Expertise is vast amounts of knowledge, pattern-based retrieval, and planning mechanisms acquired over many years of experience in the associated domain.Joshua Foer identifies this term as a memorization technique key to remembering and learning better:
A. Association
B. Linking
C. Chunking
D. Memory Expansionism
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
52 things.
My memory theater consists of the Resident Halls on campus (Hapner, Hannon, Roskie, South, North, Freshman Apartments, and Langford) more specifically outlining my path between each hall. I have been an RA for two years and, unfortunately, these buildings are ingrained into my memory. I have split up my 52 (I memorized one extra as if to atone for presumed error) words into groups, each inhabiting a resident hall or my journey to and from. I use somewhat obscure areas of these buildings to remember the 52 words, sometimes using only the entrance of the buildings in my memory theater. The different word groups are assigned colors that signify a characteristic specific to the hall. Hapner is Pink (all female), Hannon is Orange (the paneling used in the hallway), Roskie is Yellow (Bob Marley color), South is Green (lobby wall color), North is Blue (clean), Freshman Apartments are Red (brick buildings), and Langford is Purple. I choose to designate color-groups because I rely inherently on visualization while recalling information.
52 commonly used words on the LSAT:
As I advance into Hapner I become aggravated (aggregate) because of all the ambiguous posters. There are an ample amount of them hanging on the windows next to the front desk and each in the shape of an apple. This strikes me as an anomaly because no one hangs posters on windows! The posters are dark green and have a picture of T-Rex taking up 3/4th of the frame with a caption below reading “antecedent.” I am so horrified by this I assert (assertion) my opinion to the desk clerk and she replies in a calm voice, “you have been betrayed (betray).”
Furious I storm out of Hapner and walk over to Hannon.
I imagine the outdoor entry into Hannon paved by a half-circle shaped vent (circumvent). While walking across I trip and fall. Laying face down in the entry, I open my eyes to see the grey lines between the rust-colored tiles and concentrate on the small grains of sand that cohere (coherent) together to form the cement. To my surprise the grains of sand start to speak to me and inform me they used to live on the beach but they got in trouble for telling the truth which consequently (consequent) led to their punishment consisting (consistent) of their transformation into concrete. Their punishment was contingent (contingency) on the need for concrete and the correlation between apple-cores acting as counter examples for the Egyptians. The correlation presented seemed very cryptic, but I believed the grains of sand because everyone knows grains of sand don’t lie.
I pick myself up from the floor, dust of my knees and continue on my way to Roskie.
As I approach Roskie I derive the building looks eccentric compared to Hapner and Hannon. I walk into the building and get in the elevator. Above the panel of floor-buttons, some freshman has kindly taken the time to endorse his name followed by a list entailing (entail) his fine attributes. I assumed this young gentleman had written a fake name or a name of his friend, equivocating (equivocate) his own actions. As the elevator doors were closing a young girl slid through the metal doors. Just as she was reaching in front of me to push her floor button she pulled back her hand to cover a sneeze (to eschew her germs all over me). But rather than wipe her hand on her own pant leg she reached over and wiped her hand all over my shirt. Astounded I thought to myself, “this girl has many flaws (flaw); -- in the foreseeable future I am sure to become sick.”
Disgusted I exited the elevator and the building and made my way over to South.
As I entered the back doors to South I thought to myself, “surely I am guaranteed (guarantee) to have a better experience in South.” Many residents think south is dirty however this is merely a generalization of the building—hearsay, if you will. As an impetus to rid South of its inconsistent reputation, the resident director changed the nickname “dirty south” into “sexy south.” Even though the residents now call their hall “sexy South”, the culture indigenous to South still remains somewhat “dirty” which is ironic (irony). Because I am interested in jurisprudence (I remember it as a jury dressed like prunes) I understand the liability that comes from residents residing in a “dirty” living environment.
Therefore, I left the building wanting nothing to do with the unsanitary living conditions.
