Ready To Smoke A Telephone?

The bizarre is easier to remember

How well did you do in last week’s test? 

You were given 10 unassociated items to remember sequentially: 
1) carpet, 2) paper 3) tumbler 4) bed 5) fish 6) chair 7) telephone 8) cigarette 9) keyboard and 10) shoe.
 
A score of 5 or more would be a good one. If you scored less, or want to score a 10, try the Link Method, which boils down to associating the first item with the second, the second to the third, and so on. Make your association as ridiculous, absurd and illogical as possible and most importantly, see the pictures in your mind’s eye.

Now let’s create some ridiculous images to link these items.

Create a picture of (1) a carpet, in your mind. Any carpet, perhaps one from your own home. Then link it to (2) paper. Perhaps you could picture a carpet made of paper. See yourself walking on it and hear the paper crinkle underfoot. (A piece of paper lying on a carpet is not ridiculous enough; you will not remember it.)

Now link paper to (3) tumbler. Perhaps you see yourself sitting inside a giant tumbler or see it pouring paper instead of water. Pick whichever seems most ridiculous to you. Remember, you must see the picture.

Next, make an association between tumbler and (4) bed. A tumbler lying on a bed would be too logical. So picture yourself sleeping inside the large tumbler instead of the bed, or perhaps the bed balanced on top of the giant tumbler.

Then you could see a giant (5) fish sleeping in your bed or a bed made of a giant fish. Then the gigantic fish sitting on a (6) chair. And you sitting on the dialing keys of a huge (7) telephone. Perhaps you”re smoking a telephone instead of a (8) cigarette? Or smoking a (9) shoe? Or stubbing out a lit cigarette into a shoe-shaped ash-tray? And finally, see yourself wearing (10) keyboards instead of (9) shoes or a large shoe with keys, on which you are typing.

That’s it. If you have actually ‘seen’ these mental pictures in your mind’s eye, then you will have no trouble remembering the 10 items in sequence.

Since we”re brought up to think logically and I”m asking you to think illogically, you might find it difficult at first. But after some practice, you will have no problem at all in creating ridiculous pictures.
 
Some Simple Rules

• Visualise items out of proportion, very large, even gigantic.
• Whenever possible, picture items in action. Unfortunately we remember violent and embarrassing events better than the pleasant ones. Anyone who has been in an accident or been acutely embarrassed doesn’t need memory training to recall the experience. So try to get violent or shocking action into your images.
• Exaggerate the amount of items, like millions of cigarettes flying out of the telephone. If you had also seen them lit and burning your face you would have had both action and exaggeration.
• Switch your items, simply picturing one item instead of another i.e. smoking a shoe instead of a cigarette.

What you have memorised will be easily retrievable for hours or days. You will also be able to recall the list backwards with no extra effort.

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Thought for the Week

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us”
Oscar Wilde
Irish Playwright
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Mind, Body & Memory

While stress poses the biggest threat to our capacity, 
to improve memory, proper sleep can do wonders

I trust you’ve been practising mnemonics,  the simple memorisation technique I talked about last time.
 
Today, let’s talk about the mind-body connection. When you start having problems with your ability to memorise, there is usually something wrong with your lifestyle that affects the body, and as a result, the mind. Anything that prevents the mind from working to its full potential causes memory issues such as difficulty with concentration, picking up key points or even the ability to understand and focus on a subject.

That’s why it is important to have a healthy lifestyle. Eat less fats and consume more foods rich in vitamins and minerals (especially betcarotene), drink plenty of water, get enough sleep, engage in cardiovascular exercises, and relax. Your mind will benefit as much as your body.

Perhaps the greatest threat to our capacity to improve memory is stress. When you”re suffering from any kind of stress, your system releases high levels of cortisol into your bloodstream. Cortisol has the effect of destroying glucose, and glucose is, quite simply, the brain’s only source of food. So if your brain is not getting the nutrients it needs, it will not function well.

