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Memory Science

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Patagoniagirl
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Memory Science

#1

Post by Patagoniagirl »

"There once was a time when humans held everything we knew in our heads. That might sound impossible these days when the internet is at our fingertips, but for millennia, it was our only way of passing on knowledge.

Now, some researchers want to remind us that there is still place for ancient memory techniques to be taught in the modern world. And there is more than one such technique, too.

In ancient Greece and Rome, people would construct mental maps with a technique known as a memory palace or method of loci. As their mind walked from room to room, scholars and clergy were able to recall facts and data they had attached to certain household features, like a rug, a desk, or a window.

Today, this Western technique is still used by medical students to cram an encyclopedia of knowledge into their brains, but a new study suggests an even older memory 'code' used by people from Australia's First Nations could be a an better choice for memorizing copious amounts of information."

https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-an ... 1621573943
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AndyinPA
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Re: Memory Science

#2

Post by AndyinPA »

Thanks for posting that. Interesting.
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Re: Memory Science

#3

Post by Slim Cognito »

Several years back, my memory was so bad I was afraid I had early-onset dementia. I talked to my doctor who asked if I watched the news. I said, yes, but I mostly read it. She told me, every morning after ingesting my morning dose of news, to write my impressions in a journal. I used Facebook, which cost me a lot of friends, but, TBH, they weren't so much friends as people I'd gone to school with and reconnected because I helped plan a reunion.

I still do it to this day*. Yes, it has helped immensely.

Writing my journal and losing "friends."
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RTH10260
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Re: Memory Science

#4

Post by RTH10260 »

Look into the mirror ! Are you intelligent ?
Pupil Size Is a Marker of Intelligence
There is a surprising correlation between baseline pupil size and several measures of cognitive ability

By Jason S. Tsukahara, Alexander P. Burgoyne, Randall W. Engle on June 2, 2021

It has been said that “the eyes are the window to the soul,” but new research suggests that they may be a window to the brain as well.

Our pupils respond to more than just the light. They indicate arousal, interest or mental exhaustion. Pupil dilation is even used by the FBI to detect deception. Now work conducted in our laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that baseline pupil size is closely related to individual differences in intelligence. The larger the pupils, the higher the intelligence, as measured by tests of reasoning, attention and memory. In fact, across three studies, we found that the difference in baseline pupil size between people who scored the highest on the cognitive tests and those who scored the lowest was large enough to be detected by the unaided eye.

We first uncovered this surprising relationship while studying differences in the amount of mental effort people used to complete memory tasks. We used pupil dilations as an indicator of effort, a technique psychologist Daniel Kahneman popularized in the 1960s and 1970s. When we discovered a relationship between baseline pupil size and intelligence, we weren’t sure if it was real or what it meant.

Intrigued, we conducted several large-scale studies in which we recruited more than 500 people aged 18 to 35 from the Atlanta community. We measured participants’ pupil size using an eye tracker, a device that captures the reflection of light off the pupil and cornea using a high-powered camera and computer. We measured participants’ pupils at rest while they stared at a blank computer screen for up to four minutes. All the while, the eye tracker was recording. Using the tracker, we then calculated each participant’s average pupil size.


https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... elligence/
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raison de arizona
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Re: Memory Science

#5

Post by raison de arizona »

Slim Cognito wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 10:33 am Several years back, my memory was so bad I was afraid I had early-onset dementia. I talked to my doctor who asked if I watched the news. I said, yes, but I mostly read it. She told me, every morning after ingesting my morning dose of news, to write my impressions in a journal. I used Facebook, which cost me a lot of friends, but, TBH, they weren't so much friends as people I'd gone to school with and reconnected because I helped plan a reunion.

I still do it to this day*. Yes, it has helped immensely.

Writing my journal and losing "friends."
This is near and dear to me, my memory has become a sieve and I have strong dementia history in my family. I'm not about to jump back on FB :lol: but the journal idea is doable for sure if it could help. I'll have to give it a try, thx! That said, do you think it was more the journal or the FB engagement that helped? Or both?
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Slim Cognito
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Re: Memory Science

#6

Post by Slim Cognito »

It was more the journal - reading, processing and turning information into my own words. The camaraderie was nice, even polite debate, but the doc said it had something to do with forcing your brain to "translate" concepts into your own words, as opposed to, say, sharing a meme or someone else's words. I guess that's why learning a new language is such a great brain builder. Which reminds me, I need to break out Duolingo again. If I could just stick with that, I might be able to almost speak Spanish, other than ordering in a restaurant.
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roadscholar
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Re: Memory Science

#7

Post by roadscholar »

Patagoniagirl wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 9:29 am "There once was a time when humans held everything we knew in our heads. That might sound impossible these days when the internet is at our fingertips, but for millennia, it was our only way of passing on knowledge.

Now, some researchers want to remind us that there is still place for ancient memory techniques to be taught in the modern world. And there is more than one such technique, too.

In ancient Greece and Rome, people would construct mental maps with a technique known as a memory palace or method of loci. As their mind walked from room to room, scholars and clergy were able to recall facts and data they had attached to certain household features, like a rug, a desk, or a window.

Today, this Western technique is still used by medical students to cram an encyclopedia of knowledge into their brains, but a new study suggests an even older memory 'code' used by people from Australia's First Nations could be a an better choice for memorizing copious amounts of information."

https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-an ... 1621573943
This is still used by actors. We "paste" different parts of a long monologue on various places around the house.

There is an example of Shakespeare building this method into one of the speeches, in this case King Henry IV (about King Richard II):

"Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company..."

The first line is directed at the upper seats, the nobility, using Norman-ish terms "lavish" and "presence."
The second at the lower seats, the burghers and propertied commoners.
And last, the groundlings, who were all too familiar with the terms "stale... cheap... vulgar."

This and countless other examples confirm that the author was an actor, i.e. Shakespeare was Shakespeare, not some Earl or Duke who wanted to remain anonymous. What rubbish.
The bitterest truth is more wholesome than the sweetest lie.
Uninformed
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Re: Memory Science

#8

Post by Uninformed »

“'The 80s song that brought my memory back after 10 years'”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-50478524
If you can't lie to yourself, who can you lie to?
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RTH10260
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Re: Memory Science

#9

Post by RTH10260 »

Tapping into the Brain to Help a Paralyzed Man Speak
In a once unimagined accomplishment, electrodes implanted in the man’s brain transmit signals to a computer that displays his words.

By Pam Belluck
July 14, 2021
Updated 5:34 p.m. ET

He has not been able to speak since 2003, when he was paralyzed at age 20 by a severe stroke after a terrible car crash.

Now, in a scientific milestone, researchers have tapped into the speech areas of his brain — allowing him to produce comprehensible words and sentences simply by trying to say them. When the man, known by his nickname, Pancho, tries to speak, electrodes implanted in his brain transmit signals to a computer that displays them on the screen.

His first recognizable sentence, researchers said, was, “My family is outside.”

The achievement, published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, could eventually help many patients with conditions that steal their ability to talk.

“This is farther than we’ve ever imagined we could go,” said Melanie Fried-Oken, a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University, who was not involved in the project.

Three years ago, when Pancho, now 38, agreed to work with neuroscience researchers, they were unsure if his brain had even retained the mechanisms for speech.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/heal ... puter.html
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