Instead of walking outdoors, I went through Miller Dining Hall to get to North (the words in the next group start with M, N, O). When I walk into North I see a man in a dress (manifest) playing the piano. The song he is playing doesn’t sound mundane nor special but I feel obliged (oblige) to clap for him.
I suddenly remember I have to pee (all the words from the next group start with the letter “p”) and I hate using public restrooms so I rush out the back doors of North and jog home (to the Freshman Apartments).
As I jog home I run past a pair of Dotson (paradox) dogs floating levitating above the lawn! What a phenomenon! I suddenly fear the placebo my doctor prescribed is actually filled with a hallucinogen deposit (posit). I reach into my pocket and dispose (predispose) all of my pills onto the ground. I then validate the conclusion “all pills are bad” using true premises (premise). I am nearly to my apartment when I see my principle (principal) from high school sitting on the entry to the veranda. He has a prominent hair line and his belly is disproportionate (proportion) to his lack of height. He is always telling bad jokes and is considered to be an expert at it (pundit).
Wanting to avoid my old principle I cut between two apartment complexes’ and jog over to Langford.
When I reach Langford I overhear two men discussing the “qualifications” (qualify) of the perfect woman. The first man insists a woman must be smart while the second man rebuttals the first, stating “smart women” refute men’s opinions and he would rather have an unintelligent woman who would subsequently agree with his own unwarranted opinions.
As I finish writing I realize I did not use characters as much as I used the words in a story. This will be considerably more difficult to remember. Ugh, I am not very good at mastering Joshua Foer’s version of a memory theater. I had the intention of creating characters, but as I wrote I quickly diverged from his suggestions. Honestly, I know I started studying for this oral exam later than I should have, which in hindsight left less time for me to properly construct a memory theater. I guess we will find out on Friday how well I was able to retain my 52 words.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Stupid Questions
Here we are reading written accounts from "self-declared question askers'," people whom I regard as exceedingly intelligent individuals. What if Joshua Foer never explored the Memory Competitions or picked Ed's brain? Foer's novel Moonwalking with Einstein acts as testimonial to his success and did he ask stupid questions? YOU BET. What if he would have just accepted his role as journalist and settled with the "OK Plateau?" Should he have reached that place we all get to where we just stop getting better at something he never would have found himself smack dab in the middle of a US Memory Championship. The more I learn about memory the more I realize you have to push yourself past where you are comfortable, you have to watch yourself fail and learn from the "stupid questions." That's how Joshua Foer improved his memory and how I will too (http://joshuafoer.com/moonwalking-with-einstein/faq/).
Other contemporary devices developed to improve a system or network of systems never would have came into being if an individual somewhere, sometime didn't ask the question why; like why an exclusive social network for college students didn't exist (Mark Zuckerberg), or why people forget where their car keys are (Joshua Foer), or why apples fall from a tree (Sir Isaac Newton), or why litteracy had to be hand written rather than mass produced (Johannes Gutenberg), you get my point. Stupid questions have led to innovation and products/services that change the way our world communicates. Facebook, for example has thrown away tools marketing companies used 5 years ago and replaced school texbooks with new age advertising possibilities. The universal expansion of the internet has led to a new generation of musy rooms. Before wide-spread use of the internet mental images were being recalled from photographs or memories only accesable to the one trying to remember (the individual who was part of the memory). Now, a panda sneezes thousands of miles away and I can see for myself the funny noise it makes simply by logging onto YOUTUBE. My memory is now full of events, pictures and videos that I didn't experiance first hand- but rather discovered on the internet. A new "fad" within the viral-social-shairing-network is a new .com phonomonon known as "pinterest."
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
YATES: The art of memory was a creator of imagery which must surely have flowed out into creative works of art and literature (91).
This is the perfect example to describe our generations "sharing of information." Now, as if status updates and comments were too much written literacy (I cringe as I compare status updates to written literacy), Pinterest introduces a social network consisting primarily of images.