Sleep also plays an active role in the consolidation and storage of memories and improves the brain’s ability to retrieve information. When researchers at Harvard Medical School studied the influence of sleep on memory in healthy adults, they found that participants who slept between learning and testing had the highest rates of word recall. While it’s a good idea to aim for seven to nine hours of sleep each night, napping is also beneficial in terms of enhancing memory. These are now being referred to as “power naps”. 

As for physical exercise, the human brain requires a proper supply of oxygen and blood flow and an active body generates an active mind. When the body is engaged in an activity, the blood circulation keeps up a regular pace and this allows proper blood flow towards the brain. This explains why after a good exercise routine, you feel refreshed. Walk around your neighborhood every day for at least 15 minutes. Keep in mind the details you see, the faces and names of the people you meet, the names of the streets, etc. This trains your brain to be active.

Now back to mnemonics. They allow your mind to wander about and your imagination plays a big part in getting your memorising tasks done for you. Visual learners benefit greatly from using memorisation techniques that use imagination and creativity. 

Do you remember PM BOAT from my last column? Funny scenarios become very vivid in your mind resulting in a clear memory recall. If you create an outrageous story from a list of non-related items (like that below) and the list will stick in your head. With memory techniques, you encourage your mind to be creative while utilising your memory skills. They have less to do with intelligence and more to do with practice.

PRACTICE EXERCISE
Last time you learnt a technique to remember a few items, but not in sequence. This time there is a list of 10 unassociated items. Go through the list just once, slowly if need be, and try to write it down in sequence. Remember, no cheating.

1. carpet 
2. paper 
3. tumbler 
4. bed 
5. fish 
6. chair 
   
7. telephone 
8. cigarette 
9. keyboard and 
10. shoe

If you are able to recall upto any 5 items in sequence, give yourself a pat on the back. Most of us will recall the first 2-3 items and the last 2-3 items since we tend to focus more on them. Those in-between get lost. Next week, we will examine techniques you can use to advance to a level of remembering any sequence of items with mnemonics.

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Thought for the Week

“It’s surprising how much of memory, 
is built around things unnoticed at the time”
Barbara Kingsolver
American writer and poet
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Memory Card

With exam fever building up, Ankur Gupta kicks off a series on
understanding how memory works - and improving it

Whenever you read a book or have a conversation, the experience causes physical changes in your brain. It may be a little scary, but every time you walk away from an encounter, your brain has been altered, sometimes permanently.

Learning is life-long. But if you’re done with learning and you think that at your stage right now you don’t need to learn at all; well, you’re wrong. Our brain never stops working and fact is that it doesn’t delete anything. Each time we absorb new information, the brain continues to store it even if we’re not consciously aware that it has.

So many people, regardless of age, sex, or stature write to me talking about their memory problems.Memory loss can hit any one at any time; forgetfulness is perfectly normal. After all, it would be inefficient for your conscious brain to retain every fact and figure you’ve ever learned throughout your life.

Brain research is now uncovering how our everyday habits - what we eat, the pills we take, how we rest, and even our confidence levels have a big impact on our brain. And some of the newest strategies which will be covered in this series will help you to keep your memory sharp and agile
Remember memory is like a muscle. The more it is used, the better it gets; the more it is neglected, the worse it becomes.

So mental exercise is just as important as physical exercise for memory improvement. Acquiring a new skill, whether it’s learning a second language or taking up a new hobby, helps boost the brain’s ability to learn and remember by improving cell-to-cell (or neuron) communication.

Research conducted over a 40-year period by the University of Illinois has shown a strong, positive association between lifelong physical activity and cognitive function. Physical activity is thought to improve cognitive function by enhancing the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain. It also helps offset the negative effects of stress hormones, which are known to impair the ability to concentrate, learn, and remember. Exercise is beneficial at any age, and it’s never too late to start.

The much maligned rote learning or memorization is a surprisingly effective way to combat age-related memory loss. Researchers at the University College in Dublin recently found that elders who engaged in an intensive period of rote learning followed by an equally long period of rest showed significant improvements in memory and verbal recall.

