1) How minds work when learning
Learning something new means rearranging the way our minds work.
Our brain has an astonishing hundred billion neurons or brain cell all connected together. Learning is about creating and strengthening pathways through theses neurons for impulses of electricity. But between each and every connection in our brains, there is a tiny gap called synapse. For every of us to learn something new, the electrical signal has to jump across this gap to continue its journey. The gap between the two brain cells is tiny, but that doesn’t mean that it is straightforward for a signal to get from one side to the other. For us it’s like crossing a deep ravine. And getting from one side to the other should tell us something about the way we learn. The first time a signal crosses from one brain cell to the other demands the most effort and it is the same when we cross our ravine. The first trip across is the hardest. Having crossed the ravine one the journey’s across get easier and easier and a similar thing happens when we learn something. To start with, learning is difficult. But as the signal crosses the gap between the brain cells again and again, we establish a more solid pathway. By the time we have made the crossing over and over again it becomes effortless. We can do it whenever we like. We finally learn something.
2) How to make it easier to cross the synaptic gap between brain cell
To learn better we need to make it easier to cross the synaptic gap between our brain cells. And scientists believe that for many of us, they have found a surprising way to do just that. Elliot found himself difficult to concentrate and was not struck by lessons. Then he was selected for a scientifically controlled trail run by Oxford University at schools in County Durham. The children chosen were behind in class in some subjects. In the trial the children took six tablets every day. The scientists wanted to see if the tablets could improve the way the children learnt, how well they concentrated and remembered in class. And after only a few weeks parents and teachers began to notice an extraordinary difference. Many of the children in the trial taking the same tablets showed a big improvement in reading, memory and concentration. The results confirm the findings of previous studies. So what is the ingredient in the tablets? It is not a drug, it isn’t a medicine. It is a natural substance found in some oily fish called Omega 3. And it seems to have a simple but extraordinary effect on brains. Omega 3 can help learning by making it easier for the signals to jump the gap between brain cells. And scientists believe Omega 3 can help not only children falling behind in class, but also improve the memory and concentration of many of us.
But learning isn’t just about facts and figures. Our mind also learns to do things.
3) How do we learn to do things? (procedural memory)
Scientists have discovered another rather surprising way in which we learn skills.
Firstly, our mind is introduced to the move. We must concentrate at the beginning. We know nothing and have to fill our mind with the idea of what we are trying to get across and then we have got to get our body to follow our mind. At first we may failed many times. But there’s a learning method called visualization. That is you don’t have to move a muscle. Rather, you’ll rehearse the entire sequence in your brain. We can visualize the scenario we make it, over and over again, at the point where we could to get across.
Visualization does help people when they learn a skill. You can go through it in your brain before you actually have to do it yourself. Scientists have discovered there is a region of the brain that is activated when we imagine a body movement. As we rehearse a movement in our brain, we are actually creating pathways through our brain cells as we were actually doing it all without moving a muscle. It means that when we does perform it for real we should find it easier, because the pathways in our brain are already in place.
With visualization, precise movement can be honed to perfection. It can even help you to master a tricky new dance step. And visualization can do something even more surprising, it can actually strengthen muscles. If you just imagine that you are working out at the gym, scientists believe you can increase muscle strength by up to half as much as if you are actually doing it. According to studies at the University of Lowa, it seems the visualizing brain sends electrical signals to the muscles which makes them stronger, even though your body is stationary. It is a virtual work out.
4) How to memorize more easily?
This is Andi Bell. In 2002 he was crowed World Memory Champion. He can memorize the exact position of every single card in ten whole decks within 20 mins. That’s 520 cards that have been shuffled by us. What’s his secret?
Before he even sits down with a deck of cards, Andi uses his memory technique. He takes a walk round London visiting a series of landmarks in a particular order. Number one might be the houses of Parliament and number two, Westminster Bridge. He walks the route several times to establish it in his mind. But that’s just the first stage, the second is putting his imagination to work.
“When I memorise a deck of cards, I turn each card into a picture and this is a colourful animal or object that I have learnt to associate with that particular card.” Then Andi puts the two stages together. In his mind he imagines walking around London on his route. And when he passes the houses of Parliament he imagines the little bear (highjack club) with the saw and pineapple. Andy creates a journey in his mind with this cast of characters.
“As a child I had conventionally good memory but once you learn a technique like the location method I use it takes everything beyond what you could possibly do naturally.
Scientists have discovered our mind is better at remembering the route between locations than it is at remembering unconnected facts and figures. When we use a simple story to memorise facts, we are creating several pathways to where those memories are formed in the brain. It is as if instead of lining up one set of dominoes, we are setting up several. The reason we often have difficulties in retrieving a memory is because one neural pathway can easily get broken. But by having several different pathways to our memory it means that if one doesn’t manage to reach it another one will. That’s the advantage of the story technique, it creates lots of neural pathways in our brain. Which is every one of us can use this method. By using a story to memorize facts, we all have the potential to perform astonishing feats of memory.
5) How our mind memorize stuff without us realizing it.
What is surprising is that our mind can remember things without us even realizing it. It’s this subconscious memory, or intuition, that can emerge in the most unexpected situations.
There is a part at the front of our brain that is always scanning the world around us without our knowing it, comparing our immediate to our past experience. In Andy’s case ( a fireman that saved him and his colleague’s lives through intuition), it compared the fire in the bingo hall with every fire he had seen before. In a flash without Andy realizing his scanning brain noticed three things that weren’t quite right. Firstly, the colour of the smoke was very orange unlike more fires. Secondly, air was rushing into the building when the doors were opened instead of out, as usual. And finally, there was no sound normally a fire crackles as it burns up oxygen. Andy’s mind had compared these unusual signs with his previous experience of normal fires and sent him a warning signal, a feeling of uneasiness, an intuition.
“It has taken a long time to reflect on the incident, and all these little tiny things tat were happening at the incident, the little snapshots of time and space that we were seeing, I was registering subconsciously gave me the feeling of uneasiness.
Listening to our intuition is a skill that we are all able to use. Scientists believe that intuition is most likely to be right when you have experience of a situation, so just because you can’t explain the feeling doesn’t mean that you should ignore it.
6) How to discover our original ideas?
Out leaning mind possesses another extraordinary talent. It is something which helps define us as humans- the ability to have original thoughts.
Human minds are able to combine different thoughts to create completely new ideas. The combinations sometimes seem limitless. And coming up with original ideas of course is something we do throughout our lives.
If we can cut out some of this background noise, there is a greater chance, we’ll be aware of our “ ah-ha” moments. So the best way to stimulate original thinking is simply to find a way to relax.
有耐心看完我这篇笔记的朋友还不如直接去看那个节目了哈哈，才50分钟不到。
