A Quick “How To” Guide for your Brain!

What is it that we REALLY SEE?

Are squares A and B the same shade of gray?

ADELSON’S CHECKERED SHADOW ILLUSION

Yes!

ADELSON’S CHECKERED SHADOW ILLUSION

Our brains consist of about 3.5

pounds of material that makes up one

of the most complex, unique,

unbelievable organ on the face of the

Earth!

What methods can we use to

memorize facts effectively and why bother?

We will look at three ideas.

• Chunking

• Primacy and Recency

• Long term and short term or (working) memory.

Try to memorize these letters!

CIAFBINASA

Kind of hard? This time think “Government Agencies”

CIAFBINASA

Chunking

• A typical short term memory span is 3-5 items.

• If you have MORE than 3-5 items, arrange the items into Chunks that make sense to you.

• FBI, CIA, and NASA is easier to remember than F,B,I,C,I,A,N,A,S,A.

Primacy and Recency

• People tend to get the beginning items (primacy) and end items (recency) but do not do well with the middle items.

• Solution?

• Mix up the lists when you memorize!

How do we get stuff from short to long term memory?

• Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!!

• Mix them up and WRITE them down (simulate test conditions).