I could make two lists right now. One consisting of everything I learned in my logic class last week and one listing all the fun DIY craft idea's I "pinned" to my pinterest account. I can assure you with confidence the pinterest column would almost triple my logic class. Why? As Ong wrote on page 82, "Technologies are artificial but artificiality is natural to human beings." I have grown up in a world surrounded by images and my memory reacts to a mental image I can pull out of my musy room rather than a formula my professor wrote on the board (surrounded by other formulas). Now if I turned a formula into a dancing Alligator eating in Orlando (A-->E--->I--->O) I will be more likely to recall the rules of testing for Validity. While pinterest is an easy memory recollection, I must push myself to recall Logic lectures.
My Logic Professor often assists the class with handouts that require "mental push-ups." Mental Push-ups, as she says, will strengthen the brain and retain the necessary information. She might as well be reading straight out of Yates Chapter Four when he discusses the formation of imagery and the medieval memory saying, "the artificial memory begins to appear as a lay devotional discipline, fostered and recommended by the friars (91)." Discipline. Endurance. Strengthen. I might as well be headed into the mental gym every time I dive deeper into the realm of mental exhaustion Yates and Ong demand. Friday, February 10, 2012
IT WORKS!
I was joined by Alex Miller and Ethan Davis and together we created bazzar stories and references to comit to memory the spelling and stories of Ovid's characters.
My memory now contains:
Apollo
Daphne
Semele
Jove
Juno
Bacchus
Actaeon
Echo
Narcissus
Tiresias
Phaehon
Pyramus
Thisbe
Perseus
Atlas
Philomela
Procne
Tereus
Itys
Cyane
Ceres
Proserpina
Biblis
Caunus
Scylla
Minos
Theseus
The Minotaur
Daedalus
Icarus
Medea
Jason
Orpheus
Eurudice
Myrrna
Cinyras
Adonis
Venus
I have been thinking alot about this "transformation" I must undergo to change the way I learn and memorize information. This whole process was so fufilling. I took the test earlier today and successfully answered every question correctly.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
51 Things
With over 306,554 iPhone apps available I guess I should have been less surprised to find the perfect App that would determine the 51 “things” I chose to memorize. I have started studying for the LSAT (blah) and realized the memory presentation could act as duel credit. After some research I found experts suggest the same vocabulary is regurgitated every year, therefore I have chosen to memorize 26 of the most frequently used LSAT vocabulary words (and their definitions- it will add up to 52). As I began to search for a memory bank that would provide me with such a list I stumbled upon the “LSAT Vocabulary” App that contains more than 115 of the most common LSAT Vocabulary words. The App quizzes the user under time constrains and reports on frequently missed words. I was able to download the app onto my phone for a small fee and am on my way to LSAT Vocabulary comprehension.
Aggregate
2. Altruistic
3. Ample
4. Assumption
5. Compel
6. Confirming
7. Constitute
8. Contingency
9. Correlation
10. Counterexample
11. Equivocate
12. Eschew
13. Impediment
14. Impertubable
15. Indigenous
17. Placebo
18. Posit
19. Predispose
20. Principle
21. Pundit
22. Qualify
23. Rebuttle
24. Refute
25. Unequivocal
26. Viable
This is a running list I have compiled as I “play” with the App. The list is subject to change, but for now I like what I have.
Should I desire --I may expand my list to encompass a extended range of vocabulary words.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Spencer the Soft Spoken Shaker knocked my socks off...
Spencer the Soft Spoken Shaker's blog (say that ten times fast) jumped out at me.
YOUKNOWWHATI'MSAYING
At first I couldn't decide if he had a formatting error or if he was trying to train my brain to decode. After re-reading the first sentence a few times I began to enjoy interpreting his encryption. Reading his blog gave me a sense of liberty as I begun to unriddle and translate his words into my own. I felt as if I had the freedom to give his ideas my own meaning. The first paragraph from Spencer the Soft Spoken Shaker's blog made more of an impact on my memory than the whole first chapter from the Walter Ong reading; almost as if the act of working hard to translate Spencer's message reaped greater rewards. Rather than passively allowing my eyes to track word after word, sentence after sentence, I had to mentally dissect every sentence to find the individual fragments and then from there find the individual words. This proved to be rewarding.
