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| All images courtesy of Brain Games. (Crowell, "Remember This!", 2011) |
The
episode included a gentleman named Ron White whom engaged in competitive memory
task and several times throughout the show he took on challenges where he was
required to remember a series of items. After each challenge, he would explain
his strategy for remembering the concepts and his techniques frequently
overlapped with the guidelines for sharing information that Professor De Young
presented in class. The first task was to memorize the serial numbers of three-dollar
bills he obtained and for this he said he created a mental map equating each
number with a picture. For instance, he thought of a cat when the number was
nine because cat’s supposedly have nine lives. He would then mentally arrange
the collection of images in a conceptual space which he called his house. When
recalling the numbers, he would just take a journey through his house and see
what objects he would encounter. This strategy seemed to fit with Professor De
Young’s point concerning concrete examples specifically visual imagery. A
series of numbers was more easily recalled when each number could be
represented by a relatable real world entity.
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| (Crowell, "Remember This!", 2011) |
In a second
task, Ron was required to remember a series of everyday objects. He approached
this challenge by creating a narrative in which all the objects were used
allowing for easier recollection later by reviewing his narrative. Case in
point three of the items listed were a hat, umbrella, and gift and considering
the show’s setting in New York City, Ron imagined a young man leaving the
subway with an umbrella in his hand, a hat on, and a gift under his arm which
he intended to give to a female friend he would meet later on. This strategy
exemplified one of the more emphasized points from lecture in that stories are
a quite effective means of sharing information in that they make concepts more
palpable for the audience.
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| (Crowell, "Remember This!", 2011) |
The final task for Mr. White was to memorize a small deck of
cards. His strategy in this instance was a combination of those seen in the
first two task as he formulated a picture for each card, organized those
pictures into a holistic narrative, and then imagined this narrative taking
place in “his house”. This method advocated for a multi-layered approach to
taking on the guidelines for sharing information. The episode of Brain Games as
well as Professor De Young’s lecture prompted a question in my mind about the
presentation of material as an expert in a certain field. Specifically, what
real world presentation methods lend themselves best to the principles outlined
for sharing information (I.e. PowerPoint, virtual reality, audio recordings,
Prezi, publications, etc.)? What do you guys think? And does the episode raise
any other questions or concepts?
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| (Crowell, "Remember This!", 2011) |
PS: I definitely recommend the episode if you are interested
in memory as it relates to recalling the story of the crime in court cases as this is a topic
touched upon as well.
Sources:
Crowell, J. (Writer). (2011, October 09). Remember This! [Television series episode]. In Brain Games. National Geographic.
Very interesting post, definitely applicable to memory and presenting information.
ReplyDeleteIn reading this, it occurred to me that I was never taught these strategies for memorization in school, and yet, so much of our education requires rote memorization. Moreover, I think about the severe educational disparities that we see in this country. Could some of these disparities be overcome simply by giving students simple techniques in understanding and memorizing concepts? Also, are there ways of incorporating similar memory-building games into our curriculum?
On a similar note, I just completed a take-home test for NRE 509. One of the questions on the test read: "Define the concept, and support this definition with a HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE or an ANALOGY."
When I wrote my answer for this test, I rolled my eyes when I saw that the professor was asking for an analogy. Why was the definition not enough? Now I realize that the professor was purposefully forcing us to put this concept into practice. She effectively used the same process that the participant used above when he thought about the guy wearing the hat and carrying the umbrella and gift. She forced us to build a new way of thinking about the concept and simply by doing this, we will remember the original concept better.
Really interesting example! The first test that Ron did got me thinking about our channel capacity and 5+/- 2 concepts easily retrieved at a time. In class today, Professor De Young emphasized the point that experts have a more robust and complex mental maps of their field of practice that aren't because they are "smarter" per say, but because they have more experience and time spent developing and refining their internal representations and neural pathways. Experts are able to attend to more intricate details while still holding several other concepts at the forefront of their working memory (in this case, I'd say Ron is an expert in memory strategy and thus, has an understanding for how to best record detailed and random information). That being said, three serial numbers for dollar bills really wowed me, especially after looking up just how long they are. A quick google search led me to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (who knew that was a thing?), which states that: Each note of the same denomination has its own serial number. Up through Series 1995, all Federal Reserve notes had serial numbers consisting of one letter, eight digits, and one letter, such as A12345678B; now only the $1 and $2 notes still use this form...Federal Reserve notes, beginning with Series 1996, have two letters rather than one at the beginning of the serial number. (https://www.moneyfactory.gov/resources/serialnumbers.html). So we are talking about 11 numbers per bill and 33 numbers total! Even with a strategy to break down the numbers into corresponding images, I just don't understand how this is possible. But, I suppose I am a novice. I think this is a clear example of how experts posses extreme richness, compactness, and can easily handle abstraction because of their deeply developed mental maps.
ReplyDeleteTo me, every real world presentation methods, multi-functional or lacking as they may be, can be used as effectively as the users allow them. Often, which method to use and how the method should be used for a presentation depend on the context and organization of the information and who the audience is. The principles that were discussed in class can be applied universally to the organization of the information regardless of the methods chosen.
ReplyDeleteFor example, powerpoints are used often for oral presentations. A rule of thumb for creating a powerpoint presentation is to use few but concise text and graphics that are fascinating. However, these graphics may be confusing to the audience or distract them from the presenter if lacking coherence and legibility. Exploration from the audience can be limited if the presenter is not interactive with the audience or if the content of the presentation is too boring (lacking complexity).
On the other hand, crowding a powerpoint with text is considered a bad practice. To present large bodies of text, the preferred or conventional medium is books and journal articles, which have been enjoyed by civilizations everywhere for centuries, and more recently, audio books. However, literature, while lacking visuals when compared to virtual reality or powerpoints, can elicit vivid imagery in the mind of the readers, sometimes in ways more profound than if actual illustrations are provided. However, if lacking coherence, legibility, complexity, or mystery, literature can be ineffective at getting the information across.
The bottom line is no one presentation method is better than another as different information is more compatible with different types of media. Rather, the organization of information is more important in the success of a presentation. Regardless of which method is chosen, professionals can apply the environmental preference theory and other principles related to human information processing to better communicate their knowledge to the world. At the same time, the experts or presenters should not limit themselves to the conventional media for sharing their information.
Your post reminds me of the process of language learning. As international students, we are non-experts in English. Compared to the Chinese language, whose characters are derived from images of natural objects, the English language is more abstractly structured. At the initial stage of learning English, I believe many Chinese students like me have learnt a similar strategy as mentioned in the post, by relating each English word to a Chinese story or object, in terms of both pronunciation and meaning. I found it very useful and long-lasting. Even now when I am encountering those words, I remembered those stories. Just as memory games mentioned above, by connecting to our existing cognitive maps, they enrich the stored information in our brain and the relations between information. This enriched connections then make retrieving the information from memory easier and faster.
ReplyDelete