science of knowledge transfer.

Read full article here
Photo by: graur razvan ionut

Prof. Yadin Dudai from the Weizman Institute in Israel breaks the boundaries of memory. He has already succeeded in erasing memories and can play around with the emotions they evoke. He examines children and knows they remember things differently to their parents. He looks at his computer and knows that one day he will able to connect it to his brain and download his memories. For the past is merely raw material. The key destination of our memory is actually in the future.

Is Memory the peak of brain activity?
All of the main brain activities involve memory. From writing poetry to watching a movie, falling in love or enjoying a walk. I think one of the implications of memory – being able to imagine – is the peak of brain activity.

“It is not necessarily a good thing to enhance memory. People who suffer from over-remembering find it hard to generalize. Nature makes us forget certain details so we can see the wood from the trees.”
Dudai admits that “most people who had their memory injured would be happy to improve it, but the laboratory currently focuses on memory-erasing. “We are interested in erasing emotionally painful memories which come up in cases of post-trauma (abuse, sexual assault, accident, war). These memories come up so powerfully, they make the person relive the experience so intensely, that it feels like going back to the primal experience.

“To be more accurate, we are not trying to erase the memory, but the emotion that accompanies it. I would like to remove the terror of a war victim every time they hear a door slammed, without erasing the memory of the combat. Since the discovery we have moved forward in understanding the mechanism and sensitivity of the memorial system.

“I believe that in the future our brains will interface directly with information technologies. It is already happening to a certain extent – when you are using a smart phone with an enhanced reality application. The brain is not directly connected to the system but apparently that is soon to come.”

Will it be like “The Matrix”, we can stop learning and simply download all the information into our brain?
“I do not think that will be possible, but I do believe in memorizing. Learning requires an information basis. It can change our learning process – schools will have to explain how use information and how to raise it to the surface, rather than teaching it.”

Computers make us remember more and less
“Technology is not only the future of memory. It also changes it significantly in the present. That is mainly relevant to working memory – a part of short-term memory enabling us to perform tasks Ad hoc. Working memory is comprised of a limited number of information units, therefore if you are distracted in the middle of performing a task, your performance will be compromised.”

How does multitasking affect working memory?
“Today there is no point in remembering phone numbers, addresses and dates. How will that affect us? I think some of our memory systems will experience less workload and others will have to face more demands. The workload of factual memory, for example, has indeed lessened as we Google the facts we once had to remember. However, the need to quickly adapt to procedures increased the workload on automatic memory – which enables us to perform tasks without thinking. If I, for instance, come into a new work place, where I have to use a new computer system which I have never worked before, it will put my memory under a lot of strain. Our children must be superb in learning and quickly implementing procedures of that kind. Who ever claims that computers are destroying our kids’ brains are mistaken. The computer simply gives them a work environment where demands of the neuro-system and cognition are different. They are less needed to know facts, but to quickly trace them and adapt to new work procedures which are constantly updated.

Working memory also suffers a lot of pressure nowadays. We become excellent in multi-tasking, especially children. It is wrong to think that is creates Attention Disorders. They just use their system’s capacity to do many things simultaneously, which put a lot of strain on working memory.”

They say Napoleon could perform seven tasks at once and that it indicates genius. Are we becoming smarter thanks to multi-tasking?
“I would say we are becoming more skilled. Assuming you succeed in performing a task, multi-tasking helps accomplishing assignments demanded by modern society. Even the most trivial demands have changed: Reading the signs in a train station while speaking on the phone is something people were not faced with 50 years ago.”

What is the capacity of human memory?
“It is very hard to evaluate. There are numerous studies and a lot of controversy about it. Estimations vary from a few thousands memory items to a few millions. Apparently experiential recollection is much smaller than we imagine, and it consists of only few thousands of experiences. The rest of the information is completed by us.”