TRY THIS EXERCISE
Do you have a list you have to remember quickly? Take the first letters of each item and form an acronym (a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words e.g. Member of Parliament is MP). Let’s say you have to remember to send birthday cards to Manasi, Shivam, Aarti, Tulika and Indira. Yes, their first initials form the word MSATI, which does not mean anything but with a little tweaking you get MASTI. All of us like MASTI or fun, so that’s a fun easy way to remember the five names.

Or if you are going grocery shopping Milk, Bread, Onions, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Apples = MBOTPA. 

Tough? Try rearranging them - you’ve got MP-BOAT. Think of our Prime Minister jumping out of a boat to shake hands with you. Silly? Yes. But the sillier the better when it comes to remembering things. Even if you don’’t have enough letters to form a word - try to find one that comes close. PROMPT for PRMT, FAULT for FLT and so on.

You already know the items you have to remember. What you are trying to do is create a reminder - once your memory is jogged, the words will come back. When you are devising the acronym, remember to picture the items visually in your head, because visualization is a strong memory technique. This one’s known as mnemonics.

The puzzles page in most tabloids offer you an opportunity to exercise these skills. Keep practising this technique until next week when I shall present even more tips and techniques.

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Thought for the Week

“Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, 
the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”
Kevin Arnold
Protagonist of the television serial : The Wonder Years
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Do Women Have More Background Noise?

It’s question hour this week

The spate of questions continues unabated and I consider myself privileged indeed. The very intention of Open Mind is to stimulate your latent thought processes. May I, however, request my readers to make their questions very specific. It is difficult to respond to questions like: Tell me more about meditation or Please elaborate on reducing negative thoughts. Several readers are also sharing very personal problems and seeking solutions that are better addressed by a practising counselor.

Meanwhile, I trust some of the questions and answers below will be of wider interest.

Anuj Malhotra: 
In today’s fast paced life, we tend to do a lot of multi-tasking or parallel processing. Does this affect our mind in any way? I, for one, find it really difficult to concentrate on a subject when I have multiple priorities on my mind.

Ankur Gupta: 
Your question is the one uppermost in the minds of most committed professionals. Our brain has an unlimited capacity for parallel, divergent, convergent, random multi-processing or multi-tasking. The trick lies, first in awareness, and then in giving each task enough practice to make it a near-automatic reflex.

Let me explain with a simple example: Remember the time you learnt to first drive a car? The tremendous confusion you felt juggling between the accelerator, brake and clutch, the circular movement of your hand and the coordination with your feet? How you were so tense even though you knew your instructor had a parallel set of controls? Then you slowly learnt to coordinate, control and drive, but your body language still showed some tension. Now, it all comes automatically and you can drive, listen to music and watch the world go by simultaneously.

Dr Chandra Sekar: 
Is there a difference in the number of thoughts men and women have? And do men use their thinking more efficiently ? It seems to me (and probably to other men) women complain about the same thing repeatedly when you know there is no solution! In other words, do women have more background noise in their minds than men?

Ankur Gupta: 
May I take the simple way out and refer you to Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray, offering many suggestions for improving husband-wife relationships by understanding the communication style and emotional needs of the opposite gender. Or perhaps you and your spouse could initiate a study in this context using fMRI or brain mapping.
But I could tell you an uneducated or rural individual would have fewer thoughts than his educated or urban counterpart.

Rashmi Marwah: 
How do I improve the retrieval power of the mind? I am a law student and while I understand everything I read, I”m just not able to connect different sections that I study. Sometimes I read the important points two or three times but I am not able to recollect them during the exam.
Ankur Gupta: You have a very interesting question that will be of interest to practically all our readers. I shall dedicate a full column to this.

Finally, Satish Modh 
observes that our intellect dissipates its energy through thoughts. As long as we are alive, every incident, movement and activity of the sense organs is going to trigger a train of thoughts. Therefore the purpose of concentration is to focus on one thought and the purpose of meditation is to dump the body, mind and intellect all together.

Ankur Gupta: 
Satish, you’ve hit the core of Mind Management. Allowing ourselves to choose in the first place and then exercise those choices is a fun life-game that we must all be comfortable with.

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Thought for the Week

“The mind is its own place, and in itself,
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
John Milton (1608-1674), Paradise Lost
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times