Brain

Do you believe in The Magical Number Seven?

Do you believe in The Magical Number Seven? You should! At least where your memory is concerned. Way back, in 1956 the cognitive psychologist, George Miller, published a paper in which he stated that we have limits on our capacity for processing information. Talk about stating the blinkin’ obvious! He [...]

Memory

How do you measure up?

How can you tell if you really know your stuff for the exam? Well, you’ve got to test yourself, obviously. But how many of us do that on limited time we have, when we’d rather spend it actually getting the material into our heads in the first place? On the [...]

Memory

8 facts about memory

1. Forgetting helps you learn! How? Well just imagine if you never forgot anything. How on earth would you sort through all that information to remember where your ‘phone is now for example, given your brain would know all of the places you’d ever left it? Ever? Of course, in [...]

Memory

Long-term memory, short-sighted strategy!

I’m often asked what’s the difference between long-term and short-term memory, but I’m buggered if I can remember! Ha ha! Of course, the clue’s in the question! If you want information to still be there in your head, when you need it later on, you need to turn short-term memory [...]

Emotional intelligence, Learning

Biggest Mistakes – Leaving it all until the 11th hour

One day I had an anxious person on the ‘phone telling me their ITIL exam was next Tuesday and they hadn’t even taken their course manual out of its cellophane wrapping yet. Was there anything I could do to help them? He and I both knew that there was a [...]

Brain, Health

Exercise will improve your memory!

You’re probably aware that exercise is good for you! You’re probably also aware that exercise is good for your brain and will improve your memory. So let’s have a look at the science that demonstrates what happens when you exercise – what specifically helps your brain to stay in tiptop [...]

Brain, Health

Stay hydrated for better memory

When you’re putting a lot of effort into revising and want to do yourself justice in the exams, surely it makes sense to drink enough water, now that we know that sufficient hydration gives us a better memory and mental processing? Some research done by the Institute of Psychiatry in [...]

Brain

Chew Gum to get Better Grades!

Photo by Mary (Mayr) from Southern California Evidence has arrived from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle that people who chew gum throughout tests of both long-term and short-term memory got much better scores than people who didn’t! 75 adults were bombarded by 20 min of memory and attention tests. [...]

Health, Memory

Sleeping for success – memory consolidation

. Sounds good, doesn’t it! Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of slogging away at your revision, napping was the key to better revision! Well it is – sort of! Studies at the University of Tübingen in Germany have shown very convincingly, that sleep plays a very important role in [...]