The second paragraph brought greater deception. It was not until the second sentence I noticed the clear mixed up word structure. My brain is trained to read and interpret at optimum speeds such that I was able to comprehend words that were not spelled correctly and moreover words that were mirrored. My auto-correct button seems to work just fine as I am sure many of yours do as well. The fact that I was able to read:
ATFER RADENIG CAPTEHR SVEEN ONE OF MY BDUDEIS SOWEHD ME AOHETNR GCIIMMK WIHCH OUR BARNIS TNED TO SLEF CROCRET.
without catching the pattern until the word "gimmick," fascinates me. I have seen other tests like this and it always amazes me the work my brain does without me even knowing.
Waking Life / Ong
I recently watched "Waking Life" which is a independent, animated film about a man who shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe. Yes-- it is very philosophical by nature but stick with me. One of the encounters the dreaming man has with a woman reminded me of the conversation we had last Friday ( I think). Professor Sexton somewhat ranting about clerks at grocery stores asking if "he found everything all right?" I managed to find the script from the movie online (the red font is the woman, blue is the man). Also notice the reference to my own epithet...
- Excuse me. - Excuse me. Hey. Could we do that again? I know we haven't met, but I don't want to be an ant. You know? I mean, it's like we go through life...
with our antennas bouncing off one other,
continuously on ant autopilot,
with nothing really human required of us.
Stop. Go. Walk here. Drive there.
All action basically for survival.
All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along... in an efficient, polite manner. " Here's your change." " Paper or plastic?" "Credit or debit?" "You want ketchup with that?" I don't want a straw. I want real human moments. I want to see you. I want you to see me. I don't want to give that up. I don't want to be an ant, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I know. I don't want to be an ant, either. Yeah, thanks for kind of, like, jostling me there. I've been kind of on zombie autopilot lately. I don't feel like an ant in my head, but I guess I probably
look like one.
It's kind of like D.H. Lawrence had this idea of two people meeting on a road...
And instead of just passing and glancing away, they decided to accept what he calls "the confrontation between their souls."
It's like, um-- like freeing the brave reckless gods within us all. Then it's like we have met
I have absolutely fallen in love with this interaction, conversation, idea, whatever you want to call it. For reasons I can only speculate, I too like the dreaming man, have felt like a "zombie on autopilot" this semester. It seems like I have perhaps lost an aspect of humanity in my own life and am simply going through the motions. Walter Ong says it perfectly: “Sight isolates, sound incorporates. Whereas sight situates the observer
outside what he views, at a distance, sound pours into the hearer.
Vision dissects, as Merleau-Ponty has observed (1961). Vision comes to a
human being from one direction at a time: to look at a room or a
landscape, I must move my eyes around from one part to another. When I
hear, however, I gather sound simultaneously from every directions at
once; I am at the center of my auditory world, which envelopes me,
establishing me at a kind of core of sensation and existence... You can
immerse yourself in hearing, in sound. There is no way to immerse
yourself similarly in sight.
By contrast with vision, the dissecting sense, sound is thus a
unifying sense. A typical visual ideal is clarity and distinctness, a
taking apart. The auditory ideal, by contrast, is harmony, a putting
together." -Orality and Literacy After reading this exert out of Ong's novel I came to a rather brilliant conclusion. This semester I have been struggling to apply myself. Failing to keep up on readings and truly engage myself in class discussion has led to the "cancellation" of some of my senses. Rather than embrassing sound, location, smell and every sensation in existence, as Ong suggests, I have been letting information pass right through me. Without applying myself, there is no way I can immerse myself in sound, only sight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)